The Colony

I found the first season very enjoyable. It was like a survival-themed Scrapheap Challenge - an intelligent/skilled team, engineering the solutions to problems with somewhat limited resources.

Yes, it was a very silly that they conveniently found everything they needed, and their builds worked first-time most of the time, but still, it was enjoyable viewing.

The role-play elements were a bit rubbish, 'fighting off' bad guys - but not too distracting.

Sadly, with S2, it degenerated into fairly trashy reality TV, less engineering/building, a less likable/less intelligent group of survivors, and far more shouting, bickering, and far more bad role-playing.

I was intrigued by the premise of this show, but quickly became turned off by how contrived it is.

I'm willing to suspend disbelief and accept that everyone in the group (or nearly everyone, since the marine biologist is pretty much useless) is highly skilled and trained in a field that is tailor-made for the situation. I guess in the post apocalypse no run-of-the-mill folks manage to survive and come together.

That being said, the ideas that the Colonists come up with each week strain credibility pretty far. I could buy it if every once in a while someone had an unusual solution to a problem, but when week-in, week-out they come up with elaborate solutions, I call foul. It all seems very contrived and likely fed to the Colonists by producers.

The second major problem is the appearance of needed materials. The Colonists apparently picked the greatest abandoned warehouse in the world to inhabitant. The warehouse miraculously produces whatever is needed to finish a project. Again just a little too contrived for me. The Colonists were never faced with abandoning a plan or doing something more simply because whatever they needed was magically found in the warehouse.

I'm guilty of watching the entire series. Once I watched a couple episodes, I felt I needed to finish it out. But, the last several episodes, my eyes were rolling quite a bit.

This is a Discovery Channel Reality TV Show. The premise is a group of strangers must survive a post-apocalyptic scenario. They shot this in an abandoned location. The first season takes place in an L.A. warehouse with all kinds of stuff. The second season takes place in the bayou within an abandoned neighborhood suffering from some kind of virus.

On the surface, it is extremely fascinating. Of course, they can't take it to the extreme. For example, they have people who come in and 'attack' the colonists. But it's more fake Hollywood than anything realistic. Then there is the seemingly fortuitous supplies that happens to be on hand. Sometimes it's fun to see the stuff they built. But reality has little to do with it. I find myself fast forwarding a lot of the show.

This show was fantastic, and if you liked season 1 season 2 is much more exciting. Several survivors in a staged disaster scenario then have to actually survive off the land, a million times more realistic than Survivor. Action packed, twists and turns, makes you feel you lived through it all, again amazing amazing show. This show makes you question, how prepared are we really? What would you do if you had to find water and food near you? Would you be empathetic to others if you had food and they didn't? at what lengths would you go to protect yourself and you family? The Colony is a great ride from beginning to end and ultimately makes you wonder could I survive?

I enjoyed this series a lot! It was like watching a movie such as "The Road" or "Book of Eli" without the rest of the BS, just lets see how things REALLY went day to day and how creative people can or can't be when faced with hard situations. I so enjoyed feeling a part of this journey, privileged to watch and learn from the trials the cast went through. Every item built to help them on their journey was amazing and I only hope if I was faced with the same issues I could help even half as much. I recommend this series to anyone who is interested in surviving a post apocalyptic world, there are many things and points made that might just make the difference in your living or dying, pay attention! ;)