Yahoo News Channel 4 survival show Alone branded boring by critics
TV critics agreed the set up was "dull" and were scathing of the implied threat that the contestants might be eaten by bears.
New Channel 4 show Alone has been ridiculed by critics who have branded the show "boring".
The first episode of the survival reality series filmed in the Canadian wilderness inhabited by bears, sees one of the 11 British contestants injure themselves in the leg with an axe while building a shelter.
But TV critics agreed the set up was "dull" and were scathing of the implied threat that the contestants might be eaten by bears.
Read more: Alone: Is this Channel 4's toughest reality show yet?
Sean O'Grady of The Independent said: "Alone is very dull, then, as boring as unkind people say Canada is. As scary goes, and despite the portentous music and Blair Witch Project vibes, it’s about as suspenseful as a Duke of Edinburgh assignment in the Lake District."
He added: "Mick’s incident is probably as exciting as things are going to get on Alone until someone exits, literally, pursued by a bear. We can but hope."
Anita Singh of The Telegraph wrote: "If there’s nothing to do there and no-one for them to talk to, how is this show going to keep our interest unless it’s to watch people mentally unravel? Maybe that’s why they’re hyping the bears...
"Something doesn’t quite add up. TV companies have a duty of care. Is there really so little safety back-up? Channel 4 may pride itself on pushing the boundaries, but even the people who brought you Naked Attraction wouldn’t want to go down in history as the broadcaster who let a member of the public be mauled to death by a bear."
And Lucy Mangan, writing in The Guardian observed: "Alone contestants are each given filming equipment and are required to record their own activities. This works very well for citizens of countries born to the media purple, such as Americans, who vividly narrate their inner lives as naturally as breathing.
"A transcript of the British episode would look roughly like this:
"'S**t!'; 'Fuuuuuu'; 'I’m hearing noises … Christ'; 'B******s, I have just axed myself in the leg.'"
She went on: "It is an hour of people creeping cautiously through woods and startling at sounds we cannot hear. And then lying awake all night telling us how frightened they feel. It is very boring watching people be scared by noises."
The 11 contestants aged 19 to 58 have been given a variety of basic supplies and cameras to film themselves and dropped individually in the wilderness of north-west Canada. At the end of the six part series whoever has survived alone for the longest will win a £100k cash prize.
Read more: Everything you need to know about Survivor 2023
In episode one a joiner called Mike, 49, who had previously struggled with drug addiction accidentally puts an axe through his leg and has to be helicoptered out of the competition.
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