Originally Posted by
remy
Well...i love the show.
If you want to learn about the way we humans interact with each other in a difficult and foreign environment, while lacking food and water, while exerting a lot of energy, while having to do complicated or physical things as a team etc...then survivor sure shows it well.
I have watched every episode since it came out.
Interesting to see who gets booted and why.
They actually have a team of psychologists behind the scenes working on the shape and purpose of challenges the "survivors" must face.
In the end...the participants go through a tremendous change...they are first told they are going to a "photo shoot" for the cover of a magazine for this season, none know each other, and they are dumped as is in environments most have never experienced.
They must make fire, build shelter, and are only given rice that they must ration.
Hunting and fishing take on a major role...and obviously, group survival and social understanding becomes paramount to the game in the form of buddying up.
Leaders emerge, and all must face the difficult task of living with strangers under harsh circumstances most have never in their lives experienced.
Hunger becomes alive and shows how it affects the mind.
One must watch the show from day one though...picking it up in the middle of the season would make it difficult to understand what the show does.
"Survival skills" as we define them here are not necessarily the soul focus of the show...and one could not expect to watch it with our understanding of survival in mind and be satisfied.
The show is a lot more driven by group psychology.
Some winners have been amazing manipulators...others have been amazing team players and leaders...others have been amazingly "lucky"...or were able to use typical human behaviors to their advantage.
Team work, greed, hunger, social skills, survival skills, hunting, camp life, behaviors, empathy, leadership skills, manipulation, friendships, calculations, trust...and so much more is all in plain view for us to observe.
Fantastic tool.
