Kid Nation (spoilers)

The forum for general posting. Come join the madness. :)
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
MarleysGh0st
Posts: 27930
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:55 am
Location: Elsewhere

Kid Nation (spoilers)

#1 Post by MarleysGh0st » Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:47 am

Anyone else interested, before I begin?
Spoiler
TPTB have got to be proud of their editing work this week, with the story arcs working out so neatly. The theme of the week, delivered as always by The Book of 1885, is sanitation! Well, that, and the new town council doing their best to punish the deposed Queen Taylor. :P

Despite their best efforts to teach her a lesson, she's going to be a stubborn brat and she won't be forced into leaving. You can almost hear her agent whispering in her ear, "You can't leave yet, honey, you're still the star of this episode!" If TPTB ever wanted her to really leave, they'd just have the cameramen ignore her, like they ignore at least twenty of the other kids.

Meanwhile, the council is united in giving DK the gold star, but DK is ready to leave! And Guylan is depressed that he flunked Hole Digging 101 (where was AnnieCamaro when he needed her?) but he redeems himself as a leader by convincing DK to stay! Pointedly not mentioning, on camera at least, that DK will have 20,000 reasons to be glad of staying in the next five minutes.

And, oh, that Pork & Beans Challenge! :shock:

Great irony there, in setting up an environmental theme, then wasting 1600 gallons of baked beans for that. How many starving people could that have fed? And then the kids make the "right" choice yet again, for fresh fruit and veggies over the fun but evil dune buggies. (With Taylor suddenly switching roles and rooting for the buggies. Deal with it, Taylor.)

But, in the whole sanitation theme, how did the kids clean up after that? One of the laborer jobs is supposedly doing laundry, but we've never had a scene of an old scrub board and clotheslines to go with the scenes of dish washing and outhouse mopping. Are they cheating and using modern washer/driers off-screen? Presumably along with some unseen baths and showers to get the kids scrubbed clean?
Last edited by MarleysGh0st on Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
MarleysGh0st
Posts: 27930
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:55 am
Location: Elsewhere

#2 Post by MarleysGh0st » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:19 am

<sigh>

I know y'all are out there; I can see the View count!

:(

User avatar
earendel
Posts: 13588
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:25 am
Location: mired in the bureaucracy

#3 Post by earendel » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:24 am

MarleysGh0st wrote:<sigh>

I know y'all are out there; I can see the View count!

:(
I read the posts but I have nothing to say, not being a devotee of the show.
"Elen sila lumenn omentielvo...A star shines on the hour of our meeting."

User avatar
MarleysGh0st
Posts: 27930
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:55 am
Location: Elsewhere

#4 Post by MarleysGh0st » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:27 am

earendel wrote: I read the posts but I have nothing to say, not being a devotee of the show.
Thanks for the pity reply, then. :)

User avatar
earendel
Posts: 13588
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:25 am
Location: mired in the bureaucracy

#5 Post by earendel » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:29 am

MarleysGh0st wrote:
earendel wrote: I read the posts but I have nothing to say, not being a devotee of the show.
Thanks for the pity reply, then. :)
You're welcome.
"Elen sila lumenn omentielvo...A star shines on the hour of our meeting."

User avatar
silvercamaro
Dog's Best Friend
Posts: 9608
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:45 am

#6 Post by silvercamaro » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:32 am

I haven't managed to see this show once. It comes on when I'm with Lizbit at Puppy School. I don't know what Annie watches when she's alone with the remote control.

User avatar
MarleysGh0st
Posts: 27930
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:55 am
Location: Elsewhere

#7 Post by MarleysGh0st » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:38 am

silvercamaro wrote:I haven't managed to see this show once. It comes on when I'm with Lizbit at Puppy School. I don't know what Annie watches when she's alone with the remote control.
She'd have been talking about this one if she'd been watching. How could anyone not know how to dig a hole?

For background, TPTB had conveniently fenced off a vacant lot with a "Trash" sign on it. After two weeks of living there, that lot had turned into a nasty, stinking, rat-infested mess. After reading instructions from The Book, the town council organizes a work squad to cart the garbage out town, dig a pit, and bury it all.

Guylan, age 11, is one of the newly elected town councillors and was all pumped up to show what a good worker he was here. But for some reason, he apparently couldn't wield the shovel when it was his turn to dig, so he ended up sitting down looking dejected. Until he redeemed himself later with his "You're like a big brother to me" pep talk to DK.

User avatar
christie1111
11:11
Posts: 11630
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:54 am
Location: CT

#8 Post by christie1111 » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:47 am

Sorry, I was working.

Don't believe that?

Okay, I was turning in my pumpkin to the contest. :lol:

I really was surprised that DK put his hand up. Did he just have too much of Taylor? And I sort of missed the beginning of them trying to lock Taylor into the building. What was up with that?

Boy did I want to smack her though.

One question that came to me last night while watching is, How is this all going to end? It isn't like Survivor where you get down tot he last couple of contestants. Does anybody 'win' something at the end.

If they all just get picked up by the parents and go home, it seems anti-clamcatic. Okay, I dnt spell that right and I don't care. :P
"A bed without a quilt is like the sky without stars"

User avatar
jayhawker536
Posts: 153
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 5:04 pm
Location: Kansas

#9 Post by jayhawker536 » Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:26 pm

Sorry Marley - I was going to post last night with the header "Hey Marley", unfortunately I was just too tired to even type.

