Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Alone’ Season 10 on Netflix, Where Participants Practice Solo Survival In Saskatchewan

Season 10 of Alone finds its way to Netflix after originally airing in 2023 on History. The long-running survival competition’s latest season, its 11th, is also airing on History, but none of that means you can’t enjoy season 10 as a standalone. After all, Alone is the name of the whole game. 10 participants are allowed 10 items from a given list, and dropped apart from one another in some of the world’s most unforgiving regions. The challenge: survive and outlast. That’s it. And the winner walks out of the bush $500,000 richer. Let the resourcefulness begin! “I only plan on having this tarp long enough to get me a cabin built. I’m planning on being here all the way ‘til Christmas…”  

ALONE – SEASON 10: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: The series has plopped people in such far-flung places as Selenge Province in Mongolia and Nunatsiavut, Labrador. But season 10 ups the geographical ante. “In Alone’s most remote location yet, ten participants set out to survive at all costs.” 

The Gist: That location is Reindeer Lake, on the edge of winter, in the wild reaches of northern Sasktachewan. Canada’s ninth-biggest lake, nearly 3,000 miles of surface area, depths of a thousand feet, and pocketed with numerous bits of land – Reindeer Lake “is really an ocean with lots of small islands,” one Alone contestant says as boats fan out to deliver the contestants into wild solitude. The safety teams depart, participants’ personal GoPro cameras are switched on, and it’s time to explore. There are approximately 43,000 black bears in Saskatchewan – everyone’s series-issued safety pack includes bear spray along with their all-important, ever-present tap-out device – but all of the participants are experts in disciplines like wilderness survival, hunting, and fishing, and most spend their first moments alone in communion with the natural world around them.

Their skill sets aren’t identical, but everyone on Alone has had some kind of training to prepare them for the competition’s unique challenges and very real dangers. Luke has a survival school background, Alan teaches outdoor education to high school students, Jodi was raised on the land “feral and free,” and Cade is a professional hunter. And as the participants settle in, their respective strategies go immediately into action. One guy makes the point that while a bad shelter situation is survivable, starvation isn’t, and forgoes establishing the former in favor of securing his first meal. But another contestant says that burning valuable calories in a leggy pursuit of big game is a gamble. Out here, every decision matters. Or as another Alone-er puts it, every footstep taken in the bush should have more than one positive outcome.

Tarp, saw, cook pot, Leatherman, gloves, sleeping pad, hand ax – the allowed items each participant brought in with them vary, but as the early days of the competition pass, most everyone on Alone has utilized their resources to establish a semblance of home base and some sense of the hyper-local foodways. Moose tracks, game trails, caches of blueberries, or the building and lashing of a raft to ferry Lee into the water’s deepest eddy. Alan catches a fish right away, and slurps up the roe as a nutritious meal, while Cade experiences bad luck finding food beyond handfuls of berries. “Couple of days with no protein,” he says breathlessly. “Gotta start producing.” On Alone, with the competition tight to survive and thrive, the only alliances worth making are those with your next meal.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Outlast on Netflix upped the financial incentive, with a grand prize of a million bucks instead of $500,000. But to win, players who were typically lone wolf types were required to participate in teams. (A second season of Outlast has been announced.) And over on USA, Race to Survive: New Zealand is currently in its second season.

Our Take: There’s an intimacy about Alone that’s one of its most rewarding features. While it’s often really interesting to watch these experienced people apply their bushcraft smarts to making it in the wild, it’s how one-to-one all of it feels that’s often the most satisfying. They are alone, but we are with them, perched on the curvature of their long bow as they fire an arrow at a grouse. Lee is the guy who fashioned a somewhat rickety-looking raft for fishing, but it doesn’t go under as we float out with him to the best spot for a net. And while onscreen prompts warn that Jodi’s burning 700 calories an hour to build her cabin, the structure is so thoroughly conceived it looks like a cozy fort instead of a last resort. 

Then again, maybe it’s a prison? Alone is also admirably no-nonsense about what’s at stake. These contestants want to win the show’s grand prize like anyone in the reality universe would. But the biggest constant isn’t surviving the next challenge or knockout round, it’s surviving at all. All of the chatter about caloric intake is fascinating – down to the basic building blocks of sustenance, these people have figured out their strategies. But the thing about Alone, like so many games anywhere, is that it’s ninety percent mental. You might be the embodiment of skilled preparedness. But what happens to your mind when it’s just you versus the silence for as long as you can stand it?    

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: “I don’t see myself making it much longer…” The people on Alone have plenty of experience with the outdoors, but after only a few days in the bush, a completely random setback is causing one participant to consider tapping out. Then again…”No matter what, don’t give up.”

Sleeper Star: Light, strong, and ready for a million uses. Whether contestants choose sturdy paracord or stainless steel aircraft safety wire, having some kind of cording along as one of their 10 allowed items comes in handy again, again, and then again on Alone. 

Most Pilot-y Line: Participants in Alone tend to offer first-person mission statements that embody the themes of the series.  “When I’m in the bush, alone, I feel like my senses just ignite, and I feel like I belong.” 

Our Call: STREAM IT. Alone goes no frills, or at least low frills, as its outdoor survival experts enact their outlast strategies to become series champions and miniature cameras keep us close to the action. But as always, whether any of these people will be able to withstand profound isolation becomes the biggest question.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.   

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