I am an older reviewer who -- shockingly -- had never seen a reality show like this before, stumbled on it by accident, and got hooked.
Over the years I have developed respect for the writers and thinkers who argue the entertainment of the time reflects the gestalt, the angst, of that time.
Frankenstein was written at the turn of the 20th century when people were afraid of electricity, by the 1950s people were afraid of radiation and spacemen, by the 60s and 70s we were afraid of wealthy megalomaniacs trying to take over the world, and more recently we have been afraid of turning into unthinking, unfeeling zombies.
IS IT JUST ME or, with hindsight, do these shifts seem somewhat prophetic?
So they drop a bunch of kids with very limited survival skills on an island, give them a 'max' prize if they succeed, twist the rules so that "majority rules" and then ding them for every bad choice along the way?
(In Marketing this is called a "self liquidating" campaign -- by the end of the show, there will be very little cash left, the kids will have worked basically for free, and the producers/sponsors will make out like bandits)
Again I ask, given the current civil strife in the US -- today March 23 2017, financial guru Doug Casey remarked "What's going on in the US now is a culture clash. They don't just dislike each other and disagree on politics; they can no longer even have a conversation. They hate each other on a visceral gut level" -- so is it any wonder that, in short order, the group here is too busy fighting among themselves to even remember why they were on the island in the first place?
The teaser at the open asks how much people will spend to "stay alive?" That is not what the show is about. The show is about the lengths people will go to feel good about who they think they are.
Just like in real life.
