Amish

[nowaysj]

Amish are crazy, bros. They let their young people go out into the world and fuck up and live like heathens to determine if they want to commit to their religious vows. The youngsters get up to some proper outdoor raving in their fields.

There is also a tradition of letting a suitor spend the night with their daughter to try out the goods before marriage.

Crazy peoples.

[firky]

Kids today, eh? Running through the subway necking cyan booze cola; slaying each other for their Sony PSPs; hanging round Facebook getting into trouble; eating tubfuls of meow-meow with a stolen spoon. No sense of social responsibility; no sense of nuffink. Kids today, eh?

Maybe not. I suspect the image of teen life we're presented with is warped beyond all recognition. Don't know about you, but my teenage years bore about as much relation to the pleasure-seeking abandon of Skins as Kenny Rogers does to an egg-and-cress sandwich. I'd go to tame parties and pretend I was drunk. On a really wild night, I might actually get to kiss a girl – with tongues. That was about as Roman as it got (and, uh, when I say "Roman", I'm referring to the hedonism of ancient Rome, not Roman Polanski).

Maybe it's because I grew up amid tranquil countryside. Once a news crew came to the local market town to shoot a short piece about small-town yobbery. Two friends of mine saw the cameras and decided to walk past, yelling and tottering about as though they were pissed, which they weren't because it was the middle of the afternoon. They were duly cut into the report as evidence of the depth of the problem.

Teenagers love to exaggerate. Specifically, they love to exaggerate about how mad and lawless their lives are. They'll tell you half their schoolmates are pregnant. That two-thirds of them carry guns. That all of them carried out the Great Train Robbery. In reality, each generation is probably just about as kerrr-azy as the last. The biggest teenage taboo is being strait-laced. It's easy to tell a researcher you went to a house party that turned into an orgy. It's less easy to say you like eating toast and watching QI.

I bring this up – all of it – because teenage depravity, or lack of it, forms the premise of Amish: The World's Squarest Teenagers (Sun, 8pm, C4), a fish-out-of-water documentary series in the mode of 2008's superb Meet The Natives in which members of an obscure tribe mingled with various British social groups and recorded their observations. This time round, five Amish teens are dispatched to the UK in a bid to prove that – hey! – people are kinda different and kinda the same and gollygosh whoodathunkit?

For the first episode, they're whisked to south London to hang around with a group of street dancers and the occasional ex-gang member. The Amish kids stand out a little in the hood, with their olde-worlde hats and stiff religious backgrounds. And that's the point.

The results are predictably amusing, but in unpredictable ways. Rather than recoiling in horror at the godless lifestyles on display, the Amish kids are largely perplexed and a touch disappointed. For instance, when the London lads sit around indoors playing videogames, their Amish counterparts quickly grow unbelievably bored. Why? Because they'd rather be outside in the barn, fixing tools and carrying out chores. "But there is no barn," they sigh.

In one excruciating sequence, the street-dance crew perform their act – a full-blown Britain's Got Talent number – for the benefit of the Amish, who stare at them with expressions of blank disinterest; not even unimpressed, they're merely confused as to why they've bothered. It's the best critique of street dance I've ever seen.

Things warm up after that, and the show becomes more thoughtful; in one particularly interesting sequence the Amish visit a mosque, and we see their initial suspicion and disapproval melt into an understanding of common ground. They also teach some estate kids the art of needlepoint.

On the whole, it walks the line between gentle nose-tweaking and fresh perspective very well. The only problem is working out how Channel 4 can follow this up. They've already brought tribesmen and devout teens to sample the rough side of Britain. Are there any other groups left in the world who haven't already been exposed to western decadence? Nomads? Eskimos? Moonmen? Clangers? Clangers in Droitwich. Now that I would watch.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/ ... creen-burn

[the acid never lies]

Kids today, eh? Running through the subway necking cyan booze cola; slaying each other for their Sony PSPs; hanging round Facebook getting into trouble; eating tubfuls of meow-meow with a stolen spoon. No sense of social responsibility; no sense of nuffink. Kids today, eh?

Maybe not. I suspect the image of teen life we're presented with is warped beyond all recognition. Don't know about you, but my teenage years bore about as much relation to the pleasure-seeking abandon of Skins as Kenny Rogers does to an egg-and-cress sandwich. I'd go to tame parties and pretend I was drunk. On a really wild night, I might actually get to kiss a girl – with tongues. That was about as Roman as it got (and, uh, when I say "Roman", I'm referring to the hedonism of ancient Rome, not Roman Polanski).

