It’s a clever, entertaining primetime traffic accident in search of rubberneckers.
“Kid Nation” is highly watchable. “Kid Nation” is exploitative of children.
After all the promotion and controversy, the “first ever” edition of “Kid Nation” premiered on CBS tonight. Among the bigger unknowns is whether there could ever be a second.
Ratings aside, it’s an open question whether CBS will be able to find another state with lax child labor laws that would allow another edition of the reality series to film within its borders. As it is, New Mexico is looking into both legal and ethical lapses that may have occurred during the filming in that state.
The sight of 40 kids doing tough manual labor, pulling wagons, loading provisions, struggling to cook, crying and searching for order was peculiarly, frighteningly engrossing. Seeing them help one another was heart-warming, even. Remember, this show is produced by Tom Foreman and company, the same folks who do “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” Heartwarming is what they do.
The backstory remains distressing. The exploitation of children, whether by miners in West Virginia or network executives and producers in Hollywood, is repugnant. How to measure exploitation? The producers of “Kid Nation” let the onscreen action descend into chaos, anguish and lots of tears before bringing it around to heart-warmth. Off-screen some children were injured when they drank bleach out of an unmarked soda bottle.
Foreman is proud of his entertaining social experiment. What homesick little Jimmy of New Hampshire will feel years from now when he looks back at the sight of himself at 8 sobbing on national television remains to be seen. (The participants in Michael Apted’s “Seven Up” series have expressed deep regret at ever agreeing to be filmmed.)
A $5,000 enducement was given the parents who loaned the producers 40 of their 8-15-year-old children for 40 days. At the end of this voyeuristic indulgence, CBS should put the parents on display and ask what they were thinking.
Tonight, all the editing tricks of reality TV were on display in “Kid Nation,” shaping narratives, eliminating inaction and condensing storylines. Music–sinister, urgent, euphoric–worked over-time to shape scenes. The phony book of instructions from the 1885 inhabitants of the “ghost town,” actually an abandoned movie set, advising a split into four “districts” with color-coordinated bandanas, was just a beginning. After a certain level of anxiety, frustration and raw emotion was achieved, the producers stepped in to help organize with chores, team competitions and a social hierarchy.
The choice of plentiful outhouses versus a single television set was milked for suspense. (Hey, these are gifted/talented kids. There was no real suspense.)
The manipulations are standard-issue “reality TV,” to the point that most viewers don’t think twice at the contrivance. “Sophia, it didn’t sound like you!” Mom said on the phone when her daughter called to say she’d just won $20,000. Suddenly, the angle shifted to Mom’s reaction, recorded by a camera crew in her kitchen. Who did she think was on the phone?
The competition will heat up as the weeks go by. Ultimately, though, the only suspense concerns the level of exploitation, both on the screen and behind the scenes.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
