In case you haven't seen the commercials flooding the cable airwaves, the Discovery Channel has a new miniseries to air starting next week.
The ColonyLong story short (I'm guessing), some super powerful virus wiped out a good chunk of humanity, society and industry has broken down, scattered remnants of humanity blah blah blah your typical death of mankind. From the nonconfrontational Armageddon emerges a band of ten people - four women and six men, all with harrowing/inspiring life stories, each more moderately attractive and racially diverse than the last (except the two old farts, natch) - who against all ration hole up in a Southern California junk yard, to rebuild their own corner of civilization.
I'm ragging a bit on the boilerplate premise and producerizing, but let's be honest. It's a show we've all wanted to see, based on a scenario we've all fantasized of being in. The only way you could beef up a pitch like that is if the MythBusters promised a guest appearance.
Now, judging by the split-second teaser shots in the commercials, it'll probably be more about junkyard science tricks and semi-scripted character drama than any revealing implications of post-apocalyptic survival. Nonetheless, I look forward to it with great anticipation, and expect loads of tangential discussion from our little enclave of anti-social intellectualism.
First question - who will the board rally around? Michael Raines, the Crazy Prepared survivalist with equal love for crossbows and solar panels? Or Professor John Cohn, the pyromaniac computer engineer with enough beard for a dozen men?
And I'll want some episode summaries, because naturally it's only going to air when I'm at work. RAAAGE