Survivor : Royaume-Uni

Reviewing series 3 which is presented by Joel Dommet and has been picked up by the BBC and I am really enjoying it, We are currently 4 episodes in and I'm hooked, I love all aspects of it, there is action, tension, drama and humour to it, from the competitive nature of the physical tasks which are entertaining to watch and emphasises peoples strengths and weaknesses, to the psychological aspect of game playing and such you then see in camp where people attempt to form alliances and divisions and sway others on who to vote out, Joel does a great job presenting it and brings comic relief at times, but is also able to add to the tension and drama when required.

Survivor fan since 2000 here. Despite straying away from the show here and there, I always go back to it.

Season 45 is my first back watching since Covid hit, and boy am I glad I decided to watch this season as it's been really good.

I quickly caught wind of the existence of a UK version (actually, more like a reboot as the UK had previously tried their hand at Survivor in the early 2000s, with poor results) which was airing at the same time as the US version, and figured, winter is coming, I live in Canada and I don't ski, skate or follow hockey, so it's not as if I had better things to do than taking on a double dose of Survivor.

I won't lie, the first couple of episodes were pretty slow. I almost felt like I was being transported back to the first season of US Survivor, watching Richard Hatch figure out how this game worked before everybody else he was playing against on that season.

It was pretty clear from the get-go that most of the cast of this Survivor reboot knew very little about the show and needed some time to understand what the hell they had gotten themselves into, unlike the American contestants who start talking game and building alliances the second they step off the boat.

I think it's also safe to venture that the slow pacing of the early episodes was a way to properly introduce an audience who might not be familiar with the strategic dimension and the cutthroat nature of Survivor; and given how sometimes needlessly convoluted and complicated US Survivor can be these days, with all its twists and idols and amulets and advantages, I'd say it was a wise decision. If a long-time Survivor fan like me can barely keep up with all these trinkets and powers, an audience new to the show has no chance. So keeping things simple and straightforward early on was the right way to go.

The second batch of episodes (UK Survivor aired every Saturday and Sunday night) was better than the first one. Nothing amazing, but still, a neat improvement. Characters were starting to emerge, game talk was happening from several contestants, and things were definitely looking up. And they did keep progressing week after week, and I was thinking, we're started to have a pretty good little season going here... Not great perhaps, but very decent nonetheless.

Then the merge happened. And boy, did almost everyone left kick things into high gear. After this pre-merge which had improved week after week, my expectations for the post-merge had grown, but I'm very happy to say that Survivor UK far exceeded them. Several of those post-merge tribal councils were simply electric, that hanging-off-the-edge-of-your-seat kinda stuff. Seriously, I'm not kidding. This was grade A Survivor, surpassing many US seasons.

Watching these people initially stumble their way through this weird, brutal game of strategy where the pawns are all fellow human beings, seeing them slowly start to understand the game's mechanisms, how to use other people to get yourself further in the game, how to dispose of these same people without pissing them off too much because you'll need their vote if you make it to end, was pure joy.

And while this Survivor UK season was excellent in its own merits, for me, there's a second reason as to why I enjoyed it so much. I'm a bit of a Survivor purist, I like to keep things simple. And while I understand that a game as bare bone as Survivor Borneo would never fly nowadays as it would put north American audiences to sleep, I find Survivor US' habit of continually messing around with the format, insisting on adding often unnecessary twists very irritating.

And while the magic that was Survivor Borneo can never be recreated, Survivor UK allowed me to be transported back to a time when the game was a lot less complicated and completely devoid of the meta aspect of US Survivor, where players now constantly refer to previous contestants or things that took place in earlier seasons. And I don't fault the franchise for that by the way. This show has been on for 23 years, for God's sake, of course it's going to be meta and self-referential, and that too can be a lot of fun.

But what Survivor UK brought back to the show, was its innocence, as dumb as that may sound. I'm aware a few of the UK players were familiar with the US version and some are actual fans, but it seemed pretty obvious most of them knew very little about the show if anything at all. And getting to witness these folks navigate their way through this surreal experience, realize this is a game of numbers, but also a game where very real bonds are formed, and that to get further, they may have to betray people they genuinely like, simply feels like a privilege. Because it felt a bit like getting the chance to hop into a time machine to watch Survivor back in the early 2000s, before it became this super fast-paced meta game plagued with contrived twists and bags of tricks.

Oh, and I'm writing this a couple of hours after watching the finale, and I won't spoil the winner, but I'm happy to say it's a very satisfying one. That's an extra feather in Survivor UK's cap!

Tl;dr: Survivor UK starts off slow, then it gets better, then it gets even better, then it becomes absolutely awesome post-merge, you should go and watch it right now. You can thank me later. :)

This just didn't capture the 'soul' of survivor. Were any genuine survivor fans involved in the production of this travesty? It's as though someone was just sent a rough template and followed it without any regard to the fans who watch this show.

Please go and watch Australian survivor and see how it's done, this was cringeworthy and an opportunity for a successful UK survivor franchise has gone begging.

The presenter seems like a nice guy but between his style, dad humour and the terrible music between scenes you could have been forgiven for thinking you were watching an episode of love island.

I've seen every English language Survivor season. This is horrible.

It's as if it was made by people who never watched the show and certainly don't understand what makes it popular.

The players aren't interesting or people you want to watch.

The host, Joel Dommett, is annoying. His little voice is like fingernails across a chalkboard. And unfortunately, he really likes to talk. To make matters worse, they have him doing voice overs to narrate and explain things.

Instead of using the typical Survivor instrumental music, there are CONSTANT vomit inducing pop songs and cover versions of pop songs.

The paper they vote on looks like cheap toilet tissue that has seen action.

From the big things to little things, this UK series is horrible and should be marooned on an island and left for dead.

Come on, own up - who asked for this?

Probably nobody, knowing the BBC. Some boffin probably looked at an algarythm and decided that the numbers/data proclaimed that this show needed, positively needed, to be darkening our TV screens again. It was such a big success when ITV had a go with it back in the day of course...

No it wasn't - it crashed. This version didn't do much better, despite 'Strictly' giving it a massive leg up as its lead in show, and it being mentioned seemingly every two minutes through promos.

It's not very good, the host isn't very good, and overall it reeks of the BBC trying to play to the numbers and a young audience who don't watch TV anyway.

I hope it doesn't survive.