The Colony

[Miss Anthrope]

Has anyone seen this show on the Discovery Channel? I saw it the other day at a friend's (who is a fan.)

I found the idea interesting, but the execution...not so much. In fact, I despised it. They kept having this pyschologist comment on the behavior of the members of the group, trying a little too hard to legitimize the sincerity of their worries, basically saying "At this point they've accepted the scenario, and really believe that they are in danger, so their emotions are completely valid." Bull. In the episode I watched, the group lost one of their comrades while scavenging in a building, and they became extremely emotional about it. One person even said something about the possibility that they might find his remains, in so many words, and members of the group were crying. That just sealed it for me. There is no way that these people could actually have forgotten that they're on a television show (besides, do they not notice the camera crew filming them?) and believe that the guy has been killed. And I'm not always that great at spotting bad acting, but something about the way they acted seems similar to, say, the way me and my brother and friends would act when we were playing an imaginary survival game of some sort as kids.

I have no problem with these people doing some role-playing for the sake of entertainment, but I do have a problem with the Discovery Channel decieving its viewers to add some, in my opinion unnecessary, emotional "kick". I read in a forum that on another episode which featured some bandits or something, the narrator said "the bandits are actors and under no circumstances will they harm the survivors, but the survivors don't know that". Give me a break. I call shananigans!!!!

 I don't really watch the Discovery Channel outside of content I find on the internet, but since when did it become the new Fox (which, btw, produces some of the best fictional entertainment on TV; and therein lies the problem behind such a comparison).

The Colony gets an "infinity "F" plus quadruple thumbs-down to the zero-eth power" rating for blatant dumbass-ery.

[Thom Phelps]

I haven't seen The Colony, but it sounds like other "reality" TV I've seen or heard about where there's very little reality: a waste of my time.

[AlP]

TV in the US is awful. I stopped watching it altogether a couple years ago. I use my TV for the occasional movie and to play music visualization at parties.

[Will]

I think the intention of the show, to explore what survival could be like after a cataclysmic event, is a very good one. There's a lot of outstanding speculative post-apocalyptic science fiction out there (The Wild Shore comes to mind). Maybe it's just the execution that needs work.

I'm a firm believer in telling networks what they think. You can always email the Discovery Channel.

[Miss Anthrope]

I haven't seen The Colony, but it sounds like other "reality" TV I've seen or heard about where there's very little reality: a waste of my time.

For the most part, yeah. It could have actually been a show that broke through the stereotype if it hadn't been for the sensationistic elements. In fact, the "drama" on this show ends up being even more fake than many other reality shows simply because the premise is completely unbelievable (I mean, not that the end of civilization is unbelievable, but rather the idea that these people are actually taking the danger seriously). It's like an unholy hybrid of fictional drama and "reality" TV.

TV in the US is awful. I stopped watching it altogether a couple years ago. I use my TV for the occasional movie and to play music visualization at parties.

Oh come now, it's not all that bad!  

I think the intention of the show, to explore what survival could be like after a cataclysmic event, is a very good one. There's a lot of outstanding speculative post-apocalyptic science fiction out there (The Wild Shore comes to mind). Maybe it's just the execution that needs work.

I'm a firm believer in telling networks what they think. You can always email the Discovery Channel.

I agree, I was initially very interested in the show when the premise was described. But then I watched it and it was just horrible. It wold have at least been passable if they hadn't tried to "trick" viewers into thinking that it was more real than it really is. that alone is enough to make me consider writing an e-mail to DisChan; a channel that I assosiate with "education" shouldn't be pushing misinformation in order to boost interest (though really, I feel it would be futile since any network's prime objective is $$$; by being an idealist, I might be just as dumb as the people who really believe that the cast of that show don't realize that rival actors have been instructed not to harm them).

[SSY]

The discovery channel in the UK is still passable. Last week I saw some bow head whales spearing each other with their 12 foot long penises, educational and fun.

[ACSlater]

My wife and I watch it each week. Seeing crude configurations of the necessities (and amenities) I would nearly take for granted are pretty cool.

Either way, some shows are just a nice escape if nothing else.

[Miss Anthrope]

The discovery channel in the UK is still passable. Last week I saw some bow head whales spearing each other with their 12 foot long penises, educational and fun.

   See, now THAT'S reality TV!

My wife and I watch it each week. Seeing crude configurations of the necessities (and amenities) I would nearly take for granted are pretty cool.

Either way, some shows are just a nice escape if nothing else.

Yeah, that's one of the positive elements. It's just too bad they don't replace the talking head psychoanalyst with more snippets of information behind the surival tactics and things that the survivors develop.

[kevinyuyu]

seems pretty intresting