Survivor Philippines Ep1 - Review

Poor pacing and bad editorial choices made the first episode of Survivor Philippines very very dull.

The episode began with the castaways, deprived of possessions other than the clothes on their backs, cast adrift in the Andaman Sea and made to swim to the island. As they swam, we were shown brief bio clips of the contestants in their daily environs (ala Amazing Race). When all had reached shore, they were segregated into two teams, the women and the men. The teams then competed in a reward challenge -- your typical Survivor obstacle course/jigsaw puzzle -- which the men won. As a reward, the men won equipment to help construct their shelter. The teams then proceeded to their respective camps and went to sleep. End of episode, the immunity challenged is promised for tomorrow.

The biggest mistake of the producers was to assume that we would take much interest in the reward challenge relay, which took up around half of the episode. To begin with, the "challenges" in any Survivor series were hardly interesting, something to fill in the time in between contestants bickering. It is worse when, as in this episode, it is made the focal point of the hour at a stage when we utterly know nothing of the contestants to maintain any rooting interest in who won. Worst, all that time was devoted for a reward challenge for which there was no life-or-death matter at stake that would have gripped this viewer's attention. Worstest, each phase of the challenge was punctuated by a five-minute commercial break, which killed whatever chance there was to maintain a sustained interest in the events. (Although these commercials allowed this viewer to step out for his own Marlboro challenge)

With eighteen contestants competing for airtime in the thirty minutes that remained in the episode, it was difficult for any of them to leave any impression during the first episode. The one character to emerge in Episode 1 was Zita the lavandera, whom I had rashly tagged as the first boot. A grandmother of 12, she displayed surprising physical strength and was the second castaway to swim to the shore after being thrown off the boat. During the pitifully short camp scenes, Zita appeared to be in possession of practical skills that would serve island-dwellers well. She appears poised to take on the Gretchen Cordy-sensible mother role. Add in the fact that she was placed in an all-girl team (probably a less hostile environment for her), and the inherent maternal worship in Filipino culture, she probably won't be voted out for a while.

Of the others, Patani ("ang yaya") seems semi-deluded, but appears to have the requisite island survival skills. Taekwondo coach Veronica barely registered except for the languid yet graceful backstroke she employed to reach the island. Kiko looks like the sort who would naturally emerge in a leadership role, which has its positives and negatives. Emerson strikes as unduly exuberant, someone I'd cringe to be in a social situation with, but hey, if Jason Gainza made it that far in PBB, who knows. And for the few seconds she was featured on-air, Chev frankly scared me with her Mary Cherry face and tone.

My favorite seasons of Survivor U.S. and Amazing Race (both U.S. and Asia) remain their first seasons, where the presentation seems less slick but the relative innocence of the contestants as they sailed through uncharted waters remains fascinating. I still have high hopes for Survivor Philippines, clunky first episode aside. This after all is also the first time for the production crew, and there is room for improvement. I must say that the cinematography is top-notch and the editing is very proficient, better than what Philippine TV normally has to offer.