Solitary (TV series)
Solitary (English shortened to " solitary confinement " ) is an American reality game show that in the previous four seasons on the Fox Reality Channel aired from 2006 to 2010. A shot in the original scenes in Los Angeles German version was aired from July 17 to September 11, 2010 on ProSieben.
In the show nine candidates in cells of eight square meters are on their own. You spend ten days voluntary " solitary confinement " without any connection to each other or to the outside world, where they may go at any time. In tests, the participants must provide their endurance to the test. While in the U.S. Original competed unknown people, more or less prominent persons were selected for the German version.
A classic Moderator - American Original Todd Newton, in the German version Sonya Kraus - appeared on the show very rarely. Candidates are instead instructed by a female voice, who introduces herself as a computer named Alice.
Content of the show
The show bills itself as a social experiment that would bring the participants to " self-defeating ". It comes in the tasks to the physical and especially mental endurance of the candidates.
The show begins with the fact that the players move into their " capsules "; octagonal, about eight square-foot cells. They remain there for ten days and ten nights. Each capsule is ( partially behind one-way mirrors ) equipped with several cameras and microphones. There is a food hatch and a flat screen, which represents the computer Alice on the walls. Under the screen there is a green button with which the candidates may log requests, as well as a red, with which they can cancel their participation. In a connected " private capsule " ( in which also depends a camera ) is the bathroom. Everything in the capsule ( lighting, pull-out bed, etc. ) is controlled by Alice. Players are no indications of the time.
The food is rationed, balanced statements in the program, according to the, but little prepared tasty. It is reminiscent of astronaut food. For example, there are tofu, unseasoned rice and uncooked cauliflower.
The consequences - apart from the first - are divided into two sections: A "Safety - game" and a " decider ". Candidates play against each other, but without knowing it directly. In most physically and mentally demanding tasks have to be solved, which take several hours to complete. When all players have finished the game or canceled, the winner will be announced. The winner does not need to participate in the upcoming playoff.
In the decision-making of the first German episode, the candidates were awakened example, at irregular intervals by the song " Looking for Freedom " by David Hasselhoff. Then they had to enter each time a longer and longer sequence of digits into a keyboard. Only those who typed the code correctly, could go back to sleep until the next wake-up call. This form of sleep deprivation was compared by several media outlets with torture.
The winner is " Solitary Super Champion" and got in the U.S. version of money, in the German version nothing. A title defense, there was no case.
Alice
Alice ( for Artificial Intelligence Computer Educator, English for " artificially intelligent computer tutor ," apparently based on ELIZA ) is in the nine capsules of candidates than to hear a female voice purported computer. Alice takes over for the time the show's control over the lives of the candidates who are addressed by it with " my guests ". Alice is also directed to individual candidates and makes a limited extent with them, which they used no names but only the number of the respective capsule for speech. Your goal is to get the candidates to their physical, mental and emotional limits.
In American original, the computer called Val (short for Valerie, in reference to HAL 9000 from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey ). In the first season the voice was male, as the second season a distorted female voice was used.
American squadrons
Solitary was first broadcast on 29 May until 31 July 2006 on the Fox Reality Channel. The participants were relatively normal, unknown individuals who were partially presented only by her first name; The winner was a 32 -year-old English teacher. From the second season of the show was numbered with version numbers. Solitary v2.0 was broadcast from August 4 to October 6, 2007; The winner was a 22 year old photographer. After a pause, Solitary Solitary v4.0 v3.0 and ran from January 17 to March 7, 2009 and from January 29 to March 20, 2010; both seasons were won by 20-year each student.
The games played were mostly trivial and set out to take several hours. And so it went, for example, the construction of dominoes, solving puzzles plain, simple endurance sports or often queuing in a certain position.
German Season
At the 2009 German relay recorded the following people attended:
The decision-making of the sixth episode was stopped early so as not to endanger the health of the participants. In this episode, there was no losers; as in the fourth, in which a common goal has been reached. But left in the second episode, the show two candidates, one of which is voluntary. The winner Dirk Schlemmer already previously won five of the nine safety games including last four.
References to other formats
The format is often compared to the older reality TV formats of the rival company RTL Group, among others, the ten years before the first broadcast by RTL 2 Big Brother, not for conflicts stand in Solitary among themselves, but on the conflicts of every individual with itself participation prominent candidates who voluntarily impose upon themselves tortures, is the broadcast in Germany on RTL I'm a Celebrity - Get me Out of Here! compared.
Reviews
" The test arrangement with their bold bonds in George Orwell [ ... ] provides for trash TV of the cruder kind Nine people can be original and as guinea pigs. They subject themselves to the television as an instance that is directed and discards, arranges and complains dresseth and praises. Maybe they were doing their fun, but fun it is to the taste of falsehood and kowtow. "