Survival Skills on TV are sadly lacking

[tkioz]

So the other day I was watching Stargate Universe, normally don't, really don't care for the BSG knock-off, Atlantis was no SG1 but at least it was decent; anyway it showed a bunch of people who lived on a planet for 4 months dying in the cold... after having 2 months to get ready for winter...

And I wanted to scream.

It's just like bloody Lost all over again, any time I see a show about "survival" all I see is laziness, ineptness, and pure stupidity in the name of drama.

8 people, 8 scientists, 2 months, in that time I could have a wood cabin built by myself, with 8 people it would have been nothing, where were the animal skins? the cured meat? the stock piled food? the stock piled fire wood? the stone fire place? The stuff anyone with half a bloody brain should have gathered.

What is with TV shows and movies that the characters are so lazy and stupid that they refuse to do the work needed to stay alive, instead banking on acts of plot.

And another thing, why are people still fat on shows like SGU and Lost? I mean FFS they go on and on about short rations and hard work, but after months they've lost no damn weight. It's just stupid, make the actors drop a few pounds.

 

[BonsaiK]

The reality shows deliberately hire people that they know the audience will loathe and feel superior to. It's one of the hooks they use to keep you watching.

 

[TeeBs]

Being a big Lost Fan I must correct you. They go into detail why hurley is still fat.

 

[Grey Knight]

Actually Eli has lost weight. And they're growing their own food on Destiny now. But to stick to the topic, yeah 8 scientists. How often do you think the astrophysicists went camping? They did touch on it a little bit with how much time they wasted trying to prepare to plant stuff when winter was too close.

 

[tkioz]

But to stick to the topic, yeah 8 scientists. How often do you think the astrophysicists went camping?

You'd think people with PHDs would be able to put together a list of things you need to survive... shelter... food... etc... it's not bloody hard. And they were there for life, it's not like they were waiting for a rescue, they chose to stay, you'd think they'd be thinking long term.

 

[Death on Trapezoids]

You pose several viable questions.
Question 1: They don't bank on acts of the plot, rather acts of the plot wouldn't be necessary in the first place if they weren't playing retard catch with the idiot ball. And yes, I have felt like screaming at points too.
Question 2: Sadly, the actors would most likely sue if the job made them drop weight.

Have you ever been to TV tropes?

 

[Grey Knight]

But to stick to the topic, yeah 8 scientists. How often do you think the astrophysicists went camping?

You'd think people with PHDs would be able to put together a list of things you need to survive... shelter... food... etc... it's not bloody hard. And they were there for life, it's not like they were waiting for a rescue, they chose to stay, you'd think they'd be thinking long term.

Agreed, in the situation you're referencing though they had shelter, food, and were surviving until their shelter (the shuttle) broke, leaving them without heat and power.

Their situation mostly comes from the fact that they decided to stay on a planet that they had no long term knowledge about other than from it's rotation it would probably have a pretty nasty winter. They were pretty much done from the get go.

From a plot point however, the whole idea was to reintroduce a character, return a means of transportation, and expound on the god-like abilities of the unseen planet building aliens of season one. They just did it a little sloppily.

 

[geldonyetich]

That's what you call a "plot convenience," where the writers assume these people don't have a brain in their head because that's how they want the plot to shake out.

Fun scenario from a kid's anime episode [http://www.crunchyroll.com/fairy-musketeers/episode-19-510410] I was watching the other day:

* Protagonist starts in a cave with a magical force field hiding his presence and is advised not to leave the cave because there's enemies about that would surely catch him.
* Protagonist is unable to resist the impulse to leave the cave in order to collect some water.
* Protagonist sees a village in the distance and is unable to resist the impulse to visit the village.
* Protagonist is warned by a friendly villager that this is the village of his enemies and he would surely be caught if he's still there by nightfall, and is hidden in a barrel.
* Protagonist accidentally falls asleep in the barrel and is now stranded in the middle of the village of his enemies at nightfall.

That was like 4 or 5 incredibly wrong decisions in the space of 4 minutes. The facepalming could break the sound barrier.

 

[badgersprite]

Most writers don't have practical survival skills, so they don't know how to write people in these situations competently. That's the reason for it.

I'll raise my hand and admit I wouldn't know how to believably write someone in any kind of survival situation, although I did attempt such a thing, and it had my characters constructing shelter, desalinating salt water through evaporation, creating a compass using a magnetised needle, creating fire etc, etc, etc, so, yeah, it is kind of said that professional writers don't know things that a twenty year old who earns money by tutoring kids in English does.

 

[Grey Knight]

I'm a fan of the Discovery channel show The Colony. They set up a group of people in an apocalyptic scenario with limited supplies and resources then let it sort itself out.

Obviously there's bound to be a little deus ex, but overall I actually learned some stuff from the show. such as making a water filtration system from some charcoal and sand in a trash can.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Yeah, most people on TV never go to the bathroom, either, that's pretty unhealthy. It's called fiction, stop nitpicking.

 

[XThecommander]

You expect some actors to have any basic knowledge while they are playing a roll? And you expect them to make a show that acutally makes sense. What a laugh... A good reason why I think TV is just a waste in todays world, and you do nothing but sit in front of it, and do almost no thinking. But that depends on the channel, and show...