Farmer left in an abandoned, freezing town without food and water for a TV show
Here is the Preview: The Show: Apocalypse, Channel 4
‘I wanted to thrive.’
However, the farmer said his job gave him some valuable skills. He said he was used to managing people. Having six staff working on the farm, he naturally took on a role of looking after others. Humphreys also claimed he was confident in starting and maintaining fires and in being resourceful. “I thought a lot of it was common sense, but apparently not,” he said. “I wanted to thrive more than survive.” He said the initial adrenaline of arriving eventually wore off, and the group had to concentrate on staying warm, keeping dry, and finding food and water. Temperatures dropped as low as -12C one night; he said, “As a practical person, I was trying to prioritize comfort and warmth, mitigating hunger as much as possible. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgyq4j0q4qo
That should read 2 Farmers.
I’m watching Apocalypse on catch-up. The 2 things that came to the fore were “impenetrable individualism that means no one is willing to concede to an expert, prioritize sensibly, or follow orders”, and, out of fear, being prepared to lie over a battery torch.
The Preview
The immediate things I note here, just from the preview, are the group dynamics & the collective lack of experience. However, a few people are making statements that could help create the “glue” that binds the community. “Let’s do the shit jobs first, like sort out our base and sleeping arrangements,” or it upsets the people driven by their own needs over those of the collective. Members of the group think he’s bossy.
In my experience: A warm, safe, comfortable base is the foundation of a good survival base of operations.
This is Dystopian Survivalism, and it’s awful; if this weren’t a game, with clean water provided, these people would mostly be dead within a week.
Episode 1: Remember this is a game, and a study of humans under stress.
No phone, no electricity, no internet: It’s getting dark, the temperature is falling, and as viewers, we don’t know when they last ate or drank. A group of people thrown together in a US Army military urban warfare and collapse-scenario range. It’s dark; They need to find somewhere to sleep, and they bed down in the railway station on dismantled seats. It’s a cold night with very little bedding. They find a battery-powered light, and an argument breaks out over it. One of the women has already admitted fear of the dark; she has taken possession of the light and isn’t prepared to share it. Another of the women wants to borrow it, so she can find a place for the call of nature, and an argument is developing over sharing it. “I have been asked to look after the light,” says the woman with the light. The other person asks, “By whom?” “By the team,” she retorts. It’s the woman who is scared of the dark
It’s a lie. One of the other contestants asks, “How old are we, 7?”
So far, this is terrible drama, and it brings out the first real character combination: a frightened bully who has already admitted to being afraid of the dark and calls themselves an alpha woman (I stand 6 feet tall without heels). Basically a frightened bully. They have also shown themselves to be a liability to the group’s cohesion and safety. Let’s see how this develops.
It turns out there are two groups on opposite sides of an abandoned town, and they can’t leave. This is part Scrapyard Challenge, part Hunger Games, except in the Hunger Games the contestants have high levels of training. Among the opposing groups are farmers and others. Someone asks, “Who has survival skills?” and we know we have a cattle farmer. A cattle farmer in one group and a sheep farmer in the other. The other group seems more competent at identifying needs. They are asleep, and it’s cold. What’s interesting is that there is a mix of farmers who rub everyone the wrong way but know how to get stuff done and understand survival rationing.
The Guardian has it just right
“At least 13 of them seem to be pretty useless. Two of the women in the West team are immediately at each other’s throats, alternately scoffing and raging about “setting boundaries” and being “disrespected” instead of “gathering firewood” or “finding tins”. The next day, a pair of Westerners find the town’s massive supermarket. But it’s boarded up. Oh well. They go back to base, where the emergent leader – Welsh sheep farmer Ioan – suggests they tidy up the place rather than go back to the big building that likely contains plentiful supplies of food and other vital items and see if they can break in. For absolutely unfathomable reasons, the famished team complies.” Lucy Mangan, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/sep/13/apocalypse-review-the-stupidity-will-make-you-scream-yourself-hoarse
I agree; the narcissism, individualism, and stupid decisions are an indication that most people in grid down will be dead within the 1st and 2nd week from dysentery and other water-borne diseases. “But, fundamentally, the venality and impenetrable individualism that mean no one is willing to concede to an expert, prioritize sensibly or follow orders, and which thus hamper every endeavor, is depressing. I fear for the future – of programming mostly but, sure, humanity too.” Lucy Mangan, The Guardian
Drinking Water: The show is unrealistic because of the drinking water that the contestants have.
Contestants are seen with bottles of water, with no explanation of where they came from. Maintaining a safe intake of 2 L/person/day for more than 2 people is a major processing operation. I cover this in my posts about water:
- Processing Water At Scale: Water in the Ecological Crisis: A Dwindling Resource: Harvesting, Storage & Processing
- Hydration and Purification: Hydration In Heatwaves & Making Water Safe To Drink
It would be extremely irresponsible for the game organizers to give contestants contaminated water to work with without any training. This immediately reveals that most people will be dead in any post-apocalyptic scenario. I was hoping for an educational fly-on-the-wall view of abdominal cramps and liquefied bowel movements. 3 days, everyone is airlifted out.
Compared to the hype, it’s a bit anticlimactic: the Guardian headline: No food, no water, and a lone Abba record: my day out at Channel 4’s hellish new reality show from 10 September 2026. The Guardian journalist Michael Segelov says, “Darkness was approaching when the producers rescued me. I’d found no water, no source of heat, no tin of pilchards. There’d been talk of me spending the night on site – I’m not convinced I would have made it through.” I’m not sure whether this is over-dramatization or genuine fear? I am inclined to suggest it’s actually genuine fear. Fear of the dark is very real; fear of the dark outside in nature is even more common. Forests at night are places people fear the most.
The girl with a sweat phobia is in an environment where personal hygiene is lacking, an environment where they are choosing to shit in a bucket and have found a convenient hole in which to put it. The crew who run the game are probably doing a lot in the background to make sure these people don’t inadvertently kill themselves with unpleasant diseases from poor sanitation.
When the two groups become aware of each other, immediately there is more fear and paranoia than common sense. This immediately pits them against each other, whereas they are better off working together, pooling resources and skills. Of course, beating the game isn’t good drama. But then watching a group of self-interested, narcissistic idiots who privately tell the camera various personal details revealing their personalities (Big Brother style). This isn’t entertaining; this is frustrating and an education in who to avoid during collapse.
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