What angered me was the pseudo-strike by the women. Hey, I realize that losing 3 people to do the work is rough. But they didn’t even give it a day to see how much more difficult it would be. Everything was speculation and guessing. If I were the Vice Governor, I’d have said, “Stuff it, ladies. Do it for a week and see how things go.”
I think it’s just luck of the draw of who they picked to be one the show. The other freeman, Voorhees, the one with the 11-year-old son who played the guitar (?) and the whiney not-wanting-to-go-to church wife is a freeman, too.
I think they may have picked several single freemen to stick together in that “bachelor pad” on purpose to see what happens since none of them can cook. And maybe to see if it turns into “The Dating Game, 1628-Style.” There are several eligible women-folk around. 
If they were married, they wouldn’t be free anymore. 
I agree. The preacher seems to me like a lousy leader because he’s afraid to take charge of the situation. Any situation.
Not only that, but no one seemed to think about fertilizer, either. They’ve got a lot of goat dung and chicken dung available.
I believe the Indian technique was to plant a fish with the corn (as fertilizer), but the colonists’ apparent ineptitude as fishermen ruled this out.
The New England tribes weren’t always peaceful. Recall the Pequot War.
And there may have been good reason to be wary, depending on the year these colonists are supposed to be reenacting. Many of the Jamestown colonists were massacred in a surprise attack in March, 1622.
My biggest gripe with the series is that it’s set in New England, reinforcing the (false) impression held by many that the Pilgrims were the first English colonists. Why not set it in Virginia, the actual site of the first successful American colony (Jamestown)? Wouldn’t have to deal with freezing temperatures in June down there.
Well, there was Anne Hutchinson, but look what happened to her…
Wyers is going to be in tonight’s episode. Maybe we’ll have some witch trials yet.
i’m enjoying the show. now some bits and bobs i had while watching.
a. except for the anthro. didn’t anyone remember any of the history they learned in school!!!?? good heavens, drugery is the name of the game.
b. i’m wondering where pbs finds these clueless people.
c. they were to be a colony rather like plymouth. puritan’s were not known for their wild and crazy ways. if you want more freedom get thee to pennsylvania, them quakers are rather liberal. puritan’s were known to hang quakers, while sitting down!!! you either went with the program or you start your own colony in rhode island.
d. colonies lost a lot of people, you can’t just run off and skinnydip while the leader is gone. and for heaven’s sake don’t have fun skinnydipping in front of the women doing your laundry and cooking. very dangerous.
e. i felt very bad for the family that had to deal with the car accident. that kind of news is really hard to hear no matter where you are, but to be so far away…i’m so glad that pbs just showed how the other colonists were affected and not have the cameras on the family.
f. the one woman colonist who stated that she had never dealt with someone who had tragedy so close, really spotlighted the differences between a woman in the 1600’s and now. back then death was almost a close friend with the mortality rates. today a person could go well into their 20s or 30s without having to deal with a close friend or family member die.
i’m really looking forward to tonight. aaahhh, punishments. i hope the gov. doesn’t start channeling cotton mather.
Yeah, I caught that, and I was shocked. I figured I’d see something on the boards about it today.
oh yeah, the 10 o’clock news. in the chat that pbs and the wash post had, she explained that she was joking with the 10 o’clock crack. she said and meant (paraphrase) that the world is still a dangerous place, don’t you see the news on tv? not that native americans were attacking and the attacks were being covered on the 10 o’clock news.
To be totally accurate, she claims that she said “There’s still dangers”, not “They’re still dangerous”. I rewound my tape, and it does sound like she could have said “There’s still dangers.” Which makes more sense, really.
I have a GQ-type question about the show, which I may actually post in GQ if nobody here knows the answer: does anyone happen to know what their clothes were made out of during this time period? I was just curious. I think one of the guys mentioned that he had some linen clothing on, and I know wool was used quite a bit, but I’m wondering in general what the clothes were made from and how they were made. Also, how are they doing laundry? Taking the wash down to the water and banging it against rocks, or what? And is there soap?
Wool, most likely. Wool, made from wool harvested from their sheep, which would have been spun on a spinning wheel and woven on a loom. Linen is from flax, and would have been imported and therefore very expensive.
Soap can be made with animal fat and wood ash. I don’t think it’s been mentioned what they use, but it’s likely some kind of lye soap imported from England. Laundry would be in a tub, or on a rock by the river. They actually showed Mrs. Voorhees doing laundry by the river/bay when the men were skinny dipping in last night’s episode.
