TLC's Breaking Amish Trailer Shows Young Mennonites Taking Manhattan

From Cake Boss to Little People Big World, Toddlers & Tiaras and Strange Sex, TLC continues to branch out with regards to its unscripted programming, offering varying degrees of insight into different jobs and lifestyles. Based on this new sneak peek at their upcoming series Breaking Amish, it looks like TLC will explore the lives of a group of young adult Amish people who venture away from their families and communities and head to the big apple to explore another kind of life.

Set to premiere Sunday, September 9 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, Breaking Amish will look inside the lives of a group of young men and women who leave their respective Amish/Mennonite communities and head to New York City. The series will consist of nine hour-long episodes. As you'll see in the video below, the show explores their home situations starting out, then takes them to the city and shows us their reactions to things like crowds and elevators.

There's a bit of gimmick to the sight of a woman who is confused by the workings of an elevator, but it seemed like a genuine moment and this kind of thing will likely be part of the appeal of the show, as the limited use of technology is something the Amish are known for. But the show does look like it'll offer more than amusing elevator moments.

I'll admit, I'm already fascinated by this show and it hasn't even premiered yet. The video reminds me of The Real World in its earlier seasons, when the primary focus seemed more on young adults aiming to discover and shape their identities, taking chances and exploring their interests. Except in this case, there's the added element of these people having essentially walking away from their old way of life. It should be interesting to see how life outside their community affects them and if any of them choose to return to their families.

Kelly West
Assistant Managing Editor

Kelly joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006 and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before moving over to other roles on the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing feature content on the site. She an expert in all things Harry Potter, books from a variety of genres (sci-fi, mystery, horror, YA, drama, romance -- anything with a great story and interesting characters.), watching Big Brother, frequently rewatching The Office, listening to Taylor Swift, and playing The Sims.