The thought of regularly entering a death lottery just to be able to visit an overcrowded beach was bad, the father's apparent enthusiasm for the thrill of the death-risk was worse, but what bothered me most was the standardized repression of emotional enthusiasm and the desire to fidget, down to drugging the little girl who made spontaneous remarks.
The topic of overcrowding is nothing new in science fiction, of course -- the first story I remember reading about it was Anne McCaffrey's Decision at Doona, where the family become colonists because otherwise their boisterous son will probably be ordered to psychological adjustment. Although now that I look at the show notes, this was a 1961 story, which really isn't surprising, and Doona was a 1969 novel. Anyway, I thought the grim tone picture was pretty well portrayed here, even if the story was a bit old-fashioned.
