Survivor: Season One: The Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments (DVD)
Executive Producer: Mark Burnett
Hosted by: Jeff Probst

I have a confession to make. I watch Survivor. I’m not particularly proud of that fact, but in the end, I don’t really care what you think. I am addicted to watching it, and I don’t think there’s any harm in it. Besides, whether you want to admit it or not, you probably watch it as well.

It may not be highly intelligent viewing, but I find the show fascinating on many levels. Sure, it’s a big corporate sham being marketed and force fed to the masses, but that’s actually one of the reasons I find it so intriguing. The producers of the show are very good at what they do. It’s not very often that the final episode of a TV show inspires parties all across North America, and makes the front page of all the newspapers.

What is it about Survivor that has made it such a popular show?The producers would claim that the show has a message, and that it taps into some part of the collective human psyche; the drive to succeed or the instinct to survive or some other B.S. I think it has more to do with the fact that the competitors on the show are ordinary, and as a result, they are much more intriguing than a character on a soap opera could ever be. They represent something the average person can relate to, and they say and do things that could never possibly be scripted. Or could they?

As popular as it is, there are plenty of TV viewers who rather openly detest Survivor. In fact, I used to be one of them. Some of these people write the show off as being completely fake. It very well could be, but I just think they are missing the point. Survivor blurs the line between fantasy and reality, and that is part of the appeal.

I think some viewers might feel awkward about watching real people in physically dangerous, emotionally charged and intensely personal situations. Others may feel that “average people” do not deserve to be worshipped and praised like big celebrities. Then again, maybe some viewers are just jealous that they aren’t on the show themselves?

It took me a while to come to terms with my own Survivor obsession. My first reaction to the show was that it was utter crap; that it was a cheesy soap opera and the producers of the show had no limit to how low they would stoop. I too once felt like the show was below me, and almost insulting in a way.

The participants would clearly do just about anything for their five minutes of fame or a shot at winning a million dollars, so it seemed to me that the TV networks were kind of exploiting them. But somewhere along the line I realized that I was actually interested in what was going to happen from week to week. The characters all had their own idiosyncracies that made them fun to watch, and I didn’t care how low they stooped as long as I was watching when they did the stooping. I started to realize that if you’re dumb enough to try out for a show like Survivor, then you’re only getting what you deserve. And we, the rabid TV viewing public, will get what we deserve: pure unadulterated voyeurism.

Anyways, now that I have come to terms with my enjoyment of the show, I guess it’s time for me to tackle a slightly more difficult task: justifying my purchase of Survivor Season One: The Greatest And Most Outrageous Moments on DVD.

Don’t kid yourself, I knew that the Season 1 DVD was primarily a marketing ploy to get people watching Season 2 (just as the Season 2 DVD is conveniently being released now that the 3rd season is starting). I also knew that the supposed inclusion of previously unseen footage and scenes that had been “too hot for TV” was just a lame gimmick to get Jerry Springer audience types to buy it. We all know that the only nudity on this disc is the scene with Rich strutting around naked on his birthday… and who really wants to see that?

What I was honestly interested in was the behind the scenes stuff that this DVD was said to contain. How much of what we see on the show is real, and how much is fake? How do they come up with ideas for the challenges? Surely these are questions that any Survivor viewer must ask him or herself from time to time. I did not think they would reveal many of their production secrets, but I was definitely curious. I also wanted to catch up on some of the events from the earlier episodes that I had originally missed. Plus the DVD was cheap.

I’ll level with you: the DVD was a bit of a disappointment.

The main chunk of footage on the DVD has all of the episodes from season one squished into 2 hours of viewing. They broke it down into 16 basic segments, one for each person that was voted off every week. Each segment starts with clips from a contestant’s audition tape, and footage from their preliminary interviews. Then they show a few snippets of highlights involving that particular survivor (usually focusing specifically on reasons why they were voted off), and then the tribal council and final words for the week. Then we move on to the next survivor.

