Naked and Afraid Returns to Discovery with Super-Sized Episodes on Sunday, March 16 at 9pmET. It is no secret that I love, love, love Naked and Afraid! I am tempted to call it the best show on TV. If nothing else, it is the most unique, and bad-ass show on television. Each week, two strangers are thrust, naked into an extreme survival situation. Outfitted with only one survival item each (get it, outfitted, ‘cause they’re otherwise totally naked) they must do whatever it takes to survive for 21 days in an inhospitable environment that will try its best to make them fail. The participants aren’t competing for any prize — well, I guess not dying is a prize — so they are participating to prove that they didn’t die.
The nude survivalists aren’t plopped into paradise either. Each location is looks beautiful but is inhospitable and deadly; poisonous snakes, unpotable water, typhoons, swarms of bugs, blistering sun, pokey thorns and other deadly/uncomfortable perils await the twosomes as they try to keep their sanity and their lives.
What makes this show special is that each episode is self-contained. You meet Dick and Jane one week and the next week you follow Jack and Jill. And, you can watch Naked and Afraid’s participants struggle through utter craziness and rest assured — from the comfort of your warm, dry, couch — that their story will be resolved in about an hour’s time. The resolution may include an intestinal parasite, horrible sunburn, or snake bite, but it will be resolved and next week you will meet two new daredevils. Each of the show’s participants is a survival expert, but survival skills in the forests of Montana do you little good in the jungles of Peru. Naked and Afraid demonstrates how survival is a nearly impossible feat, and reaffirms that real-life survival stories are utterly miraculous.
Each Monday, I will post a short recap of the week’s episode, will highlight the biggest challenge each couple faced, and point out the moment of the episode when I would have certainly died. I hope to see you back here with your thoughts and ideas!
