Stranded with a Million Dollars

This show's concept is intriguing: drop 10 young people in an island with loads of money and gave them options to buy things at exorbitantly high price, and see what will happen. I have to say I am pretty entertained at the Lord-of-flies aspect of it.

I like the show having only self-elimination, thus it tests the limit of each person, and also encourage team effort to work together. I had expected of something like "we have to united to survive 48 days in this island", but it turns out to be an endless bashing, whining, and sniping tribal affair. It's not ideal but quite realistic, given the tough circumstances. Some unfortunately ones did reach their limits and tap-out, and others were hanging on a thread, thinking about quitting all day long. At the same time they still managed to undermine others and push other's buttons. The miseries they suffered are below "naked and afraid" but much more than the over-rated "Survivors". Watching them moaning and complaining I cannot help but thinking I might do the same things myself if I were there. So for a reality show it's pretty good at dramas.

What I don't like about the show is that the 10 competitors were all in their 20s or 30s, none of them were really familiar with living in the wild, and they made really bad choices. I am not talking about they buy things at a extremely high prices. I am talking about they made decision like 10-year-olds and none of them taking survival seriously. Even the eagle-scout person couldn't make a fire and later threw his shoe away, only forced to tap-out later due to his feet. All the decisions those guys made mostly were wrong and pathetic. After 18 days none of them ate any worms or caught anything to eat. Had not the show given them the option to buy super high price food and the so-call "temptation", all of them would have tap-out within 2 weeks.

However, I still like the show a lot, because if there were someone like Bear Grylls in the show, they would not have suffered that much and bickered that much. This is the show that tells you what will really happen if you got into a sticky situation. People will bond into groups. Some will fight and hate each other. Some will commit stealing and some will hurt everyone's interest to get even.

Therefore, this show is not for everyone, especially for the high-spirit and self-righteous folks, but it's definitely worth a try if you want to see the true nature of people.

I am an older reviewer who -- shockingly -- had never seen a reality show like this before, stumbled on it by accident, and got hooked.

Over the years I have developed respect for the writers and thinkers who argue the entertainment of the time reflects the gestalt, the angst, of that time.

Frankenstein was written at the turn of the 20th century when people were afraid of electricity, by the 1950s people were afraid of radiation and spacemen, by the 60s and 70s we were afraid of wealthy megalomaniacs trying to take over the world, and more recently we have been afraid of turning into unthinking, unfeeling zombies.

IS IT JUST ME or, with hindsight, do these shifts seem somewhat prophetic?

So they drop a bunch of kids with very limited survival skills on an island, give them a 'max' prize if they succeed, twist the rules so that "majority rules" and then ding them for every bad choice along the way?

(In Marketing this is called a "self liquidating" campaign -- by the end of the show, there will be very little cash left, the kids will have worked basically for free, and the producers/sponsors will make out like bandits)

Again I ask, given the current civil strife in the US -- today March 23 2017, financial guru Doug Casey remarked "What's going on in the US now is a culture clash. They don't just dislike each other and disagree on politics; they can no longer even have a conversation. They hate each other on a visceral gut level" -- so is it any wonder that, in short order, the group here is too busy fighting among themselves to even remember why they were on the island in the first place?

The teaser at the open asks how much people will spend to "stay alive?" That is not what the show is about. The show is about the lengths people will go to feel good about who they think they are.

Just like in real life.

We have watched a number of reality surviving game TV shows, some to name Naked and Afraid, Hunted, Survivor etc.

This show is nothing like the others because there is no sense of danger, no bad choice besides using up money to buy stuff or voting against buying to screw over other people. All of the contestants are young pretty shallow stupid people (oldest is 24 I believe). Idiocy at its best. The only reason we are watching it is to see what stupid stuff they do next, to see them all fail. Honestly we are not rooting for anyone, we just want to see all of the contestants fail miserably, hoping they all get food poisoning (hardly an issue when they can order food dropped in).

It is so bad, its like watching a slasher moving and actually wanting to see the killer take all of the actors out. In this case mother nature is the serial killer yet she has a hard time beating them when they have 1 million dollars to throw around on items. I won't even mention the fact that their though process is extremely idiotic, it makes no sense for people in their circumstances to behave like that unless it was all for the show.

A lot of people watch extremely stupid shows so they keep making them.

The idea is intriguing but the producers should have though out the rules of the game in much more detail. It also feels too scripted, why would you do that when having any kind of common sense you clearly could do this instead and be better off? Like I said, the other shows actually seem more natural (if they are or not), this seem fake.

"Stranded" is a reality competition that feels familiar. Ten people isolated on a tropical island have to face the hardships of nature and survive forty days if they are to collect prize money. Naturally, there will be outwitting, outplaying and outlasting if the contestants are to win the million dollars in cash.

But this survival show is the best I have seen thus far. It comes closest to breaking down the players and exposing the basic principles by which they lead their lives.

Without discussing the mechanics of the show or its hardships, let me say its hardships are real and are both physical and emotional. These are not survivalists nor have they trained for what lies before them. In fact, it seems that they have almost no knowledge of how the game will be played until they arrive in Fiji with only the clothes on their backs.

The contestants are all young adults--what some would call millennials. However, this is not merely an exploration of the psyches of millennials. Principles are at play that are common to all generations.

In just the first few episodes, we see how far people will go to rationalize their own impulses. We see them reacting out of fear in ways that may surprise them when they review their actions later. And we see heroes emerge--those who stand up against injustice in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. The definition of real strength manifests itself.

See if you can guess from the start which players will be the virtuous and which will give into their baser instincts. Some may surprise you.

This is drama and suspense mixed with some humor. And if you pay close attention, you may see the exposure of some common beliefs about social goods as mere fallacies.