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Over the years, TLC reality shows have documented a wide array of non-traditional family arrangements.
But perhaps no series in the history of the network has generated quite as much controversy as Polyfamily.
The show won’t premiere until April, but it’s already at the center of some very intense social media discourse.
An unconventional premise attracts attention
Polyfamily centers around two couples — Sean and Taya and Tyler and Alysia — all of whom are dating one another’s spouses.
“Taya’s my wife and Alysia’s my girlfriend,” Sean explains in a trailer that was released on Monday.
“And vice versa. Alysia’s my wife and Taya’s my girlfriend,” Tyler elaborates.
Sean, who has been married to Taya for six years, offers further clarification, saying:
“We are a closed polyamorous quad. A closed quad is four people. We’re only dating within ourselves and married within ourselves. We don’t have any outside partners.”
“We never set out to live our lives like this, but we realized we could love more than one person and make our own rules as to what we want our family to look like,” adds Alysia, who has been married to Tyler for 11 years.
While it’s not the sort of arrangement that one typically sees on TV, polyamorous couples certainly are not unheard of.
But the situation with Sean, Taya, Tyler, and Alysia is further complicated by the fact that there are kids involved.
Whose kids? Well, that’s not exactly clear.
“Since the guys switch rooms every night, we don’t know who the fathers of the younger boys are,” Taya reveals in the trailer.
Tyler adds that “we wonder sometimes” who the father of the younger children is. It would be easy to gather that information, of course, but Tyler says that “finding out could cause a lot of hurt.”
The situation is about to get even more complex, as Taya is currently pregnant with her second child.
Tension within the polyamorous family
Even in the best of circumstances, this arrangement would have the potential to be problematic. But the foursome at the center of Polyfamily is dealing with additional strain due to the fact that Sean and Tyler do not get along.
“We live together, we have mutual partners and we parent together,” Sean says in the trailer. “But if we weren’t in this situation, we probably wouldn’t be friends.”
The preview features an argument between the two men that turns ugly in a hurry:
“This has always been a point of contention. Your kids and then us,” Sean tells the other dad in the house.
“Dude, you don’t need to parent me. I don’t need that,” Tyler shoots back, prompting Sean to quip:
“Maybe if I was parenting you, this s— wouldn’t have happened.”
Not surprisingly, there seem to be some jealousy issues on the women’s side as well. In other news, this show is likely to deliver plenty of drama and lots of hot takes.
Time will tell if all that controversy will translate to big ratings.
