The Colony

[MisterMojo]

I can say unequivocally and without any doubt in my mind that my own personal opinion of reality television is that the entire genre is complete garbage. People you can't really connect to or associate with (and isn't that really the point of these things anyway?), and an overall element of fakery that doesn't make the thing seem real at all.

Enter now The Colony, brought to us by the same wonderful folks that brought us Mythbusters, Mythbusters, Shark Week, and.. uh... Mythbusters: The Discovery Channel. Well, those of us in America, anyway. I think. For those that know nothing of the show, let me break it down for you: Ten people have volunteered and are selected for a grand psychological experiment in Los Angeles. These people represent a fairly diverse section of society in terms of ethnicity, job/skill sets, gender, and backgrounds.

The experiment? Why, its nothing short of The End of the World. Yes, in the back of their minds they do know this is all an experiment and that in ten short weeks they'll be able to go home, but until then they're living in the end times. They are to deal with situations theorized to be the most likely events to happen after a major catastrophe such as a wide-scale destruction of civilization, while they only support they (supposedly) get is if there are any medical emergencies.

Its becoming quite the interesting program and I would highly recommend you watch it. And if you already are, then discuss.

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

reality television.

wasn't the point of things like television to escape reality?

 

[grimsprice]

Is it good? Because like you said, mythbusters and um... mythbusters, is about the only thing good on the discovery channel.

 

[oliveira8]

Why do they always choose people with different ethinicity, jobs, gender and other stuff? When doomsday gets here and only white virgin male bankers survive what will happen? HMM?! HMM?!
Cause TV didn't prepare them! Theres no black dude to get eaten or women to keep humanity rolling. Or McGyver!

 

[Wilbot666]

Reality TV is by and large complete drek, although I did enjoy an episode of Master Chef when it was on. This voyeuristic form of "entertainment" needs to be put out of OUR misery.

OT: Love the Deadpool avatar MisterMojo, good to know that I'm not the only fan of the proper Deadpool (Don't even get me started on what they did to him in the Wolverine movie).

 

[A Weary Exile]

Sounds vaguely interesting although I'm skeptical of all reality TV even the ones that claim to be "Social Experiments" Unless there's a real focus on psychology I don't think I could watch it.

 

[MisterMojo]

@TheNumber1Zero: Patton Oswalt FTW. "Where's all the Ninja Vampires causing explosions?!!?"

@grimspice: You'd be amazed by how good it is.

@oliveira: because i'm sure there's a rulebook somewhere that says you have to have a diverse cast so that nobody feels under-represented.

 

[oliveira8]

@oliveira: because i'm sure there's a rulebook somewhere that says you have to have a diverse cast so that nobody feels under-represented.

You mean Spike Lee?

 

[TheLastCylon]

Yeah, I really like this show, although I'm pretty sure one of the "volunteers" is an actor.

 

[MisterMojo]

Sounds vaguely interesting although I'm skeptical of all reality TV even the ones that claim to be "Social Experiments" Unless there's a real focus on psychology I don't think I could watch it.

They actually focus on three aspects: Psychology, Security/Survivalism, and Makeshift Engineering using the supplies readily available to you. Apparently one of the advisors that makes overlying commentary at certain points was someone with the U.S. Government that was with the department during Katrina (wait... maybe that's not something one should put on their resume... hmmm... )

 

[MisterMojo]

@oliveira: because i'm sure there's a rulebook somewhere that says you have to have a diverse cast so that nobody feels under-represented.

You mean Spike Lee?

Precisely.
EDIT: I think.

 

[deleted_scifidownbeat]

DELETED

 

[A Weary Exile]

Sounds vaguely interesting although I'm skeptical of all reality TV even the ones that claim to be "Social Experiments" Unless there's a real focus on psychology I don't think I could watch it.

They actually focus on three aspects: Psychology, Security/Survivalism, and Makeshift Engineering using the supplies readily available to you. Apparently one of the advisors that makes overlying commentary at certain points was someone with the U.S. Government that was with the department during Katrina (wait... maybe that's not something one should put on their resume... hmmm... )

Where can I watch it?

 

[oliveira8]

@oliveira: because i'm sure there's a rulebook somewhere that says you have to have a diverse cast so that nobody feels under-represented.

You mean Spike Lee?

Precisely.
EDIT: I think.

Precisely indeed.

 

[Berethond]

@TheNumber1Zero: Patton Oswalt FTW. "Where's all the Ninja Vampires causing explosions?!!?"

@grimspice: You'd be amazed by how good it is.

@oliveira: because i'm sure there's a rulebook somewhere that says you have to have a diverse cast so that nobody feels under-represented.

You know that you can just quote people instead of putting @whoever:, right?

 

[MisterMojo]

@TheNumber1Zero: Patton Oswalt FTW. "Where's all the Ninja Vampires causing explosions?!!?"

@grimspice: You'd be amazed by how good it is.

@oliveira: because i'm sure there's a rulebook somewhere that says you have to have a diverse cast so that nobody feels under-represented.

You know that you can just quote people instead of putting @whoever:, right?

Yes, but I was trying to cut down on eight inches of "quote" formatting. Its a quick way of responding to multiple people in one handy and concise post.

That being said, wouldyoukindly99: If you're American, you can watch it on the Discovery Channel. Anywhere outside of that, I'm not sure.

 

[ae86gamer]

I like it. I think its interesting how they gathered a group of such intelligent people, but I think that they should start picking them off one by one.

And by the way, does anyone know what happened to make the world apocalyptic? They said it was a viral outbreak but never said much else.

 

[Booze Zombie]

It certainly sounds more interesting than that televisual dump that is Big Brother.

 

[MisterMojo]

ae86gamer: No they didn't. As it iss a simulation-type experiment, the how of things got "this way" is not as important as the fact that it is "this way." Because when the world gets to that point, it'll be beyond the stage where fingers can be pointed.

Booze Zombie: Much more interesting. If anything, it gets you wondering about what your role in a similar situation would be... assuming you were one of the survivors.

 

[Lazier Than Thou]

I found the idea to be completely insane. First of all, there's no real threat of violence against them and in a real world collapse that's going to become something that happens rather frequently. Second of all, it's hard to illustrate a feeling of being "the only ones alive" when you have a film crew surrounding you. I mean, they did the best they could do, but that still doesn't mean that you're going to see the real deal coming out. I'm sure that if it were real at least one of them would have mentally fallen apart and tried to kill the others or someone would have tried to become the leader.

However, I have found it to be pretty interesting in how they go about recreating technology. The way they purified their water I found to be particularly captivating.

Edit:

I would like to point out that Survivor Man is another good show to watch on Discovery channel. Man VS Wild is good as long as you don't take it seriously.