Colonial House

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

stop the bickering and follow the rules!, 2008-10-26
This Colonial House was my least favorite of all the House series. The volunteers were not well chosen because they belly ached and refused to make it an authentic experience. Some did not play by the time period rules--very aggervating. I would love to be a part of these experiments and I can't stand when someone wastes the opportunity. br /While still a fascinating series, I wasn't drawn in like some of the other House series because of the constant conflict.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Who edited this thing??, 2008-10-20
My biggest problem with this series was how they told the tale. They would show 'colonists' having emotional or angry outbursts, and it always seemed they were over reacting because they never show what led up to that boiling point. br / br /For example two different times you see two different goat-milking women lose their sh* because of the work. The problem is that other than the comments they make during their respective meltdowns ("it's dirty, it's gross"), you haven't followed their goat-milking struggles, have seen no tension build and consequently don't feel the least bit connected to their misery when they have their fits. br / br /Another example is with the servant guy who works for the preacher and his wife. He says at the beginning that he didn't want to 'get stuck' with them, but you never know why. (Were they mean to him? Do they have body odor? 'Tis all a mystery!) br / br /Still another example is when that same guy is so sad when the black woman leaves (sorry, hard to remember names when these people don't mean anything to you). It's only as she's leaving that you find out she's his best friend there and they 'hang out all the time.' They don't tell you that until the moment she's leaving, and you're supposed to feel sad for his loss? br / br /Also, inexplicably, they tell you what some people do in their 'real' lives, and leave you in the dark on who the others are. Overall, it's hard to feel invested in any of their lives, or their relationships. br / br /Finally, they spent most of the time showing the most annoying people (the governor and his family, and the preacher and his wife). The freemen seemed like fun, but you hardly got to know them at all. br / br /This was a big disappointment, and could have been a winner.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Why Did They Sign Up?, 2008-09-23
Colonial House is another of the PBS House series, a wonderful reality show that puts modern day families back in time to experience life from another era. This time we have several families and individuals sent to live on the New England coastline as colonists in the New World. They encounter struggles from how to make money, how to ration their food, how to handle the religious and social customs, and how to trade with natives. It is an ambitious project that spans over eight hour long episodes. br / br /The main problem with this installment is that the participants seemed so unwilling to comply to the rules. Several people decided it was unimportant to attend church on the Sabbath, a crime punishable by death in some places. They did not take wearing their scarlet letters seriously, nor did they comply with the governor's laws. The women refused to be quiet and docile and one man even left for civilization for a day. It is difficult to care about the individual people because there are so many; only a few people are given a lot of individual screen time. To add to this problem, some people leave early, one group because of a family emergency. It is very telling when in the last episode, the camera crew goes back to check up on only a few of the participants after the project is over. br / br /This edition is entertaining, but it is by no means as good as the other House programs.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

It was supposed to be a PURITAN colony...not Jerry Springer-, 2008-05-26
The premise of "Colonial House" was supposed to be a 1600s working Puritan colony. A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was a Protestant (usually Calvinist) a advocate of "purity" of worship, doctrine, and personal and group morality. The Puritan's stressed the importance of obtaining salvation through the development of an individual relationship with God (through the person of Jesus Christ) over attempting to obtain salvation through the sacraments and ceremonies of the church alone. Obviously, the observance of the Sabbath, religion and faith would've been an important part of a typical Puritan colony. br / br /A Puritan colony would've typically been comprised of people of similar faith, values and morals, all trying for a similar goal. The people PBS picked were anything but similar and they had no intention of even trying. br / br /It was interesting to see in the "Making Of" extra, that one of the producers said they had spent an extremely long time trying to find people who TRULY wanted to live the lives that THE PURITAN's lived in the 1600's. I can't imagine that they searched that hard. Many of the participants come across as extremely disagreeable very selfish. Many of them selectively choose in which portions of early settler life they would like to participate and with which portions they can't be bothered. This was ludacris, because, they all knew before hand what was expected of them. I found myself thinking that it's a good thing our nation's survival didn't depend on them. br / br /The governor of the settlement (one of the only serious participants) really had no power to enforce the rules as a result most of the participants tended to blatantly ignore the spirit of the experience. For example, one of the most difficult of the female participants wouldn't come to the Sunday Sabbath services (this was REQUIRED in a Puritan colony). It was an essential and mandatory part of Puritan settler life. She choose not to come because she doesn't believe in God, even tho, the Sabbath services held were made very non-comformist very non-1600 Puritan to placate her. Before long 75% of the colonists are skipping the mandatory Sabbath. Then later, there was also a "Jerry Springer-type" moment of confession on one Sabbath day in a room full of young children, which in the 1600s a Puritan would've been burned for or at least kicked out of the colony. Before long no one was following even the smallest of the experiment's requirements. br / br /If the participants were more genuine and earnest about trying to live like the early Puritan settlers instead of constantly taking the viewer out of the experience with silly arguments their spoiled brat behavior, this program would've been a lot better. br / br /If it hadn't been for the informative voice overs explaining interesting facts about early colonial life I wouldn't have continued after the 2nd episode. I will give it 3 stars for the voice overs and for the participants who did follow the spirit of the experiment. br /

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent and historically accurate, despite the know-nothing complaints to the contrary, 2008-04-28
Briefly--an excellent show and historically accurate in precisely the right way. Read "Traveler"'s review. I couldn't have said it better. If you're at all inclined to believe the complaints about the "modern" sensibilities ruining the show, give that idea a long, hard think. You'll see the absurdity eventually.