Ultimate Survival Alaska (Season 3)

[Bill Tarling]

The new season for the show has started... Yay!!!!

Season One was meh... interesting, but you could tell the show hadn't really figured out its format, or format for the competitive challenges as fully as the next season.

Season Two (which was my first introduction to watching the show) was awesome... Intense competitions, incredible range of terrain, wildlife, and weather conditions. It will really get your TLD mind racing.

Season Three (first episode) - Did not disappoint! Already saw enough things to make you feel even more nervous when playing The Long Dark (and I can imagine countless players praying the devs don't watch the show because of how brutal the challenges could really get). There were even some experienced survival tricks [like the dark tarp for fast water gathering].

If you haven't seen the show, I recommend starting off with Season Two if you can get it, or just jump right in with the new season.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/c ... al-alaska/

[bBvideo 560,340:12xxetu8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0tXNxx47ug[/bBvideo]

[Cosmoline]

Did it in real life. But there was no exciting music. Just a lot of money spent on kerosene. Set the trailer on fire once with a rogue propane heater. Blew myself out of my own boots with gasoline another time. Shot a lot of squirrel, rabbit and grouse. Good fun, but in the end I decided I really like hot and cold running water.

[ChillPlayer]

Thank you very much for sharing this Bill I just watched the first two episodes of the 2nd season and man this is intense, I think I'm going to binge watch through the whole season. Some of the scenes made me laugh, like shooting a squirrel with a shotgun, what a waste of a bullet lol. In other's I thought "holy shit" I hope they had some safety guys standing by, like when the 60 year old woodsman's boat turns and he's nowhere to see anymore. Craziest scene so far was probably in the 2nd ep when the military guys went down a funnel only to find themselfs infront of a bear cave - with an actual bear inside :shock:

It made me wonder if this show is real or not. There are some "critics" who say it's not, but there's also an interview with the creator who says it's all as real as it can get in TV, I find it quite believable:

http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2015/01/ultimate-survival-alaska-fake-staged-no-producer-says/

What also amazes me are the parallels to TLD, it sure feels as if the game was inspired a big deal by this show, just exchange squirrels for bunnies and bears for wolves (btw that squirrel snare with the pink ribbons was briliant). Hey look, there's a hut... let's build a snare... melt some snow... need calories... crawl into the hole to get warmer...

Anyways, be it real or not, it is fun to watch and I believe every TLD player will enjoy it

[Bill Tarling]

Glad you're enjoying it ChillPlayer - and yeah, Season Two is definitely binge watching material!!!

Even with a lot of comical brainfart type moments in the show, there's a ton of impressive problem/challenge solving approaches. The best part was seeing different little expertise tricks for some challenges - I immediately started thinking "yeah I could try that in TLD" even though I know it wouldn't fit within the game... but like TLD, the show has so many ah-ha moments that make it so enjoyable.

And yes, the challenges are real...

There are full safety navigators who do a full check and multiple test runs for each challenge (although they can never cover every single aspect) to make sure it's at least possible rather than a blind suicide challenge that's beyond any skill scope.

The crew are pretty distant, and even the camera crew are not allowed any communication or contact directly with the competitors except for some of their diary/daily journal filming... in fact, from a number of interviews with the past competitors, there's apparently a reasonable amount of anger because the camera person isn't allowed to talk to them, so they vent the frustration by purposely taunting them or forcing the camera crew to travel through harsher paths to get even. :twisted:

NOTE: The camera people have very limited communication with the production due to the remoteness of the areas. There are only a few very strict [immediate life or death situation physically present] moments when they're allowed to assist - one reason being limited is because they're usually not actually present within the group, and are also hard loaded with their own equipment as well (which is why the show also uses a lot of remote cameras and personal team member cams). Scene cuts often happen if a camera person is required to take a more authorized route.

There are a lot of severe accidents on the show as well (as you'll see through the season) -- and because of the remoteness of the challenges, no there aren't always medical crew nearby [as there is on the show "Survivor"]. There have even been legs where the teams couldn't even be picked up at the end of the run for almost a week because of extreme weather (especially harsh since they had completed the runs with only enough team supplies to last the 3 days before reaching the end)... and yes teams have been left to fend on their own when they didn't meet the pickup zone deadline.

