In the elite, entitled small town of West Ham, Connecticut, 200 high school kids ignore the ominous portents around them (a mysterious smell, the phrase "mene mene tekel upharsin" scrawled on a wall, a production of Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead), and head out for a school-sponsored camping trip. They don't get far.
"Change of plans," the bus driver announces."Rock slide, road closed, you're back home."
They get out. The buses drive off. There is no one to pick them up, so they walk home. But home is deserted. The whole town is deserted. Cell phones won't call out; there's no tv or internet; no way to communicate with the outside world. Eventually they discover that there is no outside world, just a wilderness (no predators though, just wild turkeys). They are alone in the world.
Once they realize that they will not be rescued soon, the castaways rename their town New Ham and set up The Society.
Most episodes are about the growing pains of the colony, with checks and balances, crime and punishment, and various power struggles, along with standard survival problems and a lot of high school "who's hooking up with who?." More Lord of the Flies meets The O.C., not so much Lost.
Sidebar: How much survival do they need in a fully-equipped town? Surely there's enough frozen and canned food to last for years.
And why do they wait six months to explore beyond the town limits, to see if there are animals to hunt, streams to fish in, fruit trees, amber waves of grain?
I would definitely prefer more Lost. Ordinary survival problems are not particularly interesting without zombies to fight. And the cast is very large, with nothing particularly distinctive (they're all Golden Boys and It-Girls), so it's often hard to determine who is allied with, romantically interested in, or feuding with whom. I needed several articles to pull them together.
1. The Student Council. Cassandra (Rachel Keller), former student body president, becomes the first leader of the colony. She is eventually murdered.
Casandra's sister Allie (Kathryn Pressman) becomes the primaryleader, but not without opposition. Her main allies are Cassandra and Will (Jacques Colimon, left), a poor foster-care kid, who dates her except for a brief fling.
2. The Science Club. Gordie (Jose Julian, left), who uses his Gilligan's Island Professor-type trivia knowledge to assist the castaways in the absence of the internet, has a crush on Cassandra.
His brainy sister Bean (Salena Quershi) wears a hijab, suggesting that they are both Muslim.
3. The Van Snobs. Rich bitch Harry (Alex Fitzalan) becomes one of Allie's main opponents in the various power struggles. Maybe he's mad because Allie's boyfriend Will had an affair with his girlfriend.
His allies include fellow rich bitch Lexi (Grace Victoria Cox); and Campbell (Toby Wallace, left), a gun-wielding psycho who is abusive toward his girlfriend Elle (Olivia de Jong). So she tries to poison him, and ends up poisoning half the town.
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4. The Gay Kids. Campbell's younger brother Sam is deaf and gay, played by a deaf, non-gay actor (Sean Berdy, left). His main ally is Becca (Gideon Adlon); she becomes pregnant (not from him), and he vows to help her raise the first baby in the brave new world.
Later in the season he starts a romance with outdoorsman Grizz (Jack Mulhern).
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5. The Jocks. Luke (Alex MacNeill), Jason (Emilio Garcia-Sanchez), and Clark (Spencer House) continue to wear their lettermen's jackets and sign on as the colony's police force. They have some gay subtexts, although .Luke is also dating the super-religious Helena (Natashia Liu Bordizzo), who won't have sex with him.
Got all that? It's really not worth the trouble. Especially when the gay guys get only two kissing scenes, and the beefcake is minimal. We're a long way from Riverdale.
And when the mystery is eked out in a few throwaway scenes, as if the writers forgot about it until the last minute and said "We should throw in a clue or something."
Hint #1: The stars are a little off, like they would be in the distant past.
Hint #2: A mysterious Pfeiffer demanded $1,000,000 to remove the smell, and later was the bus driver who took the children (the Pied Piper?)
Hint #3: About that rockslide....
"Change of plans," the bus driver announces."Rock slide, road closed, you're back home."
They get out. The buses drive off. There is no one to pick them up, so they walk home. But home is deserted. The whole town is deserted. Cell phones won't call out; there's no tv or internet; no way to communicate with the outside world. Eventually they discover that there is no outside world, just a wilderness (no predators though, just wild turkeys). They are alone in the world.
Once they realize that they will not be rescued soon, the castaways rename their town New Ham and set up The Society.
Most episodes are about the growing pains of the colony, with checks and balances, crime and punishment, and various power struggles, along with standard survival problems and a lot of high school "who's hooking up with who?." More Lord of the Flies meets The O.C., not so much Lost.
Sidebar: How much survival do they need in a fully-equipped town? Surely there's enough frozen and canned food to last for years.
And why do they wait six months to explore beyond the town limits, to see if there are animals to hunt, streams to fish in, fruit trees, amber waves of grain?
I would definitely prefer more Lost. Ordinary survival problems are not particularly interesting without zombies to fight. And the cast is very large, with nothing particularly distinctive (they're all Golden Boys and It-Girls), so it's often hard to determine who is allied with, romantically interested in, or feuding with whom. I needed several articles to pull them together.

Casandra's sister Allie (Kathryn Pressman) becomes the primaryleader, but not without opposition. Her main allies are Cassandra and Will (Jacques Colimon, left), a poor foster-care kid, who dates her except for a brief fling.
His brainy sister Bean (Salena Quershi) wears a hijab, suggesting that they are both Muslim.
3. The Van Snobs. Rich bitch Harry (Alex Fitzalan) becomes one of Allie's main opponents in the various power struggles. Maybe he's mad because Allie's boyfriend Will had an affair with his girlfriend.
His allies include fellow rich bitch Lexi (Grace Victoria Cox); and Campbell (Toby Wallace, left), a gun-wielding psycho who is abusive toward his girlfriend Elle (Olivia de Jong). So she tries to poison him, and ends up poisoning half the town.

4. The Gay Kids. Campbell's younger brother Sam is deaf and gay, played by a deaf, non-gay actor (Sean Berdy, left). His main ally is Becca (Gideon Adlon); she becomes pregnant (not from him), and he vows to help her raise the first baby in the brave new world.
Later in the season he starts a romance with outdoorsman Grizz (Jack Mulhern).

5. The Jocks. Luke (Alex MacNeill), Jason (Emilio Garcia-Sanchez), and Clark (Spencer House) continue to wear their lettermen's jackets and sign on as the colony's police force. They have some gay subtexts, although .Luke is also dating the super-religious Helena (Natashia Liu Bordizzo), who won't have sex with him.
Got all that? It's really not worth the trouble. Especially when the gay guys get only two kissing scenes, and the beefcake is minimal. We're a long way from Riverdale.
And when the mystery is eked out in a few throwaway scenes, as if the writers forgot about it until the last minute and said "We should throw in a clue or something."
Hint #1: The stars are a little off, like they would be in the distant past.
Hint #2: A mysterious Pfeiffer demanded $1,000,000 to remove the smell, and later was the bus driver who took the children (the Pied Piper?)
Hint #3: About that rockslide....