The amount of references to Human Trafficking and Prostitution as well each episode being filled with sexual innuendos is shocking. Series 5 should have been on after the watershed! Never suitable for kids.
shareI don't remember everything in series 5 but references to human trafficking and prostitution? I certianly don't remember that..but still, are references to these things really shocking enough that it should be on after the watershed? Surely not.
I do remember that The Tribe dealt with some complex issues very delicately and originally, such as teenage pregnancy, anorexia cults etc.
Maybe it wasn't sutiable for very young children...i don't remember now, but then again they would hardly recognise such refernces anyway, nor would they understand sexual innuendos.
Besides, they actually cancelled the show because they were finding it difficult to fund, and the premise of the show was that children were trying to survive and rebuild their lives in an adult world, five series later, said children were not children anymore and therefore it had lost its primary driving force.
Anyway five series is actually a good long run for a series imo.
Give hugs not drugs
<3 One man can change his stars <3
TLO!
Re-watch it and you'll see.
Gel is groomed by three lads who set her up to catch her with that make up box, when they grab her they're saying things like "you're a pretty girl", then later we here two of them speaking about the money they'll get from her!
Something similar happens to Ellie, where two lads drag her off the street and they say "They'll take care off her".
A guy asks May to sleep with him for food, May refuses, but then go backs to see him when she needs paracetamol for Salene, and he again tells May what he wants. When Salene asks May where she got them, May hesitates and says "Through a friend".
The innuendos are hardly subtle either, most of the dialogue between Ruby and Slade is just about shagging! I know other series dealt with issues of sex etc but in S5 it's just so predominant, they don't even try to make it subtle. Like there's a scene where Jay walks into Ebony's bedroom at Liberty and a random guy is just fastening up his trousers and leaving the room whilst Ebony is lieing down in her bed. Then another scene where May asks a guy she knows for a pregnancy kit (it's for Ruby) and the guy asks "It's not mine is it" then tells her if it is that she has to get rid of it as he'll have nothing to do with it.
Then there's the whole Lesbian affair.
Then there's Lex who looks about 21, trying to get it on with Gel who looks about 13.
Series 5 is just way less child friendly than any of the others. And it doesn't surprise me one bit if it's the content which got the show pulled and why FIVE asked for a younger version (The New Tomorrow) to be made/
It might be a teen show, but Series 5 is not suitable for Shake at 11am where there's pre-teens still watching.
I vaguely remember those things, but they are just references. To be entirely honest, they aren't that bad at all, theres much worse in other shows such as Hollyoaks, and that isn't showed before the watershed so i don't see why references to sex means that the tribe should have been.
Although i do agree it is less child friendly than some of the other seasons, but a lot of children that had started watching the series when it had aired...were now five years older. So the demographic was different.
Which is why it had deviated from its premise and it's target audience and was therefore axed. I think the content was probably one of the reasons yes...simply because five seasons later, the actors had grown up a bit, the audience had grown up a bit aand therefore the idea of 'children' trying to grow up in an adult world was not really there any more. That isn't really anything much to do with seuxal references...more the fact that five years is quite a long time.
And The New Tommorrow flopped if i remember correctly...so they must have been doing something right with the tribe for it to have survived five seasons.
You are quite right, it started out as a childrens show and grew into a teen show, so really the problem is not with the show, but more with the fact that it shouldnt have been shown on shake. Which i completely agree with, because it wasn't reaching it's target audience, and channel 5 is rubbish.
Give hugs not drugs
<3 One man can change his stars <3
TLO!
Something similar happens to Ellie, where two lads drag her off the street and they say "They'll take care off her".
If i remember correctly they were working for Java. If I'm not mistaken, this was when Ellie had Amnesia and Java was using Ellie to send her to the Mall with a bomb (this was not to her knowledge of course.)
Then there's Lex who looks about 21, trying to get it on with Gel who looks about 13.
I think it was the other way around?
I honestly cannot remember the other scenes you mentioned but wow. I have to go back and watch it again.
I get it up, I get it up in the dark, I make her feel I'm not a holy man
Java saved Ellie from the lads who were dragging her away. They might have been working for Java although it's never specified. They still say "We'll take care of you" in that perverted tone.
And at first Lex isn't interested in Gel, but then there's a scene where he tries to get it on with her and she falls asleep, then the next day he says something like "let's pick up where we left off" and she boots him out.
Oh no they say it in a perverted tone! Shock horror.
None of these things are reason to broadcast after the watershed. Seriously, i don't know what sort of world y'all are living in but children, see/hear much worse than someone saying something in a perverted tone every day.
Give hugs not drugs
<3 One man can change his stars <3
TLO!
Well, where I come from I don't think it's appropriate for my 5 year old niece who watches Shake to see a shows with such references in. The watershed remark was tongue in cheek. There's no way it should have been on Shake. And Series 5 is by far the worst for unsuitable content, the sexual references are just abundant. And I don't think it's a coincidence that a new series was never commissioned by FIVE and that they asked for a more child friendly show in TNT.
shareThat's totally understandable, each to their own. But i personally would doubt that a 5 year old would understand any of those references, as they are so subtle that they are barely noticeable. Obviously, noticeable to some people (like yourself), but for it's target audience, the sexual references would create a realism, without having to explicitly explore the subject of sex.
