Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
The one thing I find hard about this show sometimes is that many of the folks are quite desperate for the money. It's a show that attracts people that live with very little income, and the money is not just life changing, but at times they seem quite desperate for it. In this season you have examples of a guy who needs the money so his son can get therapy for his autism, and another guy who needs the money so that his kids can be with him.
So it's way beyond a typical game show or even Survivor in terms of how badly they need this money. Stakes are way higher.
I guess that's compelling but hard not to feel badly for some of these folks.
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In the first season, IIRC, one of the most desperate guys ended up in second place. The first place guy seemed like he didn't need it. It made me wish that the second place guy could get something as part of a pot. There's always been a bunch of randos that seemed desperate for the prize money vs being happy for the prize money. I think one of the reasons for this is that many of these contestants had extreme survival as part of their regular activities already. To them, this game show was an extension of themselves and a means to an end towards something else relating to their lives. This is different to people going on a game show to show off as part of an egotistical part of their lives (ie: American Gladiator, physical 100 etc.).
Someone mentioned that the earlier seasons were nobodies. I mean, they were not high profile, sure. But most of them had to prove a minimum level of aptitude to get on the show. IIRC, they had training camps to weed out the dummies. Almost all of the earlier contestants had some reason and some of them desperate for being on the show.
They also had some serious problems in at least the first season so they started resolving those on the fly. I think one guy had to sweat it out for like 6-8 hours when there was a potential life threatening situation in the first season. In the second and retribution seasons, you started having people drop out for the most stupid of reasons like losing a flint or getting a tool stuck in your hand. While it was still "wild" (pardon the pun) that people were dropping out for these reasons, it was part of the raw original ethos of the show.
I think the original seasons had a strict policy of what could be brought on the attempts. It was kinda weird that some of them had only basic pocket knives and other dudes brought full on saws. A few guys were worried about not having a gun and season one was one of the few situations where I think it's legitimate that they have a gun on hand for cougars and bears. In one retribution season, you'd assume a multitool would have been brought by everyone, but it didn't seem allowed because everyone was running around with large fixed blades. A multi-tool would have kept at least one contestant from quitting early as that tool would have kept a simple error from a minor injury to major issue because the contestant couldn't remove the item out of their hand without a tool. I haven't seen the new stuff yet, but the salt lick must be a new option based on removal of restrictions, but maybe there's also some type of pioneer calibre technology ethos that restricts what can be brought that I am unaware of.
To be fair, there is some type of purity in their formula. This allows part of this to be viewed as a game show, but also a case study on the effects of extreme survival in the wilderness from many aspects including mental health.