In 2009, The Discovery Channel and Discovery Entertainment released the show called “The Colony”. The show was an episodic “experiment” which involved taking a group of people, putting them in a survival situation and then ruining their lives for 10 weeks while they watched them, studied them and then ruined their lives some more while the “survivors” tried to survive in a post-apocalypse world.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like “The Colony” will survive to see season 3.
In what can only be described as “LOL, irony”, this survival show seems to have flopped over dead, just after casting…at least, that’s how it looks. Several unofficial sites have reported season 3 as being “semi-permanently on hold” and we here at FEZ have been unable to reach the producers for a comment.
For those who are unfamiliar with the show, here’s how it breaks down:
They scoop up a bunch of “cast members” from a list of hopefuls and then but them in isolation. In the first season, their isolation was 30 hours with no sleep as well as limited food and water. In the second, it was 72 hours in a “quarantine facility” with, it seems, nothing to do but go stir crazy.
Once the members finish up their isolation, they are either sent on a hike to(season 1) or dropped by chopper (season 2) at their “sanctuary”. Once they get there, they have limited resources and 10 weeks to make it through.
It is the responsibility of the “survivors” to design, create and implement anything they need in order to survive their time in the colony. If they want electricity, they have to figure out how to make it. If they want clean water, they have to figure out how to clean it. If they want food, they have to figure out how to find it.
For all of this, they get………….nothing. They are not given any prize, any award, any reward, any anything. They’re there for the experience of it all.
*WARNING – SPOILERS BELOW*
In season 1, the survivors made their way to an 80,000 square foot warehouse where they set out on attempts to secure the location and come up with clean water and electricity. They built a generator out of 2 alternators and the motor from a pressure washer, which was fueled by hydrogen gas being created in a stove (a small wood-gas plant) and made a water filtration unit with sand and charcoal. They went out and got food and supplies by raiding and foraging and yelled at each other a lot.
They also got attacked several times by marauders who, in separate incidents, broke in and stole the survivor’s food, medical supplies, tools, etc.
They finally escaped by repairing an old truck but, before doing so, also created an ozone-sanitizer for their water, a working phonograph, automatic-rotating solar panels, an observation blimp, an AM transceiver and telegraph, a multi-speed electric trike, dozens of deadly melee weapons, another wood-gas plant, a motorized flip-up solar charging rig, solar shower, heavy crossbow, washing machine, large barbecue grill, flame thrower and a stocked medical clinic.
You can stop re-reading that now…Yes, I did say “flame thrower”. They needed it to fight the marauders, from whom they eventually escaped in their big truck.
In season 2, the survivors made bio-diesel from a bunch of dead pigs, which they used to fuel a tractor, which they used to charge some batteries, which they used to power some tools, which they used to build…jack shit.
The “cast” was so spaced out and off track, they hardly managed to do anything worth while except get their asses kicked, lose a member of their group to kidnappers – who they ended up buying back with food – yelled at each other a lot, ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, cried, bitched, complained, whined, had several hissy fits and then finally got their asses saved by a REAL survivalist named “Tick” after he snuck into their compound, crawled within several yards of a number of them and left them a note pinned to a hunk of wood with a big ass knife.
In the process they lost just about everything to marauders…water, food, medical supplies, dignity, all gone. They got beat up, maced, slapped around, kicked, whopped, smashed, stomped, beat and generally made to look like morons. They utterly failed at securing their area or anything it. Meanwhile “Tick”, who had been out there as long as they had, within ear shot of them the whole time, had accumulated enough food they he invited them to a buffet complete with fresh pig, crabs, fish, water, etc…
Tick owned them in the face and I laughed…hard.
Season 2 ended with…well, I’ll keep that part to myself but suffice it to say the ending was terrible.
I was looking forward to seeing season 3 but now it seems like it may never happen. I’m hoping someone reads this who has some kind of an idea of what the hell’s going on because I want to know.
Now!
Seriously…hit me up.
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