Alone [spoilers after episode airs]

[MillerTime GFG]

Originally Posted by Slava

One thing I forgot, is that this show was better when it was just random people who wanted to give it a shot. Having all the professionals just isn't as interesting in a lot of ways.

I kind of disagree here. I'm amazed watching the professionals do the things they do.

I have a feeling this season is going to see some folks make it quite a long time. Really liking it so far. A little predictable the two oldest contestants would be the first two out.

[Slava]

Yeah, I can see that. I guess I like seeing what the professionals do, but I also like to see the pure failure. I also agree that some of these people are there for a long time. As long as the food is plentiful, I can't see many leaving.

I was thinking though...say you catch a fish or two at this point. Is it better to just eat until you're satiated and full, or ration it out where you likely start to grind away?

[Slava]

Some hilarious moments tonight! I watched with my daughter who was not super pleased with the insistence of Cade to handle the bear scat though!

[Yamer]

I know I'm not a survivalist in the slightest, but some of these folks seem to be forced out for the silliest ####.

Drinking water straight from the lake? Not properly tethering your gillnet? Not securing your smoker from other predators? Leaving fish overnight in an open reservoir?

Maybe that's not fair considering the hunger and exhaustion they face, but these are seemingly avoidable mistakes.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Yamer

I know I'm not a survivalist in the slightest, but some of these folks seem to be forced out for the silliest ####.

Drinking water straight from the lake? Not properly tethering your gillnet? Not securing your smoker from other predators? Leaving fish overnight in an open reservoir?

Maybe that's not fair considering the hunger and exhaustion they face, but these are seemingly avoidable mistakes.

I chalk it up to fatigue and starvation, but you're right. The guy who might have giardia or whatever who was drinking water from the lake and eating fish that was a few days old is just mind boggling. Like it's such an obviously dumb thing to do...but it happens every season. I can sort of see the guy who lost fish to the Marten, but only sort of. The guy who left the fish in the water and thought "I'll do it in the morning" is just hilarious.

But, I also wonder about these people who spend their entire day building a shelter and starving to death in the meantime. I just don't know what the plan is here, when you've taken 3 weeks to build a place and haven't really eaten.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Slava

I chalk it up to fatigue and starvation, but you're right. The guy who might have giardia or whatever who was drinking water from the lake and eating fish that was a few days old is just mind boggling. Like it's such an obviously dumb thing to do...but it happens every season. I can sort of see the guy who lost fish to the Marten, but only sort of. The guy who left the fish in the water and thought "I'll do it in the morning" is just hilarious.

But, I also wonder about these people who spend their entire day building a shelter and starving to death in the meantime. I just don't know what the plan is here, when you've taken 3 weeks to build a place and haven't really eaten.

I don't recall if it was in this show or a different one, but I believe they say your decision making skills deteriorate within 18 hours and I believe some contestants in the past said it was really easy to go on autopilot and not know when to stop. There are also a lot of comments regarding having to make extreme gambles to improve their situations. Many contestants would say that they quickly hit the point of energy conservation where it was time on food or time or shelter, but unlikely both without more risk than doing only one out of the two.

On previous and early seasons, cabins and yurts were successfully completed by multiple contestants. The winners and second place guys were often people who gutted it out in caves or shoddy tents made out of their tarps. Winners were typically not the ones that got to the highest level of "settlement". The ones with cabins and yurts would randomly find peace or god or zen or whatever, decide they had nothing left to prove to themselves and leave the competition in an almost enlightened state rather than being forced off. One of those dudes got so bored of carving spoons and smoking food and #### in his comfy shelter than he made a musical instrument.

However, this guy who was successful in building this shelter said several times if he runs out of energy/food by going too fast or gets injured or doesn't complete in time before the rain (hypothermia risk) he was going to get eliminated. So I think when it seems like some contestants were doing dumb risky things and got eliminated as a result, it was actually forward thinking and taking a gamble before they got backed into a corner. It does seem like things have changed, so who knows what will happen in this season.

IIRC, in the seasons I watched, one guy took a major gamble and moved several KM away to improve his chances at food and water. He wasn't a finalist, but he did things slowly and you literally watched him get to the point of being backed into a corner before he make that major move.

Like I said earlier, there's a purity to the way the show is designed and it's kinda cool that some of it can be viewed as a case study in physical, emotional and mental factors for extreme survival. I haven't seen the newest one, but it definitely seems like they've significantly opened up what can be brought by the contestants than previously. I do highly recommend going to the earlier seasons and watching those as well.

[Slava]

I've watched most of the seasons (maybe all of them?). It's a great show and I like seeing this every summer!

[Cali Panthers Fan]

I always marvel at how limited the mental preparedness of the contestants is.

