I watched the two parts of Eden the opening first four episodes before it disappeared/cancelled off our screen for months before the remaining five shows were shown over five consecutive night. The participants had no idea the show was cancelled due to poor viewer ratings and they just carried on. Filmed by themselves and some fixed cameras some would finish the planned year.
Televised on Channel 4 the reality show dropped 23 men and women into the Scottish Highlands for 12 months and tasked them with setting up a new, idyllic society within 600 acres of land. If you remember when the BBC turned the island of Taransay in the Outer Hebrides into a social experiment and gave us Castaway a happy mostly fluffy place this turned into hell.
The first few months were hard, lack of food and building shelters but the bitching and pointing of fingers soon began. All 23 had a skill to bring to the community but a Life coach. She was soon a target for the gossips along with Anton the boatmen who left into the woods to build as winter cabin. Tara (Life coach) concludes she no longer wants to be part of the experiment, and leaves the first of many.
Due to poor ratings, Channel 4 took the show out of their schedule announcing they would be continuing filming for a later broadcast later. The inmates of Eden continued.
It returned to the TV schedule as Eden: Paradise Lost, which sounded ominous. The group is now down to 21 after another member of the community had left as the show resumed but all was not well in Eden. Anton was deliberately on his own in the woods having built his winter cabin and was the main subject of the gossiping and he didn’t help himself winding up the others. It was mainly the men doing most of gossiping, on the subject of Anton and the woman on their mind.
The community quickly breaks down along lines of sex with the dominant males controlling the food and questioning the women’s right to equal rations. More and more of the group were leaving, particular the woman as the atmosphere turn nasty. Yes, there was some romance but the alpha males of the group were left to beating one out in the woods. The block to them taking full control was Anton still in the woods but now joined by Carpenter, Ralph.
A plan was suggested to get Anton to hit someone so he could kick him out, which was later denied but it happen close to the plan. When Anton suggested he takes his share of the food to his cabin an intense argument breaks out, handbags really. With the opportunity and the group saying, they were scared of Anton a vote was called for and they throw Ralph’s name into the hat as well.
Anton was voted out but Ralph could stay but he decided to leave with Anton. While the others were looking forward to sharing Anton’s cabin, other stuff and his winter wood stock… he burnt the lot. So 14 become 12 on a dodgy vote by ignoring the two non-voting absent members, who should have had a vote and if Ralph had have voted for Anton they would have both stayed. Anton was not happy on hearing the news having burnt his home down and left.
The atmosphere in Eden remained hostile after the departure of Ralph and Anton with the community effectively split in two. The 'Valley Boys' as they call themselves are increasingly antagonistic who have taken to their winter compound. With another of the group leaving Rob the vet is pushed to the limits by the Valley Boys going on to an all meat diet.
Rob was unhappy about the increased rate of slaughter of the livestock, one night he just ups, and leaves, telling no one even his girlfriend Kate who decides to stay, although she is very upset. The group is now down to 10 and firmly split into to totally different camps.
Before the end, a Christmas get together for the whole group was in full swing when Kate who had been drinking alone, turns up exploded and left.
We then found out there was a mobile phone in the camp with the fingers point straight at the boys from the valley who were favourites to have the phone. A meeting was held and in the end, the culprit left it in a designated spot and it was recovered smashed. We also learnt the area around the camps were awash with contraband items. Food, drink, and allsorts were being smuggled in. At the end, 10 out of the 23 walked out of Eden and few people cared.
No comments:
Post a Comment