Jon & Kate Plus Eight is a strange phenomenon. People either know all about the show and want to talk to you about it for hours, or they’ll look at you blankly, not understanding what the hell you are referring to. I have only met two other people who knew about Jon & Kate Plus Eight, but now that this DVD has been released, many more viewers will have their eyes opened to how darned entertaining a show that’s really about nothing but kids and parenting really is.

The “plus eight” in the title of the show refers to Jon and Kate Gosselin’s number of biological children. First the couple had twin girls, Cara and Maddie. Hoping for just one more child they used a fertility doctor and ended up with sextuplets, three girls and three boys. Amazingly, all of their premature and low birth weight babies survived, and the ensuing show focuses on the struggles and joys of the family’s day to day life…and what a life!

Oy vey. Two six year olds and six two year olds sounds like a misery of stress and obligation, but the Gosselins almost make it look easy. This is mostly due to the hyper-organized and germ-phobic mother Kate, who manages her children’s lives with military precision and ironclad daily schedules. Of course there are personality struggles between the children and chaos-induced freak-outs between the parents, but I have seen much worse behavior from every child ever featured on Nanny 911.

The relationship between Jon and Kate is remarkable, especially because Kate can be extremely prickly, bossy and emasculating. Jon is laid-back and affable, and mostly receives Kate’s barbs with good humor and deadpan grace. Together they make great parents, and still seem “into” each other long after many couples would have burnt out under the incredible strain. Without this strange alchemy between the parents, the show wouldn’t be half as fascinating.

There are two DVDs in this Season One and Two set, but the episodes seem to whiz by. Before you know it, you’ve seen them all. New to viewers of the show is the only bonus, the “1 Hour Special: Surviving Sextuplets and Twins,” which is a slightly more in-depth look at the couple’s adjustments after the birth of their kids. Before this DVD set, most fans of the show would have to wait for it to air, wishing for a Jon & Kate marathon. For me, there is no better television than this; somehow watching adorable kids doing normal things is very relaxing. Perhaps cutesy chaos happening to other people puts your own stress into perspective. Maybe it’s just because the Gosselin kids are damned delightful, even when they’re whiny and tired. I look eagerly forward to all future seasons, all the way until Jon & Kate Plus Eight: The College Years in 16 years. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.