For a long time, I have enjoyed the wonderful past time of giving my opinion to someone who doesn't even know I am doing so. As many television viewers like to do, I say stuff to the person presenting themselves in the screen in front of them in hopes that they will change their ill thought ways. With the advent of the internet and The Socials, I am now able to voice my unsolicited opinions for other people to read. This airing of grievances in 140 character blocks still goes unnoticed by the person who is the focus of my rant.
During the past 8 years one of my favorite targets of lambasting has been the History Channel's Alone. If you are unfamiliar with the Alone, it is a show where 10 contestants are dropped in the wilderness in 10 spots that are so remote, not even a plane flies over them. These 10 people are supposedly trained survivalists of one type or another. They are given a limited amount of gear and whoever is the last one to call to be picked up is the winner.
This is the real Survivor show. There are no competitions between the contestants, no awards given to 2nd place, no freebies to get past a hurtle and no large camera crew filming. Each contestant is given their own set of cameras, which they use to record their daily activities. Every 7 days, a few people come out an do a wellness check and make sure they aren't at the point of no return and need immediate hospitalization.
Over the seasons, contestants have been removed due to losing too much weight. And, the Patagonia Alone was decided by the fact that the female contestant had lost more weight than the male contestant. This was controversial, but in the end, the man who won went home right after winning, while the female spent several weeks in the hospital.
In the end, everyone who is in the top tier that made it past a couple of weeks probably can hit the survivalist tour circuit and make some money. Obviously, the winner might get better opportunities. Those who had businesses based on survival probably see a boost, unless they "tapped out" earlier than expected.
Anyway, back to the important part.
As with several other people, I have been Tweeting comments about the Alone show to #AloneShow during the show. There isn't an account for the show, so History created a hashtag and we use that to make comments. A lot of the Tweets are basically someone asking what a contestant did or why they did what they did. But, there are plenty of Tweets that are making fun of decision that a contestant had done.
I'm guessing that during the first season the contestants didn't really pay attention to this Twitter thread, but by the second season, they knew it existed. The best/worst part is that Alone is done filming and the contestants are watching the show for the first time along side of the fans. And, because of contracts, they can't say anything about whether or not they won until everyone else finds out.
It must be very frustrating to read the Tweets and not really being able to comment back.
This season, which started on June 3rd, one of the contestants tapped out within the first 6 days because he was either having a heart attack or anxiety attack. During his fight between deciding to call for help or not, he admitted that he used to watch the show and mock the contestants.
Now Tim will have plenty of time to sit with us again and mock the others.
https://twitter.com/DeanLogic/status/1400649810173104129
- DeanLogic
Well, heart attack or no, admitting you used to mock the contestants leaves you wide open for mocking by those of us watching the show.
But, getting on Tim's case was probably not the highlight of my Tweets for the show that night, even if they got the most likes and responses. It is hard to say which Tweet will be a hit with the crowd.
I think History should push the Live Tweeting more. They did try to get a live feed back of contestants watching the ones who were still in the wilderness, but they were usually too nice about their comments. I don't know how many people watch the live Tweet thread during the show. I can guess that it is at least a couple dozen.
Of course, everyone who follows me on Twitter has to put up with it and wonder what the heck I am talking about. I'm glad History has given me so many opportunities to snark with Alone, Mountain Men, Live Free or Die and Doomsday Preppers.
