Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Keep Sweet: Pray And Obey’ On Netflix, A Docuseries About Warren Jeffs And The Horrific Legacy Of Fundamental Mormonism

Keep Sweet: Pray And Obey is a four-part docuseries, directed by Rachel Dretzin, about the history of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a sect of the Mormon church that promoted polygamy, or as they call it, “plural marriage.” For years, the sect’s “ultimate prophet” was a man named Rulon Jeffs, who had to approve every marriage performed by his church. After his 2002 death, his son Warren took over and became the “ultimate prophet,” and in 2008, he was busted on charges of sexual, psychological and physical abuse.

KEEP SWEET: PRAY AND OBEY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A drone shot of a woman riding on a motorcycle.

The Gist: The first episode concentrates on the Wall family; Lloyd Wall was a convert to FLDS, and he bought into Jeffs’ idea that multiple wives makes a man more holy. Already married to his high school sweetheart Myrna, he was offered a second wife, Sharon, who already had 14 children (Myrna and Lloyd had 9 of their own). In order to get a third wife, he offered daughters Rebecca and Elissa to Rulon Jeffs as new wives. He was 85 at the time.

By the time Jeffs died, he had over 50 wives, including Alicia Rohbock, who was also interviewed for the series. Jeffs’ slogan was “Keep Sweet,” which was how he made sure all of the wives got along.

But, as far as the FLDS followers were concerned, Rulon Jeffs was never supposed to die, given his “ultimate prophet” status. Into the void steps Warren Jeffs, the one of Jeffs’ dozens of children who was closest to him and to the sect’s operations. He declares himself the new ultimate prophet, and starts to clamp down on the sect and make them even more isolated from the outside world than they were before.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Because of the Mormon theme, Keep Sweet: Pray And Obey reminds us of the docuseries Murder Among The Mormons and the recent “BOATS” version of Under The Banner Of Heaven that aired on Hulu. But an examination of cultism is a major element, like in docuseries like The Way Down and Heaven’s Gate: The Cult Of Cults.

Our Take: While the public is somewhat aware of Warren Jeffs, who is currently serving a life sentence after being convicted on two counts of child sexual assault, the degree to which the he controlled people’s lives as the head of the FLDS church was likely something most people didn’t quite appreciate. Keep Sweet: Pray And Obey does a good job of communicating just how much control he exercised, and what life was like in the sect for women and kids.

Lots of home movie footage of the Walls and other sect members show that there’s nothing normal about life in the FLDS. The girls all look like they’re extras on an episode of Little House on the Prairie. They’re basically treated like livestock, traded and offered up to Jeffs and other male parishioners as wives without any choice or input. Seeing this footage, then hearing the testimony of those who agreed to talk pins our disgust meter into the red. That means that Drestzin has done her job.

We need to be creeped out by the activity of Rulon and especially Warren Jeffs. They lie and make excuses to people who have pledged loyalty to them and literally abused their power. This is not the type of docuseries that’s designed to make a viewer see both sides. The only thing that may stand in a viewer’s way of watching all four episodes is their aversion to seeing women treated this way by men who obviously have no regard for their existence beyond feeding their ego and carrying on their DNA.

However, as a document of a religious leader who abused his power and got what he deserved, Keep Sweet does a workmanlike but effective job of laying out the case against Jeffs.

Sex and Skin: Both Rebecca and Elissa Wall describe the things they do to avoid having sex with Rulon Jeffs, and we appreciated their sense of self-preservation. It’s pretty sad that these 18-20 year old women thought that you could get pregnant via kissing; that’s a notion that people are generally disabused of by the time they’re in high school, if not before.

Parting Shot: A Utah-based attorney says “Warren Jeffs took over this religion with thousands of loyal followers, and he manipulated their beliefs and turned it into money and power and sex. And they ended up following him right off the cliff.”

Sleeper Star: Wallace Jeffs, who is labeled “Son of the Prophet”, gives some good insight on his half-brother Warren, who was pretty quiet, nerdy and awkward, and paints a picture of a guy who wanted his father’s power in order to make up some sort of deficit in his personality.

Most Pilot-y Line: Lloyd Wall says during his interview that “According to my understanding of the Gospel, plural wives was the whole picture that Christ was after.” Oy.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If you want insight into a closed society that is only known via blaring headlines, then watch Keep Sweet: Pray And Obey. Just be ready for a narrative that will make you uncomfortable and angry at the same time.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.