I have been watching the Channel 4 reality TV series called SAS – Who Dares Wins (SAS-WDW); two episodes of the series have been aired already.
Having invested a couple of hours of my time in watching, I have come to the conclusion that, whilst the programme has its interesting elements, it is badly flawed, in fact so badly flawed as to be largely pointless.
If you haven’t come across the series yet, here’s a quick synopsis: a group of specially selected members of the public are subjected to Special Forces (SF) selection exercises to basically determine if they are hard enough. Those making the yes/no decisions are from a small group of ex SAS, SBS soldiers.
The victims (because that is what the selection candidates are, albeit willingly) proceed to get exercised, drilled and bullied/beasted to the point of exhaustion and subsequent ejection. Week on week the pool reduces. From a realism perspective this approach is probably aligned to the actual process because those in the services have to be the toughest (both physically and mentally) that the UK military can offer.
Here’s the fly in the ointment as far as I am concerned.
To be an SF operative, you probably have to be a sociopath, or even a psychopath. These soldiers may need to kill people without hesitation/remorse and, quite possibly with their bare hands whilst looking their targets in the eye. They have to be able to function under intense pressure, under fire and in situations where most ordinary people would wet themselves with fear.
I don’t care how tough any of the victims on SAS–WDW are, they will have no idea if they could cope with the real world of SF operation (rather than some staged TV show where UK law and health and safety legislation have a role to play).
If the series asked contestants to take knives to their colleagues, or just beat the pulp out of one another without provocation, it might help better determine if they were made of the right stuff.
I am sure that detailed psychological profiling helps identify those that have psychopathic tendencies; maybe once the kill-without-remorse trait is established, the physical conditioning could be introduced – not the other way around.
In SAS-WDW, the SF training is more like science fiction and that is actually a good thing because the fact is that even those that made the grade (like the ex-SBS, Foxy) can only take so much before they get crushed. In episode two, Foxy revealed that he was medically discharged from the SBS with post-traumatic stress disorder. So this man that made-the-grade, saw active service and still has the physique of He-Man isn’t even good enough anymore. What hope can the reality TV contestants possibly have?
A work colleague of mine has a partner that is ex-military and I got to discussing SAS-WDW with her in the office. I was fascinated to hear that her fella actually knows Foxy. She then showed me some images taken after her chap was attacked; he was on close protection duty in Iraq when the vehicle he was in got ambushed. The 4x4 was literally shot to pieces and the photograph I saw was more real than anything on SAS-WDW. The good thing is that, armour plating, quick thinking, skilful driving and promptly returned fire saved the day and all in the SUV survived.
That is the reality of an SF operative and that’s why the SAS/SBS recruit from the military in the first place. At least an already trained soldier has been tested under fire and has a courage/resilience that gives them a fighting chance of making it through selection and, more importantly, coping when in the field.
With regards to the bunch of narcissistic, arrogant, fitness freak, show offs (and I admit that’s a sweeping generalisation) on this TV programme, I have to say that I couldn’t care less who wins. Not one of them will become a Special Forces soldier as a result and the show is therefore pointless.
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
Having invested a couple of hours of my time in watching, I have come to the conclusion that, whilst the programme has its interesting elements, it is badly flawed, in fact so badly flawed as to be largely pointless.
If you haven’t come across the series yet, here’s a quick synopsis: a group of specially selected members of the public are subjected to Special Forces (SF) selection exercises to basically determine if they are hard enough. Those making the yes/no decisions are from a small group of ex SAS, SBS soldiers.
The victims (because that is what the selection candidates are, albeit willingly) proceed to get exercised, drilled and bullied/beasted to the point of exhaustion and subsequent ejection. Week on week the pool reduces. From a realism perspective this approach is probably aligned to the actual process because those in the services have to be the toughest (both physically and mentally) that the UK military can offer.
Here’s the fly in the ointment as far as I am concerned.
To be an SF operative, you probably have to be a sociopath, or even a psychopath. These soldiers may need to kill people without hesitation/remorse and, quite possibly with their bare hands whilst looking their targets in the eye. They have to be able to function under intense pressure, under fire and in situations where most ordinary people would wet themselves with fear.
I don’t care how tough any of the victims on SAS–WDW are, they will have no idea if they could cope with the real world of SF operation (rather than some staged TV show where UK law and health and safety legislation have a role to play).
If the series asked contestants to take knives to their colleagues, or just beat the pulp out of one another without provocation, it might help better determine if they were made of the right stuff.
I am sure that detailed psychological profiling helps identify those that have psychopathic tendencies; maybe once the kill-without-remorse trait is established, the physical conditioning could be introduced – not the other way around.
In SAS-WDW, the SF training is more like science fiction and that is actually a good thing because the fact is that even those that made the grade (like the ex-SBS, Foxy) can only take so much before they get crushed. In episode two, Foxy revealed that he was medically discharged from the SBS with post-traumatic stress disorder. So this man that made-the-grade, saw active service and still has the physique of He-Man isn’t even good enough anymore. What hope can the reality TV contestants possibly have?
A work colleague of mine has a partner that is ex-military and I got to discussing SAS-WDW with her in the office. I was fascinated to hear that her fella actually knows Foxy. She then showed me some images taken after her chap was attacked; he was on close protection duty in Iraq when the vehicle he was in got ambushed. The 4x4 was literally shot to pieces and the photograph I saw was more real than anything on SAS-WDW. The good thing is that, armour plating, quick thinking, skilful driving and promptly returned fire saved the day and all in the SUV survived.
That is the reality of an SF operative and that’s why the SAS/SBS recruit from the military in the first place. At least an already trained soldier has been tested under fire and has a courage/resilience that gives them a fighting chance of making it through selection and, more importantly, coping when in the field.
With regards to the bunch of narcissistic, arrogant, fitness freak, show offs (and I admit that’s a sweeping generalisation) on this TV programme, I have to say that I couldn’t care less who wins. Not one of them will become a Special Forces soldier as a result and the show is therefore pointless.
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
RSS Feed
