Kid Nation

Okay, who else watched it?  Kudos to CBS for getting heaps of pre-show publicity and controversy out of what turns out to be something not very controversial at all.  I *liked* the show, and I'll watch it again, but I don't think these kids are in any more danger than contestants on Double Dare.  I *wish* they had taken 40 kids and thrown them into an abandoned town and made them fend for themselves.  That would be a really interesting show to watch.  Instead, it's Survivor-lite, with the show shaped quite a bit by the adults making the rules.  First, the producers chose 4 kids to serve as "town council" and be the leaders.  Instead of letting the kids figure out who should be in charge -- or not figure it out at all.  Then they told the kids to consult a "book from 1885" -- right -- telling them they need to divide up into 4 tribes and, hey, here are some colored bandanas that everyone can wear.  So the producers impose leaders, and impose teams.  Then they have a "challenge" to decide which team is laborers, which is the cooks, which is merchants, and which is "upper class," who get paid the most money to sit around and do nothing.  Great!  A caste system!  And then they introduce the gold star, given to one kid every episode, worth $20,000.  So it's not really Kid Nation, it's Capitalist Nation, where the goal is to suck up to the council and win money.  One of the kids made a speech about how they all need to work together to show the world that kids can do anything.  Noble, but that was before the tribe divisions and the challenges and the $20,000 gold star (which they carefully call a "gold star trophy," because I'm pretty confident the object itself isn't made of pure gold... but they want the kids to think it is).  It's manipulated reality, like every other reality show... which makes it... watchable... but not worth the outrage. 

Not to make too big a point here, but I think it's kind of disturbing that they had to take what would be an interesting concept -- what can kids really do if left by themselves, will they form a government, how will they survive -- and impose a class-based society on it.  Why does there have to be an "upper class," why do there have to be salaries, why does there have to be a $20,000 prize every week that's almost certainly going to dominate the show from here on out, and be the point of controversy.  I think it makes the show a lot less interesting, the more the producers try to shape the world.

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What I'd really like to see is "Elderly Nation."  40 senior citizens, placed in a modern society, left to fend for themselves without any young people around.  They start out in the forest, left to find their way to the town, using only a GPS system.  Hilarity ensues as they try to figure out how to use it.  They finally arrive at the site and are each given a Blackberry.  This will be their connection to the outside world, and how they will find out about the game's challenges and competitions.  If you can't open the e-mail, you won't be able to participate.  They are taken to their state-of-the-art apartments, and have to cook for themselves using only a microwave and a Fresh Direct account number.  They're given cars with electronic dashboards, a DVD player, a cell phone, a television equipped with TiVo, and one large remote control that controls all of the lights.  Everything they need to survive is packed in containers topped with childproof caps.  Their first challenge is to send a fax.  The winning team gets scooters.  Each week one person is chosen to receive a gold pacemaker, to be exchanged for a year's supply of their prescription drugs.   Let's see what happens when old people meet technology and are forced to learn to click a mouse in order to survive... Elderly Nation.

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My grandma was telling me today that she tried to call a friend and kept getting a busy signal, so she called the operator to have them check the line.

Grandma: "The operator said that the phone was being used by the computer.  What does that mean?  How can a computer use a phone."

Me: "She must have a dial-up modem, and so she was using the phone line to connect to the Internet."

Grandma: "That sounds very modern.  I didn't realize she was so into technology."

Me: "She's not.  That's a very old-fashioned way of doing things.  We've moved beyond needing to use phone lines to connect to the Internet.  I could explain it, but I'm not sure it matters."

Grandma: "Well, it sounds modern to me."

Me: "It's like she's still using the telegraph."

Grandma: "Don't people still use the telegraph?"

Me: "No."

Grandma: "Are you sure?"

Me: "Yes."

Grandma: "So was her computer actually *talking* to someone on the phone?"

Me: "No."

Grandma: "I'll never understand any of this."

Me: "Someday."

Comments

[Trevor]

I too was disappointed by how much social order the producers imposed, especially the wage classes. The whole thing that made the premise interesting would be the organic emergence of a social order and economy.

One bright spot was when the big girl from the green team started dancing for money, eventually collecting over three times the "upper class" salary.

Otherwise it _was_ just like Survivor (a show I don 't watch) with kids. And because they're kids, it's really hard to sympathize with them. The red team captain, for example, really bugs me, and the producers clearly want him to be some kind of protagonist.

[Nona]

I actually like the idea of "Elderly Nation." I'd change the title to something more original and pitch it for tv.

[Mike B]

I still don't understand why the 4 leaders were chosen. They clearly aren't the "enlightened" ones that would have the most support. I'll give them credit for choosing bathrooms over television, but they're not the natural leaders of the group.

$5 says that there would have been a rebellion. Yet because of this golden star, it's going to make everyone seek the leaders' benevolence.

Further, given the nature of the waiver that the participants signed, I expected more chaos than dirty dishes and one bathroom.

[Allison]

My 90-year-old Grandmother has taken up learning how to use computers. My mom just told me that she will be officially hooked up to the internet on Friday. When the internet company asked her if she wanted high speed, she said, "No, I'm not really in any hurry." (This is where my aunt stepped in and said, yes, she does wnat high speed.)