I wanted to ask you if they have a military school for girls out there anywhere? If I was Taylor's parent, she would be going straight there from Kid Nation. I realize her parents are probably upset that they are treating their darling little girl so very, very badly. How else could this child be so bratty? On second thought, your probably right, she is a paid actress, in which case she is doing a mighty fine job.

This show is hard to believe in many ways, ie: showers, clean clothes, etc. The one good thing about it, it is providing monies for some very bright children to further their education.

User avatar
PlacentiaSoccerMom
Posts: 8134
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:47 am
Location: Placentia, CA
Contact:

#10 Post by PlacentiaSoccerMom » Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:18 pm

MarleysGh0st wrote:<sigh>

I know y'all are out there; I can see the View count!

:(
I don't watch the show, I just like reading the comments that you make about it.

User avatar
MarleysGh0st
Posts: 27930
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:55 am
Location: Elsewhere

#11 Post by MarleysGh0st » Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:44 pm

christie1111 wrote: I really was surprised that DK put his hand up. Did he just have too much of Taylor? And I sort of missed the beginning of them trying to lock Taylor into the building. What was up with that?
Aside from the "official" theme, pretty much the entire episode centered on Taylor's lack of cooperation. After reading the book, the council selected their work crew, comprised of the older, stronger, and generally more cooperative kids...and Taylor and her beauty queen pal, Leila. They refused to work and ran away and cried. Beauty queens don't shovel garbage, you see.

The council promised they'd be punished for not duing their job. Leila finally gave in and showed up late at their new landfill. I don't think they actually aired any footage of her shoveling, but at least she made a token gesture of reconciliation. But Taylor stood firm. The council confronted her again, she tried running away again, Anjay tried blocking the door to stop her, and she tried to kick him. So, not locking her in a building, but keeping her still to face justice.

And the confrontation went on and on and on...although Taylor was able to cry on cue, when DK said he was leaving. I think that was mostly because of her, although there was one short confrontation between two of the younger, anonymous kids (including the one with the purple mohawk featured on the web site but until now never seen on the show) which DK had to referee.

If the kids were to write their own book next week instead of relying on what The Book of 1885 tells them, the theme would be "jail".
christie1111 wrote: One question that came to me last night while watching is, How is this all going to end? It isn't like Survivor where you get down tot he last couple of contestants. Does anybody 'win' something at the end.

If they all just get picked up by the parents and go home, it seems anti-clamcatic. Okay, I dnt spell that right and I don't care. :P
The show hasn't bothered explaining that. Since they don't eliminate kids, there can't be an overall "winner". Just pats on the back all around for doing such a great job rebuilding the town, I guess. Ho hum.

And probably some more gold stars for all the council members, I'm thinking.

User avatar
MarleysGh0st
Posts: 27930
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:55 am
Location: Elsewhere

#12 Post by MarleysGh0st » Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:49 pm

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote: I don't watch the show, I just like reading the comments that you make about it.
Thank you.

ShallowVails has TAR, now I have this. :roll:

User avatar
MarleysGh0st
Posts: 27930
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:55 am
Location: Elsewhere

#13 Post by MarleysGh0st » Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:57 pm

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote: I don't watch the show, I just like reading the comments that you make about it.
Since most of my readership here isn't watching the show, I should explain this week's "Pork & Beans Challenge", which was loosely--very loosely--based on the week's environmental theme. More precisely, on the "smelly and disgusting" theme.

They had a tank--imagine a wading pool about 20' wide--filled with 1600 gallons of baked beans. And some live pigs. The kids had to take turns wading into that, one from each team, looking for tin cans painted their team color. At the end of 30 minutes, the team with the most cans won. 75 cans total won the award.

Greg, in a cavalier display of disgusting fun, dove head first into the tank at one point. :P

Yet, as already noted, they all managed to clean up remarkably well for the town meeting at the end of the episode...

User avatar
PlacentiaSoccerMom
Posts: 8134
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:47 am
Location: Placentia, CA
Contact:

#14 Post by PlacentiaSoccerMom » Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:17 pm

MarleysGh0st wrote: They had a tank--imagine a wading pool about 20' wide--filled with 1600 gallons of baked beans. And some live pigs. The kids had to take turns wading into that, one from each team, looking for tin cans painted their team color. At the end of 30 minutes, the team with the most cans won. 75 cans total won the award.
I wonder how many kids peed in the "pool."

User avatar
earendel
Posts: 13588
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:25 am
Location: mired in the bureaucracy

#15 Post by earendel » Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:57 am

MarleysGh0st wrote:
PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote: I don't watch the show, I just like reading the comments that you make about it.
Thank you.

ShallowVails has TAR, now I have this. :roll:
Should you create a MM called ShallowMarley?? :lol:
"Elen sila lumenn omentielvo...A star shines on the hour of our meeting."

User avatar
MarleysGh0st
Posts: 27930
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:55 am
Location: Elsewhere

#16 Post by MarleysGh0st » Fri Oct 26, 2007 6:12 am

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote: I wonder how many kids peed in the "pool."
I'd be more concerned about how many pigs had done their business in there. They were munching away at the beans, in obvious hog heaven, until all those children jumped in and spooked them. :shock:

User avatar
MarleysGh0st
Posts: 27930
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:55 am
Location: Elsewhere

#17 Post by MarleysGh0st » Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:04 am

BTW, has the RecFairy been playing with the Views counter here? :roll:

Post Reply