I’ve been wanting to watch Australian Survivor for awhile now, and I’ve finally started. For those who love Survivor USA and want more, I’d recommend Survivor AU.
It feels different which I love, when I watched Survivor NZ Season 1 it felt like a shit re-made version of a couple Survivor USA seasons.
There are some critiques however:
1) Lack of diversity. I noticed it when they had their immunity challenge going, I noticed there was only 1 person of colour. I’m a gay white male who loves all people so too see lack of diversity sucks. There is 1 gay person and 1 aboriginal woman and that’s it.
2) This is a LARGE cast of 24 castaways split in 3 tribes of 8. I’m happy with 3 tribes as when there’s the cut from one tribe to another there’s more room for airtime. However, it only focuses on 10ish people mainly, the rest have a 20 second intro and clip of them doing something or, in other cases, are COMPLETELY nobodies. The person of colour and aboriginal I mentioned before? I don’t remember them speaking once. I get that they wanna focus on certain things and certain people but for a Premiere episode I would of liked to see just everyone having some time on screen, thats just my opinion.
3) I felt excited and giddy the entire way through. There’s something about the Australian version which makes me excited, maybe it’s the attractive guys like Sam or Rohan, or the funny grandad of the cast Des, who you should watch this episode just to see his personality, or maybe it’s because I’m from New Zealand and this is close to home.
4) For the people they did show, I felt like I had connections with them like Survivor US doesn’t. It’s not just gameplay based, and for this first episode it’s a little predictable, but I really got to know quite a bit of the cast well. I’m just sad I didn’t get to know the WHOLE cast and see their personalities.
5) This season has 26 episodes and 55 days. The pacing will be weird in comparison but I also don’t really mind? I’ve legit just seen Episode 1 so maybe I’ll be bored by Episode 10 or something I don’t know, but I’m really excited.
6) The visuals are stunning. Survivor US makes the island pretty but Survivor AU I felt like they took it a step further because it may of been the same island as previous American seasons, but I stunned just seeing the beauty of the island.
I’m really not trying to shit on Australian Survivor because I will watch this season, I just want to share my initial opinions on the season/series as a newbie coming into the game.
Give this a watch, I do recommend it overall, it’s just not as perfect as I had hoped.
EDIT: I’m on Episode 4, I now know most of the cast. A few people unsure of. Especially on the “winning” tribe as it focuses on the losing tribe a lot.
1.) I love you for watching Australian Survivor
2.) Australian premiere technically is the first 3 episodes because we have a premiere week when it's aired
3.) I agree there's not enough diversity in Aus. Survivor (Wait until you see all the non-white, non-homosexual's voted out early lol) and that more people of diverse backgrounds should apply (I'd love to see a trans icon slay survivor)
4.) YOU WILL LOVE IT! AUS 2016 is a lil shit tbh (The winner has the best FTC performance of all international survivor franchises) but AUS 2017 and Champs vs. Contenders 2 are the best seasons and I can't wait until you meet Queen Sarah in AUS Survivor 2017
I have seen AUS 2017 though and I really enjoyed it