The new televisions series Doomsday Castle premiered on Tuesday night. The show from the producers of the hit series Doomsday Preppers is about a retired infantry officer who recruits his children to help him finish building his doomsday castle in the Carolina mountains.
The series begins as family leader Brent Sr. brags to his five children about the concrete and steel fortified walls of his unfinished castle. The shell of the castle we see in the opening episode looks like something from an amusement park rather than something we would see on a European hillside.
Real castles that were built to be the ultimate defense fortress of their day typically had small openings for doors and windows. The doomsday castle has cookie cutter looking gray block walls with many large unfinished openings for doors and windows.
The themes of the first episode are Brent Sr. and younger son Michael building a drawbridge for the front door while older son Brent II and his three sisters are cleaning out the rat infested bunker where the family will live during construction.
Maybe National Geographic can get a sponsorship from the Home Depot for a future episode addresses filling in all the other large openings with doors and windows?
If nothing else, the series call fill quite a few episodes in the first season with simply finishing castle and making it secure. They are a long way from surviving Armageddon.
The unguarded secret of their true identity
Although the Doomsday Castle website and Facebook page only call the castle preppers by their first names, their identities are not exactly top secret.
The Tampa Bay Times recently discussed Brent Bruns Sr. and his family who live in St. Petersburg, Florida. A St. Petersburg television station interviewed Brent Bruns II the 41-year-old son of the family regarding his involvement with the show.
A concept that often comes up in prepper conversations is OPSEC, a military term that describes the need for personal security and privacy. If the family were trying to protect their identity they would not be giving casual interviews to their home town media outlets.
If you check out the photo with this article, the promotional events attended by the Doomsday Castle preppers make them look more like a music group ready to go on tour than that of a family looking for a place to prepare a hideaway ready to survive Armageddon.
A reality full of holes
According to National Geographic, the goal of Doomsday Preppers, is to explore the lives of otherwise ordinary Americans who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it.
National Geographic has twisted that goal a bit with Doomsday Castle to give surviving the end of the world as we know it the look and feel of an MTV reality show.
In the true prepper spirit you would hope that National Geographic's goal for Doomsday Castle would be to get the MTV crowd to learn more about disaster preparedness. So far it looks like the goal is simply to get the MTV crowd to watch National Geographic.
The younger viewers, especially the guys, will continue to watch as three attractive women in their twenties learn survival skills from their dad while arguing with their siblings.
For those tuning in looking for real survival skills and disaster preparedness training you can use during the next hurricane, Doomsday Castle is not going to be much help.
The structure of the castle we see in the first episode of the show is very symbolic of the show itself. Both are full of holes.
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With articles like "Beyond the buzz words and stereotypes of preppers and survivalists" and "Does National Geographic’s 'Doomsday Preppers' promote stereotypes?" we have tried to keep the topic of being a prepper separate from the success of reality television shows.
Here is another take on the topic, Doomsday Castle is when Jersey Shore moves to Mayberry, read it and share your thoughts with one of the social media connections listed below.
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