Rating: 
Summary: JUST AN INFOMERCIAL, BASICALLY
Review: I liked this film because I enjoy viewing (and reading) anything to do with Survivor, especially the first season.It's a stalemate: I liked it and disliked it equally. It was enjoyable to re-live snippets of the castaways' experience. But the producer was rather stingy in allowing us to see sparse, brief moments from audition tapes. And if you blinked, you missed the "tour" of the production office on the island. And I missed the moment-to-moment delight of watching the castaways slowly build alliances, reconfigure them, weed away the competition, etc. And the humour isn't greatly highlighted -- what separates S-I from the sequel, S-II, and makes it superior, in my view, was the humor of many of the castaways, many of whom were quick to laugh at themselves, others, the situation. It also seems rather cynical of CBS and Mark Burnett to offer this, as though it's merely a tease for future Collector Item DVD/Videos regarding the program. More money in their pockets, and less money in ours. Plus the patience we'll need until the original Survivor I series is available for purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Very little we haven't seen before...
Review: This DVD is 2 hours and 6 minutes long. Only about 6 minutes of this is NEW or UNSEEN material, and most of the UNSEEN material is Richard's bare buttocks. Everything else is just a rehash of the TV show. I rented it before deciding if I wanted to buy it, whew, close call!
Rating: 
Summary: this dvd is awesome
Review: this dvd was awesome containing a map of the island, all tribal councils, last words, audition tapes, interviews, and much more. i think its stupid people saying that it needed to have all 13 episodes if mark brunnet did that he would have to have about 7-8 vhs to put them all on and the price for the tapes would probally be in the [high] range which then nobody would want to buy it. it would take about 3 dvds and then you wouldnt get all the extras as in this dvd or vhs. i was extremely pleased with this dvd and recomend it to any survivor fan(like me).the only person i would not reccomend this for is somebody that hasnt seen survivor 1 at all because you wont get the same effect and youll still think its stupid. im watching survivor 2 and i hope they come out with another dvd or vhs for it so i can buy it because these tapes and cds are amazing!!!!:-)
Rating: 
Summary: Where was Sonja's ukelele?
Review: The video was good, but they should have showed Sonja playing her ukelele. That would have been a lot more funnier than seeing Richard naked or watching the Survivors eat rat.
Rating:
Summary: Human nature
Review: I've just watched this DVD and I really had a great time. "Survivor" is one of the most creative shows of all times and it is really amazing if you think 16 different people will have to stay 39 days together isolated in a faraway island to win 1 million dollars . The diversity between people is what makes this show so unique and so exciting. The DVD is good, showing the best moments of the TV program, also containing a cool documentary on pre-production, with the show creator and its host. The only thing I thought annoying in this DVD was the edition. The DVD shows all the tribal council but does not show the show challenges, which happen to be the most interesting thing on the program. The cast was really weird: a 39 year old and gay man, an old marine guy, a black woman who did not have white friends, an elderly lady who had cancer, a crazy and hippie guy called greg, a tough woman called sue, among others. One of the craziest moments was the final tribal thing, where the last two participants had to be voted by a jury composed by the rest of the cast previously eliminated. WOW! Kelly, one of the finalists, was deeply offended by Sue, and I think it was really hard for kelly to hear her speech without attacking her back. Anyway, here in Brazil we are watching the second season of a show based on "survivors" and it was really cool for me to watch the original version of the show, which started this whole competition. So, that's it. If you are looking for fun and adventure, this is the real-life DVD you must have!
Rating: 
Summary: Survivor - Season One Review
Review: I bought this DVD based on promotions that it contained lots of footage not aired on television. I was disappointed to find that the only real footage not shown on television was more of Richard Hatch naked and of Jenna digging a pit for the survivor's outhouse. In fact the DVD doesn't even contain full footage of the weekly episodes that aired on CBS. All of the episodes contained on the DVD are abbreviated. Save your money!
Rating:
Summary: A bit disappointed
Review: One thing that really kind of ticked me off is that in all the television promos for the video/DVD, they don't ever tell you that it's just highlights of the show and they really play up the never-before-seen footage. I was sooooo excited about getting to see the couple of episodes that I missed. (I studied psychology, and from a group dynamic aspect, this show was fascinating!) So I was really disappointed to find out that it was just highlights. The never-before-seen footage? From what I could tell, it included a few 30-second speeches (maybe), and the language and nudity weren't edited. The nudity wasn't anything I haven't seen on NYPD Blue (not that I WANTED to see more of Richard's bare behind or anything else, for that matter, but they really played this up in the packaging), and the language was stuff you could guess despite the bleeps they introduced on television. The one thing that I REALLY enjoyed was the 20-minute "featurette" with the creator and the host. It was really interesting to hear the things they had to say.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I was ready to purchase the video until I found out it was just highlights. I agree with one reviewer who wrote... The whole series should've been released on video. Mr. Burnette would've had another winner on his hands. I watched each episode and loved them, there is no way you can experience the phenomenal series through snippets. Anyway, who wants to see Mr.Hatch running around in his birthday suit? I would like to see the whole series released on video.
