The Summit

The concept is good, but none of the show makes sense.

The "overwatch view" helicpoter thing is silly.

Having participants vote out the strong rather than the slow makes no sense. They make just as much money getting to top with strong person as slow. But with a slow person they may not make it at all.

The Host told participants they wont make the top if they dont speed up. So what do they do, they vote out a fast person. Crazy.

They are trying to copy Survivor with the back stabbing and alliances, but you cant in this scenario, its clumbsy and not working.

Then having the show take back money is funny, guess they dont want to give out a full million. Remember the last guy at the bridge crossing, they chopped the rope bridge. The host said they were taking the money back, there was nothing the participants could do about it. The shows just did not want to give the money away.

But I have to keep watching as my wife likes the show. LOL.

So the object is to try to eliminate those with strong hiking skills so lesser people can get to top of mountain and win lots of money. This was not the premise that the producers provided the audience; i.e., get to top of mountain. The Selection of people who had no idea how difficult it is to summit any substantial mountain, much less an New Zealand high summit is an insult to the audience. One can only surmise that whoever thought this would be an interesting show totally missed the boat; mostly because people who are overweight, unskilled in hiking should not have been selected to climb a really big mountain.

I cried when Brook deceived Alex. She said she wanted to teach her children how to be a strong woman, but it's not a lesson I would want to teach my children , that it's okay to stab people in the back, that helped you get to the top, and that loyalty is not important. Sorry, that's not a good life lesson to your young ones. The show is a lot of manipulation, very similar to Survivor. I enjoy watching the physical events they have to go through, but not so much the meanness and back stabbing. It was interesting to watch Isaac overcome his fears . Well done Isaac one of the few genuine people on this show along with Alex.

The following review contains information about the first half of the first episode - which I do not consider to be a series spoiler. I have actual mountaineering experience, and am trained in search & rescue.

In real mountaineering, SAFETY is the TOP PRIORITY, and NO LIVING PERSON is left behind. People compete against the mountain, and NEVER against each other.

"THE SUMMIT" is erroneously couched in actual mountaineering, and infected with hypocritically self-conflicting objectives. The show should be presented as a team race, on a controlled closed course, and not disguised as a mountaineering quest.

+ Unlike "Survivor," contestants are told that this is a unified team effort, for everyone to complete the journey. That is a blatant lie.

+ Some contestants are chosen, who are obviously out of shape, plainly unable to perform in the hike or "challenges," and subject to real life threatening health emergencies. That is not legitimate competition. A better show would be the TRAINING of contestants to challenge their own personal limitations, and those who successfully train, then climb a mountain as a unified team. That would be the "Survivor" equivalent of merging the tribes.

+ Similar to "Survivor," contestants are implicitly encouraged to align in opposing "aliances," and forced to eliminate their fellow competitors. That never really happens on a mountain. By contrast, elimination happens on an Olympic competition rock climbing wall. Or even earlier, when one gives up training.

+ In my opinion, this show is offensive to the sport; and, falsely leads people to believe that they can just put on a backpack, and start walking up a mountain. That is less realistic than a cartoon.

It's unbelievable that the producers could ruin this program. It had everything: physical challenges, competitions, beautiful scenery, eliminations, deceit, loads of cash, strong athletes, everything. And yet, ruin it they did. The last episodes were unwatchable for the boredom and can be fast forwarded through the weeping from letters from home, the weeping from zoom chats (do they really need zoom chats at the top of a mountain?) and the repetition of the previous scenesafter the commercials. Honestly, this program became so disappointing after the initial episodes draw you in. It's as if they wanted to incorporate every reality series ever done and failed miserably in the doing.