- Joined
- Feb 28, 2006
- Messages
- 4,012
Very different. I've just seen a recording of the above and some of that Colony thing, and just yuk. The Colony has as much appeal to me as a hybrid of wrestling and Paris Hilton's BFF. I like my stuff grounded.
Although not ideal as a test, I do believe this offers a more tantalizing glimpse of the reality of things than many other shows.
I tend to be much more interested in this survival stuff in relation to how people at different times solved similar sorts of problems. Something that people live, not something they are pretending to be with a modern firesteel, that holds scant similarity to really getting a spark from a rock.
I find the antidote to all these psuedo-militar-gobshite types in folks like John White, master of shrooms, that buddies up with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and has written extensively about eating from hedgerows and whatnot.
Same kind of theme runs through my adoration of the stuff on this page. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+victorian+farm In much of the stuff those guys are doing I really feel the survival and skills are demonstrated in the form of a living museum.
Whilst the above goes back before the industrial revolution, we are still rather tethered to Baldric and his very own turnip era. But this is before agriculture. I've been to where they film some of the above more than once, and interacted with the folks a few times. And I've never seen a simulation run in such precarious conditions as this. If I could have gone and watched them living this one I would have. The grind must be epic.
I can forgive the show to letting them wear their own shoes. Some may see that badly. I see why, and have some sympathy. I don't think you'd have much of a show if you didn't though. Rather than complaining about the authenticity, control for it, and take the learning without shoes they would have been spastic. Likewise the blanket issue below:
.gif is a poxy format, but it just about serves a purpose here if you can get past the quality.
1] Man provides intake with skins.
2] Lek chats about having never eaten anything living.
3] Mrs Toad knows stuff but her body fails her day one.
4] Team introduced to artificial puddle as water supply. Strongly hinted at to guard this cos everything wants it.
5] They seem pretty chirpy in their skin filled huts.
6] They have some apples and nuts given to them along with salt. They are supplied with meat and some flint to butcher it.
7] They get a friction fire going. More importantly the tutor is providing an ideal model of strategy. As they separate an ember into a safe half and a working bit, that may go out, the pointy finger goes extends, targeting; You, you are in charge of that. Do nothing else but blow on that mother coal and keep it alight. Do not deviate!. Task completes.
8] All seems chirpy but mundane failure is so close.
9] They try to preserve some meat.
10] A woman fondles her meat and it is too wet.
11] They strip it into smaller bits with the flints but it is not drying quickly enough. It already has eggs on it.
12] It's not like they dragged their heels, and they are already getting a maggot infestation.
13] By the following day the maggot thing has come on a storm. All the processed skins and furs they were given at the start are riddled with thousands of maggots.
14] Safety team bloke comes in and starts combing a blade across a fur to scrape the maggots off. He just generates a rice pudding type paste. The thing has barely got going and they are already having to lunge for the emergency blankets.
Yep, I liked this much better than the Colony. Its far less dramatic, but I think it is a conspiracy of the less dramatic events that can drag one under so readily. I'm looking forward to the next one. Prior to turning up they had been given a manual and a DVD to swat. Tutor guy has been really emphasizing how they need to tighten up just as much as they need to know stuff. Soon he'll leave them to it.
