I've watched all 34 seasons of US survivor plus the recently aired Australian season. Now the Survivor NZ finale has just aired, it is time to do a review. Firstly, congrats to NZ for having the balls to invest in Survivor in the first place. The UK version finished back in 2002 after just two seasons.
Right, back to NZ. Firstly, the contestants in my view were uniformly too nice and level headed. A few villains and/or mildly unstable 'characters' would have stirred things up nicely. I can see why the producers went for the two episodes on consecutive days but frankly there was not enough interesting material to fill almost two hours airtime every week. I never liked the Redemption Island feature in the US version and hated it here. It disrupts the flow of the game and when a contestant is voted out at the Tribal council, that should be them gone for good. Scrap it and consider having hidden immunity idols etc to find which would have given them something to do other than sitting about looking bored for most of the time. Finally, far far too many lingering camera shots of birds, spiders, monkeys, forests and so on every few minutes. The overall editing needs to be a lot tighter but there needs to be decent material to work with first. Incidentally, l did not agree with the choice of winner. Too bland and lightweight. The street wise, razor sharp west coast Americans would have chewed up him/her up and spat him/her out within a few weeks.
The presenter did an OK job but anyone compares badly against 'the daddy' Jeff Probst because he is so good at it. The controversy raised at the finale has an air of desperation about it. It concerned things said by several of the jury members to one of the final three contestants. A bit shabby to raise it at the finale and thankfully the contestant concerned chose to rise above it.
Overall, for a first season produced by a relatively small country (no offence) then, not bad. I hope they do a second season and will watch it subject to some improvements. For a first timer new to Survivor, i think you may find it boring at times and i suggest the last two seasons of the US version as being a better place to start.
