Outlast: Au bout de nous-mêmes

I've long been a fan of survival series of all types. I was really excited by the idea of Outlast since it takes place in Alaska, and I expected that it would provide the opportunity to learn techniques of survival in one of the most difficult places to live primitively on earth. How cool, right? Yet this series is not about surviving the elements -- there were no discussion on fire building, shelter building, foraging, fishing, or much anything else survival related.

The series is an example of the worst of human behavior -- it is a foray into the evil that some humans will do to others out of greed, which includes -- theft, destruction, deceit, bullying, and mockery. The aggressive gameplay and manipulation was not fun to watch, it merely underscored how some humans can rationalize the harm they do to others -- and how others within their orbit will passively accept, resign without challenging, or turn a blind eye to the misdeeds to avoid confrontation.

I have to wonder if the creators of this show encouraged the behavior perpetrated by the private investigator from Kentucky? This woman has such a heinous unlikable aspect, yet apparently her underhanded behavior was completely acceptable by the producers of this series. It didn't violate the rules, so all good, right? No.

It's very, very difficult to not believe that this show has been set up using improvisational actors following a loose script and a designed plot.

Everything eventually starts playing out like a soap opera with endless convenient moments of discovery and character arcs that would be hard to swallow within fiction, let alone in reality.

Most suspicious of all is the fact that three such irredeemably-vile people as Jill, Amber and Justin would somehow end up on a single team and become soap-opera villains of the first order, complete with psychopathy and delusional levels of projection.

If this is actually real then it's the sort of thing that could destroy any viewer's faith in humanity. I can only hope that it's all a fake-out and that these three people are actors rather than monsters.

I'm a huge fan of these types of survival shows. That was until I got to episode 5 of this horrific monstrosity. I immediately stopped watching, and removed it from my watch list. I am not one to go to the public with my opinions; however, I felt the need to say something.

Even after 38 years of living on this Earth, it still astonishes me how greedy, cruel, conniving, and downright evil people can be. This is a sad fact on it's own, but for Netflix to promote such behavior saddens me further. This show was created to award evil individuals and remove hope from those with integrity and honor. The show is truly a disgrace to all mankind.

Now, for the cast. I am not one to easily anger, but it truly got to me that there were good people in this show that suffered from the cruelty of others. Alpha Team was the most despicable members on the show. Completely treacherous and downright evil members. Amber Asay - An "ex" heroin addict (kind of saw that one coming), and Jill Ashock - a selfish, conceited, know it all, and horrific person... were easily the two worst on the show. These are the types of people who would sell their souls for cash and destroy society for pleasure. Justin Court was the third member and also a terrible human being, but I'm unsure if he is as bad as the two females that caused me to stop watching. I truly hope that karma bites them in the rear in "real life".

For the rest of the day, I'll probably not be able to shake this feeling of anger and hopelessness. Thanks Netflix for your assistance in destroying hope for humanity.

I'm up to episode 5, but don't think I'll go any further. As one of the competitors says before they decide to leave - 'this isn't the show I signed up for'.

It's either fake and mostly staged (which it certainly feels like), or it's real and pretty unethical on the part of the producers.

Why? Because they thought it might make good tv to invite a few 'criminal sociopaths' (as one of the competitors perfectly describes them) along for the ride. So you have around 3 groups of people who seem like decent enough folk, just trying to survive in the freezing wilderness....and another group of people who are absolutely awful. Bullying the other teams, stealing their gear etc. People who would surely be in and and out of prison in the 'real world'. The neighbours from hell. Don't tell me the producers didn't know they'd act like this.

Or they're all amateur actors, and it's staged. Some of the 'performances' are certainly hammy enough, and there's some awfully convenient 'coincidences' and unlikely occurrences. In which case, why waste your time?

If you like to watch psychopaths trying to win a game and whining when they have to eat their own medicine, this is your show. If you are out for great Alaska footage and survival footage with great competitions, skip it. It is all about interpersonal drama and focuses on the creators of it. The creators of the show failed to make this a prestige show with great outdoor challenges. While it make sense to show the rivalry, it shouldn't be the main focus of the show. It just becomes a trashy show due to that. This show doesn't teach you anything about the wild, which I expected. Very unfortunate.