The History Channel recently aired a docudrama that was interspersed with interviews of subject matter experts, titled After Armageddon [1]. The show was previously mentioned here in SurvivalBlog, but I just recently got the chance to watch all of it. It portrayed a fictional family making some horrible mistakes, in the midst of a major pandemic. I assume that these mistakes were written into the script to increase the quotient for drama. (At least I hope so!) They certainly illustrated the peril of attempting to hunker down in a city with insufficient supplies. They should have “bugged out” weeks sooner!
I thought that overall the experts that the producers interviewed did a good job. Four of the most knowledgeable and articulate were of course names that you will recognize from SurvivalBlog: Kathy Harrison (author of the book “Just in Case [2]” and a great blog [3]), Kevin Reeve (a principal of onPoint Tactical [4]), Michael Bane (host of DownRange TV [5]), and Dr. Joseph Tainter. The latter is the author of the book “The Collapse of Complex Societies” [6]
Despite its numerous flaws, I found that the show was still worth watching. In fact, there is often value in learning from the mistakes made by others. I just hope that some of the newbies watching this show can distinguish between the good and bad decisions that are depicted.