Completely fake (proof inside)

agreed - Wipeout is a much better Escape show.

The addict on green team (Jake? Can't remember) also looked familiar.

There's a faction of people who relentlessly apply to game shows. And casting companies can get lazy. There's only a finite amount of applicants with the right mix of competitiveness and shamelessness but score low on basic math and problem solving and controlling their aggression. Industry people all seem to hang in small circles.

All shows stage their sets, even game shows, even jail cells.

None of this makes the show fake.

I too questioned the 'hiding' from guards. But I know that game shows have rule books. They probably define how a capture works, do re-shoots, or whatever.

The contest itself is so far not that intriguing. Compare that to last summer's cheap filler game show, 'Take The Money And Run' where viewers could think about what city or types of team might be next. Viewers could speculate about what kind of tactics might work against the interrogative, or imagine where they might hide the case and how they would try to misdirect the hunt.

This show I'm not sure where they can go with it. Teams go from one yawning puzzle to the next, sometimes being sent back to the starting line. Zzzzzz.

While I am not sure about this show yet I would like to try and explain point 5. I know this may be a little far fetched but the guards are probably instructed to follow a pattern when they are walking and sweeping their flashlights. So as long as they don't hit the contestant with their flashlight while they are making their sweep, they don't "see them".

The problem with this obviously is that with the contestants running around and stuff, they are bound to hear them and maybe whip around and spot them. Obviously I am not privy to how the game is made but it is just an educated guess.

Also, point number 3. I believe one of the green team members said that he picked up the guitar and heard something in it. Then he said that they were frustrated and the guitar was a good thing to take it out on. So I think they suspected the key was in there and it gave them an excuse to smash it.

I too immediately knew that those guards should have seen the lights that were used to film the contestants. There has to be at least two other people behind the contestants while they are trying to hide and run simultaneously: one guy with the lights and one with the microphone. Couldn't they do this alittle bit better? PLUS there is too much talking interspersed with the "action". No, I didn't care for this one. Even reruns of the Amazing Race would be better.

1 - They're 'filling' contestants.

1 - The first thing I said to my partner when they walked into the cells, "A key will be in the guitar"

3 - That's not good!

4 - They were embarrassing to watch

5 - I'm pretty sure that the guards are on a strict timetable and/or are set to start their walk once the prisoners appear etc. The game might not be fare otherwise.

1. They seemed like a delightful couple, and I'm sure that many people in the audience of the Million-Dollar-Drop commented so. So, they were invited...

2. I agree with the above poster. He probably heard something, but was still frusterated.

3. ????

4. I do agree with you on that...his attitude was kind of...not natural in a way.

5. I wondered that too. I just chalked that up to maybe the guards have a pre-calculated path with their lights, and that determines whether they are caught or not.

I agree with you. This show, in no way, simulates a real escape from Alcatraz.

The only real challenge in the whole show was escaping the guards. Everything else seemed...easy. Ok...find a key, easy, use a magnet to get a key, find a gas can and a key, and whatever the last challenge was.

I think the show would be more successful if the players had to do things that the audience could figure out.

All the green team had to do was watch the cameraman when they were looking for the gas can. As soon as they walked past under it, he pointed right at it.

It seemed like bad acting when...
1. the girl from the blue team found the boat key
2. the green team found the gas can

I could give them the benefit of the doubt and think that maybe it really did happen that way, but either the camera missed it, or there was a technical difficulty ie sound, lighting. This would require the producer to ask them to re-do their discovery a second time for the camera, resulting in bad acting.

I think the show is somewhere between fake and real. The teams are probably given a long list of rules and suggestions. What they then do is up to them. If they get too far off track or fall way behind, they are probably given help.

And some things are faked. I'm watching an episode where teams have to rappel out a window. I don't see any wires or harnesses. Lawyers would never allow regular Joes off the street to crawl out a window like that. So I'm guessing that the rappelling scenes are filmed separately and the teams don't actually climb out the window during the game.

As for the guards, I'm sure that the guards are told to just walk a slow, predictable patrol and only shout out if a team blatantly walks in front of them. If a team makes even a minor effort to hide, the guard is not allowed to see them. Oh, and the guard is supposed to ignore the camera guy and any lights or production equipment.

So, it's real in that the players are running around looking for stuff, but it's fake in that they have limits what they can do (like they probably have to wait for the camera guy to catch up) and are probably helped out along the way.

It's cheesy, but kind of amusing.

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What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?