"Amish in the City": why do I love UPN reality shows so much?

While not taking away anything from the Amish lifestyle, there are different sorts of hard work that urban people have to face -- similarly, "better life" is hard to apply as a universal constant, though I think that's what you're saying.

It's encouraging to hear that this program was "reviewed quite well". I'm even more excited about this program, now.

what do i have to pay you to see all ten?

I mean, it's really only a matter of time before we have Christians being eaten by lions, right?

(Actually, if someone Tivo's it, it might be possible to burn it to CD, which would be more cost effective.)

Okay, I watched this program tonight and really enjoyed it. It's not exploitative of the Amish, or at least it doesn't seem to be. I think it'd probably work great as a social experiment, opening the eyes of both the "city kids" and the "Amish" as to what their cultures are like and hopefully enabling both to understand each other.

These Amish kids seem to be having much more of a well-adjusted rumspringa than most Amish kids have. Instead of spending every night boozing it up, getting high, and being destructive, just because they can't think of anything else to do, they're actually getting to learn about the outside world. As for the "city kids", I think their inclination to give the Amish kids a hard time is probably due to the fact that not many of us "English" people fully understand the Amish, which means that hopefully with time the "city kids" will be more tolerant of the mannerisms and behaviors of the Amish kids.

I'm excited about seeing more of this show.

hahaha. was he ALSO able to combine marijuana and chamber pop?

That Nick is a total parody of himself, like a character straight from an SNL skit. NOBODY TALKS LIKE THAT MAN! NOBODY!!!

Mose is da bomb -- it really bugs that all the city chumps keep calling him "Moses" (unless Mose is just a diminutive of Moses). He nearly drowns and then jumps back into the ocean!

What was infuriating is how intractably narrow-minded the city chumps were about certain Amish habits even after it seemed that they were all getting along swell, especially compared with how willing the Amish kids were with trying new things.

If you weren't able to catch the "Amish in the City" debut, UPN will rerun it at 7:00 p.m. CT (8:00 p.m. ET) TOMORROW night. REMEMBER REMEMBER REMEMBER!

Maria D., the Amish are raised to where a male doesn't do dishes. They leave all household chores to females. Hopefully with a bit more exposure to the "English" world, these Amish kids will see that that's not how things are supposed to work outside of the confinese of the Amish communities.

Mose is awesome. He already sounds like the Amish pastor he might very well end up being. I feel like at this point, the chances of the quintent wanting to go back to the Amish way of life are probably rather high, but I think that might possibly change as time goes on.

I wonder if Mose, Ruth, Miriam, Jonas, and Randy will sometime in this show start to talk to each other in Pennsylvanian Dutch, like how some of the Amish kids talked to each other in Devil's Playground. Hearing that very old language being spoken was so great, because it felt like a bit of an entry into a very private world.

One of the things I like a lot about this program is that you're getting fully fleshed-out personalities here, not just one-dimensional role fulfillers. The "city kids" are both frustratingly ignorant and lovably open. The "Amish kids" are far more sophisticated than one would think they'd be. You get a sense the people behind the show aren't trying to manipulate you via creative editing into hating someone you wouldn't otherwise hate.

I myself quite like pretty much everyone. Even Ariel has shown her good side, in helping to save Mose from drowning out in the ocean and showing concern immediately following the incident. Plus, as space cadet-y as she is, she actually seems to try to connect with the Amish kids, which a lot of other people, I feel, wouldn't.

Not 99%, but close enough -- 90%. I'm thinking that's probably because the Amish kids who go through rumspringa don't really get a taste of the outside world. They just booze and drug it up without really doing much of anything else. Remember how in that documentary, that girl who finds herself looking at the option of going to college is also a girl who doesn't go back to the Amish way of life? If the Amish kids actually lived a normal "English" life, with school and part-time work and hanging out at movies and bookstores and such, a much higher percentage of them probably wouldn't go back to the community once rumspringa is over.

I don't think the "I'd never done this before, but I was going to try it all the way" aspect of the program is boring, really. I think the Amish kids are going to be bound to be repeating this sentiment over and over again, mainly because they're being exposed to all sorts of things they'd never gotten exposed to before. Like the whole Hare Krishna thing -- granted, it was pretty hilarious how they were going on about how "pretty cool" that whole experience was, but at the same time, I think it's also indicative of how much more open-minded the Amish kids have been throughout this experience.

My favorite "city kid" has changed 100%, BTW. I no longer think of Kevan as a "prettier than thou" person, but rather the most open-minded of the non-Amish kids. I think it's cool how he's being so kind and friendly and welcoming to the Amish kids. Granted, I don't know if he'd be doing this if Reese weren't the main instigator behind the backstabbing being done on him, but the way things are going now, I have a problem with every single "city kid" with the exception of Kevan.

So, uh, any of y'all watching "Breaking Amish"? It's trashy garbage but a compelling gimmick. I do hope they start developing some better plots than just endless fish-out-of-water shockaroos....and for god's sake, get them out of the Theater District.