They always get lonely, or, alternatively, they feel like their family cannot do without them out of some ego trip.

Some meditation and mental resolve, and these people would likely be winning. They aren't starving or freezing to death, and yet they leave. It kills me every time.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

I always marvel at how limited the mental preparedness of the contestants is.

They always get lonely, or, alternatively, they feel like their family cannot do without them out of some ego trip.

Some meditation and mental resolve, and these people would likely be winning. They aren't starving or freezing to death, and yet they leave. It kills me every time.

They talk themselves into a made-up rationalization out of it; it's crazy to see it happen again and again. The amount of people in the world that give up months away from home for an extreme fraction of what these folks could gain financially from winning.

I have a respect for Cade because I thought for sure he would do the same after losing his quiver. Young family at home and every reason to quit. It's still early, but guy fashioned arrows that are clearly effective and isn't giving up.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Slava

I've watched most of the seasons (maybe all of them?). It's a great show and I like seeing this every summer!

Yeah, IIRC, it was often someone with something to prove that would do something dumb. Especially those special forces/army type guys.

"Imma filter water through moss because I can't do fire right now and I bet it's clever... I got sick due to sodium ingestion, and in my state, I walked up 100 meters upstream to investigate and found a lot of rotting carcasses... oops! Gotta bail."

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

I always marvel at how limited the mental preparedness of the contestants is.

They always get lonely, or, alternatively, they feel like their family cannot do without them out of some ego trip.

Some meditation and mental resolve, and these people would likely be winning. They aren't starving or freezing to death, and yet they leave. It kills me every time.

I think it's the lack of social interaction that accelerates the decay of their mental resolve. I think in some of the earlier seasons, a few guys said that being forced to journal on the cameras was one of the few things that kept them sane and connected to civilization. I think (could be wrong) one guy said that he'd tested being alone before, but not knowing when the end date vs knowing he'd be back with people in his own attempts was a huge part of messing with his head. There's something unnerving about an undetermined time limit that's harder to cope with than a fixed time limit to push towards.

It's not like hunger games where they camp out and a firework goes off after every elimination to figure out the time they have to stay out there. There's completely no sense of understanding of how much time is left to their situation. A bunch of the guys eliminated in the first few weeks or a month or so often think they're the weakest link and one of the first to quit. They're often surprised that a good 4-6 contestants have quit before them, some for legitimate and not weak willed reasons.

Like being left beside a game trail by accident and being legit stalked by predators... no weapons... I'd self eliminate too. Winning money is pointless if you're dead.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Then…bring weapons.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Then…bring weapons.

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.

[KelVarnsen]

I’m catching up on the past two episodes.

I thought Cade had the most potential to win if he didn’t get injured or something. The sequence of him trying to eat his belt, then cranberries and then pass out was quite something.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

I’m catching up on the past two episodes.

I thought Cade had the most potential to win if he didn’t get injured or something. The sequence of him trying to eat his belt, then cranberries and then pass out was quite something.

Didn't have enough reserves going in. You gotta fatten up!

[Fuzz]

One thing Alone has taught me is that the remote outdoors is filled with massive booming low base. My sub is just a rumble monster during this show!

[EldrickOnIce]

I started this from beginning. Had not heard of it previously. Finishing season 2 soon.
Can't imagine the effects of that kind of long term solitude on the psyche. I expect you can prepare for almost anything, except that.

[EldrickOnIce]

Finishing up season 4 now. Probably will drop this at end of season. Has simply become a starvation contest, which is pretty stupid and uninteresting.

[Fuzz]

Ya, some seasons get like that and are definitely my least favourite. This season is not that, so it's a lot more interesting. I think there were several years where it became a strategy, fatten up and starve. But this season it seems the general feeling from contestants is that no one wants to do that strategy anymore, which is good.

[keratosis]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Finishing up season 4 now. Probably will drop this at end of season. Has simply become a starvation contest, which is pretty stupid and uninteresting.

I think that season kinda put an end to that. The medical checkups have been less forgiving since.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Finishing up season 4 now. Probably will drop this at end of season. Has simply become a starvation contest, which is pretty stupid and uninteresting.

I think around season 5 or 6 they sorted out the starvation thing. They would host camps and stuff for the participants before sending them out. That way they'd have more food options in the wild and reduce the risk of tapping out due to parasites and other stupid errors like that.

And then a ton of them got over confident and there were a ton of injuries that had contestants tap out early. It was still interesting.

The redemption arc was kinda cool and I poked back into the earlier seasons I had skipped. There was apparently a season where they tried to have pairs of participants that was referenced in the redemption season. I have yet to find that one to watch.