The Colony

[mickeyd]

A friend was telling me about this "reality" show that was on Discovery Channel. He said that was one of the best 10 part series shows that he has seen in a while. He was not sure if it was acting or "reality" because of a guy at the end that wanted to go back rather that escape down the LA river.

He got my interest up and now I'm all ramped up to catch back episodes on the Internet. Has anyone here seen it? Comments?

 

[DangerMouse]

We watched part of the first episode but turned it off shortly after it started as it just didn't gel for us. In theory it should have been really interesting taking into account the concept. However, the reality was that it was just dull.

 

[CCdaCE]

I watched the season finale, which was pretty good. The knowledge of the cast members amazed the engineer in me with some of the stuff they came up with -- creative use of parts/resources/etc. Previous episodes weren't my cup of tea when I stumbled on them channel surfing, but I'd only gave them 5 min. of my time. It is kind of a weird hybrid of reality and "well, that'd never happen". Some of the people are absolutely disgusting - don't wash their hands/face, etc. Apparently wear the same clothes for 60 days, etc. Doesn't make sense that they could concoct a charcoal gas fueled engine, but not take care of personal hygiene.

-CC

 

[ls99]

Apparently wear the same clothes for 60 days, etc. Doesn't make sense that they could concoct a charcoal gas fueled engine, but not take care of personal hygiene.

-CC

Never seen the series.

It reminds of an old (seemed like to me then) fellow I worked with in my early twenties telling the story of creating the first FM radio transmitter in Alpine NJ, with a fellow named Armstrong. They worked for days sometimes weeks without leaving the place, no showers, same clothes.

Armstrong had the same motto as the [-]slave driver [/-] inventor Edison, when asked about working hours, hell we don't have set hours, we are trying to create something here.

Ultimately this fellow died from Leukemia, result of lots of exposure to Xrays emitted by the high power electron tubes they were making for the transmitter. Miss that fellow, great guy, great teacher. He long had forgotten more about electronics than I knew then.

 

[HFWR]

I get enough reality in real life...

 

[FUEGO]

I watched the whole series. Pretty interesting. Definitely a "reality" show. You have to suspend disbelief at certain points though. I imagine they had some "technical assistance" or some form of debriefing at points to help them build the things they built. And they certainly seemed to have recruited a few guys that were very good at inventing things too. Probably not a random cross section of society, since more than half the people were engineers or machinists/fabricators/contractors.

 

[Glo]

I thought the series was pretty good. The stuff these guys made out of nothing was astounding!

 

[mountaintosea]

I watched it on the Internet. They did have technical assistance. I think you can go to the Discovery channel's website and they will tell you about it. Also read the message boards there. They did have a shower at one point. They were in the warehouse close to 70 days. I did have a problem suspending disbelief. I think the discovery website has the episodes. Also Yidio has them.

 

[clifp]

I watched the first 7 or 8 episodes, but when I went on vacation. I couldn't get inspired to watch the last few. Better than the average "reality" series but the narration was a bit off-putting for me.

I was impressed with IBM engineer. I wonder what percentage of the population, would think of building a Telsa coil to produce Ozone, to purify water. My guess it is around one in million. The fact that they had the materials to make such a thing definitely requires a suspension of belief.

 

[WB52]

I watched every episode from beginning to end. The grand finale was last week. Loved it! I've always liked the survival in the wilderness type fare. This one had a unique, post apocalyptic twist. The human interaction and development was interesting. Also the way they improvised to build what they needed was interesting.
Overall, it was worth the time invested.