History Series / TheSociety

** Bean to a lesser extent--she wears a hijab, prays, and is vegetarian, but her religious beliefs aren't brought to the forefront at any point.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Pops up quite a bit.
** [[spoiler:Dewey's death sentence for killing Cassandra. It's true that sparing Dewey would give them a chance to make a better justice system than one before. It is also true they really didn't have proper resources to hold a prisoner indefinitely, as well as if they simply banish Dewey he would just return at later date.]]

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Some viewers questioned the urgency of finding open land for farming presented towards the end of season one, wondering why the school football field and various backyards wouldn’t be enough. However, it would take several dozen acres of cropland to feed a town the size of New Ham, far more than could be afforded through such small-scale horticulture.

* AdultFear: While the rest of the troubles are dependent on the the show’s premise, Elle’s storyline is a chillingly realistic depiction of someone being stuck in an abusive relationship.

* HateSink: Campbell clearly establishes himself as this early on when he takes advantage of his newfound freedom by banning his own brother Sam from their house (calling him a little fag in the process) and only gets worse as the story goes on by emotionally and physically abusing Elle while alienating her from the rest of the people in town. His own cousins and brother hate him. The only people who tolerate him are Elle (increasingly out of fear) and Harry (because Campbell supplies him with drugs).

* RuleOfSymbolism: [[spoiler: Probably the most downer one yet. But the ending basically depicts a psychopathic abuser and a bunch of scorned white young men imprisoning a woman and a black man under false pretenses. Especially in this day and age and the fact that the series got cancelled, the ending wouldn't have fared well in today's standards.]]

-->-- '''Henry David Thoreau''', "Walden, Life in the Woods"

!!Tropes:

* RealityEnsues: A recurring theme of the show is how unprepared the teens are for the realities of survival and government.
** On day one, the community logically decides to send a small group out to scout the surrounding area and look for civilization. This goes awry very quickly when one of the scouts, Emily, is bitten by a snake and has an allergic reaction. The group has no medical knowledge or medication that might help. Grizz is the first to realize that nothing can be done to save her, and sure enough, she dies soon after.
** After a largely male group starts a small riot while looking for flashlights and lamps, the girls obviously start to fear for their safety, when they realize that their society no longer has any of the rules they relied on to keep them safe. As Cassandra realizes the threat of rapes are in the air, fear sets in among the girls and they push for society to have rules and structure to prevent any further incidents.
** The show (rather surprisingly, given its genre) averts many CommonHollywoodSexTraits. For example, Allie gets a urinary tract infection after an ill-advised one night stand. Cassandra chastises her for not peeing afterwards.
** Forcing a bunch of formerly coddled teenagers to work and live by strict rules is a recipe for a lot of dissent, even if it is necessary for survival. Cassandra doesn’t expect such a severe backlash and [[spoiler: pays for it with her life]].
** Even a small community goes through a large amount of food in a year. [[spoiler: Before it reaches its first anniversary, New Ham already has a food crisis as the warehouses and supermarkets begin to empty. The town is forced to search for clear land to farm in, or face starvation]].
** The Guard might enforce the rules and keep order, but at the end of the day, they’re more of a gang than a professional police force. Allie shuts down [[spoiler: the efforts of some Guard members to gain political power, which they see as fair compensation for their efforts to protect the town. She essentially expects them to continue to work for her simply because she’s mayor and it’s their civic duty. Instead, they join a coup plot against her.]]
** Recreating surface-level structures of government from one place does not mean they will automatically have the same institutional strength and respect in another place. New Ham’s attempts to hold elections for Mayor and City Council [[spoiler: goes completely haywire, quickly leading to a coup]].

* NoBisexuals: {{Played with}}. While none of the characters are stated to be bisexual, the possibility isn't dismissed either. Sam pretends that he's interested enough in Becca to sleep with her in order to appear to be the father of her baby. When [[spoiler: Gwen]] comes on to Grizz and he rejects her [[SorryImGay because he's gay]], she asks if he's "all-the-way gay" or "just mostly gay" (it's the former).

* DownerEnding: Season 1 ends like this, with the entire town of teenagers stranded somehow far from home.

* NoBisexuals: Played with. While none of the characters are stated to be bisexual, the possibility isn't dismissed either. Sam pretends that he's interested enough in Becca to sleep with her in order to appear to be the father of her baby. When [[spoiler: Gwen]] comes on to Grizz and he rejects her [[SorryImGay because he's gay]], she asks if he's "all-the-way gay" or "just mostly gay" (it's the former).

* TheBeard: A particularly unique inversion in which Sam pretends he's not completely gay and says he's the father of Becca's baby because Becca doesn't want to admit she was knocked up in a random one-night stand.