I’ve seen the first two episodes so far. I was always hoping for a real survival show as an answer to Survivor, but this one just seems like an excuse to show nudity¹. I’m no prude, but couldn’t the same thing be accomplished by putting the people in flesh-colored bathing suits and not have it distract from the survival element?
By the way, I see something awful happening with this show. One producer almost lost his foot already.
¹And if you’re going to show it, then show it, dammit! None of this pussing out and blurring the interesting regions. :mad:
I watched the first one. How they could put those people in a jungle for 3 weeks, and be unable to come up with 30 minutes of interesting TV is beyond me. Even the shelter catching fire while the guy was sleeping in it was dull.
I’ve watched all three episodes so far and I like it. I don’t find it prurient at all, just an extra factor in making the challenge more difficult, adding an another layer of vulnerability.
I don’t see that it’s simply intended to titillate the viewer, any more than the 3-part series Naked Castaway with that crazy dude who walked the Amazon. In that, he was dropped off naked on a remote Fijian island for two months and had to survive.
OMG, if you don’t want to see a foot stripped of its flesh to the point of clearly seeing multiple bones, DO NOT by any means click on the following link:
If, instead, you just want the story and a very mild SFL (Safe For Life) picture, this TMZ story will satisfy your curiosity without grossing you out. (Just don’t click the link within the story that follows TMZ’s “Warning”)
This, exactly. Also, at some point they do cover themselves up somewhat.
But yeah, the nudity plays far less of a role than one would think. What I find interesting is the interplay between the two people, especially if they don’t “click” with each other yet are dependent on each other (the first episode illustrated this quite well).
It reminds me more of Survivorman than any of Discovery’s other survival shows.
I caught one episode of that and changed the channel – I just couldn’t watch him.
From the bits I’ve seen, they do that. And on the part of an episode I saw last night, the female was scavenging washed-up debris on the beach when she conveniently found some undies that she kindly provided to her badly sunburned companion to at least keep his junk protected.
The undies looked suspiciously fresh for beach-debris, so I did briefly do a :dubious: and wondered if one of the crew took pity and conveniently abandoned some of his undies so that he wouldn’t have to witness the horror of seeing that dude’s junk burn up. :eek:
It wasn’t just undies for him, she also found a long t-shirt for herself and two pairs of flip-flops. And a whole bunch of empty water bottles that they used to make a raft. :rolleyes: If that’s to be believed, the Maldives must be completely buried in beach trash jetsam.
I like the premise- you have absolutely nothing other than the one item you’re allowed to bring- a hatchet, for instance- and figure out a way to survive for three weeks. Oh- and you’re there with a member of the opposite sex, just to amp up the discomfort. But some of the “surprise conveniences” seemed a little too convenient.
Oh- and as my wife pointed out, nudity or no nudity, when it was raining with a 41 degree wind chill, they should have been spooning for warmth. “Listen- we have to do this, and let me apologize now for the boner I’ll inevitably get when I press against your naked butt. It’s better than freezing.”
Maybe it’s because I watched it at 3 a.m. when I couldn’t sleep, but I liked it. It’s a really weird premise, for sure, but it kind of works. I saw the one with the Marine and the Hawaiian surfer, and it certainly underlined how nudity enhances the difficulty and risk. It seems silly, but a sunburn can be really serious, especially in high heat with no fresh water supply! And hatchet-fishing in a coral cove in bare feet didn’t look like much of a picnic.
I’m with Mauvaise - the nudity didn’t distract me or strike me as sexual at all. But I admit I’m unusually comfortable with nakedness in general. Oh, and never mind them being squeamish by blurring body parts - I really want to know how that woman dealt with her period! Did they give her tampons on the sly? Did she just bleed down her legs for a week, and they edited out the graphic footage? Did she weave herself a set of palm frond and coconut husk maxi pads? (I would believe that of her.)
Same here. I’m guessing she took birth control to stop her period for that month.
What about pooping? I assume they excused themselves to go do that in private, but without access to toilet paper, do you just walk around with poop-butt until you find a stream to bathe in? Are you going to walk around with poop-butt, naked, around a member of the opposite sex?!
Depending where you are, there are various leaves that are large enough to work as a makeshift toilet paper.
I haven’t watched the show, the ads haven’t got me interested enough.
I’m not surprised a producer had his foot severely damaged by a snake bite. I’ve seen my share of copperheads and rattlesnakes in relatively populated campgrounds and hiking trails. You figure enough people go traipsing around in wilderness jungles, somebody is going to get bit by a poisonous snake. They’re all over the jungle, they hide, and you’re almost guaranteed that eventually someone is going to surprise one.
Maybe she used one of these? It would make sense in such a situation. At least that was my first thought :shrug:
Another thing that’s occurred to me while watching this: Do men seriously have a lower pain threshold than women? I’ve heard it’s true, but now I’m starting to believe it. I’m not making light of the infected foot or the sunburn that’s already aired – I realize they’d be painful for anybody – but the men involved struck me as either being very hypersensitive or playing up the pain for the cameras…?
It would seem sensible, but in this case, they specifically said she’d gotten her period and was having terrible cramps.
Well, this episode had a memorable moment when the girlstepped in the guy’s poop :eek::eek::eek: then yelled at him for pooping near the shelter and not burying it.
Technically it would violate the “bring one item only” rule, and gads, how would you rinse it out? My serious guess is they gave her tampons, hopefully without going through the ruse that they washed up on shore.
Haven’t seen the infected foot, but in the Marine’s case, I’m thinking he is an excellent military man, brave and tough, but perhaps only functions well when being given orders and with a clear plan? He didn’t seem great at decision-making. And I think the immediacy and severity of the burn caught him off guard and undid his psyche quite a bit. So he was whiny and stupid for a while.
If you like this sort of thing check out the unusual book Castawayor the movie adapation of it. They weren’t quite dumped on island naked, but they ran into the same problems being discussed for this show. It seemed like a rather unique concept 30 years ago, but the show Survivor and other like this new one indicate this is something many people have considered doing, or enjoy hearing about.
I just saw the episode filmed in Panama. Having camped on the islands where they filmed (admittedly not naked) I have to say I wasn’t at all impressed with the survival skills of the two participants.
They were eaten alive by sandflies. These are a pest on the islands, but only near the beach. They could have avoided most of the bites by moving their camp a few hundred yards into the forest.
They were virtually starving after a couple of weeks. This on an island with coconut palms. Coconuts may be monotonous, but they do give you plenty of food. They made a big deal of catching one baby caiman, but they should have had a fairly easy time catching green or black iguanas or larger caimans. They showed a boa constrictor, which could have provided food for several days. The woman eventually gathered up some sea urchins and caught some spiny lobsters, but I don’t think it should have been that difficult to catch a few fish, even if they were small ones.
They made a big deal out of the guy being so afraid of sharks that he didn’t want to fish, but sharks are not a big danger in Panama. I’ve gone swimming all along the coasts of Panama and never heard of there being a problem. They were also afraid of being chased by the mother caiman when they caught the baby, but since they had a machete and even adult caimans aren’t that big they could have whacked it and had an even bigger meal.
Most of the conflict seemed to come from the pair bickering, rather than any real survival challenges.
On the Maldives episode they made a point to mention that coconuts are good to eat, for awhile, but they’re also a natural diuretic and will make you sick if you eat too many of them.
