Wild Wild Christian ★★★

Comedian Simone McAlonen has earned the right to riff her show’s title on the wildly popular Netflix documentary series Wild Wild County: she was partially raised in Oregon on Washington Family Ranch, a Christian summer camp located on the former site of the Rajneesh cult, the subject of said doc.

Talk about location, location, location! McAlonen’s family lived in the building that served as a hotel for the cult, and she believes that one cult just replaced another, the new one being structured for her — and all women — to become part of the wedding-industrial complex.

But those confines didn’t suit. Raised in a culture of strict abstinence, she struggled during her teenage years to meet the exacting standards required: “I was married to Jesus but horny for Kevin.”

Wild Wild Christian could benefit from more great lines like that one. McAlonen has heaps of great autobiographical material, but a stronger dramaturgical and directorial hand is needed to shape the stories into a more impactful show.

The show veers from readings of her real diaries kept between the ages of 12 and 16 (one recurring hope is that God doesn’t allow her to get raped); news footage from that time period; videos she made during her confusing adolescence, including a homemade rap video she made celebrating abstinence; recollections of past events told from the vantage point of the present; and research about the power brokers — including Dennis Washington, who purchased the land for the Christian camp after the Rajneesh cult was driven out — who fund and control the massive number of religious institutions and organizations that now litter the American landscape.

All of it’s entertaining, and the spirited McAlonen has charm and energy to spare, but as it stands Wild Wild Country is tonally too disorganized to meet its full potential. Let’s pray it gets there, because unlike most of the folderol foisted upon McAlonen as a teenager, she very much has a message worth sharing.