Doomsday Preppers, season 4
release year: 2014
genre: TV documentary (6 episodes, at least according to AppleTV in August 2024)
viewing setting: home streaming 8/14/24
synopsis: Various preppers and survivalists show and tell their plans and preparations, which are then evaluated by a consulting company.
impressions: This show was a good source of ideas as well as potential drawbacks to watch out for. Some of these people have really good ideas and tactics, while others are stupid or crazy. I get that it's meant to entertain the viewer and make money, but overall this show sometimes portrays preppers in a negative way. As with past seasons, this one - at least, what I've streamed and watched - doesn't match 100% with some sources like wikipedia; the latter has season four at 8 episodes, but only 6 were included in the streaming.
Here are brief recaps of each episode's preppers (with the ones I felt were overall best prepared boldfaced) :
episode 1: The first prepper (who fears World War 3) has a house deep in the frozen Montana wilderness, plus a backup plan. The second prepper (who fears terrorist attacks) has moved from the big city to a rural area, and employed taxidermy skills to make improvised IEDs. The third prepper (who fears natural disasters) has an extensive series of supplies and radio/communication systems.
episode 2: The first prepper (who fears social unrest in general) runs training drills with others and has created sound/light/fireworks defenses that he can trigger from a briefcase-sized control box. The second prepper (who fears hyperinflation) plans to use rabbits as the core of all his preparations (which involves his living room being used to grow their food, and his kitchen blender being used to grind up their droppings to make fuel for his flamethrower...which, to be fair, did work really well.) The third prepper (who fears another civil war) has strong solar-power and rainwater-collection systems, and also teaches his new wife some of his skills.
episode 3: The first prepper (who fears a massive cyberattack that will take down the grid) is a grandfather who built an underground bunker for his entire family; it seemed a bit crowded but otherwise well-thought-out. The second prepper (who fears world overpopulation) has done some overpopulating himself given that he has 10 children and 35 grandchildren - all of whom he's training in the use of weapons. They've also got farm animals and fish to supply food. The third preppers (who fear another Great Depression) are a couple who live in a tiny house where their living space is shared with the chickens and worms they breed, and where they plan to make clothes out of animal hair.
episode 4: The first prepper (who fears complete loss of the power grid and all modern conveniences) has a series of good all-around contingency plans, and a wind turbine. The second prepper (who fears climate change) and her family have strong wilderness survival skills and plan to bug out to a remote island, where they wil llive off the land. The third prepper (who fears a worldwide food shortage due to oil running out) once saw this problem first-hand while in Argentina when their economy failed and many were starving; he makes syrup from tree sap, uses wood to filter free water from streams, has built a cold-storage system that requires no power or fuel, and has also constructed a rice paddy, a bulletproof geodosic dome, and a giant air cannon. Episodes like this one make me wonder how great some of these guys could be if they joined forces and overlapped all their ideas to make their preparations even stronger.
episode 5: The first preppers (a couple who fear an EMP but built a house in the mountains to get away from rising crime in their former city) have created a camouflaged food forest where all sorts of food grows while appearing to be useless underbrush, and also keep bees and use the honey for more than just food, and have additional defensive measures ranging from strategically-placed thornbushes to homemade pepper spray and poisons. They got the highest score I've yet seen on this show. The second prepper (who fears an earthquake) keeps a ton of supplies and tools in his SUV and on his person, and helps his neighbor learn how to prepare. He also built a homemade fireball pistol, and declined to be assessed and scored by the experts. The third prepper (who fears a superstorm hurricane) is a teenaged Boy Scout who organizes a team of like-minded teens and runs survival and defensive exercises.
episode 6: The first prepper (who fears a biological attack) has bought an old AT&T relay station and spent $7 million renovating it. He has plans to expand it into a larger village for survivors, and he also beat the previous high score from the last episode by scoring a 95/100 in his assessment. The second preppers (a couple who fears wildfires) has not only food and water preps and an underground shelter but also solid firefighting plans.
acting: n/a but there are some real characters here
final word: Interesting advice on preparation, some of it a bit out there, much of it valid. Worth seeing just to learn it all and then sort out what's useful.
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