...or "Commentary on American Culture"

"Meet the Natives" is a fantastic show on the Travel Channel. When Brittany first told me she wanted to watch it a few weeks ago, I'll admit that I was a little leery. Sunday nights are pretty much the only time we sit down and watch TV together, so we don't waste it on crappy shows. When they're on, we ALWAYS watch "The Amazing Race" and "Desperate Housewives" and "Storm Chasers." So when Brit mentioned this show, I was concerned it wouldn't meet our high standards for Sunday night viewing. I was a little scared it would be poking fun at the Natives. I was wrong.

"Meet the Natives" is incredible. There are always great moments. These 5 men (the chief, the happy man, the head dancer, the medicine man, and the translator) from a tribe in Tanna are bought to America and stay with families for a week at a time. They started in Montana before moving on to New York, Illinois, California, Georgia, and finally DC. Each episode, they've shared one main message: they hope that Americans will stop their wars and be at peace with other people. They are bright, funny, and always interested in what's going on around them.

Instead of this show making fun of these men, these men make some of the most insightful comments on American culture and the American way of life. They aren't being critical--most of the time they are simply making observations among themselves and the closed-captioning translation at the bottom of the screen lets us (the viewers) in on what they're saying. But there have been several "wow" moments caused by the words of these five men from Tanna. This is probably my favorite:



Catch up on the episodes online--they're all posted on Youtube. The 2 hour finale is next Sunday night. It is well worth watching.