Another good episode, with oil prices at all time highs, it was topically right on target. It was actually pretty funny at times. One thing I didn't really understand is why the hippies seemed to think burning wood to heat the hot water for showers was good for the environment, if you have the solar panels, why not just use an electric water heater?

I think the insidious thing about this show is Spurlock's idea that we could all probably get along if we just understood each other a little better. Even if it isn't completely realistic, it still makes you feel good after watching it.

Next week's episode(and the last one of this season, d'oh), looks like it could be really amusing...

So this was a 6 episode ruin? I only managed to catch 2 of them, tonight being my third when it airs here. Oh well.

My lord that was a QUICK season. Seemed like just yesterday they showed the first ep! I enjoyed the whole series, and I really liked tonights episode. It was funny and also really opened your eyes to the way we treat our planet and whatnot. If only more places used solar panelling! Anyways, next weeks ep looks good as well, especially since I go to a big drinking/pary college and yet I don't drink. Interesting.

I am glad that at least one of the "Dancing Rabbits" were out there cooking a steak with him.

Goddamn - hippies are really annoying.

I thought it was an interesting episode, but the worst of the 5 that have aired so far. I hated those 2 idiots that Spurlock casted. I thought it would have been better to use a family of 4 and maybe try to teach a lesson to the kids who wasted natural resources. Not 2 idiots trying to show off on TV. Looking forward to the final episode with the Binge drinking Mom.

Even though this topic didn't interest me, even though I didn't like either of the people picked, even though there were hippies......I still got sucked in and enjoyed it.

I enjoyed the ep; it made me laugh. But for some reason, this was the first ep that I really wanted to see more of the aftermath, what happened when they returned home. I think most of the others had some kind of return home moment, but this one didn't have any.

Yeah.

I didn't understand what they thought they were accomplishing by using old vegetable oil to run their car. The oil is made of vegetables, which are grown using petrochemical fertilizers.

Way to think ahead, guys.

never watched it (although i really wanted to...hope to get it on dvd if it is released) but maybe it was a short season because each episode took 30 days to film (plus more to edit and get ready for tv). i believe a regular sitcom episode takes a lot less time to film (a week maybe?)

i thought this episode was weakened by the two people they casted. they behaved like they thought they were on The Real World or something similar.

Easily the worst episode of 'em all. What I felt that I learned was simply impractical. I really hope this show continues because it's a great idea.

I liked the show but it was by far the worst of the series. I wanted to hear more from Morgan in the area of facts and figures. I agree that they should have gotten a family together, two would have been even better, and had them teach the kids along with themselves the values of living off the land.

Next weeks ep. looks "eh".

For anyone who wants to catch up, FX is airing the first three episodes tonight.

I really liked this episode. I don't understand how people could have thought this was the worst in the series-- I think that honor would go to the anti-aging/steroid episode, hands down.

I was really annoyed with the girl at first, but I liked her by the end. She seemed to really learn from the experience and seemed more open-minded. Vito/Meato was just a dolt. He couldn't wait 3 days to get his stupid meat?

[off topic pet peeve]
Isn't the past tense of cast "cast"? "Casted" sounds like nails on a chalk board to me, but I saw it twice in this thread so now i'm wondering which one is correct.

A couple comments:

* The hippies were also vegetarians and vegans, which seemed ironic to me. Historically, the most enviro-friendly societies have been hunter-gatherers. And Kudos to Vito for actually hunting his meat, and when he did buy he got organic meat (which looked really yummy).

* They can't be entirely self-sufficient. Where does the money come from? It cost $20,000 to install the solar panels, for instance. Can't get that busking on the subway. No doubt these guys are mostly trust fun babies who can return to a life of luxury any time they want, and have mom and dad write a check any time the commune has monetary difficulties.

Ever seen that BBC sitcom "Good Neighbors" about a couple who goes "off the grid"? I always thought that was a good show.

Not surprising at all. True environmentalists are indeed vegetarian. Once you research it, the facts are staggering. The amount of resources: land, water, etc. to generate a pound of meat is hugely inefficient and generates lots of waste. It makes much more sense environmentally to "skip the middle man" by eating the nutrients directly rather than through an animal.

Perhaps primitive cultures who hunted were "enviro-friendly" simply because the animals far outnumbered the people. However, in order to now feed everyone on the planet a meat-based diet like Vito eats, you need to raise animals for slaughter which is a huge agribusiness. Especially now with urban sprawl, there just isn't enough animals roaming free in order to feed people.
Even the hunter-gatherers wouldn't eat meat every day at every meal like Americans generally do. They'd have a big feast after the hunt but in between made do with other foods.

They also pointed out on the farm that they did not have the extra energy to store meat which would have required refrigeration.

But there's more to an animal than just meat. The hippies were wearing store-bought clothes, for instance. These guys didn't seem to have any livestock at all. No cows for milk, no chickens for eggs. Not to mention the fertilizer from the poop.

I think a non-vegetarian commune could be more self-sufficient than a pure vegetarian compound.

I had the same thought as well. It reminded me of those vegans in that P&T Bullshit episode who had a house right on the beach in Malibu.

If you aren't eating meat I think it is easier to be self-sufficient. After all, everything these people did required 50 times more work than normal. If they had to raise chickens, milk cows, etc. that would have been a huge amount of work on top of everything else they had to. If you don't use the animal products in the first place, you eliminate all that work and resources devoted to those tasks.

And I don't think the point of the commune was to be self-sufficient like a Bio-Dome or something. I think the point was to make as less of an impact environmentally as possible. I think they were probably wearing clothes they mostly had from before they joined the commune or maybe from their dumpster dives. Once an item has already been produced, it is better for the earth to reuse it than to throw it out or to buy something brand-new.

I don't think a vegan would eat either eggs or milk.

http://www.dancingrabbit.org/30Days_response.php

This is a discussion of their response to the show, lol they don't think they are hippies! There are some interesting comments about how the show was edited, for example, they actually removed the existing solar power structure from the grain bin, as the show's producers wanted Vito and Johari to be in the dark initially and then install the new system. The new system only cost $3,000, not the $20,000 implied in the show. Also, half of them are meat eaters, just not most of the ones in the buildings where they were staying. Anyway, it's quite an interesting rebuttal, though I would guess that they are still very pleased with the amount of publicity that they got.

That was very interesting information on their website! Thanks for the link misterchimpy.

I liked how it clarified Johari's attitude. The editors played up her bellyaching and complaining, whereas the DR community seemed to enjoy her (and Vito as well).

Anybody else find it hilarious that they have a website?

The theory that hunter-gatherers were environmentally friendly is absolutly false.

You can track the inital expansion of pre-historic humans and directly coorelate the mass extinctions of most of the earth's large mammels.

Simply put, primitive hunter-gatherers killed everything they could get thier hands on, and when they ran out, moved on.