Stream It Or Skip It?

Just like in Season 1 ofOutlast, sixteen contestants are sent out tothe middle of the Alaskan rainforest with the barest of supplies. The goal is to survive for 45 days, with a prize of $1 million awaiting the winners. There is only one rule: In order to win, a person must be a part of a team by the end of the competition. In fact, if a person finds themselves without a team at any point, they have 24 hours to connect with a team, or they have to fire a flare to leave.

OUTLASTSEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Shots of Little Duncan Bay in Alaska. “Welcome to Outlast, a survival show unlike any other,” says a narrator.

The Gist: The use of the flare we mention above is the only way someone leaves the competition, usually after just not being able to take the conditions anymore. There are no votes, and the decision to leave is almost fully on the contestant.

When the contestants get to the initial meeting point, a crate is dropped, containing supplies and four hatchets; the people who grab the hatchets pick the initial teams, labeled Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta. Each team gets designated areas on either side of the bay to find a spot to set up camp, start a fire, find fresh water and forage/hunt for food.

It’s cold and wet in the rainforest, making finding dry wood for kindling tough to find. Three of the four teams manage to get fires going, though. But by day 5, disputes between team members everywhere are starting to pop up. People who claimed they were bowhunters can’t hit a squirrel from 50 feet away. Others are being resented for grabbing leadership and treating team members like garbage.

Once everyone is established, though, Bayo, one of the members of Team Alpha, is ready to start making power moves over the other teams in order to get some people to leave.

What Shows will It Remind You Of? Like we said before Season 1, Outlast is Alone mixed with Survivor, albeit with the caveat that the contestants need to work together.

Our Take:Outlast is no joke. It’s a game where a group of people, who mostly know how to handle themselves in the great outdoors, have to find people they can work together with in order to win. Where the game shines is when we see which contestants take the “only one rule” factor to heart and torture fellow contestants in order to get them to shoot off a flare and leave, and which ones would rather create alliances.

So not only does the first episode show both strategies at play, it also shows that those strategies can cause conflict within the same team. It’s pretty certain that all or most of the contestants watched Season 1, so they know that sabotaging other teams is an effective strategy, no matter how much of an a-hole it makes a person look. Given how effective the strategy was in Season 1, it makes us wonder why some contestants still try to take the high road and go the alliance route. It makes them look somewhat naive.

It’s easy to judge the contestants like Bayo that set out to be jerks, but a share of $1 million is at stake, and the smaller the team that wins, the bigger the share the winners win. In addition, having to sleep and in a rainy 40 degree environment would make anyone cranky, and things are only going to get colder. We’re not sure we wouldn’t be Bayo and others like him in the same situation.

Sex and Skin: None. Hard to do that sort of thing when you’re cold, wet and haven’t showered in weeks.

Parting Shot: As team Bravo members go after Bayo, Zach tells the camera, “That was not our plan as a team, you fucking idiot.”

Sleeper Star: Julio, a defense attorney, is one of the team leaders, and he seems to want to lead by consensus, which causes initial chaos. Let’s say he won’t be leading for very long.

Most Pilot-y Line: Eric, self-appointed leader of Team Delta, yells at an exhausted Brendon and Joseph, who hiked for hours to find water, when they accidentally leave a water can behind. If you’re so eager to get that can, Eric, you go get it.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Outlast is a dead-serious reality competition, with potential for anarchy and chaos to rule the gameplay. What’s not to like?

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.