Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht: Seasons 1 + 2

Over the course of this top-rated TLC reality-based series, a charismatic Pennsylvania family invites viewers to share their world. Thanks to fertility treatments, Jon and Kate Gosselin started off their brood with twins (Cara and Mady)…followed by sextuplets (Aaden, Collin, Joel, Alexis, Hannah, and Leah). Jon works as an IT analyst, while Kate quit her job as a nurse to look after the children. As the series—which debuted in 2007—begins, the six-year-old twins are old enough to help care for the two-year-old toddlers. Throughout the 17 first and second season episodes compiled here, Jon and Kate illustrate just how they deal with the day-to-day reality of running an eight-kid household. In addition, the family takes trips to New York City (for the twins birthday), Fresno (for a speaking engagement), and Florida (for a parent getaway). Although incredibly well organized and supported (by necessity), the Gosselin parents nevertheless face small problems regularly: the kids fight, scream, and cry, while mom and dad themselves sometime fall to arguing. As Jon says, life with eight little ones can be “chaotic and stressful,” while Kate is a self-proclaimed “control freak” and “germophobe”—the kind who scrubs the dining room floor three times a day on her hands and knees (her attempts to find a housekeeper to do the same prove difficult). Naturally, their living expenses also tax the wallet (which surely has something to do with their willingness to appear on national television). In a typical week, for instance, the Gosselins consume three gallons of milk, 10 loaves of bread, and two pounds of peanut butter—and that's just for starters. DVD extras include the bonus one-hour episode “Surviving Sextuplets and Twins,” made when the youngest kids were 16 months old. Entertaining, engaging, and quite popular, this is recommended. (K. Fennessy)