By Jennifer Larson
After watching KID NATION last week, my opinion has softened a bit. When I first starting hearing about this new Reality TV show, I was horrified at the thought of 40 children being dropped into a ghost town to fend for themselves. But I don’t think many of us were giving these kids enough credit. Granted, there were some tears and homesickness to contend with – one little boy did end up going home – but that’s to be expected. I mean we send our kids to summer camp and their initial reaction is usually the same. However, I do still have some reservations about the business end of the whole thing. If the show becomes a hit – and based on the rating of the premiere that is highly likely – there will be millions of dollars made. Because it’s a reality show, the kids won’t see much of that, but they do get the chance to win $20.000 a week, so they’re better off than a lot of other contestants flooding our TV landscape.
There are emotional issues the children must contend with as well as physical ones, and tonight they had to decide whether or not to kill a chicken. I know I’d be a basket case faced with that option, and some of the kids were as well. And now that I think about it, pressuring children to make that kind of decision is just the thing people were complaining about. Does an 8-year-old from the city really need to be indoctrinated into the farm life this way? My answer is no, but then again I am from a big city, so I’m sure there are others who will disagree with me. And why doesn’t it surprise me that Greg has experience in slaughtering animals? I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he has worked with a butcher for the past year, and something tells me the producers were fully aware of that fact before the chicken debacle.
Ultimately, the poor little chicken was killed, but not before 9-year-old Emilie stated her severe opposition to the whole thing. And if any of you saw the graphic scene showing 15-year-old Greg cutting the chicken’s head off, you understand how she feels. But don’t think Greg was taking one for the team; he has that coveted gold star in his sights. Meanwhile, the yellow team is shirking their responsibilities in the kitchen, and leaving Sophia to do all the work. Does that mean she gets their pay as well? This kind of behavior was exactly what Sophia was talking about in last week’s town meeting. Too bad her team couldn’t pull it out in the showdown. Each week these competitions decide who will do what and if the kids will win a reward. And with the yellow team winning the cooking duties again, I have a feeling it’s going to be a long week, especially since they didn’t end of winning the group reward … a waterslide. That’s a bummer, because these kids look like there are hurting for some fun stuff to do.
That waterslide may have also been good for moral, because there is some definite tension beginning to build. Nobody in Bonanza City is feeling the love for the little yellow team. And they are beginning to get a little tired of Emilie’s love for the chickens as well. Poor Emilie was thrown out of the chicken coup and began to feel as if she might be better off at home. Can’t say as I blame her … can you? Meanwhile, half of the town leaders are on to Greg’s gold star plan, and deciding who to bestow it upon is causing quit a quandary for our little group. But that may be the least of their worries, because Taylor and her excuses in the kitchen are starting to get to everybody in the group. At least nobody opted out of the competition … for now.
By the end of this week’s episode a chicken had been killed, a mutiny was looming and Michael ended up winning the gold star. Sorry Greg, better luck next week.