When the Castaways are having a hard time roughing it out in the wild on those islands, all I can think of is--- Hey, wait a minute, there's a camera man nearby who has to do all the same things the Castaway is doing, but he also has to photograph the castaway and keep his expensive high-tech camera equipment safe and dry at the same time. Knowing that a crew was photographing the entire thing made it seem phony to me. Lets face it, this is a prime time TV production, complete with wireless microphones concealed on each Castaway, beautifully photographed sunsets, and camera drones flying around to capture those great aerial shots of castaways who ventured out into deep water. And yet, we are not supposed to think about any of that. The fact is, none of the Castaways was ever really alone, because a professional camera crew was always with them. Regular movies are completely fake, that is understood, so that doesn't bother me. But, this is a weird hybrid where we are expected to believe the Castaways are alone, but magically they are somehow being photographed, and for me that carries the willing suspension of disbelief too far. I keep wondering about all those camera people, do they have to live off the land and eat maggots in their noodles like the Castaways, or do they have good food to eat, which they are not allowed to share with the castaways. I'm sure the camera crew is well fed and the Castaways are always complaining about being hungry, so that must make for some friction when the camera is not running. And, there must be some medical staff standing by in case of a serious emergency, even though there is a pretense that two of the castaways are allowed to suffer from nasty looking infections. I think the producers fudged and had the doctor give those Castaways antibiotics without telling the viewers. Also, does the camera crew have to sleep out in the open with those expensive cameras, I doubt it. Most likely, the camera crew and the doctor have a camp with comfortable tents and a generator for power, or perhaps a boat with modern accommodations is anchored nearby, but conveniently out of sight. In spite of all the trouble I had believing they were really castaways, I found myself watching the show, because the people were interesting. For that reason, I can't give this show a low rating. I have to give the show credit for good casting, while using non professionals. But, I'm not going to drink the cool-aid and give the show high marks when all I could think about was how much more believable it would have been if the producers had given the Castaways little waterproof cameras and let them make their own documentary. It wouldn't have had the slick production values of this show, but it would have been much more believable. Now that it's over, I'm curious how much cash the Castaways got who lasted for the full six weeks. The producers admit that there was a cash incentive for sticking it out to the end, but they won't say how much it was. They want us to believe the main motivation for staying to the end was self-improvement, but I'm not buying that. Surviving on that island may have been contrived, but it was obviously mentally and physically difficult for those who stayed to the end. Personally, I think the reason why some people held on to the end was because there was a big pot of cash waiting for those who held out until the big finale where they were rescued. It's too bad the producers won't tell us how much the rescued group took home, but I guess that wasn't what they wanted us to take away from the show.