Rating:
Summary: Wretched example of our society
Review: Survivor is without a doubt one of the least best shows of the milleninum. The action adventure soap proves that American culture and society has reached never precedented levels of voyerism and curriousity. Basically, it is just Gilligan's Island with a bigger budget and the explicitly stated promise that they will eventually get off the island (and we all know how lowly that show stands today!)It is amazing how easily some viewers forget this is a fictional television show and therefore the characters are not actually real. Although it would have been remotely interesting if they had to actually scavenge for food, and fight off a tiger or some other wild animal, ABC in reality kept them nice safe and secure. I do not care what obsessed fanatics think, there is no way they actually survived that much without the comforts of modern society. Once the cammeras stopped rolling for the day, I bet people did have acess to modern anemities It was horrible when it was on the airwaves for free, and now, I am bewildered that somebody would actually want to shell out their hard earned money for something that was readily available otherwise. Trust me, it is not that good enough to need a commerical free studio copy of this program.
Rating:
Summary: A Fair Summary with some nice bonuses
Review: I'll be the first to admit that I loathed the premise behind Survivor. For all it's "real life, uncensored drama," it was still an incredibly manipulative, voyeuristic program. I got hooked on the show by the third week, when the various survivor names started sticking in my mind with the various survivor faces and personalities. If anyone made it far enough in this series to have favorites, they were fans, whether they admit it or not. Now that the show is revered as "the" reality TV event of 2000 (and not reviled, like Big Brother or the wretched Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire), viewers who were too 'principled' to watch the show faithfully can turn to this DVD for the rest of the story. Those of us who became ravenous fans may find ourselves slightly disappointed with this compilation of "greatest" and "most outrageous" moments. The structure of this compilation is fairly straightforward: viewers are given a slightly expanded view of the pre-island days, and after establishing the basic premise of the two teams (and setup of the two camps), we go straight into the eliminations. Each survivor gets their own "chapter" on DVD, in the order of their departures from competition. These chapters highlight the social standing of each contestant, just prior to losing at tribal council. The soon to be banished survivor's pre-selection interview and "demo tape" is spliced in with footage of them in various "notable" social interactions. These are also the chapters in which continuity is ignored, and occasionally an already banished survivor appears, in interaction with the victim-to-be. Some of the "heavier" moments are highlighted, though virtually every minor alliance and casual friendship wound up on the cutting room floor. That's the problem with taking 14+ hours of televised footage and straining it down to manageable 2 hour feature. But don't worry that your favorite survivor's personality has been whitewashed: Stacy still comes off as snide, Gervase's lazy charm is in force, etc. The survivors who lasted longest get the most exposure, of course. Speaking of 'exposure,' parents can need not worry about the nudity warning that flashes onscreen before the program begins: there are half a dozen fanny shots (mostly Richard) that never made it to TV. (Oh yeah...nice butt, Greg!) Profanity is probably the only objectionable material here, since there are some four letter words that made the final cut. For sheerly disgusting moments, nothing beats the fish-thing Richard catches, which starts to melt into slime the minute he cuts it open. Yes, even worse than the larvae eating sequence. Of the many Survivor-related conversations I've had at work, it seems like a lot of people questioned "actual" personalities versus "televised" personalities. No one can say how each survivor adapted their "normal" speech and activities for the sake of TV (remember Greg & Colleen's fake fling?), but the way in which producers "arranged" and scored material to achieve a certain impact with TV audiences is reinforced here. Again, some of the survivors (Sonja, BB, Ramona) register only nominal personalities, but many of the others were shown to audiences cast in the light of the producer's eyes. So much of the "total" experience is edited that this DVD will reinforce the stereotypical character traits associated with each survivor...rather than show you a side of their personalities you didn't see when the show aired. The bonuses on this disc are fairly interesting. There's a section of survivor bios (still frame reading) and voting histories, a map of survivor island and it's environs, a bit about the climate, vegetation and wildlife on the island, and a few other goodies. The 'documentary' piece is a worthwhile extra, featuring narratives from host Jeff Probst and series creator Mark Bennett. No, neither of them tells us who their favorite survivors were, but Probst' enthusiasm for the show makes his hokey host routine easier to bear. In spite of some over-familiarity and unavoidably massive editing, this Survivor compilation is probably a must-own for fans. It's also a worthwhile 'document' in regard to television history, no less remarkable for it's manipulative premise. -Stoned Soul
| 