Occasionally, they stray from the formula to go into a little more detail on some of the key highlights from the first season. For instance, there are two separate segments on Kelly and Sue, first showing them as best friends, and then later as bitter enemies. There are also segments that detail Rich’s naked birthday romp, and of course, the bug eating contest, among other things.

My main complaint is that the whole thing doesn’t flow very well. The segments feel disconnected, and give no sense of the show’s progression. You don’t get to see how the contestants interacted as a whole because there is only an emphasis on showcasing each survivor individually, one at a time. I guess it’s only fair that each competitor gets their “five minutes of fame” on the disc, but we all know that certain contestants were more memorable than others. I can’t really think of any better ways to summarize the entire season in two hours, though, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain.

There also isn’t enough footage from the challenges. They tried to make up for this with a 2 minute collage of clips, but basically all you get to see is Rich doing his weird chicken dance, and Rudy looking like a dumbass when he can’t remember answers to any questions.

The footage from the original audition tapes was interesting to see, but I really think they should have made it available as a separate feature on the DVD. It kind of threw off the flow because the home video quality was quite jarring in comparison with the nice-looking video transfer that the rest of the broadcast footage has.

The behind-the-scenes stuff was moderately interesting, I suppose. Jeff Probst tells how he got involved with the show, and gives some inside info on the personalities of some of the survivors in real life. They also discuss the making of the tribal council set, which was really cool, because I didn’t even realize that it was a set. It’s this kind of trickery that can probably be found in other places of the show as well. If only they would let us in on the truth! It was also slightly interesting to hear from Mark Burnett, the executive producer of the show, if only to hear how the show all came about.

The rest of the DVD consists of point-and-click information that could very well have been contained on the original Survivor website. You get bios on each of the survivors, information on the geography of the island, summaries of the challenges, and tribal council voting results for each episode. While this type of stuff didn’t exactly sell the DVD for me, it does fill it out nicely. I’d certainly rather have it on here than not.

Now, while this DVD did disappoint me, it would appear to be a thousand times better than the second season one, which, has just been released. I am definitely not going to waste my money on the Australian Outback DVD, as it contains no behind the scenes features, no survivor bios, and basically no extras whatsoever. From what I have read, it is also missing a lot of important highlights from the individual episodes.

Plus, even though the second season may have had some memorable moments, I still think the first one was more entertaining, hands down.

For better or worse, Survivor has changed television as we currently know it. Reality TV shows are still bringing home big ratings for the networks, which is a dream come true for them, considering how inexpensive they are to make. It’s clear that this trend will not last forever, as people will quickly tire of being surrounded by “reality”, but I think when we look back, we will still see that it was no accident, that these shows connected with us in some way.

Out of the many, many reality TV shows currently on the air, Survivor will likely always stand out as one of the most memorable and one of the most compelling. This DVD may not be the best possible 2 hour summary of the show, but if you’re a fan, then you should know that it is the only one. Season One’s “Greatest And Most Outrageous Moments” are not particularly great, and certainly not outrageous, but I still think the DVD is worth owning, if for nothing else, then for posterity’s sake. Besides, no one has to know that you own it. I promise, it will be our little secret…– Sean

Superchunk - Here’s To Shutting Up
(Merge)

I like it when bands choose fitting titles for albums; it makes the task of choosing an opening line for a review so much easier.Superchunk’s 8th full length release, “Here’s To Shutting Up”, does indeed have an appropriate title, and whether intentional or not, it accurately describes the stripped down sound they have put forth here. From the opening track, “Late Century Dream”, the band we hear on this album definitely shows signs of maturity — which is not to say they aren’t fun anymore. In fact, I quite enjoy this album.

