Culture Watch: TV’s Kid Nation

CULTURE WATCH

Kid Nation (CBS television)

The new fall season is slowly launching in American television as the major networks struggle to retain market share and profitability amid an increasingly fragmented audience. One new entry is the CBS series Kid Nation, surely one of the most ill-advised series in recent memory.

The show places a group of children of various ages in a desolate ghost town, leaving them on their own (or as on your own as you can be given that there is a television production company all around) to fend for themselves. I guess the series’ producers want to show us which kids can make it, but it’s hard to imagine that any responsible adult could think this is a good idea. Kid Nation does tone down some of the harsher aspects of standard reality fare. Still, one has to wonder about the way it uses children as though they were objects here for our entertainment.

For viewers, the show is somewhat shameless in its attempts to manipulate the audience emotionally. It’s all engineered and fake; it’s about as far from reality as possible, of course. Then again, there never really has been much “reality” in reality television, unless you are thinking about the reality of the cash lining the networks’ pockets.

Kid Nation seems to flirt uncomfortably with ideas in the classic book Lord of the Flies, as though this could possibly be a good thing. In some ways, however, the series seems to be an unintended comment on the place of children in the new century. American society might do well to take a hard look at itself about how it really treats children. Kid Nation may try to show what happens to kids are literally left alone, but sometimes the broader society seems to leave them to their own devices metaphorically. I doubt, however, that was the producers’ point.

All in all, Kid Nation does nothing to point television in a direction that will solve its problems. The children will eventually grow up. I’m not sure we can make the same assumption about the network.

Let’s at least hope there’s not a Baby Nation in the works.

© 2007 Winter Street Review

Film notes– Remembering Bergman and Antonioni

FILM NOTES

We note the recent passing of two giants from international film-making. Swedish director Ingmar Bergman and the Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni both died in July. Each of these directors is firmly established in film history. A number of their respective films from mid-century remain widely admired.

Press coverage marking their passing last week made note of the most recognizable films created by these directors. Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1956), Wild Strawberries (1957), and Fanny and Alexander (1982) were noted as among his best accomplishments. Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966) is sometimes mentioned as the film most familiar to American audiences.

These films are certainly worth seeing. For anyone looking for a different perspective on these important directors, however, here are two suggestions that may prove satisfying:

• Bergman’s Persona (1966) is a deeply psychological exploration of identity and relationships. Featuring rich and subtle performances from actresses Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann, this movie is as fresh today as it was in the 1960s. Still, it’s not an easy film to interpret. At times bizarre and experimental, director Bergman simultaneously toys with conventions of movie-making and our understanding of psychological reality. Less well known and more ambiguous than some of Bergman’s other works, it’s a mesmerizing film from the director at the height of his creative powers.

• Viewers looking for a top-notch film from Antonioni might want to check out L’avventura (1960). This film also looks at relationships, though at first it seems to be about the mysterious disappearance of a major character. Defying audience expectations, Antonioni introduces this narrative element and then proceeds to ignore it. He avoids many familiar conventions, instead devoting much attention to his strong female characters. Initial audiences often didn’t know what to make of this movie, which unfolds at its own pace and is demanding of viewers. Yet, it’s an ultimately successful bid to change audience perceptions and take films into new (for its time) territory.

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Tis article originally appeared in Bread and Circus online magazine