my new favorite show: Apocalypse Man

I just watched my new favorite show, Apocalypse Man on the History Channel. I’m a sucker for anything involving the end of the world and this show, starring ex-Marine Rudy Reyes was Armageddon porn for someone like me.

hopefully he doesn't get too hungry

The show’s premise is that an unnamed catastrophe has presumably wiped out the human race and one man navigates his way through the wreckage, teaching you how to survive. This kind of thing is near and dear to my heart because I have an unfinished novel with the same basic idea. I’m just throwing that out there so if I ever do finish it, no one can accuse me of totally ripping off Apocalypse Man.

But I may have to rip it off a little bit because there really is some cool information presented on the show: how to get gas from gas station holding tanks, how to hot wire a car, how to make bio diesel, and where to find one of those living dolls so you can have sex. Alright, I added the last one, but that’s certainly something I would need to find out.

The show is fascinating and I hope there’s more. But there were a couple of things that bugged me though: Reyes runs around serpentine like there are snipers everywhere. He’s established during his conversations with the camera that he needs to find people. I can understand watching your back, but I kept expecting your garden variety flesh eaters to come chasing after him. They didn’t. Yet he kept running like he was being hunted which made it all too dramatic.

Where was his gun? The first stop after I woke up to find everyone gone would be to the gun store. Then it wouldn’t matter who you met along the road – a survivor, hungry dog, cannibal mutant – you’d be ready for them.

He took an older model diesel SUV and prepared his own fuel for it. Cool. But when he broke in to the vehicle, he busted out the driver side window to gain access. Anyone who’s ever stolen a car knows you don’t bust out that window. Sitting on broken glass, no matter the situation, is not fun.

I know they were going for a certain feel but everywhere they filmed looked like a burned out husk. I don’t know how long Reyes was supposed to have been on his own, but there would at least be some buildings in nice shape still right? Pottery Barn would still be in good shape right?

More to that point, he had to salvage an old battery from the weeds to power a vehicle. If the world ended and no one was around, wouldn’t you just walk over to Sears and grab a new battery off the rack? I would. And I’d grab a box of those auto air fresheners to clear up any corpse smell I came in contact with.

Small gripes to be sure, but the overall appeal of the show more than made up for it. I don’t know if it’s just the 12 year old in me lovingly dreaming of surviving the zombie apocalypse, but Apocalypse Man was the best thing I’ve seen in awhile. Now if I can just finish my story before the world does end, I’ll be happy.