For those of you who have forgotten just what it was exactly that the tribe spoke (clue: the bare-assed middle-aged boy wonder took the prize), Survivor--Borneo: The Complete First Season offers the full 13 episodes of this groundbreaking (for better or worse) reality TV series, along with the “Reunion Special.” For the uninitiated (whose address must read Under a Big Rock), Survivor's premise was relatively simple: plop 16 photogenic, and--if later news stories were any indication--possibly morally deficient people, on a deserted island where the soup du jour is generally rat-based, and let them play an adult version of playground politics (i.e., make weekly decisions to boot one individual off the beach with the last person standing after 39 days pocketing a million bucks). Adding new definitions to the words “challenge,” “immunity,” and “bitch” (Susan: “…if I were ever to pass you along in life again, and you were laying there, dying of thirst, I would not give you a drink of water. I would let the vultures take you and do whatever they want with you, with no ill regrets”), the first Survivor (2000) is one for the television time capsule. DVD extras include entertaining audio commentary by host Jeff Probst and contestants Richard Hatch, Gervase Peterson, and Rudy Boesch on the first and last episodes; the seven-minute featurette “Survivors Leave Los Angeles and Arrive in Borneo,” the 10-minute “A Look Back with Richard, Rudy, and Gervase,” and a Late Show with David Letterman Top Ten clip. In addition, there's a fifth bonus disc, Survivor--Season One: The Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments (VL-3/01), a highlights/lowlights program that also includes a few extras: an insipid "making of," episode summaries, maps, and--of course--Richard Hatch's butt. Since the suspense is gone and the show's artistic value is pretty much nil, this is optional for all but larger collections with extensive TV-on-DVD holdings. (R. Pitman)
Survivor--Borneo: The Complete First Season
Paramount, 5 discs, 664 min., not rated, DVD: $49.99 Volume 19, Issue 4
Survivor--Borneo: The Complete First Season
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