Golly, world. It took less than a half-hour on Wednesday (Oct. 10) night's Kid Nation for the 39 remaining children to solve all of humanity's spiritual differences, proving that all we need to end war and bloodshed is the incentive of a $20,000 gold star.

Nobel prizes have been given for less profound realizations.

[The following recap contains spoilers for a show nobody's really paying any attention to.]

We're just over 10 days into life in Bonanza City and you'll notice that the kids are onto the producers. Look at the way the townspeople rolled their eyes when the council told them they'd been reading from the fake pioneer diary. In almost no time, they've realized that that darned diary is a troublemaker.

This week's entry cautioned the council that while it was important to nourish their bodies, nourishing their spirit was equally important. The diary warned that the reason Bonanza City failed was because of the lack of faith. Last week, if you'll recall, Bonanza City failed because of the lack of law and order. If the scenes from next week's episode are any indication, we're on the verge of discovering that the reason Bonanza City failed was lack of properly instituted democracy.

Won't somebody please tell these poor kids that the real reason the town collapsed was syphilis? That would make for an interesting episode.

Anyway, the members of the council decided that the best approach to religion would be to have a all-faith service where any kid who wanted to express their beliefs could do so, in the spirit of enlightenment and whatnot. Based on the uproar, you'd have though the council had dared suggest that SpongeBob SquarePants doesn't really live in a pineapple under the sea. The ignorance wasn't hostile, but it was loud. Certainly the prize went to Olivia, who said that because she's proud to be a Christian and she doesn't plan on changing her religion, she didn't want to have to hear anything from anybody else. The Pentecostal girl said that she likes praying with other Pentecostals and not with Jews or Muslims. For good measure, at least one Jewish kid said that people are most comfortable observing with their own kind.

It turns out that what the kids really resented, all of them, was having religion forced on them by Yappy Taylor and her Council Posse. While nobody attended the original multi-faith services, Morgan went door to door kindly telling people she was holding a vigil and attendance was strong. Not only did people show up, but they even let self-described Progressive Jew Zach sing a few words of "Adon Olam" without any noticeable flinching. For her trouble, Morgan won the Gold Star this week, which means that CBS gave primetime airing to a game show in which spreading the world of the Lord to underaged kids earned a $20,000 reward. Try to remember this, conservative activists, when CBS programs Swingtown for midseason.

Oh and after successfully completing a challenge that involved church-raising, the kids were offered a choice of rewards: Either a mini-golf course or a collection of religious tomes. And the kids chose the Holy Books. Try to remember this, conservative activists, when complaining about the weekly sexual torture of women on Criminal Minds. Actually, maybe you're right on that one.

The week's other major development was the departure of a second kid from their dystopic enclave. Little Cody followed in the footsteps of Little Jimmy in bidding a tear-filled farewell to all of his friends. He will also, for better or worse, be remembered as the nine-year-old who cried on national TV about missing his girlfriend. I offer no commentary on that, except for to note that Cody left his BFF Campbell crying alone in his root beer. At what age is "Bros before Hos" taught in our public schools?

I eagerly anticipate next week, because it's time for the Yellow Team to take Taylor down.

Other thoughts on this week's episode:

New favorite kid? Unquestionably Alex, the nine-year-old who attempted to inspire unity by doing a survey of town religions.

Favorite Taylor line: "If y'all don't like our food, y'all can just starve yourselves, because too bad."

Favorite Jared line: "I am not the kind of person that does the cheering stuff. I meditate."

Anybody still watching? Any thoughts about the way the show handled the sticky topic of religion this week?

Comments

Not watching but I laughed out loud at your recap. Great writing.

tv | Oct 10, 2007 7:08:08 PM | #

---

I'm enjoying the show somewhat. I do get irritated at the gold star contest though, I think they should have kept the winners secret until the end so that everyone worked (or didn't work) equally hard, now it's hard to tell who is honestly helpful and who is just shooting for the star.

Dave | Oct 10, 2007 11:01:33 PM | #

---

When is this even on?!

eahilbert | Oct 11, 2007 1:45:03 AM | #

---

I don't understand why you say it's "ignorant" to worship with like minded people. A Christian or Jewish person (who worships 1 God) can't share worship with a Hindu. (who worships 130 million gods) That's against their religion. Maybe it's not the kids who are ignorant....

RC | Oct 11, 2007 6:58:49 AM | #

---

getting kind of bored but i guess we can only watch greg tear apart the town for so long.

Scotty B. | Oct 11, 2007 7:22:17 AM | #

---

The show is useful (and entertaining) in spite of the huge mistakes CBS has made. First: the gold star $20,000 is largely an afterthought to the kids, who learned many important lessons in leadership and co-operation mostly without any regard to the prize awarded at the end of the episode. Second: the town council should have a one-week term, after which another four kids should be given the responsibility. Third: the showdown games should be eliminated as artificially stimulating competition (which gets in the way of learning). Instead, the "classes" (if you want to teach about the class system) should be named (again, on a rotating, one-week basis) by the producers at CBS.

