30 days review

[Guest guest]

[iGN - opinion]

 

June 18, 2008 - In a sense, the " Animal Rights " episode of 30 Days

perfectly captures almost every aspect of the show's general conceit

from clashing ideologies to emotional revelations to the development

of new friendships and modes of understanding , despite one's initial

perception that there's simply no way for this to end peacefully.

After all, pairing a life-long, meat-eating hunter with a family of

vegan animal-rights activists seldom, if ever, leads to a friendly

campfire session of " Kumbaya. "

.....

Sent on a number ride-along's and rescues with farm representative

Frank Allen,who presents a far more logical and level-headed foil

for George , the degree and extent of the cruelty exercised against

local farm animals becomes incredibly apparent. The lack of laws

offering the same level of humane protection toward dogs and cats to

dairy and farm animals seems, for the first time, to affect George,

and when he's later put in charge of a half-dead rescued calf, the

experience becomes that much more real. Melissa's field-trip to a

local dog shelter sheds some light on the brutal reality of the

hundreds of abandoned animals euthanized each day because of the

neglect, poor care or irresponsible laziness of their owners.

 

Slowly, these experiences begin to weigh on George's thoughts, and the

real charm of the episode comes in the eventual middle-ground carved

out by both parties. Melissa and Lorri come to respect George as a

hunter and meat-eater while George becomes legitimately impassioned

about the proper care and humane treatment of farm animals. That the

episode concludes on a note of honest friendship and change makes it

not only an educational experience, but an emotionally-fulfilling hour

of television.

 

--

full story:

http://tv.ign.com/articles/882/882790p1.html

 

 

“We now know that a neo-conservative is an arsonist who sets the house on fire

and six years later boasts that no one can put it out.†- Bill Moyers