Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan
Then…bring weapons.
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It was an error or oversight or whatever for the first season. To keep the recipe pure or whatever.
A couple of guys were literally being monitored/stalked by wolves and bears and I think a few suspected mountain lions to be keeping tabs on them. I believe a few of them (not just one) had really close calls while waiting to be extracted.
And due to how remote some of the locations they dropped these guys off, it took hours to get there and pick them up which added to the tension. Like, there's literally shots of the animals in some of the videos.
Huddling in the dark with a sharpened stick (if I recall correctly) while waiting for extraction... I felt for that guy. He got accidentally done dirty. And he wasn't the first to get eliminated within the first 4 days IIRC. Two others self eliminated within the first 4 days due to seeing predators at/around their drop off locations.
In later seasons, the producers learned from their mistakes and I believe they allowed emergency fire arms. I looked it up and I believe they also started increasing the regular check ups to weekly or 3-4 day check ups on the contestants in the later seasons and individuals with a BMI below 17 are automatically eliminated. However, the contestants get no indication of how the others are doing. Only a quick check up, health update and then they leave.
The first season's formula is the most pure, but also the most... reckless? Like I said, it's an excellent case study on the survival mind set and how fast your judgement can cloud due to circumstances, exhaustion and other factors. It reminds me of something like a cross of Les Stroud's Survivorman, the book "The Hatchet", but significantly less scripted, less external tools and more raw. Almost like 90% survival documentary and 10% survival reality show.