TV: Kid Nation "Bonanza Is Disgusting"

Just when I think that there's no way this show can get any better, that there's no way this new episode can live up to the previous episodes, I'm proven wrong.

DK
I really should have blogged about him after he told Taylor to shut her disrespectful mouth in episode two, but aside from totally awesome shut downs of The Little Dictaylor, he hasn't done much. And then, bang, here comes this episode. He's making inspirational speeches when Guylan can't, he's bringing everyone together to refill the town's water tank, and he's talking sense into two Zuckusses (oh, yeah, I'm calling the other 20 kids who have yet to do anything a Zuckuss, after one of the inconsequential bounty hunters from Star Wars). Seriously, DK should be on the council and the level of his involvement in this episode is astounding. This is also totally done through editing. But still. The way Guylan looks up to him is so admirable and the way DK rooted for Guylan when he was digging was touching. DK is so great, he should be on the green team. When he raised his hand to go home, the entire town seriously fell apart. Fell apart. Even Taylor, who DK defended, was making with the waterworks. Guylan had to talk DK into staying because, duh, DK was about to get $20,000. Emotional rollercoaster! DK's decision to stay and subsequent call to his family was reality TV gold. And not That-Crazy-Italian-Guy-On-Tila-Tequila reality TV gold, real, heartfelt, Extreme-Makeover-Without-The-Dirty-Feeling gold.

LEILA
A glimpse of a real personality popped out this week. Leila, also known as That Thing Attached To Taylor's Hip, decided to go help dig a giant hole for the trash after initially refusing to with Taylor. Yeah, she was only scared of the punishment Laurel promised the two of them, but this teeny tiny act of independence might mean that Leila has some smarts about her. Um, well, that is until the end of the episode when she's once again all BFF with Taylor, making fruit salad instead of doing the dishes. Zach really has his hands full. Yeah, Anjay has Olivia making his life hell ("Geez, you wouldn't think it would take a guy ten minutes to pick up one can!" eye roll), but that's almost familial when compared to the tension between Zach and Taylor. I swear Zach was about to punch her in the face. And Leila's reaction to everything is to cry. I think I should go back and institute a Leila cry count.

Oh, and there's this.


TAYLOR
What. The. Question mark. I would say that I feel sorry for her parents, because her teenage years are going to be the stuff of Lifetime movies, but I know, just KNOW, her parents are going to find her sassy acts of personal destruction charming. She refused to go on the garbage trip ("Leila and me have stuff to finish in town so people will stop complaining") and turned her nose up at her punishment ("Oops, my bad" after knocking over her water pails). I'd write about how shocked at her behavior, but really, who didn't know a Taylor growing up? The council's confrontation of her in the bunker was one of the most tense things I've seen on TV since Gladys hit Abe on Road Rules: Latin America. I thought Zach was going to deck her! I thought she was going to claw Anjay's eyes out! I even thought that Laurel, the future president herself, was going to pull Taylor's hair out! Taylor pushes buttons something fierce and I hope that DK's almost disappearance (hey, Taylor, he was complaining ABOUT YOU) makes her straighten up. But then again, if she did, Leila wouldn't have a personality and the show wouldn't have a villain.

MIKE
Mike is every guy I was vaguely friends with in elementary school. He's smart, lacks most social skills, is ridiculously loud when he expresses emotion, and also thinks that being loud is synonymous with being sarcastic. No, Mike, wrong on all accounts. He is adjusting to non-council life well, though, although it must suck to be lead by Guylan who nearly peed his pants with excitement after reading the town council manual. Oh Guylan, you are so young.

LAUREL
I love her. I don't understand how she does it. She has to put up with so much crap and personally dealt with Taylor multiple times this episode. She did so while remaining calm, composed, reasonable, and rational. It's a shame that she can't win the gold star. For all her hard work, she deserves it. And when she tells Zach "good job" after yelling at Taylor and Leila mid-fruit-salad-making, I smiled.

ZACH
Zach's young and his extreme proclamations are sometimes annoying (his "viva la revolucion!" yell last episode being the prime example), but no one else handles Taylor better. Laurel is sweet and if Taylor was, you know, a person that recognizes that the people around her aren't characters in her Hannah Montana esque Disney series, Laurel would be getting through to her. But no, it has to be Zach who yells at her, threatens her, and eventually takes her money away to get through to her.

And that was this week's episode. I'm still a huge fan of Michael and Sophia and everything they do. Is it wrong to hope that there is a very G-rated romance brewing there, based on the absolutely zero hints being dropped in the series? Meh.

Next week, Jared goes on THE RAMPAGE!!!