Solitary a Most Redeemable Show

Solitary a Most Redeemable Show by Roxanne McDonald

Upon watching the whole series, and especially upon watching the finale and the reunion show, one comes to the conclusion that Solitary has some redeeming qualities (which not all reality TV shows can advertise as having, of course).

It is heartwarming, or at least touching, to view the behavior and attitude of contestants who have more at stake than money; it is delightful to witness individual players pushing themselves beyond their physical and emotional limits to come to a place of spiritual reclamation; and it is lovely to partake of a show that had some serious producers and creators who displayed the show by way of fresh and skillful writing and editing.

The finale, that is, involved Number 5, Mark C., and Number Seven, Steven G. The final challenge was a Batman and Robin walls-closing in on them challenge, combined with the most grueling of earlier tasks, the pointy beds. But 5 is like six feet tall and 7 is closer to five and a half feet tall, so you think 7 will have an easier time of it.

However, Solitary game-makers create a discomfort box that is in proportion to each contestant. Good for them.

They show 5 and 7 going through hours of suffering (time-lapsed for us, of course),

and voiceover narrate the changes each goes through. 5 is typically jovial and coo-coo, alternately; and 7 is quieter in his hopeful determination.

As they did with all challenges, they do not tell the winner when the opponent quits. Instead, they show him pictures of family and personally related places and people, then show him pictures of himself.

Val asks, “Who is this a picture of?” and 7 gives a standard response. Val asks again and again, “Who is this a picture of?” as each time 7 responds it is a picture of a teacher, a husband, a son, a religious person, etc., etc., etc.—until he all-of-a-sudden realizes what Val is asking and what his response should be: with the look of a good little boy who has just figured out his first algebra problem (making this viewer get a little fklempt, actually), Number 7 says the picture is a picture of THE WINNER of SOLITARY! So cute.

Another cool editing technique was used when two contestants had a similar answer or the same answer. They would split the screen and show the two people speaking in tandem…giving us, of course, the impression of how close those competitions sometimes were, giving us an omnipotent perspective (that of Val), and making for a more exciting viewing experience.

In the reunion show, they replayed the best of these moments for the contestants,

who had before that moment been, of course, in Solitary and had not seen, heard, or felt anyone else’s experience. It was a lovely, classy, calm and giggly show, that reunion show, with the emcee/host teasing Cliff (Number 6) about his ego and his mania, with Danielle (Number recapping her most disgusting of strengths, her masochism (and her swallowing her own puke to stay going in the food/gluttony challenge), and with exposing Michelle (Number 2) as a mom of an autistic child for whom she had in Solitary pod-dom claimed she would stay a hundred weeks if it meant helping autism causes [when she actually lasted TWO weeks].

But more importantly, the joking and jiving at the Solitary reunion was NOT malicious, it was not of a shaming quality. It was mature, serious, and calmly uttered, being topped only by the most impressive of all gestures (and there were many throughout the series):

when asked about his intentions for the 50 grand, the Number 7, the winner, the Steven who had been occasionally less than generous with hypothetical treatment of his unseen fellow competitors, told everyone he and his wife planned to give at least a part of the money to that autism cause Michelle had so wanted to champion.

A surprising lovely pre-post-inter-after show…Solitary.

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