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This show directly taps into the pioneer folklore of American cultural story: Despite hardship, and the looming danger of chaos, if we all stick together, we'll make it. Now, there's a lot to say for a never-say-die attitude. At the same time, I wonder if this show strengthens Americans in the believe, that their we-are-better-than-thee approach in the world is justified, that they are the "Chosen People" and thus are more entitled than other nations.
All that aside, this show is pretty good. It is clearly shown that even though we might think of children as angels, they are not. They have the same capacity for cruelty and stupidity as adults. Taylor is the perfect example of a spoiled beauty queen. In the first episode she says: "I'm a beauty-queen and I don't do dishes" and she acts accordingly. She sleeps in very late and doesn't do her job as Yellow Leader to make breakfast, except on the first day. Taylor has discovered the George Bush defense: When something happens bush doesn't like, when he gets criticized he denies it and says: "So? What are you gonna do about it? and "I don't give a rats ass", as well as "It wasn't me!" in all their various diplomatic variations.
This is very similar to Taylor's highly annoying "Deal with it!" The amazing thing is, they BOTH GET AWAY WITH IT! Just like that evil Big Brother guy. At the moment of writing, after episode 3, Taylor's got openly and publicly criticized at the town hall meeting. Typically, she got out of it, like a regular politician, by making an empty promise and ... crying! Edit: Just like a true politician (Bush, anyone?) she has done NOTHING to keep her promise, by the end of episode 4! Edit: it's now episode 9, and she STILL hasn't worked an ounce! What's more, she's proud of that fact! Greg is also worth mentioning. Since he demonstrated so far, the worst reaction to his adversity of not winning the gold star, by acting out and bullying, he fails to see a very basic thing about living with other people: you have to be, up to a degree, likable as well as work hard. Most adults could have told him that the best reaction to losing the gold star would have been to work just as hard and be gracious in defeat. But at fifteen, he's (understandbly) unable to see that. He's for a large part justified in his feeling of being treated unfairly. It's just not good politics to start bullying like he did.
Mike, seems hell bent NOT to give Greg a Gold Star. That is petty and low. He thereby has reduced Greg to a 2nd class citizen: "No matter how hard you work, we're gonna give the reward to a little girl anyway!" (whose parents were so irresponsible to let her go away on her birthday, at that!) What's been made clear by the showdowns is that the Green Team must be the worst organizers. Bigger kids should be better at everything: they're smarter, tougher and more experienced. Yet, the Yellow team (on average the youngest kids) doesn't always lose. Kudos to the creators of the showdowns that they reward organisation, as well as strength speed and tenacity.
The so-called controversy around "child-labor" is indicative of another feature of America, the overly bureaucratic and rule-obsessed side. I guess the pioneer-myth-side is preferable.
score 7/10
huh_oh_i_c 9 January 2008
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1796776/ |
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31-1-2021 08:38:06