Television Review: The Colony

The premise behind Discovery Channel's new reality program, The Colony, is simple. Simulate a post-apocalyptic scenario in which a group of 10 skilled volunteers (aka the colonists) must survive for 10 weeks in an abandoned industrial space outside of Los Angeles. It's a compelling idea, if cribbed somewhat from the Survivor playbook with a liberal dose of Mad Max.

The first episode introduces us initially to six of the volunteers, including a handyman, an aerospace engineer, and a computer programmer with a fortunate side interest in water filtration. Deprived of sleep for thirty hours, they're sent out first to forage for food and supplies, and then make their home in a warehouse marked, simply "Sanctuary."

Herein lies the first problem. The premise of The Colony, and the environment it seeks to recreate are so far beyond the stresses that the colonists are subjected to as to make the scripted set-up laughable. It's not that I'd particularly like to see the cast injured or frightened, subjected to martial law and the trauma of watching a nation collapse around them, losing their existing social support structures, or the obvious periods of rough sleep and starvation that they would likely endure before reaching the point where they are now.

There's a word for going out with five other people to live rough for a little while in a designated safe spot, and it's called camping. And yet, The Colony is written in such a way as to try and dissuade the viewer from believing that this is the case. Scripted events meant to make it seem like the volunteers are under threat (like an assault by a pack of raiders during a scavenging mission) are sufficiently tame that when the colonists emerge untouched it actually serves to lower the stakes, not raise them, which is a shame.

Underneath the ill-considered misdirection and wildly unnecessary roleplaying is a funny sort of genius. The Colony doesn't stand out on the whole as being must-see television, and while its premise must have made a heck of a pitch, it falls flat in the execution. What makes it appealing, though, besides the obvious satisfaction of watching a group of people living in a live-action version of Fallout 3, is the way human nature plays out among the colonists.

When four new volunteers arrive to join the original six, I couldn't help but love the way reactions among the original six ranged between hopeful naiveté and outright hostility, or how unskilled this group of shockingly useful people seems to be at negotiating that scenario. There's another moment of tension when, over a meal, one of the new arrivals confesses to spending six years in prison.

Also, while it's very clear that education and competency is well distributed across gender lines on The Colony, the distribution of labor is far from equitable. Watching a handyman joke with the boys not to disturb the women while a rocket scientist, a martial arts instructor, and use baking soda to wash his laundry should give viewers pause about how deeply ingrained gender roles are in our culture.

Is The Colony worth watching? Maybe, but not quite in the way the producers seem to intend. It will be interesting to see how the premise and the relationships develop. By the end of the first episode the colonists look reasonably comfortable, and comfortable doesn't make for ten weeks of good television.