Survivor : Royaume-Uni

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. :)

We almost fall asleep during tribal council...the way they were counting the votes, opening the pieces of paper...so sloooowwww. It needs passion and fun...The American version totally fan for more than 15 years...we also love very much the Australian version...3rd option South African and last the U. K Even during the episodes there is a lack of passion and motivation...also I notices the edting and post production could improve a bit. The set and lighting atvtribal council could also improve as well.

After watching so many years the U. S version can't wait for another season to start, in this case not sure we will continue.

A poor version of an iconic tv series... just leave it to Jeff Probst! Even though classic phrases are reused by the host - they lack a presence and passion for the game. The tribes start the game with opportunity to take food with them back to camp (potatoes, pineapples - has the production team even watched the original Survivor series?), which seems a huge unfair advantage.

The concept itself of surviving on a remote island for a cash prize is a nice draw. However what keeps the audiences attention is the interpersonal relationships and strategy of the individuals to ultimately back stab and manipulate the players to become the sole survivor. The original American version carries the the tag line "outwit, outplay, outlast" giving the players 3 clear arenas to compete in to win the prize.

The uk version seems to missing this, and for some reason hasn't replaced it with anything, leaving this version lacking in interest and gameplay.

I mean maybe they can learn from their shortcomings and improve in the seasons to follow. Who knows.

Long story short - Jeff Prost the American version producer and host created the show and has so much passion for the project it's pointless having anyone else.

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.

Well, the U. K ..ie my home finally got round to doing another series of Survivor after many, many years and they seem to have paid a bit of attention to other franchises and basically gone back to early days of the U. S version because that really was the best. (With acknowledgment to Australian version where I'm convinced that at times they're out to kill them) What they haven't done is gone wildly politically correct or at least they haven't smashed it into our faces they've just a shown us Brits as we are. They have done a pretty good cross representation of us Brits...from the posh Toff to the not so posh working class with everything in between. And our nations and regions are shown. And they actually left the survivors with nothing initially, old style, earn your stuff the hard way !

Even Joel isn't as annoying as he can be. My only real and constant gripe is the background music. It's far, far too loud. It's intrusive, relentless and infuriating. On U. K TV we suffer from 'whispering' where for some reason the broadcasters seem to think we don't need to hear the words that are said...they are either drowned out by background music or the voices are so quiet you struggle to hear. Many folk leave subtitles on permanently...it really can be that bad.

So BBC do us all a favour and tweak the sound levels...it spoiling a good programme.

Give it a whirl....these survivors mean business, just like they used to.