Kid Nation: Abuse, Entertainment, or Both? ~ Nicholas Ventresca

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that it's crazy that this is our last blog post of the year. Time goes by pretty fast when you're unable to go anywhere, am I right? Anyway, May was pretty uneventful for my family outside of AP tests and my sixteenth birthday. Although we weren't able to do much on my actual birthday, some of my friends surprised me with gifts and some social distancing hang-outs. The one thing I did have control over on my birthday was entertainment. 

See, in my family, whenever it's someone's birthday, they're allowed to choose whatever TV show or movie we watch for the night. Now, for years, my parents would tell me and my siblings about a reality TV show called Kid Nation. The show aired in 2007 and although my parents didn't remember much, what they could remember was extremely interesting, and so on my birthday, we decided to give it a try. 

The basic premise of Kid Nation was that a group of forty children, ages eight to fifteen, would all leave behind their families for forty days and come to an abandoned old-western town called Bonanza City. Their job was to do what the original pioneers could not do and make the town work, essentially forming their own kid nation. If anyone wanted to leave the town and go home, they would tell the host of the show, Jonathan Karsh, at the town meetings that were held every four days, and they would be allowed to leave. 

Besides this general goal, the town was also split into four groups. Each episode, the town would host a showdown, where the four groups would compete for their roles. The first-place winners of these challenges were upper class, followed by merchants, cooks, and laborers. All of these roles would receive a certain amount of pay that could be used to buy things in the town.

These four groups were lead by one kid. These four kids made-up the town council, who, at each town council meeting, would choose one kid who they felt was worthy of a gold star. The star, usually given to a particularly hard-working kid that week was worth twenty-thousand dollars, that they and their family could use on anything. Occasionally, re-elections were held that changed up the town council, allowing different kids to make important decisions.

While it may sound like your typical run-of-the-mill reality TV show, I have found this show extremely entertaining over quarantine. The kids in this show range from iconic to immensely aggravating, and I found myself delighted when the lazy kids in the town would receive their comeuppance in the forms of punishments. The kid's reactions to the situations were also hysterical, and we've almost completely finished the show.

The show, however, only ran for one season. Now, the somewhat obvious reason why is the public outcry to what the general public perceived as child abuse. To be fair, the kids occasionally had to kill chickens themselves, and, in one particular challenge, they had to haul an actual ton of rocks across an obstacle course in twenty-minutes. While I myself feel that abuse is an exaggeration, the kids were definitely challenged, but in a very entertaining manner.

Another reason I have especially enjoyed this show is that, given that the show happened so long ago, many of the kids are now talking about what a mess the show was, and, seeing these kids then and now is very funny.

Overall, I'd say that if you truly are bored out of your mind, this show is perfect to waste your time with. The entire show is completely free on YouTube, and the link to the first episode is here:

 https://youtu.be/Gu1bly7YhAs