“Anyone who’s seen Michael Apted’s Up series, documentaries following the same English children every seven years throughout their lives, will find their attachment to the Kid Nation kids familiar. Yes, most reality shows are exploitative and horrible and gross, but Kid Nation was an exception. Sure, it appealed to the lowest common denominator, but in this case the lowest common denominator was, we don’t know … joy? Sweetness? Hope?
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From the same recap:
“Mostly left out were the typical moments of casual cruelty; in last night’s episode, when a group of mean girls shunned Emilie from their slumber party, it was initially shocking before it became clear that this kind of thing had been going on the entire time.”
What may have been most intriguing about the show were the moments we didn’t see. My favorite item on Vulture’s ‘Kid Nation’ Drinking Game was the one where you drink when you get a glimpse of a kid in the background that’s never been featured with a speaking part before. You have to think with a cast of 40 (which became 37), the unfeatured handful must’ve been profoundly uninteresting to have been confined to the shadows.
