First! Outlast, a show where teams of people have to survive in a jungle for a million dollar prize, and sounds like it very quickly turns into Lord of the Flies.
Next! Law of the Jungle which drops today and intriguingly is actually in Spanish with English subs. Contestants must choose to work for their tribe or to sabotage to earn money for themselves.
Finally and not jungle related at all but likely of interest, Ariyoshi Assists. Hiroiki Ariyoshi, who normally hosts Japanese variety shows, now plays assistant in all kinds of formats which normally involve Japanese comics causing themselves mild discomfort for laughs. The first one is sets of comics vying to become the next generation of a popular boyband, episode two is based around a cooking show and looking ahead there’s wrestling and rap battles and all sorts.
Enjoyed the first ep of Outlast, feels properly hardcore, and forcing 16 grumpy loner outdoors people to work together brings an interesting tension I can empathise with. Really intrigued to see how cutthroat it gets.
Finished off four eps today, this is compelling stuff without wanting to get too spoilery – ep 4’s the one where it goes from being mainly about survival to gamesmanship.
Right I’ve binged all the episodes today which I can’t say I’ve done with a show for years. So it’s sad that the final episode for the money changes from survival challenge to orienteering competition when we’d been led to believe they’ll keep going until one team remains. Mildly annoyed.
Now watching Law of the Jungle, it’s quite fun but it’s basically an amalgam of about ten different shows.
2m Mexican pesos is a little over £86,000, for reference.
I’m six episodes in. I’ve quite enjoyed it – certainly they’ve put some effort into the looks of the challenges even if they’re Survivor knock-offs really (although funnily enough one of the more entertaining ones was just cornhole but on a springy table) but it doesn’t feel like there’s enough jeopardy in taking the money, so you’re just watching several people deliberately stuff up challenges mainly which isn’t much as much fun as it could be.