Primetime: The Outsiders
Episode: Teens caught between freedom and faith
ABC, Tuesdays, 10 p.m., aired June 24. An ABC News production by Jay Schadler.
Synopsis: For a year, ABC News had unprecedented access into the lives of a group of Amish adolescents in central Ohio during the Amish rite of passage known as rumspringa.
BY SARA HAVENS & MAT HERRON
Mat: Setting aside that Rumspringa sounds like a Captain Morgans product, The Outsiders reminds me why Im a lapsed Catholic. Amish, as a belief system, is too strict. Kids have to learn to adapt in social situations, and it doesnt appear they can.
The fact that Lena says shell lose her family if she leaves the Amish doesnt speak well for her parents, and the elders ABC interviewed even spoke about driving a Thunderbird. You can be spiritual and still have fun.
Sara: OK, let me just get this out in the open Im afraid of the Amish. Spiders, snakes, drag queens I can handle. But if I see a buggy on the side of the road with tall, skinny men in funny hats, it freaks me out. Were talking panic attacks. Maybe its because I grew up around them in Ohio, or maybe it stems from that creepy whistling dude from Poltergeist II.
Mat: These Amish parents could do a better job of at least informing kids of whats out there. Harleys midnight rescue mission makes it clear that these kids are unreasonably stifled. Otherwise, why would Danny feel like he needed to jump out of a second-story window?
Sara: So what would you do, Mat? Leave behind your family and peace and tranquility for canned beer and baseball games? It seems like when the teens escaped their conservative Amish life, they just set up a similar shop a few miles down the road in the form of a bachelor pad. How about you get out of Ohio. Go south to the big city with a 50-foot bat, like I did.
Mat: Sayonara. By train, plane, auto or unicycle. The world is simply too large, too wonderful and too diverse.
Sara: I must admit that Nelsons tricked-out buggy was amazing. He had sub-woofers and an iPod Im sure the horse loves the AC/DC as it trots to the store.
Mat: I was surprised Nelson decided to stay Amish, but marriage is a powerful motivator. Note that he said if he finds a woman, so he left open other possibilities. Given how much I dropped in gas this week, a horse-drawn buggy wouldnt be all that bad.
Sara: Good point. I wonder if you can get a DUI on horseback. Anyway, poor Danny hell end up in the tight, white button-up before too long. Either that or a prison jumpsuit. Im guessing he didnt drop the soap during his short stint in jail for vandalizing a buggy. The Amish arent that naïve, are they?
Heres to hoping Lena makes it out alive. Go to the light, Carolanne, go to the light!
Celebrate rumspringa with Mat and Sara at leo@leoweekly.com or at cableboxing.blogspot.com
This article appears in July 2, 2008.