"I have a Robust Post-Apocalyptic Skill Set"

It used to be I never watched television.  Thanks to Netflix, I've actually been turned on to a few shows, at least the older seasons of them.  Most of these are apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic shows, which I find interesting not in themselves, but because I spend half the time criticizing them!  For instance, there was one show where supposedly nuclear holocaust destroyed the world as we know it.  You, as the audience, follow the events as they would supposedly occur from a small town in the middle of Nowhere, Colorado.  It was supposed to be close enough to see Denver go up in flames, but far enough away (and apparently in just the right position) to avoid any and all fallout.

What bothered me the most out of everything that occurred on the show was the one thing that most folk are likely to overlook.  The fact that this "small" town just so nonchalantly  and freely burned their only source of post-twilight light... candles.  It's not as though they would have been able to run over to Denver to fetch a new shipment, and everyone was burning them as though they would last forever, they'd burn 5 or more at a time, sometimes all night!  The candles they showed them burning were commercially made, so no one was there replenishing their supplies.  And even if they did have a candle-maker, what kind of candles were they making and where did they get the raw materials?! 

In the 'old days' before electricity, they burned candles, but they had a better understanding of how to hold off the dark than we do today.  These days people panic if the lightbulb pops and they're in the dark for 2 minutes!  They really go nuts if it's off for several hours.  Imagine if it never came back on again.  So really, how many of us still have oil-burning lamps in the house?!  How many of us have the knowledge and ability to create light where there is only dark?  This isn't a TV show, and no grips are going to run over and light 15 candles so they can see faces well enough for filming.