I just watched the premier…not sure if this is the first time it was aired or not…but it has captured my curiosity. I have a hard time consistently watching series TV, and I don’t have TiVo, but I’ll be trying to catch at least a few more episodes.
Even after just a few days you can see attitude improvement in pretty much everyone who gets camera time. They’re certainly not HUGE behavior problems, but then you wouldn’t take really huge problem children out into the Oregon desert.
What I don’t get is parents that will exploit their children in this way. Send them to camp to teach them better ways to behave? Fine. Agree to have them taped and all the ‘juiciest’ moments broadcast on TV? When we all know that anything that ever appears on tv is immortal, and can be dug up and used to embarrass the poor bastards for the rest of their lives? Unbelievable.
Yeah, sure, all the kids must have consented. But they’re CHILDREN and we count on parents to protect children from making stupid decisions.
Interesting show. If parents want to exploit their kids on TV for my entertainment, more power to them.
I kind of feel sorry for the girl who I’m sure is hearing it today from her friends that she’s the “phantom duker.” Wait, maybe I’m not all that sorry for her – she lost all sympathy from me when was whining so much at the beginning of the show about how she was going to die and that she didn’t need this in life now and that her hair was going to fall out. I’m tempted to fly up to Boston, find her over-indulgent family (who admitted the money they gave her went to buy drugs), and start mocking her as the phantom duker. And then punch her parents in the throat for being morons.
I changed the channel as well. The kids were annoying, spoiled brats. Mom and dad couldn’t figure out how lil Johnny turned out that way! It couldn’t possibly be the fault of the parents…aye.
I actually enjoyed the show. I spent most of my time laughing at the kids, but then, I work in a high school so I know all these kids, just by different names. Truly, it is their parents who ruined them, but it is too late to teach their parents how to do better. Once they are teens it require remedial parenting to shape them up. Their own parents aren’t usually up to the task.
That’s my view as well. The nanny shows provide intervention when there’s still hope for the little tykes to benefit from good parenting, but with teenagers that window of opportunity is pretty much closed and I think the best intervention at that point is to help them to help themselves.
I also think this is one situation where the spectacle that is reality TV can actually be constructive. The only other reality TV show that has “watchable” interviews, imho, is Survivor, and they’re watchable because I enjoy trying to think of how I’d play the game if I was that player with the goal of the money. In this case I think there are kids out there who might watch the show with the same amount of interest, thinking of how they’d “play the game” with the goal of being a healthier, happier, more functional person.
I know these kids have some real deep psychological problems that need to be overcome (and some small breakthroughs were seen in the second hour), but they were so obnoxious at first.
These were my thoughts at first: Hmmm - a group of depressives, one who lashes out with verbal abuse at the slightest provocation, an ADHD kid, a couple of compulsive liars, a bunch of borderline addicts, all trying to make it together in a community. Now what does that remind me of? Something…its on the tip of my tongue…aw, hell, what is it?
The overwhelming length (and girth) of my attention span is the stuff of legends. cough
And I don’t have anything resembling an addictive personality. My perpetual returns to this board are purely academic. more coughing
Something that bugs me about the show is how they got the footage of the kids at home, allegedly prior to going to Sage Walk (or at least that is how that footage is presented).
There are a few possibilites I keep kicking around, but only the first one seems to fit the context of all of the footage I’ve seen:
1 - All of the footage was taped after completion of Sage Walk, and the kids are asked to act like their old selves for dramatic effect. This seems like the most plausible option, but also makes the least amount of sense if the kids’ best interests are a priority. “You’ve just spent 3 months getting your act together. Now pretend that didn’t happen and go back to your old tricks. Come on! It’s for the ratings! You want people to watch the show, don’t you?”
2 - Without knowing anything about where their parents will soon be sending them, the kids are individually asked to allow a camera crew to follow them and their families around and/or interview them, perhaps under the guise of being some teen documentary.
3 - Cameras were provided to the family and some of the footage is just basically disfunctional home-videos.
I’m making the assumption that none of the teens knew where they were going or what they were going to experience prior to intake at Sage Walk. Those scenes seemed authentic to me. But the more I think about how those home scenes were captured, the more it bugs me.
My problem with this show was the bratty little girl who’s “hair was falling out and was going to die”. She’s like that BECAUSE of her parents yet she needs to deal with this alone? To hell with that. Her parents need to be out there right next to her.
I hope she straightens up, makes it through this and disowns her parents.
She’s not alone. She’s with people who are going to geth through to her in a way that her parents have been unable to.
I’m not so quick to blame the parents. Admitedly, they can be a contributing factor, but sometimes they try their best and things are beyond their control. By the time they send their children away to a wilderness camp, they are desperate for help. It’s not an easy thing to do. In some cases you are trying to save your child’s life.
It’s possible that having their children filmed was the only way that some parents could afford it. These camps can be very expensive.
I think the long-lasting benefits are yet to come – and they may not happen for everyone.
I don’t want to miss any episodes. What night(s) is it on? I’ve just seen the first night that they took them to the camp. Is that the only one that has shown?
I’m wondering…while the kids are away at Brat Camp, are the parents getting any counseling? The kids did not grow up in a vacuum, and sending your computer off to get fixed isn’t going to solve anything if you’re going to continue to download attachments and not update your firewall when you get it back.