Kid Nation

(CBS, Wed, 7,00)

There are times when Kid Nation is the dumbest show on TV, because, I'll say it, kids are dumb. And reality TV is dumb. So add the two together and... viola! So, while watching the first episode, there were moments I didn't want to watch. But there are also times that you can see that it's important.

The basic idea: 40 kids are taken to a pioneer-era ghost-town in New Mexico and told to establish a functioning society on their own, where "establish a functioning society on their own" = "do the things the producers tell them to do, listen (or not listen) to their pre-chosen leaders and work in roles assigned to them by one of the tasks." So, more or less, not so much "establish" as "work within our predefined ideas."

Which, if you were excited at the general possibility that Kid Nation seemed to have to begin with, completely guts the interestingness of the premise.

It is still interesting, though, to watch how kids react in a vacuum. A brace of 14 year old boys uses the town's chalk to mark up the town with pro-their-team slogans and to see the looks of shock and violation on the faces of some of the other kids was astounding. I mean: who got hurt by it? Also: it's fucking chalk. Get some water. Problem solved. But these kids were so morally outraged, it was a real window into what kids think and that they think it for no particular reason.

Unless there's some greater, intrinsic anti-vandalism intuition that I, as a person, am just lacking.

Either way, interesting, if, perhaps, not exactly worth watching.

Kid Nation: CBS, Wednesday, 7,00. C-.

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Big Bang Theory

(CBS, Monday, 7,30)

The one-line on Big Bang Theory goes a little like this: SO, this WAITRESS who's really HOT, right? She's really H-O-T-T HOT you know? So she moves in across the hall from these NERDS. I mean they're NERDS, right? No, like, not even, like, nerds. SUPER nerds. And, like, ONE OF THEM, like REALLY thinks she's hot and he, like, thinks he's, like, got a chance with her, you know? And he's a NERD. And she's like SUPER HOT.

Yeah, so that's funny, right? Except that it's not, really. And the thing about this show--the thing about this show!--is that the writing's pretty good. I mean, the nerd stereotypes that 3/4--who am I kidding? 7/8ths--of the jokes are hung on really aren't that imaginative.

But, aside from the nerd-friends, who are really dumb and really poorly constructed and should really be cut from the show, the show's actually kind of funny at times. Worth your 22 minutes at least. Try it out. If you have a high standard for comedy, you probably won't like it. If you like things that, even while dumb, are really kind of funny? Go for it.

Big Bang Theory: CBS, Monday, 7,30. C-.