American Blackout

[crudos]

Something new from NatGeo....

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/american-blackout/

http://www.survivetheblackout.com

Thoughts?

[Well-Prepared Witch]

Looks like an interesting show! I will say that I am reading Longbourne, a book about the servants in Pride and Prejudice. The mere description of doing laundry in that period makes me pray that the grid never, ever, ever goes down! I can only imagine how not fun laundry, dishes, other cleaning, watering the garden, etc. would be.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

[crudos]

If it helps draw more people into preparedness, then it's all good. I have to laugh a bit that FOX News is the network featured, but whatever.

[special-k]

REMINDER:

Nat Geo's "American Blackout" premiers tonight at 9pm eastern.  That's a little over an hour from now.

[JohnyMac]

So how was it? No network TV here at the cabin.

[rah45]

I only saw a trailer for it, but I did not like the portrayal of the two older "veterans," one of whom was trying to slit the throat of the other. They were wearing pro-USA material and camouflage clothing. I think that was very obvious and unnecessary of NG.

[Well-Prepared Witch]

I watched it last night and I thought it was pretty good.  It had some areas of weakness, most of which came from the fact that it was fairly limited in time (especially with as many commercials as there were!).  I wish they'd had narrators that were more representative of the country's population, e.g. more people of color, more older people, etc.  That said, I thought the narrative style was excellent with good tension (since it was done as a story rather than documentary I thought that was an important piece).  I think they ended up with a far rosier picture than would actually happen (when the power came back on, it ALL came back on, all at ONCE and it was only a matter of a couple weeks instead of months or years). 

Rah - that scene you're referencing wasn't really a slam against preppers/patriots.  The prepper guy was actually presented in what I felt was a positive light, though I think his family were a bunch of useless idiots, except maybe the kid who was "videotaping" the segment.  He also wasn't nearly vicious enough, IMHO.  (Not because I think preppers are vicious, but because of the situation in which he found himself - I would have been a LOT meaner!) 

Overall I'd give it a B+.  It wasn't as stark and dire as I think an extended power outage would be in reality, some of the characters did dumb shit (well, I suppose that's true of humans in general so maybe I should cut them more slack on that) and, again, far too happy an ending, but overall a fun watch.

[crudos]

Since I cut the cord to the idiot box this summer (which was a great idea), will be looking for the show via torrent to see it.

[JohnyMac]

Thanks Wellie for your review!

Before I forget Crudos: What is Torrent? I have Netflix via Roku.

Hopefully Sdoon video taped it and can share the tape with MrsMac and me.

  MrsMac just informed me that nobody video tapes anything anymore. Well I do!!!  

[APX808]

I dunno what happens that no pirate is uploading this to the trackers

Anyway, google "American.Blackout.2013.HDTV.x264-QCF.mp4" and you'll find direct download links, the file is 800 MB, so it will take a while if you don't have a good connection

[rah45]

Thanks for the input, WPW. I'm downloading the .rar file now from APX's suggestion, but it's good to know that they didn't set out to demonize preppers/patriots/etc.

[crudos]

JM: Torrent is just another way that files can be distributed over the internet. Instead of many people bogging down resources downloading something from one place, the same file is distributed over a wide variety of sources and a program takes all those pieces and puts them back together. TPTB are not fans of this sort of computing decentralization when it comes to copyrighted material. Places like The PirateBay are sites that are like a gathering point for torrent data, even though the files themselves don't reside on PirateBays servers. Hope that sorta makes sense. That's not to say that American Blackout won't be on Netflix at some point.

[Deathstyle]

Its only a matter of time till someone uploads it to youtube like "Earth 2100" and "After Armeggedon" were.

[crudos]

Some thoughts about American Blackout program from PJ...

http://www.theprepperjournal.com/2013/10/29/9-prepping-lessons-american-blackout/

Seemed like some pretty valid and common sense points made.

[Well-Prepared Witch]

That was a great write up!  Thanks for sharing it Crudos.  The one correction is that it wasn't food the neighbors were stealing, it was fuel.  The fuel was critical to the bunker's functioning, including air pumps.  There was a valid reason the prepper risked going out.  The only problem was that the boyfriend, daughter and wife were all useless idiots.  He had no one to back him up. (Also, he didn't come out firing when he saw his fuel being stolen.  Nicer than I would be in that situation.)

Oh, and I wanted to address the poster saying they wouldn't charge their cell phone if they had a non-grid way to charge electronics. Just remember that a lot of us have smart phones these days and that can mean everything from alternate communications and GPS if you can still communicate with the satellites to entertainment through games and books/reading apps, to inventory apps (I use one for our pantry), etc.  There is some reason to charge a cell phone in a SHTF.

[special-k]

I couldn't help but notice how the father (from the bunker) idiotically chose to engage the looters from only a few yards away instead of from cover/concealment at a comfortable rifle distance.

[APX808]

I'm gratefully surprised by the show...

The only thing I didn't like is that it ended up happily, I dunno things will roll so well in real life.

The prepper guy in the bunker did a lot of mistakes, but I liked the way he was portrayed, like a family guy just trying to survive, not some wacko from outer space like 'doomsday preppers' depict usually.

Anyway, the prepper guy, I think made the following mistakes:

- In his room he slept with a double barrel shotgun, when in the bunker he had an AK and a bunch of other weapons. Come on man, just 2 shots? At least get a pump action.

- Sending his kid unarmed at night "to patrol", if he has CCTV the kid should check the video feeds from inside the house.

- 3 guys get into your house and empty all your food and you didn't hear anything?

- When he saw all the people trying to stole his fuel, and knowing they were the same guys who already stole his food, he should had took some cover and engaged the guys and killed them all.

[rah45]

The prepper guy's mistakes, IMO, that haven't been addressed yet:

Bringing the new, unproven boyfriend, or even if that is something you guys would do, letting him have access to knowledge of essential item locations and security features of the bugout location. Who in their right mind would give that much knowledge, and thus control, to a teenager you don't really know?

He was outside more than once without a long gun, and he had several in the bunker. You don't have to carry it in your hands every moment, but you should have one near you if things get that bad.

I was puzzled as to why he didn't bother to bury or otherwise hide his fuel cache. He also should have split it, and stored it in 2 or 3 locations if he was going to keep it above ground like that. Oh, and a "fence?" That was a POS fence.

Why no noisemakers around the perimeter of the property, or inside the house? Rocks in tin cans on wires would be great. At least you'd be startled awake by unaware people wanting to steal your food. I'd want to make setting such devices inside the house at entry points a mandatory chore every night, and take them down in the morning.

Huge issue for me - he had several long guns, most seemed combat-oriented, and it seemed he was the only one who was trained to use them. Makes no freaking sense. Also, he seemed to have several different kinds of rifles. Especially if he is the only one who can shoot, why would you not standardize? He also went outside without any extra ammunition (with or without mags), every time he went.

He kept going on about the "plan," but when he needed to go outside and deal with a security threat, his "plan" involved counting only on himself. Also, his "plan" included lots of cool guns, and I assume ammo, but he hadn't even gone over instructions to his family regarding a situation in which he would have to use those tools. He shouldn't have had to deliberate with his wife before leaving the bunker to respond to hostiles, and his wife should have known what to do after he left. He didn't ensure that she was capable of taking care of the family without him present. His "plan" sucked ass.

[JohnyMac]

Thx Crudos! 

On the critique of the Prepper: Live and learn from his mistakes. 

[Reaver]

Let's go to the FEMA camps where your daughter won't get taken raped and murdred. Then when the UN gets here we shall be saved.

 

[crudos]

On the YT's....

http://youtu.be/PreJvrljihI