show is a snooze fest now

I just wanna say I really really really really hate the cliffhangers at the commercial break with the dramatic music, then the summary of what's happening when coming out of the break that wastes 2-3 minutes. I thought for sure that cabin was burning to the ground. Nope, caught fire on top so she knocked a few sticks down.

her scream voice she uses when anything out of the ordinary happens is 'interesting'.

the couple are still the faves.

agree re: earlier post about the lack of real creative effort among this set of contestants to trap or otherwise get food - esp the brothers. but then the one brother said they had two full days worth of 'foraged' food (limpets etc) - yet are still weak from starvation - wondering why they don't pound down 'two days' of food and gather more.

this show always turns into a slow starvation contest at the end. that island was inhabited for millennia by flathead indian tribes of the pacific northwest. you'd wonder how they survived given the inability of the contestants to eke out an existence without literally fading to skin and bone before our eyes.

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that island was inhabited for millennia by flathead indian tribes of the pacific northwest. you'd wonder how they survived given the inability of the contestants to eke out an existence without literally fading to skin and bone before our eyes.

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Depending on geography, many tribes were extremely pour and constantly in hunger (such as many the coastal and southern TX Indians)

The ability to forage further inland, seasonally migrate, delegate task among a larger group, collectively pursue big game, and trade among other tribes are advantages our contestants don't have.

I don't know why no one has brought a cast net. Seems like you could clean house with one of those.

Using a metal fire extinguisher as a crab float with all the freaking driftwood all over the place? I'll give the forager brother credit for perseverance and I would be spending all my remaining calories kicking my brother's ass for being such a lazy, depressed slug.


Still think hippie mama collapses soon and gets med-evac'd, father and son eek it out when forager brother slaps the snot out of lazy brother so he then taps out of pure spite. Not sure where the series goes from here, too bad, I like the concept of it all.

There is always the chance they are setting snares etc and because they aren't successful they don't make the cut. I know they jumped forward quite a few days this past episode. I know at least one group had a gill net.

Aggie1205 said:

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There is always the chance they are setting snares etc and because they aren't successful they don't make the cut. I know they jumped forward quite a few days this past episode. I know at least one group had a gill net.

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The brothers have one. But they look to have set it in a terrible location.

PineTreeAg said:

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that island was inhabited for millennia by flathead indian tribes of the pacific northwest. you'd wonder how they survived given the inability of the contestants to eke out an existence without literally fading to skin and bone before our eyes.

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Depending on geography, many tribes were extremely pour and constantly in hunger (such as many the coastal and southern TX Indians)

The ability to forage further inland, seasonally migrate, delegate task among a larger group, collectively pursue big game, and trade among other tribes are advantages our contestants don't have.

I don't know why no one has brought a cast net. Seems like you could clean house with one of those.

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i hear you, and my arse would probably already be dead of hunger (and i start with a sizable caloric warehouse) if i was a contestant. but watching does make you wonder how tribals survived in such difficult places, and why they chose to settle there.

mpl35 said:

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Aggie1205 said:

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There is always the chance they are setting snares etc and because they aren't successful they don't make the cut. I know they jumped forward quite a few days this past episode. I know at least one group had a gill net.

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The brothers have one. But they look to have set it in a terrible location.

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one episode before the reunited one brother caught half a dozen fish in it. but it hasn't been mentioned since.

California Ag 90 said:

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mpl35 said:

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Aggie1205 said:

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There is always the chance they are setting snares etc and because they aren't successful they don't make the cut. I know they jumped forward quite a few days this past episode. I know at least one group had a gill net.

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The brothers have one. But they look to have set it in a terrible location.

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one episode before the reunited one brother caught half a dozen fish in it. but it hasn't been mentioned since.

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Yep. I saw it in a shot or two but they never mention it since the brother said "nothing" was in it several episodes ago. Seems better in a creek or river than the low spot on the rocks where they have it.

maybe JUST maybe had the **** controlled ****** the unnecessary excitement and not wasted so much energy on making ***** they could of at least outlasted the *******.

oops sorry removed spoilers!

Dude. The bros are too dumb to tap.

CrottyKid said:

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Dude. The bros are too dumb to tap.

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I think you may be right. Worst shelter ever and win the whole thing.

YAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

Anybody else watch the finale last night?

Seems like the contestants really didn't do much this year because the fight between the brothers last episode was what day 40 something. This one basically started at day 70. So I think that hurt the show as well.

Yeah, there was a huge gap in filming. It looked like the married couple almost won, but they only made it to day 45 if I remember correctly and the other two made it to the 70's. I suspect it would have been pretty boring footage of them doing the same things over and over, so they just skipped to the end. This season was more disappointing than past seasons. I hoped to see much more "survival" stuff happening, but they all really just waited to see who could starve the longest. Past seasons had elements of this too, but it seemed worse this year.

I wonder if it also was there were two of them so they filmed what they thought they needed to. Where in previous seasons they didn't have anything else to keep their time so they seemed to film a lot more random stuff.

The reason the brothers one isn't because they're the best survivalists. They won because they came into the competition the most fit. At 61, the father was just too old to hang on any longer, and the wife came into the show very skinny which didn't help.

Kudos to the brothers though. They were certainly tough. I would have liked to have seen the Alaskan boys make it until the end. Them and the brothers would have been a good contest.

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The reason the brothers one isn't because they're the best survivalists.

