User Reviews

This show was funny and interesting in parts. Shows you what NOT to do. Don't survive the end with spoiled rotten kids!! That was the funniest part, they all thought they were handy and bad-ass, and they are just a bunch of misguided 20-somethings. Even the 41 year old acted that way, jeez he just likes to hear himself talk.

The building projects are cool though and it's worth watching if you have the time

I feel sorry for the dad in this show. Bunch of ungrateful kids don't know what they've got and don't deserve a place like that if they can't even respect their father, each other and work as a team.

The concept that is conjured by the show title 'Doomsday Castle' is inviting, however, the show does little to provide actual useful information for the target audience (Preppers is it?). The concept premise of a 'castle' is also interesting, however the actual castle design depicted is poorly suited as a legitimate fixed long-term defensive position, given its many obvious vulnerabilities, starting with a main wall, which unlike medieval castle walls, is paper thin by comparison (medieval castle walls ranged from 5 feet thick, up to 40 feet thick). It's clear that even a small band of marauders with a primitive weapon known as a 'trebuchet' could easily devastate the 12-inch wall on the so-called doomsday 'castle'. And once a castle wall is breached, it's game over. Even the superior castle walls of medieval castles where breached over time using relatively primitive methods.

If the show was intended to be more about family dynamics and relationships with the castle as a playground backdrop of trial and error, which stresses and tests the family, then a title like 'Castle Challenge' would modify audience expectations, and would be more in line with what is being presented, at least so far. Doomsday Preppers had set the pace for this show, and this show has not met even that mark in my opinion.

If the show intends to be taken seriously, then the producers should hire some expert consultants to design and script some beats that will resonate with the Prepper and Survivalist audience, as opposed to beats that appeal to inexperienced audiences (re: disaster preparedness), such as teens and young adults.

Considering that the same castle, people and preps ended up in 19th place during season-2 of Doomsday Preppers, it seems highly questionable to roll that same castle concept out as valid in any sense related to prepping or disaster preparedness.

This show has been taking a lot of slack from what I have read. First of all let me point out that prepping is one of those things where everybody has their 2cents to throw in. Even if they show a whole group of US Marines with years of training and experience you still get macho people behind a computer screen saying "Oh, well I woulda done things a little different" or "These guys obviously have no clue what they are doing".

So onto the show. It has a retired Army training officer with 4 years of service. He obviously has money but they never say where it comes from. He has 10 kids, 5 of whom are featured on the show. The daughters (Lindsay, Dawn Marie, and Ashley) to be honest are probably why most guys tune in every week. They all seem to be level headed. Dawn Marie is maybe a little stubborn. Then he has 2 sons. 1 is 41 and the other is in his 20s. The older one (Brent the 2nd) is ... well... a dick. He has huge daddy and self of steam issues. The younger one (Micheal) seems like better prepper material. Together they all are protecting a castle and a bunker on top of a mountain. Though some may disagree with the choices they make they have potential and plenty of resources at their finger tips.

Everyone in the family seems to be capable of mechanical ingenuity, welding, craftsmanship, and minor construction work. I am fairly certain if you drop most 2 20 year old girls in a hoarders basement and tell them to make a mouse trap out of odds and ends they won't get very far. The dads chief concern seems to be a EMP. In which case a castle is a great idea since tanks won't work after that, and who has a cannon nowadays? The catapult was a strange idea but maybe that won't be the last bit of defensive machinery they build. Should the shows haters predictions come true and the castle get overrun then they have multiple forms of egress via the bunker. They are all also getting combat training, learning to hunt and trap, tend to a garden, find and purify water, and so on. The castle can't be seen unless you are in the air or no where it is. Would it have been better make something a little more camouflage? Probably, but in the end it is better then what most of us have in the way of prepps.

At the end of the day this plays right into most mens fantasy. 3 hot girls in a castle/bunker preparing and training for Armageddon. Everyone thinks they would get along with Micheal and would love to beat up Brent the 2nd. Then they would live happily ever after in the castle repopulating earth. Sad but true.

Out of all the doomsday prepping shows that have done the rounds over the years, Doomsday Castle is the abridged or dumbed down version of prepping and showcasing just what not to do if and when a cataclysmic event were to strike.

In this edition, a military trained father and 5 of his children are of the belief that the Earth will be hit by either a solar flare or that the U.S will suffer a high altitude nuclear strike by a rogue nation and the resulting EMP will render modern civilisation useless, hence, let's build a medieval castle to survive it.

Apparently their idea of surviving an EMP event was to construct a bunker with several rooms. Entry was through a ground level trap door, exit was via a rather unsecured rear door, and for some reason this was built below ground, not entirely underground, so it has basement like windows. The bunker was then seen as not very liveable and not at all defensible, so father decides to construct what appears to be a 2 level cinder block castle above the bunker, complete with a drawbridge, moat, parapets and any number of booby traps.

The idea is ridiculous in the extreme and I couldn't help but think that the only reason this is being shown on TV is merely to make fun of these people. There are many out there who take prepping seriously, but this is just a joke. Joining in with dads misadventure are 2 sons and 3 daughters. The eldest son has a massive chip on his shoulder and definite unresolved childhood issues. Second son is a bit of a bonehead, but he's eager and willing to learn survival skills, and 3 daughters that scream like stuck pigs every time they see a rat scurrying away. Yeah, these Neanderthals are going to survive doomsday; surviving each other is another story.

The castle itself is perhaps the most misguided attempt at survival I've ever seen. A castle built like an actual medieval castle would work a treat if you can properly defend it. One made of 1 or 2 foot thick concrete block walls only, with large modern sized windows, no way of putting a roof on and a makeshift drawbridge is NOT the way to survive doomsday. I watched these troglodytes put together a drawbridge covered with steel plate and then they tested this with a high powered weapon. The bullet went through the steel and lodged somewhere in the wood, but it knocked out a sliver of wood on the inside. And that's one bullet! Under a sustained attack from desperate people trying to get in, this drawbridge wouldn't last 5 minutes before you're overrun.

Castle walls were not made of single skin cinder blocks, and if this thing doesn't fall down from a stiff breeze, it'll be pulled down by screaming hordes wanting to get in. I can't see 3 guys who can't get along, and 3 girls who are afraid of their own shadows, being able to defend such a structure and not get killed in the process.

This is a piffle of a show and not worth the effort. It's clear that they have not researched castle building for survival. It might look good as a tourist attraction, but come doomsday, it'll be their tomb.

I'm glad i've had the privilege of personally knowing this family that got a reality TV show because i always thought reality shows were all scripted and fake, played by actors. I also thought it interesting that on the show they have a lot less drama then they do in real life. I kind of thought they would edit the show to exaggerate things as opposed to toning them down. Brent Sr. is just like he is in the show, calm and collected ladies man. Brent II is a lot like the show but to a much higher/extreme/energetic level. I'll leave out comments about Ashley and Lindsay but you catch the drift. I love Brent II's crazy ideas both in person and on the show. Hopefully as this show goes on they will reveal the maximum drama that the family portrays in real life because it will be the most entertaining thing on television.