Amish Mafia Reality Show: Discovery Channel's New Reality Show Makes No Sense

Culture

Amish Mafia. No, that is not just something you might say to call attention to a well-dressed man with a big beard acting shady. It’s the name of an actual show that premieres on Discovery on December 12.

The show focuses on Lebanon Levi, a member of an Amish community in Pennsylvania. Levi and a crew of seriously hardcore badasses — if you take the trailer’s word for it — work to keep their community isolated from the outside world.

The Amish eschew modern technology and culture in the belief that doing so will get them closer to God. The so-called Amish Mafia is there to make sure that people within the community follow the rules, and that outsiders don’t get in the way.

So, to break it down: The motivation of the show’s main character is to keep external influence and culture out of his Amish community. And yet he, and the community, have agreed to become part of that very same external culture by starring in a TV show about their rejection of it. How does that make sense? It doesn’t. It doesn’t make any sense and it confuses me.