Hello, Whyville. My name's Justin Clune, and you can see me on a TV series starting April 29 on PBS, called The Frontier House. But my review's not really about me and the show I was in! It's about Castaway, B.C., starting February 14 on PBS.
I had the opportunity to watch fifteen adults and two children take part in this reality show in which all seventeen participants moved to and lived on an ancient iron age Celtic hill fortress. The aerial view of the west Welsh country, their new home, looked authentic enough to be in the 350 B.C. period, which was the producers' objective. It was an impressive place then and is now.
Many aspects of the program reminded me of my experience on the 1883 frontier. My family and I participated in a project similar to this type in which we and two other families lived like homesteaders in 1883 Montana. We built our own log cabin and did many tasks that people in the 1880's had to do, such as build chicken coups and collect, saw, and chop wood. We worked all day, every day, from sunrise till somewhere around 10 to 12 at night, but we only realized this much later when we finally got an authentic pocket watch.
I noticed that, in comparison to our lives on the frontier, these people were actually pretty lucky to live as comfortably as they did. For instance, they arrived at a fully operational home with plenty of chickens and livestock to eat. Their huts were spacious, and they had working beds. They even had an operational privy with a vanity screen and everything. They were lucky to have their experience last seven weeks; for the frontier families it was about five months. But the main point to all this is that the real people they and we were meant to portray lived in these circumstances all of their lives.
Also, I felt sorry for the people in Castaway B.C. who got sick, and I totally understand how uncomfortable it must have been for them. Putting seventeen total strangers together to live as a community must have been impossible. The beginning of the program disappointed me in that it mostly consisted of conflicts and disagreements between the participants. It looked like the drama took away from the history. I was hoping to learn more details about that time period like the Celtic culture and beliefs. I also hoped to learn about iron making and metal working in greater detail.
I noticed that these people had a lot more contact with the modern world than we did. During the project there were four adults and two children that left for various reasons and only one of them came back. Also, they brought into the camp modern things such as laundry detergent, rubber boots, and each person even got access to hot showers. This to me showed a different level of commitment that somewhat spoiled my viewing experience, even for my favorite participant, Chris.
Viewing this reality show was interesting for me, especially because I just finished coming out of our 1883 experience and I like factual history. The "reality" of reality projects, including my own, is that they are made for a television viewing audience. The show producers prefer to give the audience senseless drama before educating them. Sorry, but that's TV.
Justin
Frontier kid
