I first thought about writing a review on Season 1 of Discovery Channels reality show called ‘The Colony‘ that was about a group of people playing Survivalist after a catastrophic event in L.A. Then I thought better of it after watching the show. I knew that many of you people out there saw it for the same thing I did. A show developed by Hollywood in an attempt to entertain the masses. I imagine that just like me, you thought most of it was utterly ridiculous. They show’s producers really went out of their way to tell anyone who would listen that this closely simulated a survival situation that could happen after a real disaster.
Of course, we knew better. But when you have a Hollywood production company putting everything you need to survive at your fingertips, then ‘Surviving’ isn’t that hard! I mean, how ‘lucky’ was it that they found the solar panels on a nearby building or that they were positioned inside a warehouse with all types of different parts and types?
I mean, geez, what’s the chances that there will be a small group of Survivors after any disaster that contain a Computer engineer, Aerospace engineer, mechanical engineer, Doctors, Mechanics, Construction experts, Machinist, etc.! And what’s the chances there would be no guns or other real forms of weapons for self defense? Yeah, slim to none and slim has left town!
So it was, those of us who practice this everyday were just mildly amused or outright disgusted with the series. I myself found it just mildly entertaining because we both know one person with half a lick of sense could have walked in there and took everything those people had if we wanted it!
The Colony – Season 2
Supposedly Season 2 of The Colony on the Discovery Channel will be shot on location in Chalmette Louisiana. If you don’t know where Chalmette is, it’s near New Orleans. Which when I first heard this, I thought that the producers missed out on a perfect example of filming a real survival show immediately after Katrina. Complete with real victims and real thugs. Of course, I suppose they wouldn’t really want to show a prime example of what to expect after any kind of disaster, would they?
The premise of Season 2 of The Colony is that it’s going to try and simulate a group of Survivors and what they’ll find after a Biological disaster. This ‘Social Experiment’ as Discovery likes to call it takes 7 people and places them in a survival situation. The background of these 7 ‘Survivors’ is at least a little more believable than those of Season 1.
Here’s a quick rundown of the volunteers. There’s a Model, Auto mechanic, Contractor, a Carpenter, a Geology Professor, a Foreman of a cell phone tower construction crew and an Industrial Artist.
I’ve looked at the bio’s for this years group and the combination of backgrounds is heavy into construction and mechanical skills. So hopefully we’ll not see any of that bogus stuff we say last year…like the building of the wood gas still.
If I had to put my money on one of the ones to watch, I’d pick the Carpenter. According to his bio, he’s versed in hunting, trapping and self defense.
I’ll probably follow this post up with some reviews, but honestly, I’m not holding out much hope. Right now the best Survival show I like on TV is the one with Cory Lundin and Dave Canterbury. But to be honest, like the Survival shows of Man vs Wild and Survivorman, I believe there are scenes staged in this show as well. Not that it matters, I just hate seeing something staged for the sake of TV.
By the way, you can find a lot of cool video’s on YouTube from Dave Canterbury. And many of us have been reading Cory’s books for years so we know these guys know what they’re doing. Wish there were more shows like this!