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I give them credit for finding & eating gunnels and limpets in (what appeared to be) large quantities. That source of calories was something the others either A.weren't willing to do or B. didn't think about.

As for your comment about the old man & skinny woman being a reason for the brothers winning.... well that is just typical of an entitled person who clearly is a misogynist & ageist.
























Just kidding!!

Josepi said:

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The reason the brothers one isn't because they're the best survivalists. They won because they came into the competition the most fit. At 61, the father was just too old to hang on any longer, and the wife came into the show very skinny which didn't help.

Kudos to the brothers though. They were certainly tough. I would have liked to have seen the Alaskan boys make it until the end. Them and the brothers would have been a good contest.

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They won because they were too damn dumb to tap, IMO. I feel like any sane person would have tapped when they were having stomach problems for over a week.

^ Yeah. They were too dumb to lose. They even said, "No one can suffer better than us."

I wish second place at least got $100k. It is bullhockey for the father and son team to go home completely empty handed.

Spicoli brothers won the annual starvation contest because of the 'luck of the draw' in their campsite.

i mean, they got to turn over boulders in a tidal basin every day and pick up bags full of eels and limpets.

the couple and the Maryland dad/son basically had to catch fish or go hungry.

this season is my last watching. just not that interesting watching people sort of survive for a month then starve till they drop out.

Season 5 appears to be a new location, so I'm interested to see what it is like. But it's apparently a second chance for those from the first four seasons based on the preview. I enjoy watching the show, but the problem with it is that they basically force it into a starving contest to end it. Not sure if they're going to do anything different next season, but I'll watch to see if/how they change it up.

I think instead of forcing them to tap because they are miserable, they need to turn it into a goal based competition. I'm not sure what all it would include, but something along the lines of the first person to build a cabin to certain specs, create some type of animal trap, build a canoe/boat, make a weapon of some sort that must meet certain guidelines, etc. Maybe make it point based so that just building a trap gets you some points, but if it actually works and traps an animal, you get additional points. Then the first person to whatever number of points is the winner. Also, maybe give them a bag of rice or beans every week or two so it's not another starvation contest to where people can't earn the required number of points, but not enough that they can live off of just that.

I understand they don't want the competition to last a year since that would prevent them from airing multiple seasons in a year, but if you had most people lasting for 50 days, there really isn't any extra production cost if there are 10 people left or 2. With the goal based system, somebody will likely finish quicker than the last couple of seasons have lasted. And then days 40-70 are not filled with only 5 minutes of usable footage each day.

They need to do something to make it more interesting and the team thing wasn't it. I still think different environments is their best bet. I'm hoping next season the new place is totally different and more of a focus on hunting rather than fishing.

I'd be ok with them setting payouts for certain lengths of time. Let the fans vote (I hate these but what better than build to spec imho) on best shelter, etc.

The starvation contest the last two seasons gets boring.

I just watch this **** until Les Stroud puts out something new.

What if you allow them to be closer to each other, but there is a tall fence between them that theu can't climb. They could find each other and trade/barter for food or supplies. Too Hunger Games-ish?

OK, here's an idea building off khkman22 thoughts.

provide them a bag of rice or beans every week (minimal calories), pick a place with enough forage/game/reliable fishing to avoid starvation contest.

but choose a venue that has MUCH harsher natural obstacles. nastier weather, snow/ice, or tropical heat and insects, true apex predator threats (grizzly country?). go back to single contestant so it is about surviving hardship beyond just starving. the fixed location ensures starvation - any human in a true survival situation would not sit and starve, but would move to new locations in search of better forage, hunting, or fishing grounds. sitting in a fixed place with no food is artificial and does not reflect a survival scenario.

so remove starvation but seriously amp up the natural hardships - that may make it interesting. and give a prize for second place (100k somebody said - agree a good idea).

the Spicolis laid under a tarp with no walls and ate bait for two months. not interesting.

I think they thought people could last longer. There is a rule of making it 6 months or a year I think and the competition is over. Not sure what happens then. Found the rules once and it had stuff like that in there.

Also saw that the good location units the have are two ways. They can push a beep to them in previous seasons warning they are coming up to someone else and turn around.

How about some South Pacific islands or something tropical. Vancouver island is depressing.

treetop flyer said:

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How about some South Pacific islands or something tropical. Vancouver island is depressing.

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I really hope they do something like this eventually. Just completely switch it up and make them go try and survive on basically a deserted island. Go to some small archipelago where each contestant can have their own small island to wonder around on. Exposure would become such a different problem. I think they'd have to give each contestant some kind of simple desalination kit or allow them to bring it as one of their items or else you'd have way too many people drop out within a couple of days. I think something like this could really show a lot of guys' skills since fish should be plentiful and they don't have to worry about constantly freezing to death, just sunburn and constant chaffing. Plus with the abundance of trash in the ocean, it'd be really interesting to see how those guys utilize some of that stuff.

I think in theory the idea of the partners was a good idea in theory, but at the end of the day it was a total fail. This season was just dull bc it really didn't seem to showcase anyone's survival skills. I loved the Patagonia season for the sole purpose of having the winner constantly showing his creativity to survive. Props to the Baird brothers though, they did what was necessary and had the mental toughness to just gut through it.

Fairview said:

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They need to do something to make it more interesting and the team thing wasn't it. I still think different environments is their best bet. I'm hoping next season the new place is totally different and more of a focus on hunting rather than fishing.

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Agree with this 100%. I'd love to see some different landscapes as well. Deserts, islands, jungles, etc.