Netflix’s new survival show is almost becoming a real Hunger Games
SurviveNetflix from March 10th
★★★½
There’s not much new about Netflix’s foray into the stakes of the reality survival competition. But the genius of Survive is to cram the best parts of so many other shows into a thoroughly addictive, if ethically ambivalent, whole.
Out of Alone comes the setting – the wilderness of the American Northwest (Alaska in this case) on the cusp of winter. Out of Bear Grylls: The Island comes the need to forage for supplies and work together to survive. Out of survivor comes the gameplay aspect and double cross maneuvers. And from The hunger Games Added to this is the manipulation of the players by the invisible game masters, the bows and arrows and the occasional dropping of provisions or tasks via tiny parachutes into the wilderness arena.
Jill Ashock is like a real Katniss Everdeen, only meaner.Credit:Netflix
The 16 candidates are said to be “lone wolf” survivors. Obviously some are not that well educated in such things and some are more social than others.
It all starts with them getting together in a clearing in the middle of the wilderness, where they spend as long as they need to and quickly (and seemingly randomly) split into four teams, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta. They can trade as long as their new cohort accepts them, and they can fold when they have enough. The winner(s) will take home $1 million.
Where everything gets messy — and it really, really does — is in the rules of battle. While most do the right thing, one team takes the no-rules approach. It’s the wild, who needs it? More specifically, who is going to enforce them anyway?
Give Me A Shelter: Participants must band together in teams and build locations to keep the elements out using only simple materials.Credit:Netflix
So Amber Asay (introduced variously as a yoga teacher and former heroin addict and felon), Jill Ashock (private investigator and one of the most cutthroat competitors you’ll ever see) and Justin Court (construction worker) set out to steal some rivals’ sleeping bags – no small feat given the near-freezing temperatures – and pierce the inner tubes of someone else’s raft (vital for catching the fish and crab, which are among the few food items available).
This is not a competition, this is cheating and potentially life threatening. And yet the game goes on.
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/netflix-s-survival-show-outlast-is-almost-a-real-life-hunger-games-20230306-p5cpv0.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_culture Netflix’s new survival show is almost becoming a real Hunger Games
