Before it even premiered, Kid Nation has already become the subject of a lot of seemingly baseless controversy. 40 kids, a damn big cast, must try to turn Bonanza City, NM into a bustling town, something adults failed to do back in the 1800s.
The leaders here are also kids. They are Mike, 11, a boy scout, Taylor, 10, a pageant queen, Anjay, 12, a spelling champ, and Laurel, 12, a student leader. This is the town council, who will at least temporarily lead the others. Nobody’s particularly impressed with them.
Any kid who can’t handle it is free to leave at the town hall meeting. Jonathan pulls out a star that’s worth its weight in gold, $20k, which will be given away each week to whoever they feel deserves it most. The leaders can’t tell anyone about this until it’s time to give the first one away.
The kids are dropped off by bus and must walk a few miles lugging what they need with them in wagons. It’s not long before people start arguing over who is or is not working and how hard. DK falls on the way but appears to be okay with just a muscle cramp.
When they arrive, there’s nothing waiting there for them. The ghost town is exactly as could be expected. It’s complete chaos with everyone running every which way.
They attempt to cook, with attempt being the key word, only to find out nobody actually knows how to even cook macaroni and cheese. They come up with the idea to get a cookbook and finally figure it out. Sort of.
Taylor, who seemed to be doing a good job, finally breaks down crying at the end of the day due to homesickness. Mike’s also concerned they weren’t prepared for the scale of what they were getting themselves into.
Breakfast turns out better. They figure out how to make pancakes, and some of the kids live on a farm and know how to work with farm animals. Apparently, some off the kids took too many pancakes, leaving others with nothing to eat. Mike steps up and takes charge, calling a meeting that he quickly loses control of. Greg, one of the older kids, tries to bully Mike and pushes him, then walks out. In the midst of the arguing, Michael comes forward and gives a speech that finally brings some order. Mike and Greg shake hands after the meeting, after which Greg says, “You haven’t seen me upset.” Uh oh. I sense someone who failed the psych test.
The leaders must divide into four teams. Who’s on what team? Uh… I don’t even know who’s who and don’t think I ever will. The revealing of the teams was complete random chaos as with everything else.
Laurel goes searching for Jimmy, who she learns has also broken down crying. She handles the situation really well and comforts him.
The blue team, the older team, grafitis their name all over everyone else’s bunkhouses. They suspect it’s the older boys, Greg and Blaine. Alex, a 9 year old, says it’s juvenile behavior.
On the third day, the host steps in and attempts to bring some order, revealing a job board to assign people jobs. The jobs will be determined by having a showdown district against district.
The challenge is to find the correct color water and pump it out of the ground to fill their bottles first. Everybody wants to beat the blue team. Blue pumps red in error, allowing red to gain the lead with strong teamwork and leadership, and in the end, the red district becomes the upper class (pay is $1, and they can choose what to do and where to pitch in). In second is blue, the merchant class (50 cents). Yellow, the youngest team, comes in third and are the cooks (25 cents). Green are the laborers (10 cents).
Because everybody finished, they get a choice of reward: 7 more outhouses (there’s only one now) or a TV. Most of the council is in favor of the outhouses, largely because the TV is a distraction. They make the decision to go for the outhouses.
The yellow district is cooking but doesn’t believe in (or don’t know about) the cookbooks. But somehow it works out anyway, with better food than they’ve had previously. They don’t appear very interested in doing dishes, and Taylor, who had been likeable, says, “I’m a beauty queen. I don’t do dishes.”
Next, it’s time for the blue team to open up the stores. The candy store gets a great reception. Sophia decides she wants a bike for $3, but as a laborer, she’s only got 10 cents, so she begins dancing for money and somehow manages to raise the funds she needs, including a nickel from someone who wants her to dance further away.
Jonathan asks if anyone is unhappy with how the leaders are handling things. The lone person who speaks out against the council is Sophia, who’s been complaining constantly, even if she does have some valid points.
The next question is whether anyone wants to go home, which will be asked at every town hall meeting. Taylor decides she wants to stick around, but Jimmy, 8, raises his hand to go home, bringing us down to 39 kids.
The council must decide who gets the gold star. They choose Sophia because of the work she’s been doing. As an additional reward, she is allowed to call her parents and tell them. The reveal made for good TV, and now everybody wants to work harder. At the end of the day, they all seem to want to come together and work as a unit, for now at least.
This was a good premiere, and hopefully people will shut up about all this child labor/endangerment crap now. Granted, there are so many kids that it’s hard to tell who’s who, which does make things a bit chaotic, but on the whole, it’s an enjoyable show about empowering these kids and seeing just what they’re capable of.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Kid Nation Episode 2, which airs at 8/7c on CBS.