Maybe it's because I grew up amid tranquil countryside. Once a news crew came to the local market town to shoot a short piece about small-town yobbery. Two friends of mine saw the cameras and decided to walk past, yelling and tottering about as though they were pissed, which they weren't because it was the middle of the afternoon. They were duly cut into the report as evidence of the depth of the problem.

Teenagers love to exaggerate. Specifically, they love to exaggerate about how mad and lawless their lives are. They'll tell you half their schoolmates are pregnant. That two-thirds of them carry guns. That all of them carried out the Great Train Robbery. In reality, each generation is probably just about as kerrr-azy as the last. The biggest teenage taboo is being strait-laced. It's easy to tell a researcher you went to a house party that turned into an orgy. It's less easy to say you like eating toast and watching QI.

I bring this up – all of it – because teenage depravity, or lack of it, forms the premise of Amish: The World's Squarest Teenagers (Sun, 8pm, C4), a fish-out-of-water documentary series in the mode of 2008's superb Meet The Natives in which members of an obscure tribe mingled with various British social groups and recorded their observations. This time round, five Amish teens are dispatched to the UK in a bid to prove that – hey! – people are kinda different and kinda the same and gollygosh whoodathunkit?

For the first episode, they're whisked to south London to hang around with a group of street dancers and the occasional ex-gang member. The Amish kids stand out a little in the hood, with their olde-worlde hats and stiff religious backgrounds. And that's the point.

The results are predictably amusing, but in unpredictable ways. Rather than recoiling in horror at the godless lifestyles on display, the Amish kids are largely perplexed and a touch disappointed. For instance, when the London lads sit around indoors playing videogames, their Amish counterparts quickly grow unbelievably bored. Why? Because they'd rather be outside in the barn, fixing tools and carrying out chores. "But there is no barn," they sigh.

In one excruciating sequence, the street-dance crew perform their act – a full-blown Britain's Got Talent number – for the benefit of the Amish, who stare at them with expressions of blank disinterest; not even unimpressed, they're merely confused as to why they've bothered. It's the best critique of street dance I've ever seen.

Things warm up after that, and the show becomes more thoughtful; in one particularly interesting sequence the Amish visit a mosque, and we see their initial suspicion and disapproval melt into an understanding of common ground. They also teach some estate kids the art of needlepoint.

On the whole, it walks the line between gentle nose-tweaking and fresh perspective very well. The only problem is working out how Channel 4 can follow this up. They've already brought tribesmen and devout teens to sample the rough side of Britain. Are there any other groups left in the world who haven't already been exposed to western decadence? Nomads? Eskimos? Moonmen? Clangers? Clangers in Droitwich. Now that I would watch.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/ ... creen-burn

good review

Luckily the Amish adventure isn't over yet. Can't wait!

[nowaysj]

It's the best critique of street dance I've ever seen.

lol'ed

[the acid never lies]

...and that Polanski comment? ZING!

[stappard]

i kinda respect them for giving up everything modern
other than that yes

its not like they tried an ipad and went "nah this shits not for me, give me the cow back"

they just refuse to even try, fingers in their ears going LALALALALALLALALA NO I DONT WANT IT


fucking idiots

[collige]

its not like they tried an ipad and went "nah this shits not for me, give me the cow back"

they just refuse to even try, fingers in their ears going LALALALALALLALALA NO I DONT WANT IT

Yes they do.

Amish are crazy, bros. They let their young people go out into the world and fuck up and live like heathens to determine if they want to commit to their religious vows. The youngsters get up to some proper outdoor raving in their fields.

[stappard]

its not like they tried an ipad and went "nah this shits not for me, give me the cow back"

they just refuse to even try, fingers in their ears going LALALALALALLALALA NO I DONT WANT IT

Yes they do.

Amish are crazy, bros. They let their young people go out into the world and fuck up and live like heathens to determine if they want to commit to their religious vows. The youngsters get up to some proper outdoor raving in their fields.

Hardly a fair trial though. Westernised world can be a pretty daunting place at the best of times, you can imagine how much worse it is if you have literally no experience with it to be thrown in at the deep end. I haven't read a great deal about it but its not like the kids are helped through the process or given guidance. More of a "this is it? do you like it? DO YOU?" then back to the cows

[hackman]

i kinda respect them for giving up everything modern
other than that yes

its not like they tried an ipad and went "nah this shits not for me, give me the cow back"

they just refuse to even try, fingers in their ears going LALALALALALLALALA NO I DONT WANT IT


fucking idiots

who the fuck wants an i pad?

