Kid Nation

In a nutshell... watch it at least once and then make up your mind. Either you like it, hate it, find it somewhat endearing and inspiring or truly feel it is exploitative. But don't prejudge this based on what you've read in newspaper articles or on the Internet. That to me is just a sad commentary on what our country has turned into (protest and censor something without even knowing what it is about.) I personally find it entertaining and am happy to see kids that age be able to work together and handle life much better than many adults. And for people who feel parents should be concerned about leaving their kids out in the middle of nowhere with no adults around. Come on. There are more crew and production people on the premises than the 38 or 39 kids. These kids ARE supervised.

But the bottom line is... there are many other shows on Wednesday night at the same time as KID NATION. If this isn't your cup of tea, don't watch it.

This was one of the my favorite reality shows. Unlike many other ones they use children, and sets them in real life situations that adults are in. They work like adults, they are divided like adults and are forced to make decisions like adults. The children have changed from whining kids in the start to a united group to fight for themselves.

This show really pushes out the true face of some children; their selfishness, greed, and the bad side. But to work as a group, these things cannot happen, so other kids help and advise them to change and improve, which of course is they did at the end.

Really advise watching at least one episodes, and probably really entertaining especially to kids.

I mean, there has to be a lawsuit in here somewhere. I honestly don't know what to think. Like, they just kinda threw some kids into the middle of the desert and then watched as they slowly descended into some "Lord of the Flies" type stuff. This has the the work of an escaped mental asylum patient right? Who funded this?

This has become my favorite show. I love these kids. They have shown maturity, a great work ethic, and above all hope for the future. From what I have seen there really has been not a sign of prejudice. These kids always seem to be able to work out their differences with no hard feelings. I love how they shake hands after their differences have been sorted out. I unfortunately don't know very many men that do that. Especially around the children's hockey arena. Adults could learn from these children. The only thing I wasn't all that crazy about was the children having to cook their own meals in the old cook stoves. I think I would have had a hard time doing that. Some of the challenges seemed to have been set up to make the kids fail like the rock hauling one. How on earth are kids supposed to know how much 500 lbs of rock are?

This is my favorite show of the 2007 season. I agree with the other comments about the "child labor" commentary - in America you can always find a university professor/media gadfly/reporter desperate for something to talk about somewhere willing to voice clucking concern.

Some people reflexively see anything not involving indulgent, extensive and repeated -heart-ing of kids is torture and abuse. And we must be suspicious of the artifices and manipulation of reality television. I don't care for all the Burnett-style time-lapse shots and really dislike the way tyhe general store has started to play up the play-drinking aspects. These kids watch TV too, and when you give them shot glasses for root beer and water you're encouraging them to act out.

But for me the watchable part of this show, the thing I tune in for every week, is the way these kids found so many ways to cope, to live together and deal with the situations that came up without all the lies and self-aggrandizement and duplicity most adults engage in.

They're so wonderfully honest, and sometimes they like each other and sometimes they hate each other but they crash into things, look around, dust themselves off and move right along. They are all right, and they find their way, and their strength and resilience makes me feel better about the future of the world for an hour on a Wednesday night.

All of the episodes have been fascinating to watch - during the election show when Mike realized that every single kid on his team had voted against him, he visibly sank. Then he picked himself up and took his place among those who had voted him out. You know that will be an event that will always be part of his life, and maybe it will make him a better person and maybe it will undermine him, and instead of "ooh, isn't it cool?" I wanted to show this to my nephews and say this kid is demonstrating what you should do in the world when it hands you failure - you sink for a moment, and then you pick yourself up and deal with what's left.

I highly recommend this show, at least so far.