Extracted

I've watched survival shows like Alone and Survivor that follow a similar premise to this series, where people go live out in the wild and battle the elements with the additional element of challenges to earn rewards. I would say that compared to Survivor the challenges the producers came up with were very lackluster and unimaginative. In terms of the survival element, it was clear that some of these people had no clue how to survive in the wild (which I guess is a selling point for the show, but in a show centered around survival in the wild you would expect contestants to have some basic skills here).

There's a bit too much drama in the HQ for my likings, one contestant was doing extremely well surviving in the wild but got extracted because his fiance had her feelings hurt by the other contestants. However, even ignoring all these shortcomings it was watchable until the abysmal finale which was rigged so that a certain contestant could win. This contestant was about to be medically extracted but then they suddenly got a "final challenge" the next day. Furthermore the crux of the final challenge was guessing a 5 letter password the families at HQ had set. This contestant just so happened to have a 5 letter nickname that they went by. This resulted in the contestant immediately guessing the password whereas the other 3 contestants probably guessed their passwords for another 30 minutes.

So this begs the question, did the producers decide to end the show early to let this contestant win as opposed to getting medically extracted the next day? If it was their plan all along to have this kind of ending then my issue is false advertising on the premise of the show. I was lead to believe this show would be similar to Alone where the deciding factor on who wins is who can survive the longest in the wild. If the premise is "you guys need to survive to day X" and then you'll compete in a final challenge then that should be made clear to the contestants.

Surviving to day X versus surviving until all your opponents quit require two completely different strategies. In seasons of Alone where the goal was to survive to day 100, all contestants started the show with this knowledge and could plan accordingly. If instead you're targeting a certain number of players until the final challenge then again make this clear to the players. If I'm an experienced survivalist I might not want to take my chances on a 1 in 4 crap shoot to win the game after going X days starving myself in the wild.

I decided to give this show a try, and at first, I thought I might enjoy it. However, by episode five, I realized it was just plain ridiculous. One of the most capable survivalists gets pulled out by his whining, emotional wife, despite seeming to do well-though it's hard to tell since they barely show any actual survival efforts. Instead, the focus is entirely on what's happening at HQ. What happens to all the leftover supply boxes? What about the axes and saws they were given? Why give a bow and arrow to people who have never even used one? There are so many frustratingly illogical decisions. I won't be watching another episode.

How do they select the "survivalists" and their support crew in HQ? Either milk toast relatives in HQ, with a strong person in the field, or the opposite. The weak get rewarded and the strong get penalized? Completely backwards. To win this contest, there just needs to be a halfway decent person in the field with a duress word, and 2 strong field craft people that know what supplies to send, and don't pull that person without hearing the duress word or the medical team demanding it.

Start everyone off with a full steel canteen, knife and fire starter. If they can't start a fire before applying for the show, they run out of clean water and automatically get eliminated. Drinking untreated water can have long term effects on the organs, so eliminate that from the program. A person wise in wood craft with a good knife and fire starter can make a shelter, traps, and spears to kill animals or fish for protein. They'll know how to forage. Over half of these contestants would starve in a grocery store without a can opener.

The first episode with the 18 year old was hard to watch he was awful! The premise of the show is great but I think you have to vet these people better the dad was definitely enabling his son and it put a negative light on the show having them on it. The way he spoke to his parents and threatened them to push the button to extract was absolutely crazy and it really sucks that they were allowed to push the button and get him out especially since his mom made sure he had everything he needed in his crate and he still chose to speak to them the way he did and then hug them when they bring him back.

The Fox Television Network has done some extremely unethical things to obtain high ratings for its programs, but this show takes the bialy. Extracted is a new low, even for Fox. It has contestants get their loved ones to risk their very lives in the wilderness all for a quarter of a million dollars. It shows how greed can kill and brake up families. I shudder to imagine what would happen if they offered a full million dollars. This is why I rate this horrible show a zero. It reminds me why I hate reality tv shows so much and why I never watch them. Sooner or later, one of the contestants will get killed trying to do one of those dangerous stunts.