Last night at 8pm, CTV aired the two-hour premiere of Brat Camp, documenting the rehabilitation of kids who break the rules. Apparently the theme was contagious, because here I am about to break the rules myself. Though I was specifically instructed to avoid commenting on reality television programs (to avoid stepping on the talented toes of reality T.V. columnist Amy Sharaf), this show warranted an exception having crossed way over a line that both producers and network execs should be forbidden to cross. Last night, the lives of eight troubled youths were left in the hands of television.

Brat Camp takes place at SageWalk Wilderness School, where parents gladly hand over their out-of-control teens to a staff of trained youth counselors. Founded by former bad ass Tony Randazzo (who also serves as narrator), the camp is based on rigid rules aimed to promote routine, discipline, patience and respect. Each staff member goes by an ?Earth name? intended to make the authority figures seem less intimidating and more relatable in the eyes of the campers ? there?s Little Big Bear, Mountain Wind, Boulder and Cougar, as well as eight one-on-one clinical therapists who visit with the campers twice a week.

So who are the eight teenagers unlucky enough to be banished to the sticks for a season?s worth of footage? Enter Lauren, Derek, Isaiah, Jada, Frank, Lexie, Heather and Shawn ? but trust me, their names don?t matter. The show has branded each camper with a scandalous subtitle that inadvertently serves as a dehumanizing element identifying the individuals by their bad behavior. There?s the Compulsive Liar, Angry Punk, Hostile Outcast and Habitual Runaway, just to name a few.

Their problems run the gamut from hyperactivity to drug use, and are documented in montages displaying the kids at their worst. These snippets of video are extremely staged and feature the teens drinking, smoking, comparing weaponry, swearing, slamming doors and destroying random property. With their proud smiles and animated movements, thesekids are obviously performing for the cameramen and producing behaviour that hardly seems natural.

It is because of this constant performance for the camera that the seemingly honorable intentions of Brat Camp begin to break down. These kids are all in need of professional help in one facet or another, but such assistance seems impossible considering the personas the teens assume while on air. Such a foreseeable barrier between these kids and the help they require had me continuously returning to one fundamental question: What kind of parent offers their child up to a television show in order to cure behavioural problems?

A closer look at each parent provides only further frustration. There was no end to the excuses these people had for their inability to properly discipline their children, and while I think it?s great that these kids may change in some fashion by the end of the show, the truth of the matter is they will return to a family that has not changed. While the show has a camera trained on the teens during this ordeal, the family back home isn?t learning anything about how to improve their strategy for raising a troubled child. Of course not. That wouldn?t make for good prime time television. If these parents were really so desperate to solve their familial issues on screen, they should have visited Dr. Phil. Brat Camp makes their attempt at tough love look more like a shot at fifteen minutes of fame.

While the campers? experiences are entertaining ? their daily regiment includes a race to wake up, dress, and disassemble their sleeping quarters in under five minutes ? I?m left wondering how effective it all is. At one point, Randazzo explains that the camp doesn?t learn why the campers have been sent to SageWalk until a dramatic unveiling on the second night. Call me stupid, but it seems to me a facility about to house teenagers with violent and suicidal tendencies should be maybe be apprised of the situation.

Of course, after watching these kids rebel for the first two-thirds of the show, everything is looking rosy and optimistic by the big happy ending. But big happy endings aren?t real. At the end of the season when the cameras are off, will their lives actually be changed for the better? Perhaps, but when it comes to the development and well-being of an impressionable mind, I don?t think that?s a responsibility that should be left up to a television show.






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