It’s amazing how popular “reality” TV has become. Networks
discovered after their initial successes that they could produce these show for
far less than the scripted series they’d been creating for years. As each new
show became a hit more and more appeared. The sad thing is that many became
tedious to watch but held on trying to stay on the air. What’s nice is when one
decided the time is right to leave before they hit that point. DUCK DYNASTY is
one of the few that has chosen to do so.
The series was about the Robertson family, a group that was
in the business of making duck calls and founded by patriarch Phil Robertson.
Sons Willie, Jase and Jep all worked in the business with Willie taking it to a
whole new level. Their first foray into TV was with a small program about
hunting and fishing that included small moments with their family. From that
rose what we now know as DUCK DYNASTY.
Each week we got to see what went on behind the scenes of
this Louisiana business. At least that was a part of each episode. The majority
of each focused on the family lives of each of the brothers and their father.
Everything from their children to their mother’s cooking to building duck
blinds became fodder for the show. The best part was that there was humor in
every corner of the program, not so much forced as created by the predicaments
that they were in. Was it scripted? I have little doubt that much of it was,
but not all. As we got to know the family it was easy to believe much of this
really happened.
All of this began just five years ago. It’s become so
ingrained in today’s pop culture world you would think it had been on the air
longer than that. We’ve watched kids grow up and get married, enter dance
competitions, have surgeries, and more. The family members became celebrities
that attended social functions and their political beliefs became common
knowledge. Their focus on faith, perhaps one of the biggest positive and
popular items in the show, was criticized and attacked by the press. But they
held true to their beliefs and their popularity remained.
Each episode began with an issue and ended with the family
gathered around to eat a meal and offer a prayer. In the politically correct
times we live in this was cause for consternation with many critics of the
show. Their voices didn’t matter in the end and the faith on display here
stayed with the show until the end. And that end is now.
Just released is DUCK DYNASTY: LAST CALL, THE FINAL SEASON. The
series lasted 11 seasons (keep in mind a season and a year are two different
items) and its popularity was beginning to wane just a tad. At one time the most watched cable series the
numbers had begun to drop. And after filling the market with everything from
books to bobble heads, the family decided to call it quits.
Fear not though, that last season was filled with the same
fun filled moments that the previous ones had offered. Jase and Willie
campaigned against one another to be president of their neighborhood home
owners association only to discover the amount of work that went into it. The
employees get overly excited about a 3D printer. Willie and Jep must handle a
teenage girl’s sleepover when their wives are away on a mission in Africa. ZZ
Top appeared in the final episode, appropriate since their song “Sharp Dressed
Man” opened the series when it began. And my favorite episode involved Korie
challenging Willie to come up with an inexpensive romantic evening that
resulted in a homemade drive-in.
All of these episodes and more are available on this DVD
collection. The entertainment value is high as well as family friendly,
something rarely found in a world of trying to be the next cool kid on the
block known as series television. This group is not the local yokels that many
would like to consider them. They are not the backwoods hillbillies many
suggest they were. They were shrewd businessmen who say an opportunity and took
it. They took a simple idea, one based in hard work and faith, and created a
juggernaut that found many watching, buying marketed items and picking up each
season of the series. If you are one of those people then you’ll want to make
sure to add this one to your collection as well.
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