Brat Camp, Tuesday 10pm, Channel 4

Posted by Will Parkhouse

Preview rating:
If life has taught me nothing else, I know this: there is nothing more satisfying than seeing an irritating oik being put in their place. Welcome back, Brat Camp.

Tonight’s episode features 15-year-old Natasha Whitlock, a terror from Bognor whose rap sheet (happy slapping, underage boozing, getting arrested for shoplifting) reads like a Daily Mail reader’s worst nightmare. Despite her daughter’s antisocial ways, mother Montana treats her like a princess. Her affectionate gestures are not reciprocated.

There is, of course, only one thing for it: a trip to the Arizona Desert for a bit of wilderness therapy. Unlike previous series, this time Natasha is accompanied by her mother, for some proper outdoor bonding, just like in the movies.

But the two get split up as well. Montana undergoes a Native American ritual called "blanket stepping" to help her stop blaming others for her failings. Meanwhile young Natasha – getting the rough end of the stick, we feel – is forced to hike alone with a 20kg backpack as the sun beats down on, then camp in rough terrain while temperatures sink to minus 10 degrees.

This series promises to focus on mothers and how they treat their children, which definitely sounds like a more grown-up approach. Let’s hope such serious intentions don’t come at the cost of stamping on the brats until they beg for mercy. Ahem.

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Comments

[alexander]

Visit http://www.online-tv-channels.net, here you can watch: Education, Entertainment, Kids & Youth, Movies, Music, News, Politics, Religion, Shopping, Sport and many more online TV Channels.

[Jonas Petersen]

Why are the American parenting outsourcing industry being promoted in Europe, when it is under investigation in the US due to deaths among the teenagers?

Here is a report:

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08146t.pdf

If such teenagers and parents, who fails to put their foot down are a problem, why are there not such camps in UK, where the government could control the companies better than in the US and prevent teenagers from dying over there?

Brat Camp is advertising - nothing more - for an industry which takes the responsibility away from parents, when they just can call a number and get a quick fix of their off-spring!

[mr.t]

poor natasha, my foot, her mother should wake up and smell the coffee.
put them in the wilderness again and leave them to defend for them selves and they will soon find the true meaning of family bonding.

[malc]

What is the point? These boot camp progs are appalling.The producers are worse than the kids for making a tv programme and associated financial profits by playing on conflict and the kids' personal problems. The kids, mostly, don't contribute and fit in with their society and don't see any reason to change. There are ways to teach them of the benefits and need for positive behaviour toward their fellow man. They would make excelent tv too. The vindictive torment handed out in these progs, however, aint it.
In summary, a sorry waste of opportunity and resources by irresponsible media.

[lizzie durley]

i was friends with natasha whitlock. we used to be in the same class.
i dont see her anymore as she doesnt really come into school.
she doesnt seem to have changed much though, i dont think it actually worked!