The Diabolical PBS Show That’ll Restore Your Faith in Reality TV

That was the year PBS producers selected three families to spend five months living in Montana, mimicking, as faithfully as possible, the experience of late-19th-century homesteaders. The resulting six episodes make up the most diabolically entertaining television ever created: “Frontier House.” Every great reality TV ingredient is abundant: a high degree of interpersonal conflict, a prison of one’s own making, characters who invite snap judgment and — crucially — reality. What makes “Frontier House” sublime is the variety of ways in which reality manifests: Fourth walls are pulverized as participants try to outfox production. One mother’s right to take (period-inauthentic) birth-control pills is debated. Surreally, the Sept. 11 attacks occur during filming; the cast is permitted to read newspaper coverage.