If you are into that sort of thing you’re probably aware that Portal 2 was out this week on various video game devices. It is, of course, the sequel to the brilliant original whereby you as a test subject are subjected to spatial awareness puzzles that try to kill you under the guise of testing for science by a sentient and increasingly disturbing computer AI by the name of GLADoS. It’s a short game, but it’s challenging and frequently very funny, a neat puzzler involving story by stealth, and the sequel is like the original except there is a bit more of it. The original came out in 2007.
It therefore makes us sad that Solitary, beginning in 2006, never really invaded the US public’s conciousness despite being popular enough on the Fox Reality cable channel to get four seasons. In it, test subjects are subjected to physical and mental endurance challenges under the guise of testing for science by by a sentient and increasingly disturbing computer AI by the name of VAL. There were two main tasks on each episode, a frequently frustrating test, the winner of which didn’t have to partake in VAL’s treatment where the first person who couldn’t take it any more and hit the red button went home. For whatever reason there isn’t much up of it on Youtube (back when we did videos we put up a brilliant challenge involving sleep deprivation before we had to take it down) however this video from the final series is quite funny.
For those of you not in the UK (or with the technical knowhow to circumvent the region checking), the four seasons of the show are on Hulu.
This show was a guilty pleasure. It was standard reality show fare, but with all of the elements turned up to 11. The extreme nature of some of the stunts was quite impressive from both a technical and competitive nature. It was a shame that it never got the mainstream success it deserved.
I have (through a sneaky way) on my PC all of Seasons 2 and 4 and one episode of Season 1 (with the high pitched VAL).
If I can get it, Rob Rob from 3.0 has a behind the scenes video from inside the pod he was in (he got given his video camera as a special prize gift). If I can get it, I will put it up here somewhere.
I also managed to speak to Bea Henington (#7 in the clip) and she said it was a very rewarding experience for her.
I wish this show would appear in the UK somewhere.
Now that channel 5 have acquired Big Brother, that seems unlikely to happen.
(Reason for Channel 5? The BBC aren’t even going to try to justify this given the liscence fee freeze, Channel 4 have been playing it too safe for years to do Guantanimo Bay: The Gameshow, as Brig originally dubbed it, ITV… Are ITV, and most of the Sky channels don’t really have the budget. Channel 5 are willing to not play safe to the point of people constantly questioning if they have taste and do have the budget (…As evidenced by their acquiring of Big Brother)… But I can’t see C5 wanting two reality shows at the same time.)
I really liked Solitary, in that they had an idea and they ran with it. I would’ve preferred it if VAL turned from passive-aggressive into a genuine threat in the final show – a bit like GlaDOS in Portal – but, well, you can’t have everything.
I liked the typing test. I wonder if anyone thought of popping out the keys on the keyboard and plugging them back in the ‘wrong’ order? Or whether this was banned? For my money, their best tasks – like the horror film one with the popcorn in series 1 – had clever ways to make a hard task much simpler.
There’s a running joke at the end of each series tha having found her champion VAL refuses to let him or her go and they get tested for the rest of their lives. I wonder if Valve had seen Solitary before producing Portal?