Return to Amish

TLC Entertainment, Channel 172, Wednesday, 20:00 For those of us who are interested in the relationship between religion and modern-day secular living, there are few cases more interesting than the Amish. They live by strict rules and codes of conduct in tightly-knit religious communities and choose not to make use of most modern-day conveniences.

If this interests you, you might have seen the mildly controversial show on TLC, Breaking Amish and the related show Breaking

Amish: Brave New World. These dealt with a group of young Amish people leaving their community to experience the world outside — and we’re not talking about the popularised Rumspringa tradition, in which some teenage Amish are permitted to experience the outside world for a time. The crew of this show were well past that age, and they met up with some former Amish people to help them through the experience.

In this show, Amish community leavers Abe, Rebecca, Kate, Sabrina and Jeremiah return to Pennsylvania, not necessarily to return to the Amish way of life, but to be closer to their families and friends, with the exception of Kate, who stays in New York to pursue a modelling career. The hook for this show is seeing how they’ll be received after having chosen a different way of life. Will they still be welcomed by their families?