SERIES KID NATION

Kid Nation (2007) CBS SERIES REVIEW

BY MARIA ANGELICA M. APE

In the year 2007, 40 children from across the United States were gathered to live in a ghost town by the name of Bonanza City in New Mexico. What’s the catch? These kids were tasked to rebuild the entire city in 40 days all by themselves with no adults, doing everything from leading, cooking, and cleaning the town. While the youngest kid had just turned 8 at the time and the oldest one was 15, the kids or the ‘Pioneers’ were all aiming to prove to their parents that they can be adults and can withstand being away from the comfort of their homes and make a living in the middle of nowhere.

The Pioneers were divided into four districts— green, yellow, red, and blue—and were led by their respective District Councils. To fairly distribute tasks, the city hosts a ‘showdown’ every couple of days where the districts battle it out to win. First place gets the “Upper Class” status where they receive a dollar each and get the privilege of having no chores to do for the time being; in second place are the “Merchants” where they have to run the city saloon and dry goods store and receive 50 cents each; third place are the “Cooks” where they have to prepare meals for 40 children and have to clean the dishes; and in last place are classified as the “Laborers” where they have to clean Bonanza City’s toilets, take out the trash, and have to pump out water all while being paid only 10 cents. The district’s status only fueled disputes where the Cooks do not stay in the kitchen and the other classes had to do the dirty work. A recurring argument in the whole season was the laziness of those in the lower classes who happen to be in the district with the youngest members. Despite the status of the four districts, there were some instances wherein everyone in the city gathered and helped with the hard labor of refilling the water tank and washing the dishes.

Every three days, the Pioneers gather for a town hall meeting where they would express concerns if their council was doing a good or bad job and this is where any of them is free to leave the city and go home. Also during the town hall meeting, the council decides who among the Pioneers is the most hardworking and will then receive a literal gold star that’s worth $20,000. The audience can tell whether or not one of the Pioneers is working hard just for the sake of the gold star. This was perfectly captured by the show and this portrays that even in 2007, some kids get blinded by cold hard cash.

The show is basically a reality show since inspirational speeches were said, conflict grew and created drama between Pioneers and District Council, but it’s also somewhat similar to a game show wherein physical challenges were tasked and had to be completed for the Pioneers to win a reward. Kid Nation looks like it’s the love child of Survivor and the nostalgic Legends of the Hidden Temple. It’s quite easy to pick favorites among the 40 Pioneers because the producers are doing a pretty good job in putting the limelight on them (aside from the extra screen time, of course.) The producers also did an amazing job to stir some conflict between the entire city through what the journal

left by the ‘original Bonanza City Pioneers’ from the 1880s dictates. The journal served as a guide for the kids where lessons and experiences from the previous Pioneers were used for references; it may be through establishing curfews, deciding to reflect spiritually, and whether or not the Pioneers should decide to butcher livestock. Amazingly, the show has managed to insert religion, violence, and discrimination into the conversations of the Pioneers.

One of the most memorable Pioneers during the show’s run was Yellow District’s first council leader, Taylor. The then 10-year old was a pageant queen and was labelled to be one of the brattiest and laziest kids in the entire city. She was famously known for her motto, “Deal with it!” which would only cause more drama within the Pioneers and District Council. Another controversy Taylor was involved in was the discriminative things she had said even if it was through chickens. In the earlier episodes, Taylor had developed a fondness over the town’s chickens where she and a couple of the squad protested against eating them. She was very strong in saying, “I think all ugly chickens deserve to die and all the pretty ones should stay.”

Basically, what Kid Nation was trying to tell their audience was that children can too, have a voice and they can actually do stuff like running a city without any adult supervision. Like any good reality show, Kid Nation’s strengths are in its characters where the older kids— even if they were projected to be the big bad wolves— cared for the younger ones, and where 8-year-olds trying to tell the council leaders that combining every kid with different religious beliefs into one service is a bad idea. When CBS first released Kid Nation, it already sparked controversy. Then-CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler took the issue in stride, saying that in order for a reality show to “change the landscape of television, you have to stir public debate.” CBS truly reached their aim which was to curate a unique show and have people stir debates over it.

Kid Nation seems to be shaping up to be an interesting social experiment. It would be really cool, however, to see the show be rebooted to commemorate its 10th year. What would make this funnier, though, is to see how times really have changed kids and their lifestyle. S