Updated to 2005: Chris is living with his friend Jay and working odd-jobs. His father passed away in the summer of 2005. Cody and Jessica were married and are both attending school (Cody vocational graphic design, Jessica college).
Perhaps I misunderstood but I thought the reason Chris didn’t go to Alice Lloyd College (is that right?) because he didn’t score well enough on the ACT. I just want to take Chris and make him believe in himself a little bit!
Cody is much smarter than he sounds or looks. I was amazed when he made the comment that if you only believe something because that what you were taught, without thinking about it, then you don’t really know if you believe it (highly paraphrased.) His not-grandma Liz, is a remarkable person. She didn’t seem very affectionate on camera but I suspect she’s just very private and didn’t want to show that to the world. I cried when she told the investment guy she was paying for his college. Go, Liz!
Also, on the money thing. I wondered who was getting Cody’s Social Security payments all during the first show, and if it would ever come up. I haven’t seen the last thirty minutes of the 2nd show, I hope the resolution to that is in there.
Re: the trampoline. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people without a pot to piss in, yet they have a satellite dish (even 20-25 years ago when they were huge and *very * expensive) a pool, a big screen TV and fourwheelers for every member of the family. I don’t understand it, but I have seen it over and over.
Re. the “scripted” comment upthread:
I got that same feeling about Christ all through the show. Like everything he said and did was an act. I still think he’s got a sharp turn of phrase and is a smart kid but he’s got a huge wall between the real guy and what he showed us.
The line when he’s in the car “That’s the last time I’ll call him father” I mean come on. No self-respecting screenwriter would put that in a script but it was so clear - to me anyway - that it wasn’t a spontaneous line, but was what Christ thought he should be saying at that moment. I think Chris couldn’t let go of being on camera and just be himself.
Cody, well I just wanted to get him a little bit of orthidonture. Couldn’t they spend some of that $26,000 on fixing his upper teeth so he’d move his lips while he talks? Just an idea… Glad his life is on a good track. Jessica’s dad was Ray right? His music was great; if he really was most of the soundtrack then he is a wonderful songwriter. Someone get that guy back on the independent charts! Oh and Liz seems like a real rarity in this world: a truly good person. Cody was lucky beyond measure when she took him in.
To me the story highlights the importance of a steadying influence at home. Lots of teachers cared about Chris, but he didn’t have anyone who cared about him as a unique person and who was there outside of school. Cody did. I think that is why Chris failed and Cody succeeded.
Chris took a test-ACT, and passed. Then he took the real one and failed. It would have been hard for him at school though, I bet. Coming from that rural alternative school to that college, competing with other kids, it would have been hard. Throw in the fact that he always finds something else to do that has to be done, it didn’t look good. He does seem like a good manager though. Didn’t you just want to bat him one when he was talking about getting a car and working more to pay for it, and jeopardizing his college studies. man.
Not to get into an abortion discussion, but only one person said it was ok to get an abortion after incest? And she was very hesitant to raise her hand. Then her teacher straightened her out (after she mentioned the child could be born wtih her hands and feet backwards), and said “Well, that doesn’t always happen.”
This dismayed me as well. That rebuttal was just weak and I’m glad to see that Cody didn’t quite buy into it.
Regarding Chris, I was dissappointed that he decided not to go to college. All the same, it just doesn’t seem as if he’s cut out for it. I wouldn’t call him a failure, but he doesn’t seem particularly happy with his life as it is. I also agree that he did seem to be playing to the cameras for the most part. That makes it impossible to tell what he really wants out of life. I have to say that I don’t think his guardedness just came out of nowhere. His family life was a mess, neither of his parents seemed to even care about what he wanted or how he felt. His life just seemed like a swirl of indifference.
I was extremely disappointed with The David School teachers as well as both the material they presented and the way the material was presented. IIRC, there’s a state law in Kentucky that teachers must have a Master’s Degree within so many years of initially getting their teaching license. I do not know if that applies to private schools or just public schools in Kentucky. (I had a distant step-cousin who was a teacher near Morehead, KY, and she was going for her Master’s and had so much time in which to accomplish that or she wasn’t going to be allowed to teach. Or something like that.) So, I’m a little appalled. But it was an alternative school.
I’m not sayin’ there’s anything wrong with a trampoline, and that razor skate thing on the tramp sounds like the sort of hare-brained nonsense I’d try, so I’m all for that. I just know, like I said, I do fairly well for myself relatively speaking and just recently bought a receiver and speakers for the TV/CD/DVD/DVR system. Because, you know, I had other priorities, like eating and buying a washer and drying and fixing the car and such… So how come those people get a trampoline?
I don’t think I’ll ever get it.
You know, in the early 1930s, the phonograph record business just about died. Everybody stopped buying 78s except the very rich…and the very very poor, so backward they didn’t have a radio or even live near a station.
Poor people do buy luxuries. They make life bearable. The working and middle classes are the ones who get all guilty about pleasure.
Agreed. This is the message I got from the show. We’ve all probably seen worse parents than Chris’s. Mom was at least physically present, she had a steady job, wasn’t bar-hopping or trampy or doing drugs, and somebody kept the trailer looking halfway decent (except for that yard).
Dad was useless and a drunk, but he seemed harmless. He didn’t appear to be an angry drunk, keeping everybody up nights ranting or crying.
Nobody in Chris’s family prevented him from succeeding – but they didn’t help him either. Chris was lucky to have the resources of the David School, and it’s too bad he didn’t take advantage of them.
I watched the 3rd and final part tonight. I admit I was kinda tough on the boys yesterday, and they came across as a bit more likable tonight.
But still, I stand by my “Hillbilly Spinal Tap” observation. Totally scripted and damn near farcical. Overall, a pretty big disapointment from PBS.
At one point, during Chris’ graduation, I kinda felt bad for the other kids at David school, who weren’t having a documentary filmed about them. Totally stole thier thunder, I bet.
Lets hope college works out for Cody, cause music ain’t happenin’ for him! 
With regards to the earlier comment regarding the ACT, I believe the practice test that Chris took was the pre-GED. He did well enough to feel confident about taking the actual GED (which, of course, he did pass to graduate).
With regards to the ACT, Chris took it without any preparation. Given his background, it would have been extremely unlikely that he could have passed without any prior preparation.
While I generally agree with AutiePam’s comment, I think the most striking thing between Cody and Chris was that I think Chris, while the more intelligent of the two in many ways, was much more emotonially immature and/or damaged than Cody. As others have noted, one could sense that Chris’s attitude and behavior masked a kind of sadness and emptiness within himself. Sure, his mother held a steady job and his father wasn’t a nasty drunk. But keep in mind we were only privy to several years of his life. I suspect that Chris’s early childhood was an emotional desert. In other words, his family was around, but they weren’t really there.
Definitely. Maybe that’s why the emotions we saw from him seemed faked, rehearsed. “This is how someone like me is supposed to be.” Like others have said, he gave the filmmakers what he thought they wanted.
I wonder if the filming affected his behavior. It had to, don’t you think?
It’s a good question - I think it probably did, but I don’t think that it affected his behavior so much that we couldn’t get a good sense of what kind of person Chris actually is.