Mac McCaughan has indeed toned down his frantic high-pitched vocals and instead decided to actually sing for the most part, often harmonizing with backing vocals — and quite impressively I might add. The songs are mainly mellow and laidback affairs, with a few rockers such as “Rainy Streets” to keep the blood pumping throughout. They have wrapped up these little pop gems with lush instrumentation, including string arrangements and hypnotic keyboards, and the result is some of catchiest Superchunk material to date. There are a few oddballs on here too, like the country-influenced “Phone Sex”, but it all melds together well into a cohesive collection of songs.

If you were hoping for raw indie rock angst, you won’t find much here, but Superchunk prove that songs with a more relaxed pace can be just as moving as those with frenetic ones. It isn’t your typical Superchunk album, but in this case, that’s a good thing.

Superchunk have been around longer than most bands nowadays, and they still show no signs of losing their great songwriting capabilities. If anything, they are just now hitting their stride, as they continue to progress and move forward. This is a worthwhile album from a hard-working band. — Sean

Zoolander
Directed by: Ben Stiller
Written by: Drake Sather, Ben Stiller, John Hamburg
Starring: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Milla Jovovich, Christine Taylor

There has been a lot of talk about whether or not this movie could be accepted by the general public considering the crazy terrorist attacks that took place in the U.S. just a few weeks ago. Is America ready to laugh again? Or do they still want to mope around for few more weeks and continue to have all traces of the World Trade Center erased from their minds?

Well, they played it safe by digitally removing the World Trade Center from the New York skyline in the movie, lest we be reminded of the threat of terrorism. To be honest, I don’t think anyone could possibly be offended by this movie, even if they tried. Well, okay, maybe if they tried. But there isn’t even any of that toilet shock humour that is so popular nowadays. Really, this movie is as harmless as Fabio. Unfortunately, it’s not quite as funny as Fabio, and when real life models are more funny than the satirical ones, you know you have a problem.

Zoolander is a feature length film based on a series of shorts that Ben Stiller did for the VH1 awards a couple of years ago. He plays Derek Zoolander, 3-time Male Model Of The Year, a man who has patented many world famous “looks”, but who isn’t too bright. Zoolander’s world is turned upside down when his newfound arch enemy Hansel (Owen Wilson) wins the cherished Male Model Of The Year award. Of course, Zoolander decides that he needs to do some soul searching.

Somehow, a conspiracy to assassinate the Malaysian prime minister works into the plot, the joke being that he wants to outlaw child labour, which would have catastrophic effects for the fashion industry. This aspect of the story takes a joke that isn’t all that funny to begin with, and makes it very unfunny.

I thought this movie was going to be hilarious. It’s not very often that I actually laugh out loud at a trailer, but Zoolander’s trailer had me “ROTFL” (rolling on the floor laughing, for you non-net savvy losers). Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where the trailer spoils the movie for you, because the funniest parts were contained therein. I was trying my hardest to laugh at the other stuff, believe me, but nothing could top that joke about the model school, and all the other jokes were few and far between.

This isn’t to say that the movie didn’t still have a few other funny moments. There are some hilarious spoof scenes, including a 2001: A Space Odyssey gag, and also a great Fight Club/Matrix spoof where Zoolander and Hansel face off on a no holds barred backroom runway. Which reminds me, the movie also features some great cameos including David Bowie, Christian Slater, Natalie Portman, Fabio and David Duchovny, among others.

Unfortunately, a few brief cameos cannot make this movie hilarious. The only thing that really saves Zoolander from being thrown into the pile with all those lame Saturday Night Live movies is the performance of Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller. These guys can take something completely lame, and make it funny through facial expressions alone. They aren’t afraid to make fools of themselves, and that’s an important thing when it comes to the world of Zoolander. Oh, and Jerry Stiller, Ben Stiller’s father was great too. You probably know him best as George Costanza’s father from the TV show Seinfeld, and he pretty much uses the same role to portray Zoolander’s agent, Maury Ballstein.

