TV Review: Kid Nation

By Emily Ashby

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Kid Nation bears a lot of similarities to Survivor in that, although the group must work together to succeed, alliances (or, in kid terms, friendships) are bound to develop, and there's plenty of competition for individual rewards as well as team ones. One-on-one confessionals give cast members time and opportunity to tattle on peers they think aren't pulling their weight -- or in some cases, throwing their weight around too much. Everything you'd expect from a group of tweens and teens emerges here: pre-teen attitude ("I'm a beauty queen -- I don't do dishes," says 10-year-old Taylor), childish pranks (graffiti on rival districts' doors), and clashes of opinion. Strong personalities often take a beating, and one or two superiority complexes flourish under the barrage of challenges. Emotions run high, and more than one participant -- remember, some of these kids are grade-schoolers -- opts out because of homesickness or the harsh, sparse living conditions.

But Kid Nation's main hurdle is what prompted all of the controversy before its premiere: With a cast of kids and absolutely no adult supervision, something disastrous could happen. And, as it happens, serious injuries were reported on the set (including a burn and a broken bone), and some of the kids suffered obvious emotional trauma from the experience. Top it off with charges of child-labor infringement (the kids were filmed for 14 hours a day), and you can't help but wonder -- what were these parents thinking? No doubt kids' intrigue will be piqued by this series, and for tweens, it might be entertaining. But young viewers may need to be reminded about the potential hazards of the unsupervised activities they see (cooking on a wood-burning stove, for instance) and the inherent non-reality of many so-called "reality" shows.