1. Solitary
Promoted as a social experiment, Fox's Solitary has proven itself to be the most unnerving torture show of all time. Challenging subjects mentally, physically, and emotionally, Solitary takes nine average people and pushes them to their limits. Each contestant is introduced to their pod where they remain throughout their time on the show. They are immediately stripped of their identities, their names replaced by numbers, and exposed point blank to the conditions of living in solitary confinement. Knowing nothing about each other, contestants are faced with grueling tasks, trying only to outlast the others, though knowing nothing regarding the action taking place in the other pods. The most torturous aspect of the show, however, is the computer host, named VAL, who spends most of the time our competitors are knee deep into their endurance tests telling them that they can give up whenever they want to. Players are eliminated if they complete a task the slowest or find themselves the first to give up. Players are also eliminated if their bodies are not able to take anymore of the treatment. There is no denying that this show is nothing but torture. Players are forced to undergo dehumanizing treatment, sleeping on floors without blankets or pillows for minutes at a time, standing in the center of their rooms for hours on end, having food withheld, and having to ask permission to use the restroom - a bowl in a hidden section of the pod. They are subject to actual means of torture such as noise violation techniques and ball gag usage. They are even encouraged to eat until they vomit or suffer bouts of malnutrition and extreme starvation. It is practically amazing to watch these people go through all that they do, presumably for money. What is even more torturous is the mind game that contestants are subjected to. When being the first to give up is grounds for elimination, it is a complete mental torture not knowing who has already given up and who is still left standing in the middle of a physically demanding task. What makes this show entertaining to watch is the players sudden realization that the reason they have gone as far as they have in the competition is that they want to prove to themselves that they can. The money is no longer their incentive. It is only a nice bonus. It is fun to see at what point in the competition you would have given up, but the transformation of greedy to driven is enough to keep watching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0wId5Ax5vE