“Kid Nation” ep.4 review
by V.E. on October 11th, 2007
filed under entertainment, recap/review
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Wednesdays @ 8 PM ET on CBS
Previous episode reviews: 1, 2, 3
Fast Stats
Episode title: “Bless Us and Keep Us Safe”
Awarded the gold star: Morgan, green team
Left town for home: Cody, yellow team
Episode favorite: Alex, blue team
Days elapsed this episode: 3
Total days elapsed: 13
Remaining residents: 38
Okay, so Taylor (yellow team’s town council member) is really starting to piss me off. I know that this is a “reality” show and it’s not really reality—especially since there’s so much we, as viewers, don’t see, but I’m not the only one. The other residents have tolerated her refusal to work (and/or encourage her team to work) thus far, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to put up with it much longer since episode 5 apparently includes an election of the (new??) town council. We’ll have to wait and see.
This episode, the town council read “the book/journal,” which gives them advice about what they should do next (or what they shouldn’t do). As the title implies, episode 4 tackles the issue of religion. After reading about religious services in “the book,” the council decides to announce services for that afternoon for their Bonanza City, which creates resistance among the residents because they’re not all one religion, and even those with “the same” religion (ie: those that are Christians) don’t have the same beliefs (ie: some are Catholic, Pentecostal, Methodist, whatever). Essentially, there are 39 kids (this is before Cody went home) and 39 different belief systems, and—sensing that—the kids want to avoid any unnecessary conflict, ’cause heaven knows they have enough of that already without bringing religion into it. Finally Mike (red team leader) just yells out that they’re going to have one big group service that afternoon and they can pray/sing/whatever once the service begins. Interested in the actual break down of the town, Alex (blue) sets out to tally the religious beliefs of the residents. Turns out they mostly ascribe to various incarnations of Christianity with a few Jews and atheists scattered in for flavor and one Hindu to make things interesting. There are apparently no Muslims to speak of, and one resident (I think it was Greg or Blaine (both blue), but I don’t remember for sure) asked what “Sunnys” (Sunnis) and “Shits” (Shiites) were/are. [sarcasm] I’m glad that kids these days are sooo informed [/sarcasm].
So, when the time came for the group service, the council called everyone to the chapel… and—surprise, surprise—no one showed. The council members were dismayed but, really, what could they do? Morgan (green) went around and gently asked residents to come to a prayer circle that evening if they wanted to, which I think was a better way to approach the whole subject. Quite a few people showed up; there was prayer in multiple languages and at least one of the kids was brought to tears because of the community created around the fire during the circle that night. So, the religion thing didn’t go over as badly as expected.
The showdown this week was a “steeplechase” in which the residents (split up by color, as usual) raced to see which team could put together a large puzzle of a steeple fastest and in under one half hour. Blue won and once again became the upperclass, red came in second (merchant class), yellow third (cooks), and green last (laborers). Again. Seems to be a trend going on here… Green seems to get the short end of the stick more than is deserved… and yellow less than is deserved. In any case, all four teams finished their respective puzzles with time to spare and were awarded the group prize: either a miniature golf course OR a set of religious texts from quite a few religions, including some religions not represented by the residents themselves. The council took a vote (instead of deciding for the town, as they have in the past) and the majority, interestingly enough, wanted the religious texts. Sooo, no mini-golf for them anytime soon.
The yellow team became cooks again, and again didn’t do much in the way of actually cooking or cleaning up after themselves, so Zach (yellow) had to ask members of other teams help him with the dishes, which they did with some reluctance. At least cleaning is more fun when there’s more than one person doing it. At the town meeting on day 13, Zach (yellow) asked/told Taylor to shape up or ship out (essentially)—to which Taylor responded that if he wasn’t careful he’d be scrubbing toilets with the green team. My mouth dropped open at her gall, but no one ever said she’s the sharpest crayon in the box, did they? He responded after only a split-second by calmly saying, “Taylor, stop threatening us.” I’ve gotta give her props for taking so much shit, though, and still being such a jerk. I’d have broken down by this time if I were in her position. In any case, Cody (yellow) went home after being homesick for nearly a week, and Morgan (green) was awarded the gold star. So that means three of the four stars that have been awarded have been to green team members. Even though they’re having to deal with a lot of shit (literally), they are being recognized for their efforts.
I still wanna know what happens to the gold star after it’s given out. Do they reuse the star, or does each awardee literally get his/her own that s/he’ll have to later exchange for real money? Can they choose to just keep the star and not exchange it? Why hasn’t anyone broken into the building with the phone in it? Is the star safe after it’s been given out, or have they had issues with stealing, etc. etc.? What about the rest of the town? Does the town council have to follow the advice given in “the book” or can they just ignore what it says and do their own thing? Would it really be that bad if an episode or two was unscripted? I mean, it is supposed to be “reality” TV, after all. Stuffing three days into less than an hour of on-air time (have to account for the time commercials take up) just seems like futile effort. Who decides what to cut or keep? It’s not like this is really a “Kid Nation” because the editors and producers aren’t kids (at least so far as I know) and they’re the ones cutting the show—so they get to decide what we see. I’d like to be a camera-person just so I can see what’s really happening in Bonanza City… not just the stuff the editors want us to see.
Oh, and it snowed one of the days… didn’t last for long and the town was soon covered in mud. Loooooovely.
PS: If you’d like to have a looksee at the contract the parents of the participants had to sign, check it out over at The Smoking Gun, which is—I believe—a biased source, but which has nevertheless scanned and reproduced the contract in its 22-page entirety. Talk about legalese.
