The “8 Passengers” family YouTube channel was created in 2015 by mother Ruby Franke, who documented the Frankes’ journey as a large Mormon family. She started off by creating fun and loving content despite not having a large following. But over the course of seven years, she was able to obtain 2.5 million followers and over 1 billion views. The channel consisted of Ruby, her husband Kevin and their six children. During the peak of their career, many controversies arose such as rumors of child neglect, child abuse and unfair treatment to their kids. However, none of them would be uncovered until years later.
In August 2023, Ruby and her partner Jodi Hildebrant, their family’s therapist, were arrested under four counts of child abuse after the youngest son of the Frankes managed to escape captivity from the house and ran for help. Once the women were detained, they were then convicted of the suspected mistreatment of the Franke children. Then, a documentary released in late February 2025 sparked discussion once again over the “8 Passengers”. It covered the family’s YouTube content as well as the investigation into what happened behind the camera. We had the opportunity of watching the documentary and these are our thoughts.
As two people who hadn’t previously watched the YouTube videos posted by Ruby, the documentary helped us to understand the importance of why it was created, with how informative it was. Not only did it cover the investigation, but it also covered the history of who the family was and what they created.
Going through it all, we were able to pinpoint moments that both shocked and surprised us, especially when it came to the different testimonies presented by the family. For instance, the husband, Kevin Franke, is a person that stood out to us. We couldn’t understand why he was not arrested along with his wife, or how he ended up so incredibly brainwashed by Jodi. He claimed to have been blindsided by these women and their actions, which was alarming to us. Even after everything, he still proclaimed his love for Ruby. In the end, we still do not believe Kevin to be as innocent as he portrayed himself.
In terms of the actual episodes, episode three had the most engagement for us because it had the bulk of the action. The first two episodes focused heavily on setting up the Franke’s lives and conflicts, which eventually built into the climax that erupted in episode three. There was the youngest son escaping and calling the police, the raiding of Ruby and Jodi’s house and their arrest, which then ended with their trial plus the outcome. It was exciting to see the results of how everything played out and what the current update of each person was.
Overall, it’s safe to say that social media distorts many aspects of reality by sheltering the truth. Had Ruby Franke not documented every single part of her life, we would have still been left in the dark because of how well she covered up her own truth. If the release of this documentary proved anything, it’s that we should not take everything presented to us at face value. Even the best family has its troubles. The events that unfolded is proof of how family vlogging is destructive and can damage family dynamics.
If you’re interested in learning more about the exposure of the Franke family and how their actions led to major consequences, then we recommend you watch the documentary on Hulu. In addition to this, the eldest daughter Shari released a book titled “The House of My Mother” where she went into detail about how family vlogging ruined her childhood.
