Naked and Afraid 2013

Naked and Afraid is a surprisingly interesting survivalist show, where a man and woman try to survive in the wild for 21 days. And yes, they are naked... and blurry.

While I like the show, it has some flaws. Naked and Afraid often turns out to be Naked and Starving, since 21 days with little or no food is doable. Another problem is that participants are allowed only one survival item each, but really there are three necessary items: a knife, a firestarter, and a pot. So, most pairs go with the knife and firestarter and just hope to find a pot substitute. It adds some spice when someone varies from this, but mother nature punished duct tape boy and magnifying glass girl for their innovations.

There is survival information to be learned, but not a lot. You learn that drinking from questionable water sources is punishable by death (or close to it.) You learn that starting fires is a lot harder than it looks, especially in a wet environment. You see these things over and over, when it would be more enjoyable to keep learning new things. Perhaps the most important lesson is that there is just no way in hell you are going to survive in the wild with minimal tools, considering that some of these people have trained their whole lives for this and nearly all of them starved.

The spin-off show, Naked and Afraid XL, fixes a lot of the flaws.

IMO one of the more realistic or at least convincing survival shows:
A man and a woman are sent in from episode to episode changing types of wilderness with ONLY one chosen item per person and a camera team (officially they do not intervene). The two strangers have to survive and travel to an extraction point in 21 days.

Often survivors in TV Shows don't really suffer or only a bit. This show however, like I said is more realistic and convincing, because you see the candidates hurt: suffering emotionally and physically. This is what I believe survival is more like. Of course they know that they will be saved in live threatening situations and get out after 21 days, but the lack of water and food etc. has to have these consequences like emotional breakdowns, lack of motivation and so on. This is what the show focuses on.

It's too bad that the show is often cut like an entertainment show. When the show simply skipped a few days, I often asked myself: "Haven't they done something noteworthy in the last days?" But therefore they show more or less irrelevant interviews. In the episodes with bonus material you can sometimes see what happened in the remaining days. This should be in the main episodes is the first place. The interviews are secondary for me.

Would be great if they also focused or will focus more on the survival techniques than only the suffering of the candidates.

All in all: Good concept with lots of potential!

Btw: often they use marvelous nature fast motion and wildlife fillers.