# The Great Escape on TNT **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2012, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-escape-on-tnt/628385 "2012-07-16T04:42:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-escape-on-tnt/628385/1 "2012-07-16T04:42:15Z")
Sunday nights. If you like competitive reality show like Survivor or The Amazing Race, you might like this. The premise is that three teams of two have to escape from a tricky location, avoid guards, complete a puzzle, and find the host. First team to find the host wins $100,000. Each episode is its own complete challenge - the next week three new teams compete in a new location. Good things: The challenges (four each episode) are actually mentally and physically challenging. The locations are great - so far they have been Alcatraz, an aircraft carrier, an abandoned asylum, and a missile silo. The best team has won all four episodes so far. As mentioned above, each episode is a complete challenge, with no carryover week to week. That means there is no need to devote 20 minutes of air time at the end to voting or judging. The teams are mostly free of drama. Bad things: The host is Rich Eisen of the NFL Network, formerly of ESPN. WTF? The “guards”, who, if they spot a team, returns them to the beginning (although the teams don’t have to repeat the challenges while getting back to where they were) are sort of a random element. Teams will be screaming at each other with a guard 30 feet away, but the guard will remain oblivious if they hide behind a truck tire. Sometimes when a team misreads a clue, say as tonight when a team failed to get an electric drill meant to open a canister, someone chucks it against a wall in frustration and it breaks open. That shouldn’t happen. Basic reality show truisms apply to this show - “Read the fucking clue (map)” and pay attention to your surroundings. Not great, but better than most shows that try to follow in the footsteps of TAR and Survivor. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-escape-on-tnt/628385/2 "2012-08-27T18:13:52Z")
I finally got around to watching this. It’s as silly as any other reality TV show, but fascinating anyway. Consider me hooked. But really, winning teams come back for more? I didn’t notice that, but I’ve been watching them out of order. One question about the guards: If a team is hiding behind pillars or whatever, wouldn’t the guard get a good tip by noticing the cameraman standing RIGHT THERE? Or are the guards told not to catch anyone unless they’re clearly in plain sight and making no effort to hide? Thinking about camera operators makes this a weird show to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-escape-on-tnt/628385/3 "2012-08-27T18:23:42Z")
No, winning teams don’t come back. I’m not sure where you got that. Three new teams every week. The guards are weird. You could celebrate Chinese New Year three feet away from them, but if their backs are turned, you’re golden. I think they are on a set path and once they pass by a given point, they can’t look back. The exception, like last night, is if a team sets off an alarm of some sort. Bad news. I think last night was the last show in the series. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-escape-on-tnt/628385/4 "2012-08-27T18:25:55Z")
Huh. Sorry I missed this–sounds like a neat premise, without the “political” aspects that turn me off of Survivor and the like. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-escape-on-tnt/628385/5 "2012-08-27T18:32:27Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > No, winning teams don’t come back. I’m not sure where you got that. Three new teams every week. You said: > [@](#): > > The best team has won all four episodes so far. To me that sounded like the same team came back three more times. That was my misreading. > [@](#): > > Bad news. I think last night was the last show in the series. Bummer! It look like I missed most of the episodes. The only ones I’ve seen are the asylum, the Bayou, the power station, and Los Angeles. I didn’t watch last night’s yet. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-escape-on-tnt/628385/6 "2012-08-27T18:48:30Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > You said: > > To me that sounded like the same team came back three more times. That was my misreading. I can see that. I meant that the team who played the best won, like last night, even though they were by far the last team to get on the course. They don’t have situations where the best team gets a dud of a taxi driver as they are on the last leg of the challenge, and all the other good teams follow them to the wrong place, while a couple of happy-go-lucky doofuses sneak in for a win. You also don’t have contestants being carried along to the final simply because they are so useless there is no chance of them winning. Just noticed you hadn’t watched last night yet. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-escape-on-tnt/628385/7 "2012-08-27T19:14:18Z")
Yes, it very much looks like a game of skill, with not too much left to chance. One thing that did bother me, in the Bayou episode, was when the first team took the tools with them. Solid strategy or a bit of cheating? ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-escape-on-tnt/628385/8 "2012-08-27T19:19:32Z")
Haven’t watched it, but from the promos, it looks like they do actual damage to some of the locations. Like kicking a steel grate out. How is that handled? I wouldn’t want someone running around my national landmark playing a game show, and destroying property in the process. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-escape-on-tnt/628385/9 "2012-08-27T20:19:08Z")
I suspect that the to-be-destroyed bits are made specifically for the show. That’s what it seems like anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-escape-on-tnt/628385/10 "2012-08-28T00:28:35Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Haven’t watched it, but from the promos, it looks like they do actual damage to some of the locations. Like kicking a steel grate out. How is that handled? > > I wouldn’t want someone running around my national landmark playing a game show, and destroying property in the process. Yes, those aren’t real. It looks like a real metal grate gets replaced with a realistic looking replacement so teams won’t think to test them, but when given a good kick they give way immediately.