JR | Oct 11, 2007 7:38:27 AM | #

---

RC -- I consider my understanding of my own faith to only have been enriched by the religious services I've attended for other faiths. At no point have the Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, Unitarian or Hindu services I've attended (many of them when I was at the same age as the Kid Nation contestants) ever caused me to doubt my own personal relationship with God, only to look at the way that other people worship and experience spirituality. And I feel pretty confident attending a Hindu service and treating the religion with dignity didn't jeopardize my own claim to following a monotheistic religion.

On a week-to-week basis, there isn't anything ignorant about praying with like-minded people. That's what religion is to many people. The way the council presented the service was as a chance to get to experience the collective religions of Bonanza City. Nobody was going to ask anybody to kneel before Jesus-on-the-Cross, nor to genuflect before Ganesha. They were just being asked to learn how other people pray and to, perhaps, notice some of their commonalities.

While "ignorance" is usually interpreted as a pejorative, it mostly just means "absence of knowledge," so I stand by that.

-Daniel

Daniel | Oct 11, 2007 8:00:13 AM | #

---

I loved it. There are few shows on television that my children and I can watch together that incise such inspired questions from them. I am moved when my kids agree that services should be held for all religions, not to exclude anyone. These kids are much more open-minded than the kids I went to school with many years ago.

Finally, I have no beef with the structure the producers have put upon this show. Sure, it's manufactored, but if any of you actually HAVE kids you'll know that kids NEED structure! They aren't libel to come up with it on their own. Not to mention they're trying to make TV here people!

Trix | Oct 11, 2007 8:07:26 AM | #

---

I wasn't planning to like this show but I'm enjoying it more each week. Wonder if Taylor's parents are mortified at their daughter's behavior or if she's the apple that didn't fall far from the tree. And, I thought the part where Campbell tried to cheer Cody up by looking at cows was hysterical.

Michelle | Oct 11, 2007 10:24:45 AM | #

---

LOVE this show. Wish more people would tune in to see it. All the concern and boycotting of advertisers was completely unwarranted so far.

Having worked with kids for a number of years, people often underestimate how smart they really are. How can you not love a show where the kids support each other, even when they lose a prize or are homesick? I got teary eyed when little Jimmy wanted to go home because he was too little and his friends encouraged him to go on telling him, " I bet you never thought you'd be hanging out with 10 year olds chasing jackrabbits". Something as simple as working together and being on their own has taught these kids a lot I'm sure. If you give kids a chance to grow without giving them a sense of entitlement (like far too many are these days!)just look what they can do.

Lynn | Oct 11, 2007 10:51:59 AM | #

---

The main thing that annoys me about this show is the journal that was supposedly left for someone to find. How pathetic to have included something so unbelievable in this program. I like the concept of this show,but I do think that better thought should have gone into the production.

Trupen | Oct 11, 2007 11:36:17 AM | #

---

Well, this show has really grown on me. It's pretty comedic at times, too. Like with Taylor being a drama queen and thinking she's all that. I hope the little princess gets unanimously voted out of office next week. She's an awful "leader" who is lazy and rude and bratty. At that, I do prefer her to the extremely annoying Greg (at least his airtime was minimized this week). I wish Greg had gone home!

Lisa | Oct 11, 2007 3:01:54 PM | #

---

I think that the show has gotten getter each week. The 40 minutes of the show do not show everything that went on for the three days. I bet the out takes are the best part of the filming. These children cab be very mature one minute and very child-like the next. I plan to continue watching this great show.

gg | Oct 11, 2007 6:41:25 PM | #

---

i'm really enjoying it. it's an opportunity to see a fresh perspective on how people react without the trappings of so-called maturity and adulthood. it makes those reactions much purer, imo.

i hated that they had to add religion into the mix this week, but i suppose that was unsurprising. it's a basic component of life, i guess, so it was good to see how the kids accepted it. it was also unsurprising, but still disappointing, to see them react just like adults do about religion, with secular ideas and anger. they were exactly right about how religion has been the basis of so many of our wars.

i've been waiting too, daniel, for them to do something about taylor. since it's a theme next week, i guess that's why they've let it go on for so long.

i wonder what the fallout will be for that child when she gets home and sees how she looked on this show. i doubt if she'll ever live it down. it may have screwed up her life forever. course, from what i've seen so far she'll probably say she doesn't care. i really feel sorry for her.

KR | Oct 13, 2007 5:33:05 PM | #

---

Finally, a show we can watch with the family and have some intelligent discussion afterwards. I'm sure the far left, tree hugging atheist are the one's critizing this show.

CG | Oct 15, 2007 5:58:17 AM | #

---

Well CG, I'm a tree hugger, but not an atheist. I would think that trying to save the planet and resources that God gave us would be thought of as a religious minded endeavour. And actually, the show deserves critcism just because it's not really interesting.

Sue | Oct 17, 2007 8:06:18 AM | #

---

Post a comment

Name:
Email Address:	optional
URL:	optional
Comments: