Review of Survivor first episode

Sweaty, saggy, crackers - and none of them entirely safe

MediaGuardian.co.uk

Gareth McLean
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday May 22 2001 08.09 BST

There wasn't a whiff of a Destiny's Child video about this Survivor (ITV). No funny goose-step dancing in front of polystyrene temples; not a hint of wandering through the jungle like extras from a soft-porn remake of Tenko. Instead, we got sweaty armpits, saggy man-breasts and one particularly crackers contestant smuggling sausages onto the island by sticking them up his bottom. Of the 16 people marooned in the South China Sea competing to win £1m, there wasn't one whom you would feel entirely safe sitting beside on an aeroplane. Or anywhere else, for that matter.

And Survivor is all the better for it. Unless there is a sudden backlash against reality TV, it should be a substantial hit (in any case, any backlash would most likely be reserved for Big Brother 2). With Mark Austin, the Herve Villechaize of Borneo, as our guide ("It's the seaplane, boss!"), the soap-opera exploits of the castaways are already shaping up to dominate watercooler conversations for the next six weeks.

The 16 had barely touched the sands of Pulau Tiga when beady-eyed Nick started scheming to evict Dopey Jackie. But despite his alliance-building and close reading of How to Win Friends and Influence People, it was Nick who got the heave-ho. Not so much Nasty Nick as Nixed Nick.

Even after Nick's banishment there are plenty other characters to sustain the show: JJ who proclaimed "I don't want to be bossy" (oh but she does); Whiny Charlotte who isn't too keen on killing fish; and Dippy Uzma, who was desperate to find "the kerolene" (sic) to fuel the fire.

With swooping helicopter shots and time-lapse photography, the millions spent on the series is evident. But the big budget might be to its detriment: Survivor is over-produced, its glossiness detracting from what should be a raw, unvarnished show about life on a desert island.

The most disturbing thing is the whiff of racism that surrounds the theme park rendering of "tribal" culture. Immunity idols, the jungle drum/pan pipe soundtrack and the awe-filled script (the island is "beautiful but potentially dangerous", "fire represents your life on the island") are crass; the latter is the kind of line you'd expect in a B-movie about Victorian explorers, shortly before they get eaten by the Ooga-Booga tribe. A bad aftertaste to an otherwise delicious show.