Kid Nation update

I haven't discussed it much with anyone outside Mary (and a brief mention to Kristen), but Kid Nation has definitely been my new favorite reality show this season.  Sure the kids can be annoying at times, but the show as a whole leaves me feeling optimistic about the future.  It's fun to see how capable the all the kids are and how successful they can be when they all work together.

On a more cynical note, was anyone else as thrilled as I was that beauty princess Taylor got voted off the Council?  I still can't believe she cowed the other three older leaders into not getting the food reward that everyone wanted yet again (first the pizzas a couple weeks ago and then the barbecue last night).  Talk about having no understanding of people or group morale.  The microwave and cocoa was lame (do they have any other instant food anyway?) and this week's toothpaste, floss and toothbrushes reward while a responsible choice on the face of things, was in no way shape or form a necessity.  When it came time to vote I was sure that her friendship with all of the yellow girls would carry her through, but was pleasantly surprised when one actually made the right choice and voted against her. 

I felt bad for Mike when he was unanimously voted out by his generally successful red team.  I never felt like he was a natural leader, but he was still the second best leader of the original four, I'm not sure what more his team wanted from him.  I'm definitely hoping that being the new red leader doesn't comes up all roses for Fidel Castro admirer (learned that today on his bio page) Guylan. 

I always felt Anjay was the second weakest council member by far so I was pretty sure he would get the axe.  It was kind of sad/funny watching him stress out and crack when pitted directly against Olivia (who revealed a side of herself that I didn't particularly like this week). Amazingly enough he  pulled out the victory, but still ended up fighting back tears when sour grapes Olivia proved graceless in defeat. 

I also thought it was pretty awesome that Laurel's green team had no interest in replacing her and refused to run against her.  It still boggles my mind how poorly they've done in most of the challenges.

Finally after the election, everyone's favorite anti-hero Greg finally won the gold star too which was cool.  He's probably the most interesting kid in the group to me simply because he's see-sawed so dramatically between being a sulky, angry and unmotivated goof-off to a caring, capable and valuable member of the community.   Hopefully his positive path will continue through the remainder of the show.