Anyone else think that Jordan totally sabotaged Jonas this week. He was giving very vague instructions knowing the Jonas couldn't see or shout back at him for fear of attracting zombies. Of all the deaths so far Jonus' has been the saddest for me so far!
shareJordan seemed to have difficulty getting his head around the fact that Jonas was in total darkness and couldn't see what he could on the screen. But once this was clarified to him he did OK. Not great, but I don't think he was to blame.
What sabotaged Jonas was the noise and steam when he turned the wheel, which seemed to attract twice as many zombies, blocking off every way out. It was annoying as there was nothing either of them could do then. His death felt horribly set up.
It had already been decided that whoever was going into that room was going to die, no matter how good their communication skills were. It was the same with the zombie waiting for Thom in the air vent- the last person to finish that task was always destined to die in that mission.
I get that they need deaths in a show like this, but when they are so blatantly staged they are not exciting or dramatic, they are just irritating. The contestants should be given difficult tasks that are possible, if approached in the right way, and have them die if they get it wrong. Having them placed in impossible situations where they will die no matter what they do is not really entertaining to watch and, since this is meant to be a game show, doesn't feel very fair.
Your theories are really good and I hope that this doesn't ruin the show but sheds some light on this:
Each task was manageable to pass, there was always a way for everyone to survive as long as you listened to what you were told. The air vent was a timed mission, we got 90 seconds to complete it and I took forever, the instructions weren't clear and I had those stupid gloves on (Which if you look carefully I removed them - even though at first I thought I was gonna get a shock loL!). I just took too long and got caught :(
I did notice actually, me and my mum were literally screaming at the tv for you to take your gloves off! Haha! 90 seconds still sounds pretty impossible though, even if you had taken your gloves off at the beginning!
It's not ruining the show for me, just that the deaths aren't as entertaining when i can see them coming.
And sorry, but i'm not completely convinced that it's not pre-decided which missions will be successful and which will result in a death- the different speeds of the zombies, the way they hang back sometimes when they could easily get someone, then start running as soon as they get to the door... Pretty obvious they're on a 'no kill' mission.
It's OK though, there needs to be a bit of control over the deaths- too few, or too many for that matter, will get boring.
(Sorry OP for replying to wrong person- Im on my phone and it will only let me reply to you!)
Interestingly enough the prize is available to everyone and due to there being a prize the BBC has very strict rules in place to ensue fairness. Each game is tested and tweaked to ensure that it is easy to complete.
We decided who did each mission - most of the time we would volunteer before any other means were needed.
Each mission was ranked High Risk or Low RIsk - that means if it was high risk there would be an element involved that would make it trickier but by no means impossible.
The zombies have strict rules to adhere to and they can not do anything outside of these. The same as the contestants - we were not allowed to do anything to jeopardise another person's chances otherwise we would have been removed - so we couldn't deliberately throw someone outside OR push them into a zombie.
It was possible for everyone to survive and it was also possible for no one to win the show :) Leah actually nearly died and was warned that she might not even make it into the show.
Didn't know there was a prize- besides like, not getting eaten :) That and the fact that the missions are ranked make a lot of sense.
I do understand the zombies, I've worked as one myself in smaller scale, live action games that are very similar to this and yeah, the rules have to be pretty strict. I always play a non-contact zombie (I prefer bumbling about looking scary than chasing people- I don't do running), and the limits of the role can cause problems when the players don't do what they are meant to or just freeze. I've had to hang back or walk away from people myself at times, so I shouldn't really complain about that!
As a live action game, this set up works really well, but I think it was always going to be problematic bringing it to TV. As live action, you only need to entertain the players and give them a great experience, but putting it on TV means finding a way to entertain people watching, as opposed to living it, which is much much harder to achieve without making it look like an artificial or controlled environment to some degree.
It's a good show and certainly has a great deal of potential, but I don't feel it's quite there yet. I hope it gets a second series because with a little more tweaking I think it will get there.
The live action game sounds like fun - is it something you organise yourself for fun or a club, like those civil war reenactments?
shareThe game I've worked on is called 2.8 Hours Later, run by Slingshot. I'm just a volunteer, I don't work for the company so I'm not involved with the organising.
They visit different English cities throughout the year and yeah, it's loads of fun! If you like this sort of thing you should definitely check them out.
Tickets to play are a bit expensive, but if you volunteer as a zombie you get a free ticket to play the game on another night- so you get two nights of fun!
I will definitely look into it, thanks for that :)
You're welcome, and please do! I post every year on facebook for people to get involved in this ( I've been doing it for four years), and no-one does, even though they are interested when I tell them about it just after I've done it! I cannot recommend it enough- so much fun!
shareFound the facebook page. Now to work up the courage...! :)
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