Oh, Kid Nation, one week you offer a glimmer of hope, the next a lesson in why you should be 30 minutes instead of 60. Don't you know you're on the T.V. Club chopping-block shortlist? Why you gotta treat me so boring sometimes?
The title of this week's episode offers an easy target for potential Kid haters: "Starved For Entertainment" refers to the fact that the kids are bored, but it also provides a perfect summation of this episode, one of the least entertaining of the season. The kids have been in Bonanza for 23 days at this point, and they don't have anything to do. (Nevermind the fact that if they were really doing all the work necessary to keep themselves alive, they'd be plenty busy.) So what does the ancient wisdom of 1885 instruct them to do (via meticulously calligraphied notes beamed through time)? Have a talent show.
Okay, I'll admit, there's some cable-access potential in a bunch of children acting goofy, and the actual portion of tonight's show dedicated to the talent show was pretty entertaining, especially Olivia, whose stand-up comedy surpasses Neil Hamburger's in terms of badness. ("I could make up a million jokes about Greg and Blaine, but look at them! They are the joke!") Jared reciting Shakespeare was also pretty funny, but at the same time you could imagine him reciting it before he drills a hole in your brain and keeps you as a pet. Blaine and Greg, the two older toughs, dressed in drag a bit, too. Outrage!
But that was about it for good times. Again this week: Tons of new faces who hadn't spoken yet. (Aside: New York magazine posted a Kid Nation drinking game that involved downing one every time a kid who hasn't spoken before shows up.) One of those, super-nerd-girl Kennedy, goes on to win the award. Two more, Migle and Natasha, are known to the other townies as Paris and Nicole, because they don't do any work.