Television Review: #AloneShow

Not The Typical History Channel Show

Review by David Clark

History channel is once again distancing themselves from the stigma of being a documentary channel with Alone, the latest in competitive survival reality television. Alone is not simply another Survivor or Naked and Afraid. To win Alone contestants will need an impressive set of survival skills, but they will also need a level of mental fortuity that has never before been seen in a reality competition. Taking place on the remote Vancouver Island wilderness, Alone pits 10 men against nature, each other, and themselves. It is a last man standing style game with a grand prize of five hundred thousand dollars. For many people that has the potential to be a life changing amount of money which explains the sacrifices some of the contestants have made. Many of them have left behind families for an unknown amount of time.

That is the other catch. Shows like Survivor have an elimination process that guarantees the show will only last a limited amount of time. Alone has no elimination process and no time limit. The show lasts until all but one of the contestants has thrown in the towel. Whether the contestants are on the island for a week, a month, or a year will depend entirely upon their personal tolerance level for the extreme conditions they face. Each contestant is separated from each other by impassible bodies of water or terrain, meaning they will spend the entirety of their time on the island in complete and total isolation. They do not know when a fellow survivalist drops out or how many are left. They must battle the complexities of nature, forage for food and water, and manage the doubts in their own minds that isolation can cause. To make matters even more stressful, contestants are sharing the island with a high population of predators such as black bears, coyotes, and cougars.

Producers of the show have setup the Island in an almost Hunger Games style with motion activated cameras. Each player has also been given a camera they are required to utilize at every opportunity. For those worried about the camera work being difficult to watch, the shows footage is actually very easy on the eyes. Nobody watching the show will mistake the camera work for that of a professional camera crew but given the shows goal of total isolation the footage works.

Each contestant is dropped off at the island by boat with nothing but a satellite phone and a backpack full of personally selected items to assist in survival. The conditions are cold, damp, and predators are everywhere. The island is home to black bears, coyotes, and cougars, something many contestants will learn first hand within their first few hours. For those unable to handle the pressure rescue is one satellite-phone call away.