Teevee Time

The other day I was flipping through my Netflix queue, and found this show called The Colony. Neither my husband or myself remembered putting in there, so I just had to see what it was about. Let me tell you, I am hooked. Its pretty much a reality show, set in a post apocalyptic city. I'm only on season one, which was done in Los Angeles. Lately, survival preparedness has been on my mind a lot. I am currently reading a book called The Eleventh Plague, which is also set in a post apocalyptic world, which normally isn't my type of reading, but the scenario in the book doesn't seem so farfetched (the relatability of the situation is what got me interested in reading it). I was raised in a home where disaster readiness was stressed; living in California, earthquakes and wildfires are an ever present possibility. The bottom of our hall closet had all our supplies: bottled water, canned foods, a first aid kit, simple utensils (like a can opener, basic silverware, etc) and some basic camping equipment. Now that I'm a mother, I feel like its my duty to prepare for an emergency, if not for myself, then at least for my children. A year or so ago, my husband and I bought a couple of boxes of MREs, and got a lot of snarky comments about preparing for a zombie apocalypse. Its sad that people don't take survival readiness more seriously. With the way the world is going.... And thats basically how season one of The Colony opened- their Homeland Security expert basically said that its not a matter of if something (a natural disaster, an airborne virus, an attack from another country) happens, but a matter of when. And the show is supposed to show how our world can be rebuilt after it happens. There are a few things that bother me about the show though. The first one is the blatant advertising for Harbor Freight Tools. I can understand if you see their sticker on a crate in passing during a shot, but they focus on them for a few seconds at a time. Also, the warehouse that they're in seems a little too stocked. For a supposed post apocalyptic scene, there are a lot tools and things just sitting in there. The casting also bothers me. And its not the people, but the professions. The show starts by saying that these people represent a cross section of American people, but there are like four different types of engineers/scientists, a doctor/nurse combo,two types of handymen and a self defense instructor in the group. It just seems like the rebuilding would be a little different if there were just average people in the group, and not so many specific, creating professions. But overall, I think the show is great. It does show how things can be made with minimal or unconventional supplies, and the professionals (Homeland Security, a psychologist and an engineer)explain what the Colony is dealing with during different parts of the experiment puts a different perspective on the show. Overall, I'd give season one three and a half out of five stars and would recommend it to anyone who has ever thought about a post apocalyptic world.