NBC's sleeper summer series Camp airs its season finale tonight at 10 pm, and we are not ready to say good-bye. The hour-long comedy-drama has yet to be renewed by the network and Stay Tuned is making the case for why we need a second season.
Now if you are expecting clean, wholesome fun with games, bonfires, and sing-alongs, then this Camp is probably not for you. Camp definitely has its moments of fun with swimming in the lake, canoeing, movie nights, talent shows, and mess hall antics. It also is a raunchier and sexier camp, like the old school '80s summer camp movies. Is there sex? Yes. How about alcohol? Yup. Are people getting naked? Of course...but it's just the sign of changing times. Summer camps aren't like your parents' version of camp, and that's what we love about NBC's Camp.
Here's a quick breakdown of the show: Recently divorced Mack Granger opens and runs her summer camp, Camp Little Otter, which is struggling against the resort across the lake, Camp Ridgefield. She tries to keep her camp afloat while also raising her adolescent son Buzz, usually sacrificing her home life for work. Mack enters into a love-hate relationship with Ridgefield's owner, Roger Shepard, and ultimately succumbs to the mutual attraction that builds up between the two. The relationship is thrown a wrench, primarily in the form of Little Otter handyman Cole, who gets a love jones for Mack and enters into a rivalry with Roger. Meanwhile on the camper front, new camp counselors Kip and Marina try to fit in with the returning, seasoned counselors including annual summer couple Robbie and Sarah. Kip and Marina instantly bond as both don't necessarily fit with the mold of the typical counselor, and each one harbors a secret they rather not reveal. But of course its summer camp so those secrets come to light sooner rather than later. There are also several recurring characters that add more filler than actual storyline, so why make things more complicated?
...Basically that's Camp.
So what is great about Camp? Pretty much it's an outlet to escape reality for three months. Mack gets away from the repercussions of her divorce. Buzz escapes the hell of living with divorced parents. Marina is transported to another world that doesn't recognize her for sexting video...yet. Kip can be treated normally since nobody knows he had cancer...yet. Robbie and Sarah escape for one last hurrah before embarking on the journey known as real-life. Summer camp allows for new beginnings (albeit temporary), new friendships, and even new relationships. Almost everyone can relate to the need for a break from reality, and for those of us who remember summer camp (*raises hand!), you pretty much live in an entirely different world where nobody knows the real you.
Camp also allows room for personal growth. Three months is a long time in camp terms, and most of those days often drag on sloooooooowly. The downtime allows the discovery of new interests, whether it's learning how to swim, using a bow and arrow, or making swap-meat wallets. Camp fosters the environment of skill-building and exposing individuals to new experiences, even different perspectives. Let's face it, sharing a bunk bed is hard enough, but having to share a small, dingy, smelly cabin with 5 or 6 other people is down right rough. As we get older, however, we learn that the best bonds in life are those we make with others in close quarters - parents, siblings, roommates, fraternity brothers. Living at camp teaches us to put on our big kid britches and learn to share small spaces...and it also teaches us tolerance of funky odors. At camp we mature, we become self-sufficient, we clean after ourselves, and a whole lot of other stuff mom and dad did for us at home.
Now for the B-side. Truth be told, camp is hell on wheels for newbies, and NBC's Camp highlights that sentiment to a T. Summer camp is harsh, competitive, and among other things, cliquey. Breaking in is a hard thing to do but it can be done within those three long months. Those that can brave it will be back the following summer, and those who can't cut it just don't return. It's a harsh truth but that's camp. Communal bathrooms and showers, mess hall pranks, being picked on a team for a sports activity, putting on your bathing suit -- these are just some things to brave in order to survive camp. Camp does a great job in showing the meanness, cattiness, and downright ugliness that can be summer camp, and we applaud it. Why sugarcoat it when it isn't a great representation? Watching Kip and Marina thrusted from the shells of their worlds into the mix of Camp Little Otter, and adjusting to camp life each week helped us identify with their feelings and emotions. "This sucks!," "That's so lame!," "I hate this place!", yeah we have used one or all of those phrases more than one time at camp. Little do they realize that these experiences are a building block to becoming a better person.
Summer is the time for change, whether we grow taller, get slimmer/fatter, or deepen our voices. Beyond the physical changes, however, comes the double-sided coin of choosing our paths. Camp is about doing the right or wrong thing. Do we pull the prank on the newbie? Do we spy on the girls in the shower? Do we dive into a summer relationship? Do we start a food fight in the mess hall? (Well that last one is a given "hell yea!"). Camp takes right and wrong to another level -- Should Sarah cheat on her camp boyfriend with her crush who lives across the lake? Should Mack continue her affair with her enemy? Should Kip accept being blackmailed by a girl just to keep his cancer a secret? Should Zoe post flyers of Marina's sexting pics? Ultimately we are the ones with the final decision and we will have to live with the repercussions of our actions. We usually end up doing the wrong thing and later have that moment of self-realization once the fallout clears. It's only then that we can understand the other person and co-exist with him/her for the rest of the summer.
Summer Camp is all about risks and taking chances, and while it may be a temporary escape from the hell or bubble we live in, we reluctantly return to those worlds just a little bit better and wiser. So c'mon NBC, give us another summer of Camp!
