Weird.  Possibly wrong.  Certainly weird.

The opening segment of the first episode may be the only pioneer shock that kids and viewers alike ever experience on Kid Nation. And it is a shock, not just because of the city’s desolateness, but because we know there are cameras everywhere, and these kids, for heaven’s sake, have gone through an elaborate application and recruitment process to get here. They’re not delinquents being sent to boot camp; they’re child-star wannabes out to generate buzz. Yet, like many reality TV show participants, they weren’t told what would actually transpire, and they seem totally unprepared: You could almost imagine they’d been dragged from their beds by their parents. The four leaders, flown in by helicopter, look as genuinely clueless as the 36 others who tumble out of a school bus. Greeted by a cursory introduction from the show’s host, Jonathan Karsh, they are left to their own devices. They drag heavy carts down a long road, encounter ramshackle buildings, and face the challenge of serving up macaroni (which no one knows how to cook) to a famished group that is losing patience. The camera crew, whom the kids are too weepy and exhausted to notice, doesn’t step in to help. The kids retreat to thin mattresses in misery.