Colony looks pretty cool. I haven't seen it yet but saw a trailer the other day. Going to have to hunt that one out. Thanks foe the recommendation, haertig! Much appreciated!

"The Walking Dead" (TWD) is my second favorite series after the "Lost", waiting for every episode. Very well made, artful, and extremely "atmospheric" and immersive. That's the only series to date I'm really watching, putting aside my smartphone...

The "Zombieland" is great and a lot of fun indeed, check the "Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse" - even more fun in the exact same genre! (18+ though)

We started watching the new "Colony" series as well, caught by Josh Holloway participation (Sawyer in "Lost"; by the way, Sarah Wayne, "Lori" in TWD, is actually famous for her "Prison Break" work, in the TWD she must be considered just an episodic character), however, so far (ep.5) it feels quite boring and shallow in general.

Watching "The 100" as well (Season 3 ep.4) - solid PA (post-apocalyptic) SciFi, even though seems to be girlish somewhat But the PA world depicted and the variety of plot's lines is quite interesting, no doubt.

Another "girlish" PA series, I'm watching with my DW, is "The Shannara Chronicles", the "survival value" is nil, but I always loved a well thought out PA/Fantasy world mix where you own imagination is free to hypothesize. It shines with quite an artful CG as well.

Movies are all well and good, but they are entertainment and they don't necessarily reflect reality.

Consider some real life examples, like:

1) a man exposed to 120 degree temps in the Arizona desert, losing 25% of his body weight - so dehydrated his numerous wounds did not bleed until he partially hydrated. Crawled the last eight miles to the Tinajas Altas completely naked.

2) adrift at sea in the S. Atlantic Poon Lim spent 133 days on a raft in 1942. His raft had 50 days worth of provisions but he spent the last days drinking rainwater and fishing. This was formerly a record for longest time adrift, but I believe it may have been eclipsed, if the story is credible.

These are all folks who couldn't pick up the phone and say "This isn't fun, anymore" and wait for the helicopter. no reality scripts or Holiday Inns nearby, but just stark reality. Of course there is very little drama in watching someone crawl across the desert, or sit on a raft, but real survival often seems to be rather boring, at least to the outside observer

I think, that's obvious even for kids. We just sharing the entertainment options which could be of interest to those with ETS passion. E.g. my DW hates when I'm watching more than 3 series of the many seasons of "Alaska: The Last Frontier" in a row Not bad survival reality show, by the way, even though that's just the people simply living in the near to normal environment documented.

You covered it perfectly. Nobody would want to watch real life survival. To hold peoples interest, they have to throw in a few explosions, naked women, guns, velociraptors, car chases, zombies, etc. Which, for the most part, aren't typical in survival situations.

"I think, that's obvious even for kids."

I would hope that you are correct in that statement, but I feel all too often what we see on the screen, either the big one or the little ones, exerts a strong influence on what we expect. I have handled victims in mountain rescue who have expressed some dismay that their ordeal wasn't going to end really soon, with time for station breaks and commercials. Of course those weren't always the sharpest knives in the drawer.

I doubt that dismay was caused by the cognitive dissonance between TV shows and reality. They've probably climbed some distance already to learn that the right way. Rather they simply had brighter expectations about the county's rescue operation's level, but nobody paid for a couple of copters with special equipment. Shows for millions usually have more money to spend on a single SAR mission than a dozen of stranded kids or a rural county - that's the truth.

Truth. This is something that we are aware of, and as parents, and have to monitor with our 12 year old boy. Fantasy and realty can be very blurry at that age. His strategy for what to do if he comes across a bear in the woods, for example, tried to take a brief detour from nice, safe reality, to "holy ninja batman!" for a little while a couple of years ago. LOL!

For most people, their only frame of reference for survival is their entertainment (movies, tv shows). I can't tell you how many times I have had people throw out a "good idea" that came straight out of one of these TV shows. Entertainment or not, it is all most people know about the subject.

Entertainment is good, I like it myself. In this forum, we do understand its limitations. It would be nice to have some more educational and accurate information get out to the general population. The real examples are numerous, most people just don't pay attention to them, "normalcy bias".

TV rots your brain.