I was a bit behind the curve, but I finally finished watching Alone Australia the other day. It was bizarrely compelling. Bizarrely, because I never got into any of those survivor-type shows where they throw people into the jungle or onto an island and have them compete against each other in tribes. Or something. I'm not sure how shows like Survivor work, to be honest. As I say, I've never really been into them.
But during Covid, I developed a genuine fascination for 'lone survivor' shows. Alone is the big global franchise, and for anybody who hasn't watched it, the producers drop about a dozen people into the wilderness with a bunch of cameras to film themselves and then wait for natural selection to run its course.
The American show is great. It's full of hardy, pioneering types and former special forces operators and survivalist nutjobs. They have the most amazing mix of arcane skills, and you are never quite certain who is going to pull through or how long they'll be out there.
The Australian show? Set in Tasmania?
Yeah, nah, not so much. Part of the reason I found it so addictive was because the first couple of episodes were entirely hilarious. It almost felt as if the producers had driven into the car park of the nearest Bunnings and just thrown a bag over a dozen or so random punters. Sure, as the show went on, the survivor types did shake themselves out from the rest of the bunch, but oh my god, those first few eps. I'm having trouble dictating this entry because I'm laughing so much remembering them. It was almost as if they dropped these poor bastards into the bush, and they were screaming and waving at the boat as it pulled out, "Don't leave me heeeere.”
"driven into the car park of the nearest Bunnings and just thrown a bag over a dozen or so random punters"... see now I'm interested I'd watch the hell out of that.
We haven't watched anything on SBS On Demand for a while, but came back the other day to watch Clean Sweep, but after ms insomniac fell asleep, I stopped watching and went back as far as the 'keep watching' screen, where I can see we're up to s2, e3 of Alone, despite no one in the household having watched any of it.
But yes, it appears more real than Survivor from what I've read, but nowhere near as real as Snowflake Mountain where a bunch of very high maintenance peeps get a bit of tough love. The first ep has them having to put their 'essentials' into a tiny bag while the rest of their luggage is put on a trailer with the pretense of it going on to camp, but then the hosts/guides just blow it up, with splosions.
"It almost felt as if the producers had driven into the car park of the nearest Bunnings and just thrown a bag over a dozen or so random punters."
The queue at the sausage sizzle being renditioned to Tasmania to survive in the bush would make super compelling television.
"driven into the car park of the nearest Bunnings and just thrown a bag over a dozen or so random punters"... see now I'm interested I'd watch the hell out of that.
ha exactly spot on. Its almost like they had to put in a one sentence application. "i like crystals" or "i owned a pocket knife once"
We haven't watched anything on SBS On Demand for a while, but came back the other day to watch Clean Sweep, but after ms insomniac fell asleep, I stopped watching and went back as far as the 'keep watching' screen, where I can see we're up to s2, e3 of Alone, despite no one in the household having watched any of it.
But yes, it appears more real than Survivor from what I've read, but nowhere near as real as Snowflake Mountain where a bunch of very high maintenance peeps get a bit of tough love. The first ep has them having to put their 'essentials' into a tiny bag while the rest of their luggage is put on a trailer with the pretense of it going on to camp, but then the hosts/guides just blow it up, with splosions.
My favourite bit of Alone Australia was the person crying because it was too wet to light a fire, and she couldn't boil water to drink.
This was all happening as she sits under her tarp in the pissing down rain with water pouring over the side of the tarp.