Colonial House

The latest in an increasingly long line of public television "reality" programs featuring modern day people trying to live according to the rules and limitations of a more primitive past, "Colonial House" is by far the worst produced and least successful. In previous incarnations like "Frontier House" and "Victorian House" (or something like that) the participants at least seemed willing to try to live up to the obligations they took on when signing up. In "Frontier" for instance, they went in knowing that they were going to have to build their own dwellings and grow their own food. They were surprised by how hard it was, tensions flared, etc. But they never acted like they didn't know what the whole point was--to live like pioneers.

The people in "Colonial House" act as though they had been kidnapped and forced to participate against their will. I mean, the whole point was to live the 16th century early-colonial life and we have one woman who bitches without end about how women are treated as second class citizens and about how she shouldn't have to go to church services because she's an atheist. Commendable sentiments in the 21st century, but crap like that would have gotten her burned as a witch back in the old days. So, if she's not willing to play along with the concept, why did she sign up to be on the TV show? And what's with all the indentured servants complaining about having to do what they're told? They're supposed to be SLAVES for God's sake! They signed up to be just that! Didn't any of them look up the term "indentured servitude" before they went to the show's auditions?

I suspect that the producers of this new show have purposely set it up to be an only half-real "Real World" ripoff instead of the usual documentary experiment, complete with pre-set conflicts and phony drama. For instance, one colonist has a dramatic moment when he "comes out" to the rest of he colony and announces that he is gay. I mean, come on--like it matters? Did anyone ask? It's not like anyone expected that he was going to marry one of the wenches or anything, right? A totally fake moment of drama. And not the only one. The show is rife with obviously staged moments and impossibly perfect camera placements. And on top of that, almost every single one of the Colonist is annoying as hell (except for the bearded guy who says f*ck all the time and the governor's hot daughter).

I have firm suspicions that the almost entirely inept "Colonial House" is really a brilliant new mocumentary by Christopher "Waiting for Guffman" Guest.

I enjoyed the program. Something different and fun to watch; especially Don Wood. Great attitude and hardworking man...etc. Does anyone know what he does now and how he is? Dana DeLaplante

If this show was supposed to have modern folks live and recreate "living" during Colonial times, well, it's a failure on all counts. The people are mostly annoying and don't seem to care about living and becoming their historical roles. The whole set-up is haphazardly enforced. The show makes for dreary viewing.

I'm not a fan of reality shows, like SURVIVOR or BIG BROTHER. So when I heard about this show created by PBS, I thought "This one has potential to be interesting". Well, I thought wrong.

BTW, Oprah was invited to participate for a couple of days. Her appearance was probably thought up by some producer (most likely a friend of Oprah or a friend with a producer of the Oprah show) because they knew the show wasn't working and they needed someone to help keep the whole project from falling apart.

This series is *much* weaker than either "Frontier House" or "Manor House". None of the volunteers ever really tried to act colonial. The participants had no clue about teamwork, unity, or community. Mostly, they spent valuable time whining and bickering.

The women griped about the lack of women's lib. The atheists griped about church. The "colonists" slept until 10.00am every day, drank, and cursed. A gay guy came out of the closet (a death sentence in the 1600's).

These fools would have either starved or murdered each other if they were *really* in the 17th century. The concept was good, but the volunteers ruined the experiment.

The "colonists" do not appear to have understood what they were signing up for, and are unwilling to forget the 21st century, as they would need to, to do their job properly. Instead, laws that would have been strictly applied in the 1600s are bent, broken, or abandoned. A colonist was allowed to simply because he no longer felt like participating. Family emergencies are understandable grounds for leaving, as is having leaving assigned due to the role you were cast in.

Women were second-in-line to men - this is something all the women should have understood before signing on board. Yes, occasionally, there were exceptions - but not often. Indentured servants were barely above slaves. That was how things were, and how things are now should not have been brought in.

The younger children should have been working as well, for while they would have had some play time, everyone pitched in in those days.

While the idea of building a house probably seemed great, the colony might have done better to add on to an existing house, or something like that - less work to do, more time to work for sending things back to England.

Many things could have been done differently, but I won't list them all here. I will simply say a lot could probably have been done better, both preparing these colonists for their roles, and then the colony could have been managed better.

I have no idea if they passed or failed - that episode comes on later tonight. But if I were the judge, they would fail. I doubt, had they been a colony then, that they would have made it through full year, or even a winter.