Kid Nation
I'm not sure how, but CBS has somehow managed to take elements of Children of the Corn, Lord of the Flies, and the Zimbardo Prison Experiment and turn it into one of the lamest shows on TV. I could not be more disappointed in this show. And more than anything, I just feel embarrassed for these children. I mean, the ability for consenting adults to make complete asses of themselves on national television is well within our rights as American citizens, but the girl dancing for nickels to buy a bicycle has to qualify as a human rights violation under some UN treaty. I did, however, appreciate that the show proves, once and for all, that children are every bit as dumb and gullible as they're given credit for (oh, take that, J.K. Rowling).
K*Ville
Remember episode of the Simpsons where they have the mock spinoff where Chief Wiggum becomes a P.I. in an absurdly characaturized version of New Orleans. This is pretty much the same show, only with a slightly less plausible story and more shaky, hand-held camera-work. As far as I can tell from this show, the only affect that the hurricane had on the people of New Orleans (oh, sorry - N'awlins) is that they now have to drink bourbon, eat gumbo, listen to jazz, and practice voodoo in slightly more run-down buildings. Seriously, it's as though a TV writer from LA walked into a Popeye's after watching something about Katrina on CNN and decided to make a show based on his experiences (and yes, that is the guy from Kangaroo Jack).
Gossip Girl
Snobby rich kids that attend elite prep schools and get straight-A's while doing nothing but shopping and going to parties. Check. Twentysomething actors playing high school-aged characters that drink, smoke, and have sex like people in their twenties. Check. And of course, it wouldn't be a Josh Schwartz show without the hottest indie music of eight months ago providing the soundtrack. But lest you think this is just the OC set in the Upper East Side, they've decided to give it a hip/edgy/cloying twist and use an anonymous gossip blogger (disappointingly voiced by Kristen Bell) as a narrator and plot crutch. I should probably appreciate that they're trying to make blogging hip, though the way they portray it is a little more like some oBnoXioUS TwELve-yEAr-olD-gIrL's mYSpAcE PagE than it is Wonkette, not to mention the less-than subtle "big brother" overtone to the whole show. The only halfway compelling character is the poor-man's-Joaquin-Phoenix date-rapist, who's brief speech on entitlement is both the most honest thing I've ever heard in a teen soap opera and the best reason I can think of to not watch this show.
Back To You
I'm not sure if I'm suffering from some form of premature dementia or if my standards have just been lowered by years of substandard CBS sitcoms, but I actually found this show funny. Don't get me wrong, everything about it is completely formulaic and predictable, but the jokes are generally pretty clever and sort of risque (even for an NBC show). It's no Newsradio, but it's about as good as we're gonna get without bringing Phil Hartman back from the grave. So, until science develops such technology, I guess I'll have to settle for it.
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