It’s safe to say this year has seen us consume reality television like never before. From Love Is Blind to Selling Sunset, Netflix has produced some of the best binge-worthy series’ to date—but they’ve kept a new one up their sleeves until now.
Meet Country Ever After.
While the show seems like yet-another look into the real-life workings of an American family, but it’s currently topping the Netflix charts for its take on how to embrace life when you’ve been handed a life-changing cancer diagnosis.
Redefining the term ‘reality TV’, Country Ever After follows a family who are raising their three young children and trying to navigate their very different upbringings. And with November being the month for giving thanks, that’s all we need to hear to press ‘play’.
Intrigued? Keep reading for everything you need to know about the show, from the plot to the cast and where you can stream it in Australia.
What Is The Plot Of Country Ever After?
Previously known as Country-ish, Country Ever After follows, you guessed it, country singer Coffey Anderson and his dancer wife, Criscilla, while they raise their children, Everleigh, Ethan and Emmarie, and butt heads on big country-versus-city perspectives on parenting and life in general.
While Coffey, Criscilla and their familiy are the heart and soul of the show, the family must face incredibly realistic hurdles like an unexpected and heartbreaking diagnosis. A major part of the show, Criscilla’s struggle with stage four colon cancer shows audiences how those with a seemingly ‘perfect’ life may be suffering silent battles.
Speaking to Hollywood Life, Coffey spoke about his wife’s condition, saying: “She is in immunotherapy right now, so it is a trial and we are trying to figure out if that’s the best way for her to go right now. She is very optimistic about this treatment. We’ve only done one infusion with it and it’s a learning process.”
“The journey that people are realising with this type of sickness is that it’s up and down. In three months, months you’ll have low tumor markers in your blood, and then 90 days they may be up. So is it something in your diet? Is it something that you can do? Is it environmental? This is the worst roller coaster that I would never wish on an enemy.”
Curious? Check out the trailer below to see for yourself.
WATCH BELOW: Country Ever After Trailer
Who Is In The Cast Of Country Ever After?
While the lives behind a family from the South is fascinating enough, Country Ever After‘s Anderson family are more well-known than you think.
First, we meet Coffey Anderson, a Texas native and former marine, who built a fan base on YouTube by releasing Christian covers of mainstream songs and in 2010, he also released a self-titled debut album that even cracked the Billboard 200.
However, the most fascinating fact about Coffey’s path to Netflix reality TV fame is that this actually marks his third role on a reality TV series. In 2008, he was a finalist on Nashville Star and in 2003, he made it to the Hollywood round of American Idol before being eliminated.
Coffey’s wife, Criscilla Anderson is billed by the show as a hip-hop dancer, but she’s actually a multi-hyphenate who has also pursued acting and choreography. She and Coffey began dating in 2008 and were married in 2009. However, Criscilla’s focus is now for advocacy and her own health after being diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in 2019.
“The cancer has spread throughout my para-aortic region and has begun growing up my back,” she told People. She also opened up about how her form of cancer—which doctors have told her is treatable, but not curable—had progressed.
“My ultimate goal is to be in remission and have it not be chronic but be in a situation where it can be completely healed. The ideal, if that cannot happen, would be to keep it maintained and have it not spread any further for the rest of my life.”
Her illness and treatment are covered in the show, especially in terms of how they communicate Criscilla’s illness to their children.
Where To Watch Country Ever After In Australia
Interested? You can catch the first season of Country Ever After on Netflix in Australia.
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