I am LOVING this show.
It presents some very complex issues, which is ALOT different than most reality TV shows. I am already emotionally attached to the characters, and when the Wyers family reunited, I cried.
Plus, the best part of all— no commercials!
Woah, the Vorhees wife went skinny dipping :eek:
Come on, they could have gotten more coverage of that! Its public television, so showing boobies is cool.
So that’s what they call a ‘picnic’ these days!
Probably from among the same populace that necessitates Plimoth Plantation post these requests on their web-page.
As a curiosity: were all colonists required to attend church services or just Puritans? IIRC, most of the colonists were not Calvinists, so I was wondering how this was enforced.
The minister/governor had a bit of a dilemma twixt playing his character and his conscience. I thought he actually chose a good medium. (I also can’t believe he came back.)
Nitpick: The show said he was from the University of California, Chico. It’s actually California State University, Chico. The UC system is different from the CSU system.
I was really surprised at how lazy they all seemed at the beginning of the second episode, sleeping until 9 and such. Then I realized, “These people know that PBS is not going to let them die.” For the original colonists, work was a matter of life or death. For these folks, it’s a matter of making fools of themselves on TV.
I agree. A lot of the work that colonial women were projects that wouldn’t come to fruition right away, e.g., brewing beer, making cheese, preserving food. Since “Colonial House” is a short-term experiment, I wonder if the women didn’t feel the need to lay away stores for the winter, etc. Of course, it’s more likely that they don’t have the faintest idea of how to make beer, cheese, jam, etc.
I missed Tuesday night’s episode. Does anyone know of a link to a recap?
From Monday’s previews it seems I missed the handing out of Scarlett Letters for various offenses. I had read somewhere that Letters were going to be handed out for swearing, which apparently was a pretty light punishment considering that the actual punishment would be a nail through the tongue. Am I remembering what I read correctly? Did they talk about this on the show?
This show is driving me nuts.
Ok, after the first episode I was all set to enjoy hating the Baptist Minister/Govenor and his family. But now…
He came back and did most of these two shows alone with his family back home in the present. And he is facing a losing colony. If this were a real colony they’d be dead by winter.
What the hell is sooooo terrible about attending a church service? I go and fake it all the time with my in-laws. I’m beginning to think that little miss-i-hate-church was abused by her priest or something.
The governor was torn about punishing people for not coming to church. But he also has to keep order in the colony and enforce the laws set down by the company. He knows the rules are tough for modern people to adapt so his comprimise I thought was a good one. Because if he really started to punish people by putting them in stocks for several hours, they would just leave the show as soon as they got out. As it is his ‘time out’ punishments were just hurting the people trying to do the work.
So now I’m liking the Governor and then his family comes back! With more colonists! Great! Even though I feel sorry for her loss Bethany went right back to annoying me. Then the servant comes out of the closet and the Governor has to say some things that keep me from liking him.
I wish the indians would come and wipe these people out. That’d be a great episode.
We watched the first episode last night. They weren’t quite as whiny as I expected them to be, but I did want to yell at them every so often. Go plant the corn, people! Yer gonna starve! What’s with this skinny-dipping stuff?! They know they won’t die and they won’t actually need that corn, and it makes them lazy.
What’s interesting is that they complain about the hard work, but they aren’t doing most of what they ought to be doing. They should have had that field planted in a couple of days–it would be the absolute first thing to do. As above, they should be preparing to make beer, cheese, preserves, etc. And shouldn’t they have brought seeds from home to plant vegetable gardens–onions, squash from the Indians, herbs? Surely real colonists knew that much.
And I was wondering what colonists did about making clothing, which was a hugely time-consuming task, often even more so than food production. I can see not doing anything about it in the first week, of course, but what would real colonists have done? They would need either raw wool or some sheep, and flax seeds. Flax takes a long time just to grow and prepare for spinning, so you’d have to start planting right away.
I’m annoyed with the woman who complains about church all the time, she’s so moody about it. Suck it up, just like everyone else back then, lady! But at least she actually wants to stick it out, so I gotta respect that. I was all set to like the Chico couple, but he’s so wishy-washy nothing gets done, which annoys me.
I’m looking forward to the next ep, where the governor comes back and announces he watns a ‘city on a hill.’ I think he’s getting a little overambitious, there…
The poor Governor is stuck with the job of being a colonial governor but very few of the tools. All the people there, including him, all think the right to govern comes from the governed. But that’s not the way a real colony worked. Yet I don’t think anyone will go crazy like on Frontier house.