Alaskan Bush People‘s seventh and final season promised to include the biggest challenge and darkest moments yet in the series about a family roughing it in the wilderness.
Rumor proved true when Ami Brown’s lung cancer diagnosis was revealed.
Now fans of the family and the series have another concern about the family’s fate, and this time the worries are about the entire Brown clan.
You’d think that a television series that began right after their old home had been burned to the ground (for being on public land illegally) would end on a happier note than it began.
But that’s not how things always work out in life.
Especially not when we’re talking about people who are dedicated to living in the wilderness.
Ami Brown is receiving treatment in the “lower 48,” meaning in the US but not in Alaska (or Hawaii).
Obviously, with such heavy news and the final season of the series, there’s been talk of the Brown family closing down Browntown and rejoining civilization.
Billy Brown said as much.
And that is the new source of concern among some of the fans.
You might think that fans of the series, knowing that the series is ending anyway and wanting the best for the Brown family, would rejoice at that news that the Brown family would rejoin civilization.
(While, of course, still grieving for Ami Brown’s diagnosis)
But their reaction has actually been the opposite.
Fans use Facebook groups to discuss the series.
It’s understandable that they’ve become intensely attached to these people after watching them for so many years.
What’s a little more perplexing is the fan reactions to learning that the Brown family is all reportedly living in the lower 48.
Fans of Alaskan Bush People are asking the Brown family children to return to Browntown, because fans believe that it will honor the dedication and dreams of their parents.
They even hope that Noah’s fiancee, Rhain, will join the Brown family in the wilderness.
This speaks volumes about these particular fans.
In part, it says that they’ve become attached to Ami and Billy and their dream and lifestyle, rather than just to the younger characters.
There’s arguably a romantic quality to the idea of living in the woods and making it on your own.
People love The Hunger Games, after all. But those books and films are pretend.
The problem in Alaskan Bush People is that they had kids and raised their children in that way of life.
Kind of hard to get a fair start in life when you spend a lot of your childhood in temporary shelters, you know?
Regardless, they’re now (mostly) adults and reality stars and they’re all starting new chapters in their lives.
It’s more than a little unsettling to see so many fans wanting them to not do that.
What the Brown family members deserve is to live their own lives.
We’re sure that they’ll all have more opportunities in the future based on their existing fame.
Everybody could get a book deal, for starters.
Noah and Rhain can do their alternative/goth thing wherever their lives take them.
If this were happening a few years ago, we’d suggest that Bear Brown might get some modeling gigs.
Sometimes fans grow too attached the idea of the show and not the people.
If the folks on Naked and Afraid stayed on the show for more than half a decade, fans would probably be upset when it came time for them to put on clothes.
Fandom’s a weird thing, and endings are always bittersweet.
