You're going to the top of the mountain, broken legs and all.
March 23, 2017 5:10 AM   Subscribe

"Eden, the ground-breaking Channel 4 project, saw 23 strangers cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves in a corner of the West Highlands ... Instead of being crowned reality TV celebrities and fought over by agents, the 10 who made it through the 12 months have learned that only four episodes have been shown – the last seven months ago."
posted by auntie-matter (17 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was only wondering the other day what had happened to this show. It was shaping up to be quite interesting, with rivalries and resentments starting to show in the few episodes screened.
posted by essexjan at 5:17 AM on March 23, 2017


As a side note, great post title, auntie-matter. I half expected Jim Carrey to be involved in the story.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:22 AM on March 23, 2017


I'm digging the remoteness tropes in this article--"wilderness," "Biblical Eden," "struggling to live off the land"--that paint a picture of an Antarctic level of insurmountable isolation and loneliness. Fact is, a 32 mile journey by car will plop you into the town of Glencoe, a tourist destination with five star B&Bs, restaurants, outdoor outfitters, cafes, and a continuous stream of buses from London filled with hikers planning to walk the West Highland Way. It's not surprising that the townspeople hope to capitalize on a sliver of this action.
posted by Gordion Knott at 6:15 AM on March 23, 2017 [5 favorites]


I can vouch for the quality of the fish and chips available 5 miles away at the hotel in Acharacle. Wifi too.
posted by gnuhavenpier at 6:32 AM on March 23, 2017 [2 favorites]


It's maddening that the article just stops where the OP does. I was really hoping for a longform piece on what happens when reality show contestants go through a grueling year-long experiment cut off from the outside world, only to find that no one was even watching. (Which is itself kind of a gruesome impulse on my part, come to think of it.) How do they feel about this? Betrayed? Angry? Resigned? Why did Channel 4 effectively shelve the show but continue to produce it?

One of the linked articles does at least go into life after the show for some of the people who left early. But the lede of this story sets an expectation the rest of the article doesn't meet.
posted by chrominance at 7:21 AM on March 23, 2017 [8 favorites]


Maybe this is how the real Eden went, too. "Adam won't let me wear clothes to stop these $&%*! midges from biting me? I'm gonna eat this apple and get us some clothes!"
posted by clawsoon at 8:11 AM on March 23, 2017 [3 favorites]


" year-long experiment cut off from the outside world, only to find that no one was even watching."

I can't quite come up with a funny retort for this"
posted by boilermonster at 8:57 AM on March 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


If the Bible were written today:

A Channel 4 spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that Eden had “drawn to a close” and would be aired later, but no date had been confirmed.

posted by chavenet at 9:17 AM on March 23, 2017 [4 favorites]


What is the point of society if not junk food and booze?
posted by srboisvert at 9:20 AM on March 23, 2017


I was really hoping for a longform piece on what happens when reality show contestants go through a grueling year-long experiment cut off from the outside world, only to find that no one was even watching.

That faint rustling sound you hear are aspiring scriptwriters the world over working on that story.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:25 AM on March 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


Similarly, Season 29 of The Amazing Race was shot last year for their customary fall season, only to have CBS sit on it for months amid speculation that it was going to cancel the show with the final season un-aired. Last I read, they eventually said they would run it in April.
posted by briank at 9:27 AM on March 23, 2017


If the Bible were written today:

White House restricts access to the Tree of Knowledge; vows to build wall around Eden.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:35 AM on March 23, 2017 [3 favorites]


This is a good idea for a movie, a reverse Truman show: a group of people live in a limited artificial environment convinced that the whole world is watching them and at some point it dawns on them that nobody is.
posted by signal at 2:12 PM on March 23, 2017 [12 favorites]


I had been following the show, but it started to get a bit disturbing when it seemed like the men were starting up a plot to secretly starve the women so they'd leave.

Plus do not underestimate the actual real-life misery of trying to endure midges!
posted by Samarium at 7:22 PM on March 23, 2017


I had been following the show, but it started to get a bit disturbing when it seemed like the men were starting up a plot to secretly starve the women so they'd leave.

Extreme MGTOW
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:47 PM on March 23, 2017


Reminded me of this novel, which takes "isolated reality show contestant" to the extreme.

(SLIGHT SPOILER: Ugh, there are disturbing scenes in which the protag is so caught up in the world of the game, that even when she stumbles across evidence of tragic outside events, she's convinced it's just staged.)
posted by NorthernLite at 8:58 PM on March 23, 2017


Maybe this is how the real Eden went, too. "Adam won't let me wear clothes to stop these $&%*! midges from biting me? I'm gonna eat this apple and get us some clothes!"

I've always maintained that Eve's original sin wasn't eating the apple herself; it was giving one to someone else who couldn't handle the responsibility of the knowledge of good and evil (case in point: first thing he did was to pass the buck).
posted by tully_monster at 12:04 PM on March 24, 2017 [2 favorites]


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