A Hunger Games reality show could be great, actually

polygon.com:

The Hunger Games is supposed to be a horrifying condemnation of commodified violence and a statement about the brutality of class-based spectacle remade as must-see viewing for salivating elites. But for one brief moment in the early 2010s, it also seemed like a pretty decent pitch for a reality show of its own, so that’s exactly what The CW did. And maybe it wasn’t the worst idea.

In 2013, a year after the release of the first Hunger Games movie, The CW debuted Capture, a reality show clearly (but not officially) based on The Hunger Games. Just like the Games in the series, Capture was a combination survival competition and elimination game that included 24 contestants, split up into 12 teams of two. Of course, competitors don’t actually kill each other like they do in the series, but every two days a new team is deemed the Hunt team while everyone else gets to be the Prey. While the Prey sleep in the Village, a meager shelter with just small rations of food to get them by, the Hunt team gets to stay in the Lodge, a more substantial shelter with better food. For four hours each day, the Hunt team is tasked with trying to capture the Prey, who will be placed in a cage once captured and given minimal food.

Obviously the threat of actual violence kept the show from getting too close to The Hunger Games in practice, rather than just premise. Instead, Capture was mostly a very brutal game of tag that mixed in elements of survival from shows like Survivormanand Man vs. Wild. But the pitch of the series being so similar to The Hunger Games is undeniably a little uncomfortable to sit with, considering that the original text frames the Games as synonymous with decadence and societal decline.

Then again, popular entertainment