[nowaysj]

its not like they tried an ipad and went "nah this shits not for me, give me the cow back"

they just refuse to even try, fingers in their ears going LALALALALALLALALA NO I DONT WANT IT

Yes they do.

Amish are crazy, bros. They let their young people go out into the world and fuck up and live like heathens to determine if they want to commit to their religious vows. The youngsters get up to some proper outdoor raving in their fields.

Hardly a fair trial though. Westernised world can be a pretty daunting place at the best of times, you can imagine how much worse it is if you have literally no experience with it to be thrown in at the deep end. I haven't read a great deal about it but its not like the kids are helped through the process or given guidance. More of a "this is it? do you like it? DO YOU?" then back to the cows

True to a certain extent, not true to another extent. Give them some credit though.

[stappard]

its not like they tried an ipad and went "nah this shits not for me, give me the cow back"

they just refuse to even try, fingers in their ears going LALALALALALLALALA NO I DONT WANT IT

Yes they do.

Amish are crazy, bros. They let their young people go out into the world and fuck up and live like heathens to determine if they want to commit to their religious vows. The youngsters get up to some proper outdoor raving in their fields.

Hardly a fair trial though. Westernised world can be a pretty daunting place at the best of times, you can imagine how much worse it is if you have literally no experience with it to be thrown in at the deep end. I haven't read a great deal about it but its not like the kids are helped through the process or given guidance. More of a "this is it? do you like it? DO YOU?" then back to the cows

True to a certain extent, not true to another extent. Give them some credit though.

I was probably too quick to judge initially. Do you mind me asking why uou say "not true to another extent"?

[particle-jim]

"It's the rhythm that troubles me."

yeah that bit cracked me up

[nowaysj]

True to a certain extent, not true to another extent. Give them some credit though.

I was probably too quick to judge initially. Do you mind me asking why uou say "not true to another extent"?[/quote]

Well, I'm not ready to say my life, my role in the world, my relationship to the whole thing is more since, more real, or in any way better than theirs. I wouldn't choose their life, living the life I've lived, and fair shakes to them if they make they'd make the same decision.

[wormcode]

Not sure which doc you guys are talking about, but here's another good one from HBO:

The Devil's Playground is a fascinating and moving documentary about a little-known aspect of Amish life. Amish are not permitted to join the church until their late teens, and have to do so of their own volition. The film explores rumspringa, wherein young Amish are given the opportunity to explore the "English" way of life. Filmmaker Lucy Walker tracked a few of these young people over the course of their experience. The film shows how difficult it is for them to break away from the church. Many of them "act out," exploring not just Nintendo and rock music, but alcohol, drugs, and sex. But almost all of them return to the church, and this fairly balanced documentary makes it clear that despite the church's stance, there is tremendous pressure, both economic and emotional, on these kids to return to the fold. The film focuses on a young man, Faron, who develops a serious drug problem and decides not to get baptized, and a young woman, Velda, who was baptized, and then later, suffering from acute depression, made the difficult decision to leave the church. Walker successfully captures the compelling details of this formerly closed and forbidding world, and the essentially ordinary kids who inhabit it.

Stream: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=957_1225131020

[the acid never lies]

Not sure which doc you guys are talking about

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/amis ... nagers/4od

[wormcode]

Not sure which doc you guys are talking about

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/amis ... nagers/4od

Thanks i'll check it. I edited my post above with a link to Devil's Playground streaming.

[the acid never lies]

Not sure which doc you guys are talking about

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/amis ... nagers/4od

Thanks i'll check it. I edited my post above with a link to Devil's Playground streaming.

Cool - those Amish are crayzeh! Know where the rest of it is?

[ashley]

Amish like UFC, so I like Amish?

[the acid never lies]

Parson?

[wormcode]

Not sure which doc you guys are talking about

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/amis ... nagers/4od

Thanks i'll check it. I edited my post above with a link to Devil's Playground streaming.

Cool - those Amish are crayzeh! Know where the rest of it is?

It should all be there I think, if not all I have is rapidshare links.

Part 2,3,4:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=42a_1225132431
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=77e_1225133476
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e30_1225134283