Kid Nation - The End

I finally got around to seeing the last episode of the series,and while I found it interesting the first few episodes, it dragged out as the series continued. I did watch all of it to see how it played out, but found it lost it's oomph after awhile.

Anyways... it was the finale this week, and we had a bit of looting once the kids were set loose, a weird challenge to clean everything up and then a final Town Hall, with all the parents there and awarding 3 final Gold Stars worth $50,000 each.

From what I saw in the series, I didn't see kids really making a new society. In general, I found it too centered on conflict, less on solutions and didn't see that many opportunities to really see the kids in action. It was more about their boredom and conflict between factions than anything else and I was disappointed with the general outcome of all of it. If this is the example of the future, I wasn't too impressed and except for a handful of the kids that we got to see (usually the same dozen) we didn't see some of the kids at all unless they were up for Gold Star.

The final Council, and awarding the big prizes to the 3 most *ahem* "mature" girls left a bad taste in my mouth, it seemed to be much too much teenage boys deciding with their hormones on who won (yeah all the chicks with boobs) when there were clearly other kids who had worked hard the whole time ( I think of poor Mike who got nothing for his efforts) who where clearly more deserving. We get Morgan and Migle who were who exactly? Sophia definitely deserved her prize, and was one of the few kids that I thought was interesting. They might want to make it a vote by all the kids next time as to who made Bonanza a better place if they repeat this experiment. Pretty big if.....

It was interesting to see the parents... but would have loved to have seen more of them as I was really wondering if Taylor's mom was a real number like her.... maybe next time, but I am not holding my breath waiting for another series.

Kid Nation - Bored to Death

Things are getting pretty dull in Bonanza, the kids have realized that all they are doing is working and sleeping and are starving for something new to do. Me thinks they are all going through technology withdrawal, as they did get the baseball equipment and other stuff a few days ago, but they have been there over 3 weeks now.

After some thought, the council decides its time to have a talent show and break some fun to the town, and a whole bunch of the kids decide on different things that they can do for the show.

Some how we get to see a few different kids this week that we haven't really seen before, after all there are around 40 of them and we seem to see the same dozen every week, but nothing really notable except for the so called Paris and Nicole who love to sit around and talk about fashion... yawn. The girls are threatened to shape up or their team will throw the challenge and they will be cleaning toilets.

This week was the grossest frontier challenge ever, the kids had to chew gum and fill in a template with their gum (handed off to their division leader), and there was way too much slobber and used gum being handed around for my taste.... anyways once the challenge is done with (no big prize either as the wimpy yellow team can't get their gum to stick) the kids get back to getting ready for the big show. Jared has decided to do some Shakespeare, and much time is spent highlighting his efforts to memorize his text and to get ready for the show. This kid is so out there and on such a different wavelength than the others that he is always fascinating to watch.

The show goes off not bad and some of the kids have some real talent, some can play the piano and sing, others are goofs and funny and we even get some drag thrown in for good measure. The kids have fun and moral goes up and it looks like they are all in it until the end, which must be coming up soon. The pacing has been less interesting the past couple of weeks and I am getting bored also...

Kid Nation

This week finally got around to "Election Day" and the kids showed how nasty and dirty politics can be. Our little Pageant Princess was finally dethroned (thank the gods) and was replaced by the hardworking Zach--- it'll be fun to see how things work out with that as miss Princess will probably be a bitter loser... all I could do was cheer 'Deal with it!' ( is it wrong to want the little princess to be taken down ?)

It was a shame that Michael lost his council position.... you could see how much it affected him and you know that it hit his self esteem really hard but it was another one of those life lessons. Ya can't win all the time and you have to go with the punches Mike.

Another good episode-- I know the show is not doing great in the ratings but I still find it a fascinating study of human behaviour and hope it plays out till the end and CBS doesn't pull the plug.

On a side note... Greg finally got his gold star so maybe there is hope after all...

Kid Nation- Deal with it

Last night's episode was all about rules and setting boundries as the kids learned that they needed to work more, play less and had to have a curfew.

The kids had another fun challenge with sheep (sheer chaos) and the youngest team won and became the Upper Class... meaning our little pageant Queen finally had a reason not to work and to be the good little republican that she is. The kids decided to keep the frontier microwave and cocoa instead of taking the pizza treat which did not sit well with all the kids.

The crap finally hit the fan at the Town Council meeting and once threatened, Taylor promised to work harder and finally one of the young kids got the all important Gold Star (Mallory), which was nice to see and probably helped moral all around, unless your name is Greg. Things are getting more heated after a couple of weeks in the boonies and I wonder how much longer before we get into "Lord of the Flies" territory....

Kid Nation - Life Lessons

To kill or not to kill? It ain't a quote from Shakespeare ( sorry Jared) but it was completely and utterly fascinating to watch a group of children decide if the chickens were food or pets.

This show impresses me... and yes if I had children I would definately watch it with them as I am sure it would be a great way to discuss different issues with them.

The dynamics between the different classes and how the kids interact is an amazing social experiment, but if I hear that snotty Pageant girl (Taylor) spout out more comments about how doing dishes or working is below her I think it might be time to either open the Jail or maybe even a good old fashion stockade?
Last night the Gold Star was awarded to Michael, who is probably one of the most mature and hard working kids there and he more than deserved it. Of course, this has opened a whole can of worms with Greg who seemed to be working hard ( for the prize of course) and will probably show more of his nasty side now that he has been passed over. Welcome to the real world kids.

Kid Nation or How I spent my summer vacation

After all the hoopla surrounding this show I really wanted to check it and see what all of the fuss was about. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a great social experiment (in the way that I love watching Survivor and seeing the interaction between the participants) and a great way for the new generation to learn some lessons and grow.

I think that taking today's " Generation Y " and making them work and run their town will make for some great moments and I love the idea that no one is voted off, but the kids can opt to quit and leave if they don't feel they can make it. The Gold Star reward (valued at 20,000 $ !) will be huge incentive for the kids to hang around and I can only see this getting more and more interesting to watch. My favorite kid to watch so far is Jared from Georgia and he pretty much had me in hysterics from when he first appeared on screen. This year is turning out to be a great one for geeks & nerds !