Blackout

[SecretPrepper]

The TV show just aired and seemed pretty realistic what people would do. Rioting, starvation, illness and transportation issues. A lot of annoying parts where you are shouting at your tv becasue people are being stupid. A big part was Opsec and security which one person failed at.

Anyone else catch it?
what did you think?

[Highlander]

I thought it was very good,... I wonder if we can learn something

One thing that jumped out at me was that our `Prepper` hero was certainly trying, but all his problems started with a casual remark made by his daughter about the generator,... so with that in mind, if I had young children around, I would try to keep as much from them as I would from people in general,... the less your children know, the less chance of a remark that could give you problems,... its very difficult to stop children talking

Something to think about

[Tibbs735]

Just finished watching it. I was almost afraid to see it because i was worried they would commit a Doomsday-prepper tier balls-up. They pulled it off quite nicely I think. Very realistic.

The style of commentator + slides explaining the situation as it unfolds reminded me of the film Threads. Things learned:
- Be ready to be stuck far away when it's really inconvenient
- Plan for people. Either plan to go totally incognito (everything hidden), or include your neighbours, carefully prodding them to get prepared so they don't have to kill you and form a neighborhood watch on steroids.
- Don't trust TPTB to look after you (preaching to the choir here I know but oh well)

[SecretPrepper]

(9 September 2013, 22:58)Highlander Wrote: I thought it was very good,... I wonder if we can learn something

One thing that jumped out at me was that our `Prepper` hero was certainly trying, but all his problems started with a casual remark made by his daughter about the generator,... so with that in mind, if I had young children around, I would try to keep as much from them as I would from people in general,... the less your children know, the less chance of a remark that could give you problems,... its very difficult to stop children talking

Something to think about

Yeah i suppose that children find it hard to understand why thigns like that are secret.
Did notice the not so sutble remark about not broadcasting your preps on youtube
the Gennie seemed useless in his area anyway.

[Midnitemo]

well...i have learned tonight(thank you channel 4)that i will not be cooking the remnants of my fridge freezer out in the garden on a hobo stove for the first few days in an attempt to look normal...i will now be bugging in from day one.

[Sunna]

on the whole i enjoyed it ,having ethnics as the bad boys well done c4

[Highlander]

yes,.... cooking on the barbi was not the best idea the guy had when the shops all around had empty shelves,... yet we have all talked about using stoves,.. smells do travel and hungry people will smell a banger from half a mile

Youtube has also been mentioned, even the wife thought that was a stupid idea,... and I dont think a generator in a city/town is a good idea anyway

.... but it was nice to see that the film also included a good guy, because there will be a few that would be very willing to help out,... it will just take a bit of working out who they are

I think that the most important thing about the film is that it will no doubt make a few people aware of the dangers, including a few preppers.

I am very curios though as to why this film was shown in the first place,... and to include a prepper as well,... is there a message there, is someone trying to tell us something

[Nix]

Interesting. C4 trying to cover many different angles in a short period of time and succeeding for the most part. If it made you think and modify your ideas and preps then it was a good program worth watching.

I could've smashed the prepper (and his wife) for being obnoxious morons but it was well played and we can learn from it. Certainly highlighted the problems hospitals will have plus the inadequacies of other back up systems. Also liked the way they mentioned about cash point machines not working, how many carry around enough cash for short term scenarios? And, of course, the snarl ups due to something simple like traffic lights, major problem in the big cities.

What I was most interested in was how they portrayed people's behaviour. They had their own take on different scenarios but most of the violent pack mentality was real footage of past events eg smashing shops, looting, setting cars of fire, battling the police, etc. After a week, what would it be like then? I think that would be when all hell breaks loose!

One thing that got me wondering was their portrayal of the police force and emergency services. I don't think they thought this one through. These guys n gals have to eat, drink, travel and survive as well. Most will have families too. Something tells me that after 5 days of no power, most of these people won't be clocking in for another days work!

[Lanky Yankee]

I think it's worth trying to get neighbors involved especially if you live in built up areas. It's mainly about security. The prepper was very smug about it all until people started popping into his garden. If you know your neighbors then it will ease some of the stress involved in that situation. Also could you set up a night watch to try and keep an eye on and strangers coming into your area?

Another big thing the prepper forgot was protection. You would have to be an idiot not to realize that if your the only one with power and food that people won't try and take it. Also if you hear someone breaking in why wouldn't you have at least a bat or something to fight them off with. A camera? Really!!!

[Tigs]

I remember back in the early 90's I was on leave back home at my mum and dads there was about 18" of snow on the ground and just after lunch the day I arrived the power went out across the whole village , it was down for 10 days, everyone just pulled together no looting no rioting nothing but people checking on each other and helping each other out !

as for the program to be honest I think there were too many stories going off for an hour and half, would have been better if this was just the first episode and then concentrate on one set of peoples story in weekly one hour episodes over say 8 weeks that why you could also get a bit of there back story as well and include Scotland and wales