But what's most fascinating with the show is seeing so many different approaches to the same challenge... It's not "one solution fits all", and it's fascinating to see how each team looks for different approaches based on their skill strength and weaknesses of each team member. I think that's why it makes such great watching between TLD runs: there are so many different ways players like to handle various obstacles, and you develop your own personal play style. 8-)

[ChillPlayer]

That last point you made Bill is actually the reason why the show feels a little bit doctored. So many different approaches but somehow miracleously they all arrive in the LZ within the same 5 minutes. Even the same hour would be a stretch to bet on but it actually doesn't matter, there's no prize to win anyway other than pride.

The challenges and dangers they face are real and you see more often than not real angst in their eyes. Like when that bear charged at the guy in endurance team, holy shit I jumped from my couch thinking it's over for that guy. He deserves the outmost admiration for how he handled that, I'd have shitted my pants and would've ended as bear fodder :shock: Or when one line tore and the guy was haning on his last line 100feet in the air, not knowing how long it's been there and if it would hold, or the one mountaineer that clinched for hours to a branch in freezing water, or tracking and sleeping in an area with the highest bear population on earth, I mean no sane person would script anything like that and is in fact what makes this show so working for me.

Occasionally they post the question in the show "who do you root for?". Actually for all of them, so much crazy dangerous stuff is happening each episode that I only hope they will all make it through. I also welcomed that there's no forged drama, this guy hating this one and being hated by the other one, you know that stuff that makes ordinary reality tv not bareable for a person with an IQ over 50.

Unfortunately the first ep of season 3 starts exactly with that, I already don't like the lower 48 team and hope they will cut this very soon instead of playing it out. But I'm happy to see some of the guys from season 2 again in s3, I wonder what new uses Marty will find for his skies in this season

So all in all, a great show I am already recommending to all my friends and I'm eager to see what S3 holds for the teams. I just hope they stick to the formula of S2, making the show only about survival and not about drama in or between the teams.

Thanks again Bill

[ChillPlayer]

No new episode? Bah I hate Superbowl, I'm in withdrawal already

[accurize2]

I've got a bunch of these DVR'ed and one thing that is just ruining it is the overly dramatic music literally non-stop during the show. Also, the cheesy cliffhanger moments before commercial breaks are so predictable and anti-climatic. It's like the producers and editors are trying too hard. Pro Tip: An endurance race in Alaska pretty much handles the excitement itself. Just record the race as it unfolds.

I'm with the prior poster, Les Stroud all the way. He needs more shows in the near future.

One guy I really like watching on YouTube is MCQBushcraft. He does simple, well commentated videos with beautiful scenery for cut scenes.. very tranquil. I linked one of my favorite videos of his...

Solo Five Day Hunting and Bushcraft

[littlefox1970]

YES! My very favorite stuff to watch! Thank you Bill!

I don't have tv --- so I will have to go to hmv to see if I can order it - hope they can get them ....

The latest survival movie I saw was Way Back - awesome story, but not such a great film. Watched every Everest clip and movie available on you tube prior to that. Especially like the movie about Eider north face with Kurt something or other and his partner Andy. And still watching The Grey- over and over - LOL ...

Little Fox~

[ChillPlayer]

one thing that is just ruining it is the overly dramatic music literally non-stop during the show.

not only that, for some reason they turned season 3 in to a reality TV event that feels scripted all the way, with forced drama and a lot more show elements than in season 2. I really liked S2, it felt much more "true" than S3 but I think they got into bigger dangers in S2 than they felt comfortable from a safety point of view. In S3 I think the producers got afraid and decided to make the track easier but "enhance" the show in the production room afterwards.

I'm still watching it because there's not much else to watch on sundays but in no way am I getting as excited as with S2. That being said, of course Les Stroud is the real deal, I watched the first season and all of his specials, will catch on the other seasons as soon as I get a hand on them.

What distinguishes him the most from U.S.A. (pun not intended ) is honesty, him I believe every scene and don't suspect that he's doing it for the show. But what amazes me the most with LS is how close it is to what we experience - in a rather abstract form - in TLD. Obviously the episode with the crashed plane in northern Canada, but alot of other problems we encounter in the game, like having matches, making fire, finding shelter (cabins), finding food, crafting fishing lines, crafting snares, finding water, wild animals, cat tails (yey) and so on. After watching LS I cannot shake the feeling that TLD is heavily inspired by his show, I wouldn't be the least suprised if the devs would add LS' most feared animals in Canada - moose - into the game