Sunday, January 4, 2009

Colonial House

In general terms, I'm not a reality TV fan. The little that I've watched usually seems to be some kind of game show or a whole lot of people having petty fights and whining at the camera.

However, I've recently become fascinated with one particular variety of reality TV. I've watched two series of them so far, with more lined up in my Netflix queue. These shows skip the part about voting people off the island and cut right to the part about dumping modern people in the past.

The one I just finished, Colonial House, plopped a group of people in a recreated 1628 setting in New England and pretty much let them fend for themselves for four months. As much as possible, they recreated the technology, social structures, and pressures original colonists would have navigated. Psychologically, it's amazing how quickly people adjust. It's brilliant.

As I was watching the show, the thought kept going through my mind that it would be quite the experience to do something like that, either as part of the cast, or behind the scenes as one of the people creating different historically-based scenarios.

Between the three I've seen - the others were Manor House and Regency House - Colonial House is by far the most intense. Also, by far, the one with the harshest setting. Crazy stuff. Crazy, fascinating stuff.

1 comment:

Minion GIR said...

I saw "1900 House" and "Regency House" but not the others. Will have to add them to my Netflix queue. Sounds good.

I'm not a fan of the vote off the island shows either, with the exception of Project Runway and Top Chef, where it's the experts that do the voting so it's not such a personality contest. But I much prefer the social experiment, without fan votes, shows.