Kid Nation

This is my favorite show of the 2007 season. I agree with the other comments about the "child labor" commentary - in America you can always find a university professor/media gadfly/reporter desperate for something to talk about somewhere willing to voice clucking concern.

Some people reflexively see anything not involving indulgent, extensive and repeated -heart-ing of kids is torture and abuse. And we must be suspicious of the artifices and manipulation of reality television. I don't care for all the Burnett-style time-lapse shots and really dislike the way tyhe general store has started to play up the play-drinking aspects. These kids watch TV too, and when you give them shot glasses for root beer and water you're encouraging them to act out.

But for me the watchable part of this show, the thing I tune in for every week, is the way these kids found so many ways to cope, to live together and deal with the situations that came up without all the lies and self-aggrandizement and duplicity most adults engage in.

They're so wonderfully honest, and sometimes they like each other and sometimes they hate each other but they crash into things, look around, dust themselves off and move right along. They are all right, and they find their way, and their strength and resilience makes me feel better about the future of the world for an hour on a Wednesday night.

All of the episodes have been fascinating to watch - during the election show when Mike realized that every single kid on his team had voted against him, he visibly sank. Then he picked himself up and took his place among those who had voted him out. You know that will be an event that will always be part of his life, and maybe it will make him a better person and maybe it will undermine him, and instead of "ooh, isn't it cool?" I wanted to show this to my nephews and say this kid is demonstrating what you should do in the world when it hands you failure - you sink for a moment, and then you pick yourself up and deal with what's left.

I highly recommend this show, at least so far.

it was sad how many negative comments were flying around the media before Kid Nation was even aired!! we were wondering what it was going to be like, but decided to Tivo anyway. the crew was SO creative with the challenges and rewards etc etc. it was a joy to see the kids mature and grow---so many arrived spoiled and unwilling to jump in there, but they really changed over the weeks and we fell in love with each of them!!! they dealt with human conflict often better than adults, and in the end knew it was much more than an opportunity to be on a TV show..... it was an amazing opportunity to pull together and form a family/community, and make life-long friends!!!! we look forward to the Bonanza Annual Reunion, and know how this experience changed their lives---what will they become as adults? how will they influence our world? GOOD JOB KIDS!!! GOOD JOB PRODUCERS AND CREW!!!!!!!! PS...great to see old Daisytown transformed!!!

The idea of a few dozen kids living in an abandoned western town with no adults sounds like a pretty good concept, but having the whole thing ran by a bunch of pre-chosen leaders kinda defeated the purpose though, even with the leaders themselves being kids, not even to mention all the books the adults left them with instructions on how to run the nation. it made the whole thing feel less like a show about kids learning to survive on their own and more like a show about a bunch of kids going to summer camp. it would have been a lot more entertaining if we got to see them all start out with no directon whatsoever and the kids having to figure everything out themselves, other than the bare essentials of course like cookbooks and stuff like that

The way the show worked was interesting. As it was said above the kids needed to make the town work in 40 days. The only problem I had about this was that no matter what...the town would work. The challenges were interesting to watch along with the voting for the gold stars. Obviously the older kids were focused on a bit more but even they had something to contribute to the show. There seemed to be a few stereotypes in the town also...the brat, the brain, the idiot, the wise guy, and all of them made the show what it was. I was kind of looking forward to real struggles but there must have been a crew that took care of the kids and the plot was a lot of drama. Ill have to admit the experience looked really fun and I would have done it myself.

This was one of the my favorite reality shows. Unlike many other ones they use children, and sets them in real life situations that adults are in. They work like adults, they are divided like adults and are forced to make decisions like adults. The children have changed from whining kids in the start to a united group to fight for themselves.

This show really pushes out the true face of some children; their selfishness, greed, and the bad side. But to work as a group, these things cannot happen, so other kids help and advise them to change and improve, which of course is they did at the end.

Really advise watching at least one episodes, and probably really entertaining especially to kids.