Overall though, I thought the jokes were just too sparse. I was hoping for a lot more.I’m sure Zoolander worked well as a short, but it is yet another example of an idea being stretched beyond its limits. It did have potential, after all, the fashion and modelling industries are definitely deserving of their fair share of mockery. Perhaps Zoolander could have worked as a feature length film if more time had been spent on the script. It really needed to be developed further. There are scenes and characters that were just basically filler, such as Zoolander’s trip back home to see his father and brothers who work as miners. What was with that anyways? Not only was that scene not humourous, but it was actually kind of depressing.

I also think the characters needed to be fleshed out a bit more.This may sound like a stupid thing to say about such an obviously ridiculous movie, but there were a lot of characters that were just sort of… there. Ben Stiller didn’t even seem to have the main character’s style of speech down quite right. And what about Mugatu, the evil fashion mogul played by Will Ferrell? He comes off as a Dr. Evil wanna-be, but without any personality or quirky habits. Will Ferrell is normally a funny guy, but even he couldn’t do much with the character, aside from look goofy in his weird outfits.

Visually, the movie was outlandish and funny, but they relied too much on these visual gags. After a few minutes of seeing characters in completely bizarre clothes, the effect wears off, and there is nothing left to carry the film. The trippy brainwashing scene was pretty amusing though.

I think Zoolander just happens to be another one of those self-indulgent films that was more fun to make than it is for us to watch.At a time when North Americans are trying desperately hard to laugh, Zoolander doesn’t make it much easier for them. If you thought the trailer or commercials were funny, you’ll probably laugh at some parts of this movie. If you thought the trailer was stupid, well… then you will probably get more laughs from that movie Serendipity. — Sean

Dashboard Confessional - The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most
(Vagrant)

When Chris Carabba decided to relinquish his role as the frontman for Further Seems Forever and start a solo project with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, he could never have predicted the overwhelming popularity that would follow. For one reason or another, his poppy acoustic ballads have managed to strike a chord within the punk community. It seems the hardcore kids have all been secretly wanting to let their sensitive sides show for some time now, but never had an outlet to do so. Or perhaps they’ve all just been craving something a little different musically, but were afraid to stray from the punk “scene”.

Either way, it’s hard to listen to this most recent Dashboard Confessional album without being turned off by all of the hype surrounding it. It’s also hard not to laugh at the ridiculousness of the many various tales of heartbreak contained within. But when it comes right down to it, the songs are easy to relate to, and catchy as hell… plus Chris Carabba is kinda cute.

This is the second full length Dashboard Confessional release, and it consists of 10 tracks; two of these originally appeared on the Swiss Army Romance LP. They are new recordings of the songs however, and this time they feature bass and drum accompaniment. It’s true, Dashboard Confessional is now more than just a lone(ly) man and his acoustic guitar, it is a 3-piece band. The new instruments add an extra dimension to the sound, but also detract from the intimate and personal feel that the music has. I would have liked it more if the new rhythm section displayed a little more creativity, because frankly there are points where it makes Dashboard Confessional sound like the freakin’ Dave Matthews Band or something. (Not that I’m uh… putting down The Dave Matthews Band…)

The album sounds overproduced at times, and Carabba’s voice seems to be a little too up front in the mix. It grates on my nerves at certain points, especially when he starts wailing at the end of the album’s closer, “This Bitter Pill”, in a rather phony attempt to make it sound like his emotions had gotten the best of him.

The Places You’ve Come To Fear The Most is a pretty good record, but for some reason, it seems to lack some of the charm that the first album had. Maybe it’s because of the extra instruments, or maybe it’s because of the production. Maybe my perspective has just changed ever since I noticed Dashboard Confessional were getting so damn popular. I’m not sure which of these is the truth, but I’m sure this album will be a big hit regardless of what anyone says about it.

I’ve got nothing against throwing this record on and singing along, but just keep in mind the fact that he isn’t saving the world with some revolutionary new musical idea here. He’s basically just writing sappy love songs, and while he’s good at what he does, it’s been done a million times before. — Sean