Survivors: Complete Seasons One & Two Review

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(More customer reviews)For me to call this series the best show today, is a lot. I watch too much TV and expect a lot out of television shows. Survivors is one of the best shows I've ever seen (barring Firefly). It is smart, the actors are excellent, the story is at once human, horrible, and thrilling. The first few episodes when the virus sweeps through England and everyone is dying were a bit rocky - but you have to start somewhere. Around the middle of the first season, when the group consisting of seven people were forming as a sort of family - even though they were strangers to each other, Survivors begins to shine. The brilliance of this series is how these people are very different from each other, but somehow manage to hold on to civility in the face of incredible inhumanity, which is very real and quite frightening as you watch it unfold. Each character holds his or her own in this series, something one rarely sees on television today. Abby is the matriarch - a very kind, maternal woman before the virus, becomes a very strong, central character who holds this ragtag group together and to a level of humanity others cannot seem to do. Tom is the strong, silent mystery man who holds himself separate, but as the story progresses becomes more and more the other half of Abby. We learn he is a murderer and doesn't have the moral balance that Abby has, but the two are almost a perfect complement to each other regarding this family. Greg starts out kind of wimpy, but under Abby and the family's influence blossoms as a man of great character and intelligence. This "family" is the focus of Survivors as they deal with the aftermath of almost complete annihilation of society as we know it. We see one group trying to establish some sort of government, but the flaws are outstanding. We see another who enslaves people to try to jump start an industrial society again. We see groups of people without hope, food, decent water, shelter, and most of all, direction. In the middle of this chaos is Abby's "family." I really hope this show goes on for a very long time, and I hope people will start watching it to continue its longevity. Too many fantastic shows are canceled before their time and this show is too good to end. I highly recommend this one to all of my friends and family and am buying it to share with them. Not everybody gets BBC America to watch it here in the US. But it is one you won't be disappointed with. Much, much better than anything offered on American television today.

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SURVIVORS:COMPLETE SEASONS ONE AND TW - DVD Movie

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Survivor - The Complete First Season (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)In June 2000 the landscape of American television was starkly different than it is now; nearly all shows stopped production in the summer, and aside from a traditional game show fad that was beginning to subside, all programming was scripted fiction.
Then Charlie Parsons and Mark Burnett brought to CBS an idea that, while not entirely original in concept or design, was remarkably different than anything currently being aired in the United States. It was a "reality" show, based on the hit Swedish program "Expedition Robinson", in which a group of strangers were dumped on an island and forced to fend for themselves, and vote each other off one by one. They called their version "Survivor", and it kicked off a TV revolution that does not appear to be going away.
This first season of "Survivor" established all the rules which, eight seasons later, are considered gospel by fans and contestants alike: sixteen players are divided into two tribes where they must build shelter, find food, and compete in challenges. Lose the challenges and you face Tribal Council, where the tribe votes out one of its players, be they the weakest link, the bossiest leader, or the slimiest snake. Eventually the two tribes merge into one where the challenges become individual and the field is ultimately levelled to two remaining players who are judged by their fallen peers. One is left standing to claim the million-dollar prize and the title of Sole Survivor.
With these parameters, sixteen Americans volunteered to be the initial guinea pigs, and were marooned in Borneo. Some were there for the adventure, some for the fifteen minutes of fame, and some for the money. It was, in the end, a game, and those who sought the pot of gold proved the most ambitious. One of the only rules of Survivor is that you cannot conspire to share the prize money. The Pagong tribe, consisting of mainly younger players like Jenna Lewis, Colleen Haskell and Greg Buis, were quite content with this and opted to lay back and let the cards fall where they may. But the Tagi tribe (including Rudy Boesch, Susan Hawk, and, of course, Richard Hatch) discovered early on that you could bend the conspiracy rule without actually breaking it. If they all voted together as a bloc, they'd have the numerical advantage to ensure a slot in the final four or five. You could call it an arrangement, or agreement. They called it an alliance.
The alliance strategy ultimately proved the obvious way to go, and it was perhaps that one aspect of this first season which proved the most influential on the seasons which followed it; nearly every subsequent winner of the game has used a solid alliance to get them to the top. It is not always the ringleader, not always the strongest or smartest. No one person or personality is guaranteed victory in this wholly unique game, because the game is shaped by the people who play it, and no two people are the same. Survivor was an almost instant ratings smash, and the first season finale ranks among the most watched events in recent years, and this can be attributed not to its sex appeal or entertainment quotient, but its curiosity. Random people scheming and plotting to outlast each other in a democratic process. Survivor is, at its core, a microcosm of Western society and politics, a grand sociological experiment of the Pax Americana.
The DVD release of the complete first series allows many fans who have forgotten or did not see the original Pulau Tiga castaways to experience, or re-experience, the show that they fell in love with those four long years ago. And coming with the hindsight of eight sequel seasons (season nine is being cast as of this writing, and producer Burnett and host Jeff Probst are reportedly signed through season twelve), it is a real trip to go back and watch how it all started; when grubs were considered "gross food", sloppily-edited credits gave away future events (giving berth to the wild internet "spoiling" subculture), and "alliance" was considered a dirty word. Probst is shaky here; the job is new to him and there is no edge to his attitude. It is a new experience to him, as it is to everyone else. And all the great moments are here: Greg and his "coconut phone", Sean's alphabetical voting strategy, and of course Susan's infamous "snakes and rats" jury speech, often imitated but never duplicated.
Survivor fans will need a copy of Season One. Others may want to consider this as the perfect place to start catching up on what they've been missing.

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Survivor 3: Africa - The Complete Season (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)I normally don't care for reviews written before a product is actually released, since they generally aren't very helpful. But how this season has not yet been released is beyond me. It may not have been very popular at the time, but if you go to just about any Survivor message board, it's clear that the fans are dying to see Survivor: Africa released on DVD as soon as possible.
I'm glad to have Palau and Vanuatu coming out later this year; I'll happily purchase any seasons they release no matter what the order. But while these seasons are good (Vanuatu is my least favorite season ever but it's still entertaining), they aren't Africa or Marquesas, two of the better seasons in my view.
I, like I'm sure most fans, feel that they should release the series in order, but if that can't happen, at least throw fans a bone here and give us the ones that we didn't just watch a year ago. Let us have the seasons we haven't seen in a long time. The sooner Africa, Marquesas, Thailand, and Amazon are released the better.

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Survivor III: Africa comes to DVD for the first time with so much more than you saw before. With this special edition nine-disc DVD set you can replay and relive all of the series' episodes, including the preand post season specials “Countdown to Africa” and “Back from Africa”. Rejoice to see and hear footage never shown on TV.Bonus Material Includes:
The contestants’ full uncut exit interviews immediately after they are voted out of the tribe
The contestants’ appearances on the CBS Early Show
A preview of what life will be like for the contestants in Africa
Aerial footage of the Tribal Council site and the surrounding plains
The animals of Africa with natural sound
Replay the most memorable and outrageous moments of the season as the Survivors outwit, outplay and outlast each other for the one-million dollar prize.This disc is expected to play back in DVD Video "play only" devices, and may not play in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives.
This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

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