Divisions and Precisions

So I watched Frontier House

So I watched Frontier House on PBS last night. The premise, in case you haven't heard of this before, is that three normal American families agreed to live in Montana under the same conditions that faced homesteaders in 1883. This is the American version of The 1900 House, in which an English family lived in an authentic recreation of 1900 British life.

In both shows, the families are expected to dress and live exactly as their historical counterparts did, from cooking and working to clothing and hygiene, as much as possible. And PBS films it, giving the participants plenty of opportunity to grouse about everyone else on the show in 'video diaries'. It's Reality TV for the PBS set.

Frontier House is proving interesting, far more 'dramatic' and conflict-ridden than The 1900 House, in a uniquely American way. In other words, so far two of the families have made themselves look like asses on TV. Still, it's enjoyable, and I feel like I can still keep my "Ugh, you watch Survivor" mentality, since this is, after all, PBS. ;)

It airs again tonight at 9 EST and concludes tomorrow at 9 EST. Tonight, the nicest of the bunch so far gets married when his fiancee joins the three families. I'm waiting for the other two women to get into a cat fight.