Kid Nation: Kids: 10 Chickens: Still 0
But in a particularly unsettling twist, Taylor, the resident pageant-queen-brat-extraordinaire, showed her true colors once again and after throwing a tantrum, was allowed to choose the chickens destined for execution. Taylor has, it seems, developed a fondness for some of the fowl. So she systematically removed the "pretty" chickens from Greg's ax-wheeling grasp, and instead offered up what she determined were "ugly" chickens. You know, chickens that would never be...well...pageant chickens. And in a truly sickening moment, Taylor shouted with smug glee, "Ugly chickens deserve to die."
Where do we begin? We're almost too tired of this kind of behavior to offer up comment. Let's just say that if these kids are making a better world in Bonanza City, we're staying right where we are.
Taylor, for better or worse, was central to the story last night. Her behavior, which by any measure is reprehensible, was part of what the Council (and the rest of the pioneers) had to deal with. She was unwilling to work, unable to get along with anyone (except a brown chicken) and seemingly unaffected by other kids' responses to her.
So the decision was made that no matter the reward, should the kids earn a reward, Taylor would not benefit. She acted as though she couldn't care less and she made no move to change her evil ways.
The wise and oddly coincidental Journal provided the guidance (contrivance) for this week's big idea - study! What a concept! Learning. Reading. It was a revelation. And it nearly caused a revolution. The kids split over the obvious line in the sand: the smart kids who loved the idea, and the slackers who, in the words of one young boy, "came here to get away from school." Ugh.
Wisely, most kids realized that whatever the Journal advised most often connected to the "showdown" which meant that they better read that little book on Bonanza City history if there was a hope of reaping a reward. Most of the kids studied, but not, of course, Taylor. She hates to read (shocker!) and she could not have cared less about a reward in which she would certainly not participate.
The predictable, ever mind-numbing challenge was aptly named, "pop quiz" because it required kids to use sling shots and metal nuts to pop balloons. We were happy to see that at least they wore protective goggles. It's not easy being Safety4Kids and watching this show.
At first, it seemed like the right choice; it certainly was a popular decision. The green district went off to play, while the others went about their chores. For about five minutes. Then the pioneers abandoned their responsibilities and went off to play. Can you blame them? These kids have been deprived of anything resembling fun for over a month. Of course they wanted to play! And for a while, it was actually nice to see them enjoying themselves and playing and laughing and well...being kids. So you knew that couldn't last.
Taylor, brooding and forbidden to enter the arcade, went off to seek solace from the remaining chickens. Zack decided to try and "reach" Taylor by calmly talking with her about the situation and presenting to her the idea that everyone did things they didn't like but that was simply life in Bonanza City. And he sympathized with her about feeling bullied by the Council. Taylor relented and almost single-handedly washed hundreds of disgusting dishes. She was then ceremoniously carried in to the arcade in triumph, by Greg. If only there had been a tiara nearby.
Safety side note! Red alert! The dishes, left for days, are washed (and we use the term loosely) in dirty water seemingly without soap. YUCK! And more than yuck, health hazard. The unsanitary conditions are never really addressed, explored, or heaven forbid, corrected, but it was a glaring reminder that these kids live in a kind of contrived squalor and there is no telling what is living with them...at the very least on the dishes.
Okay, so the town goes wild in the arcade, staying up all night playing, and no one cooks breakfast or does chores anymore. Except Sophia, the responsible young teen who last night described herself in this insightful way: "I'm a thirty year old trapped in the body of a fourteen year old." Poor Sophia. She would have preferred the library to the arcade. She took all her buffalo nickels and bought the remaining books in the "store" and created her own library. She also made pancakes for the other kids, because no one else was cooking. She was disgusted with the whole situation. "The arcade is like a drug," she concluded.
DK, a Council member, began to regret the choice of the arcade. At the weekly Town Hall Meeting, the Council decided to padlock the arcade from now on until all the chores were done. And because of Sophia's demonstrated leadership in the whole "arcade debacle" she was deputized by the Council to "police" the town, making certain that all chores were complete before allowing anyone to enter the arcade. She stood up at the meeting and declared, "I'm the sheriff of Bonanza City." And in so doing, we know, of course, that next week's episode will feature the power-mad Sophia enforcing some sort of crackdown on the pioneers. We're not sure the formula could be more predictable. And less interesting.
Hunter, a sweet, hard-working boy, won the gold star and had a fake conversation with his proud parents.
We're starting to feel like ruminating on the "issues" raised on "Kid Nation" is endowing the show with more substance than it deserves. But we're in this until the end, so here goes:
The Lessons of Bonanza City, Day 32
- Deprivation, when followed by extreme temptation, will lead to chaos.
- Negative reinforcement, i.e., so much attention given to the brattiest child in the universe, only makes her brattier and creates bad feelings among the others.
- This Council, for all its macho, has absolutely no control over the town, and has to resort to punitive measures to make anything happen. Gone are the days of consensus, reasonable limits and respect, which the previous Council, under Laurel's leadership, clearly demonstrated.
- The producers will continue to create dissension, destruction, and distrust, in hopes of creating drama on a show that should have been canceled long ago.
But perhaps the real lesson of Bonanza City is, being a chicken, even a pretty one, is a slippery slope.
(c) Caroline Bloor. Image from BigStockPhoto.com (c) Andrew Mah. Imgae from BigStockPhoto.com
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: Kid Nation, TV, Safety4Kids
2 Comments:
Again and again with this show, I return to the exact same question: what is this show trying to prove? What is the point? What are the producers (and, although it's a "reality" show, the writers as well) attempting to tell us, the viewers?
Of course, this is not a standard I uphold for every show I watch; shows with no points can be great. But only if they're not supposed to have points. This show was billed in such lofty terms as "children working together to create a better world" and various other forms of hobunk, and the show falls so far from that, it's laughable.
Taylor was the case-in-point in this episode; she was obnoxious, moody, snotty, and uncooperative (not to mention public enemy #1 to those poor chickens). So, if the children were trying to "make a better world", wouldn't they either explain to her why what she's doing is wrong, or, if that fails (and likely it would), ostracize or punish her in a serious manner, so she learns not to act like this in the future?
Instead, she gets the "prize" of choosing which chickens get killed, and then, after washing dishes, gets carried into the arcade. This is absolutely the most ineffective and counterintuitive way to deal with her; it ensures that she will not change, and possibly she'll get worse, because she knows what she can get away with.
I hope parents watching this show with their children (if any parents out there are actually doing this) are telling their children that, no, this is NOT the way to make a better world.
This is a test
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