Kid Nation:
"I'm Trying to be a Leader Here"
Wow. This show turned out to be a lot more intense than I was expecting. I'm not sure that Kid Nation's critics are going to be pacified after watching the pilot episode; some of those poor kids were pretty distressed (especially poor little Jimmy). I was kind of surprised at the direness of the conditions of the ghost town. It was a pretty intense situation for kids (or anyone) to be put in. Luckily, they had that kid who needed a haircut (ok, I realize that doesn't narrow it down very much, but I don't remember his name) to give a good motivational speech whenever things were getting out of control. And of course having the chance to win a gold star worth $20,000 always helps raise morale too.
In addition to the shaggy-haired motivational speaker, I most enjoyed the little kids with Southern accents. They were super cute. My absolute favorite was Alex, the little Asian boy who is a dead-ringer for Stephanie Tanner's friend Harry from Full House.
It's kind of mean that the producers made up a whole backstory about Bonanza city that's totally not true at all. These poor kids totally believe it and I imagine they'll be a little let down to find out later that it was all a bunch of crap.
Speaking of the producers, I think they might have over-produced this show. I was interested in Kid Nation because I thought it would be a bunch of kids left alone to come up with whatever "society" they saw fit, Lord of the Flies-style. Instead, the producers imposed a town council, the division of the kids into four different teams, an employment hierarchy, team competitions, and a reward system. Frankly, I'd be more interested to see what the kids would come up with than what reality show executives think up.
My other complaint is that sometime these kids were a little full of themselves and listening to that just takes you back to when you were a kid and had to listen to other full-of-themselves kids. And that's kind of unpleasant. Luckily, by the end of the episode, most of the kids seemed to be devoted more to the greater good than to tooting their own horns. (And, speaking of kids who were awfully full of themselves, scroll up to see my review of the Gossip Girl pilot.)
One part of the episode that I found especially amusing was when the host told them they'd be able to run stores in the town and the kids freaked out. One girl's reaction: "Wohoo! Running stores! Wohoo!" Ha ha. Let's hope these kids keep their enthusiasm, because they could be the retail workers of America in a few years...
And I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with the kids' decision to take the seven outhouses instead of the TV. Even with my 22-year-old wisdom, I'd have a hard time turning down that TV set...
My Premiere Rating: 6.5 / 10
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