We are less than two weeks away from the season finale of CBS' social experiment,
Kid Nation. Many gold stars have been handed out, a few kids have opted out and headed home, and we've seen the best and worst in just about every member of Bonanza City. Council members have come and gone, rewards have been won and lost, and only the pretty chickens are roaming the town. The main reason the show took 40 kids and put them in this abandoned town was to answer a simple question. Could the children build a better city than the adult pioneers who failed long before them? The answer? Nope.
On next week's episode, the council elects
Sophia the town sheriff. What the town really needs is a parent. The obnoxious behavior has hit an all time high. Last week's listening exercise only ended in people screaming at one another. On this week's episode, the town almost got into a fist fight over chickens. Kids gang up on each other, make each other cry, slack off. Maybe that's real life. Kids can be very hurtful to one another. Yet, a good talking to from their mothers or fathers might shut a few of them up.
Maybe we have learned a lesson from the show. Children should not be sent to make an entire town work. They're not eating properly, they're not sleeping properly, and they're not prioritizing properly. When the town won an arcade, most children sat in there from morning until night, eyes glazed over, staring at the bright lights the screens projected. In whose house are children allowed to play video games all day and night? Where does an arcade fit in with a town for pioneers?
No child should be cracked out on root beer and fed handfuls of potatoes. No child should have to take a public beating the way
Anjay did. The show has derailed - gone from being inspirational to, often times, uncomfortable. Thank god for the green team, though. They seem to be the only ones who know how to treat others, work hard, and step up even when they're not asked to. Perhaps if the entire town was full of
Hunters and
Laurels and
Michaels, Bonanza City would be okay. The bottom line is, if all of these kids were left there forever to keep the town going, I'd be scared.
- Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Do you find Kid Nation to be annoying or inspirational?