Yes, because by series 5 the children who had watched the show from the beginning were now 5 years older, so i would assume they were trying to keep a happy medium for their audience.
It isn't a coincidence
Series 6 was scheduled to begin filming in 2003, but Nick Wilson, of Channel 5, and Raymond Thompson felt that "although the show was still performing well, the cast was getting too old and the series was beginning to stretch the core proposition." They felt the characters were not kids fending for themselves without adults anymore. As a result, the show was cancelled. Five aired the final two episodes on 6 September 2003. A sequel to The Tribe, The New Tomorrow, was produced by Cloud 9 and Channel 5 and aired in 2005. It was aimed at a younger audience, 8 to 12 year olds, and had a new cast that portrayed descendants of The Tribe.
You're concentrating on the "adult" stuff in season 5, but are ignoring the other seasons, for example:
Season 1: Multiple Explosions.
Lex being beaten up.
Zoot/Martin falling off a balcony to his death.
The Mallrats setting fire to Zoot/Martins body.
KC and Cloe causing that riot in the casino.
Gambling.
Stealing the pig after losing it (yes, it was technically stealing)
Sexual references with Lex/Zandra
Sexual references with Lex/ Tai San
Tribe Circus raiding the mall
Facing possible starvation.
The fire in the mall.
Teenage Pregnancy
Serious complications with said pregnancy
Possible mental illness (Trudy)
Attempted Suicide
Slavery/ Slave Trade
Sexism
Bulimia
Zandra considering letting Tai San fall to her death.
Zandra's Death
Glenn's Death/ Burning the body
Paul running away.
Abduction and Hostage situation (Salene)
Prostitution references (Salene when held hostage)
Child Abandonment (Trudy leaves, without Brady)
Attempted Rape.
Drinking
Bullying
The adult references have ALWAYS been there, right from the beginning, they were just less obvious in the earlier seasons.
I was seven years old when this show started, and eleven when it ended, i never once picked up on any of the adult references. It wasn't until i rewatched it at age fourteen that i realised they were there.
I don't suffer with Army Wives addiction, I enjoy every second of it.
I was a bit older - 10, and I picked up on some of the stuff you listed. Especially, Lex/Tai San. That was heavily implied. I actually remember thinking (hoping, lol) that I was going to get away with watching daytime porn if they got it on.
share'Series 5 is just way less child friendly than any of the others'
so u think a 14 year old girl having a baby (trudy in season 1) is child friendly?
to be honest i think ALL the seasons of this show dealt with quite risue issues but it was done in a way so that it wasnt too innapropriate.
there were sexual references right from season 1.
shareThe show orginally used to be shown during the afternoon (about 4ish?), I don't know why FIVE decided to put it on in the morning with kid programs, then cancel it because it had too many adult themes. :/
I started watching the show when I was twelve and all those refrences just went way over my head, didn't even notice 'em. Its only now when I'm rewatching the show that I'm picking up and understanding the refrences. If I didn't pick up on them at 12, I'm pretty sure a 5 year old isn't going to notice.
"Why are you wearing glasses?"
"Uh, reading."
"Hm. Didn't know you could read."
[deleted]
One thing I never understood with the Tribe was how it was marketed. I read (on wikipedia admittedly, not the most reliable source) that it ended in S5 because, among other things "The children were getting to old" and they wanted to restart it (The New Tomorrow) with a new set of children.
I don't think the show was ever about the younger children though - right from the beginning, the show was about the older children - Amber, Lex, Bray, Salene etc. Characters like Patsy and Paul were only ever involved in side-stories and as a bit of comic relief, the main bulk of the story being given to the older ones.
If they could have just kept bringing in a generation of new 'older' actors while the younger ones grew up (Like what happened with Cloe before she got fired) then it would have suited the show just fine.
Still, we got 5 lovely seasons out of it so I can't complain too much.
18 seems a little young to be mayor. What were you, like, 12?share
I heard one of the reasons it was cancelled was the kids were getting too old and the subject matter too adult!
shareYou can't expect a post-apocalyptic show to be all sweetness and light. Reality isn't all that "kid-friendly" in the TV sense, and frankly kids are not going to behave in anything like the manner their elders want for them in the absence of those elders. (Much like Lord of the Flies.) I sometime wonder if shielding kids from real-life issues is always that good a thing- for younger kids there is certainly a point to this, less so for teens.
I also think the audience might be expected to grow up with the show. I'd expect it was meant to appeal to a teen audience with a periphery demographic of younger kids, and kids who where in their teens in 1999 were getting on for adulthood in 2003. (I was 14 at the start, 18 at the end and did watch the show most of the way through- if anything was getting sick of it by the end as it was getting trite and unbelievable.) So they're bound to be exploring increasingly more adult themes.
If anything I feel the show went out of its way to be "kid-friendly"- not a single gun for example when someone would be bound to get hold of one. (They go from fighting with sticks to the Techno's high-tech zappers- which have a kill setting- right out of science fiction, despite still relying on CDs and CRT monitors.) Would have been a good way to explore issues of gun control, safety etc. Any on-screen deaths are accidental. Not to mention they spend way too much time obsessing over relationships, getting makeovers and other trite things when they should be busy trying just to survive.
I heard the reason it was cancelled was the kids were getting too old.
shareI noticed that. The kids were getting too old to play kids!!!
share