ye olde tivo

Be sure to set your tivo for tonight and tomorrow night for the final two installments of PBS' Colonial House. It's not called a "reality show," but rather an "experiment." A handful of people were picked from thousands of applicants to live for four months in a 1628 British colony on the coast of Maine. I tend to agree with the author of this review in that I would probably have trouble in anything earlier than say, 1995 House. (What, no high-speed internet?) Once you get past the shock very primitive living conditions, the social dynamics are quite interesting. These 21st century people are supposed to be living by the same laws that the Puritans obeyed, but not everyone is interested in going by the scarlet letter of the law.

As if we needed further proof that Waco is the center of the universe, the colony's governor is a Southern Baptist preacher from Waco. (His church is actually in the nearby metropolis of China Spring.) He says his family's purpose in doing the show was to demonstrate the faith of the early settlers and the sacrifices they made for religious freedom.