Like any good reality show, Kid Nation's strengths are in its characters, and the most remarkable aspect of these characters so far is their intellectual superiority to adults on reality shows--they use big words and make funny jokes!

As you might expect from a program that stars 40 kids--at least some of whom will say the darndest things--it is pretty delightful

What Kid Nation lacks, however, is drama. With a cast of 40, it's hard for viewers to get attached to any of them long enough to care.

Kid Nation does not mean to find out whether kids can do what adults could not. It means instead to demonstrate that these kids really would die without the intervention of adults.

Would the creators of Kid Nation please go to their room for a time-out and come up with something more original?

They're kids, exhibiting the kind of behaviors, good and bad, that kids do in real life. That's not awful or particularly surprising--but it's also not even remotely entertaining.

Setting the controversy aside, the show is hopelessly derivative, shamelessly manipulative and in narrative terms, a bit of a mess.