SIBERIA Episode One Review: Somebody Here is Tommy's Murderer!

This could contain possible spoilers, and just like my WHODUNNIT? reviews, if you don't want to read this review for SIBERIA, go somewhere else.

For the rest who are interested, here we go in...





Three...






Two...





One!

After seeing the promos for SIBERIA on NBC, I decided to give it a try. This has a SURVIVOR feel, because of the atmosphere and the show's intros. Frankly, I haven't seen Survivor in eons, so why not?

Sixteen contestants--eight men and eight women--flew in via helicopter from London. This cast, representing eight countries, were blindfolded, not knowing where they would land. Voila! As they took off their blindfolds, they are on a grassy land surrounded by the abundance of forests. They don't realize, these guys were in northern Russia.

The first task of the 16 contestants: race to the cabin with flags. Sixteen started, but fourteen remained. It appeared that one of the contestants threw a flag to the ground, making it hard for Berglind, a photojournalist from Reykjavik, and Harpreet, a graduate student from Washington, DC, to find it. It took them a lot of time, and as a result, both were eliminated. I'm assuming sabotage played a role considering someone abandoned a flag. This means somebody in the cabin is going to die!

Days and nights followed, and the remaining fourteen found frogs and mushrooms. I was hoping someone cooked the frog on the makeshift campfire. I was also very skeptical about the mushrooms, whether or not they are poisonous. I tweeted that those mushrooms could contain a value of either '1000 points or a 1UP.' In other words, the Super Mario Bros. series of games were on my mind once I saw the mushrooms.

There were lots of friction inside the cabin at the midpoint of the episode, typical of the reality show genre. A clue was discovered where a horn sounded. However, it was later on where a penultimate fate is about to happen to one of their own. It all started when a cameraman had blood on his face, and from there on, it was a dark atmosphere. The announcement that Tommy, a philanthropist from Boston, was killed. Thirteen remaining for the next episode.

So was the flag thing with Berglind and Harpreet intentional? Could they--based on their early elimination from the flag race--be suspiciously accused of Tommy's murder? Or did the Whodunnit? killer cross networks and struck his/her first victim--on NBC? So many leads after this very first episode of SIBERIA. Keep watching the next few Mondays.

Sam the Brooklynite gets my quote of the night: "When you get hungry, you get mad!"

And as Dana, the cardiac nurse, from Whodunnit? said after Sheri's death in the first episode: "Somebody here is a murderer!"

As for the scorecard:

ELIMINATED:
15. Harpreet (flag race elimination)
(tie) Berglind (flag race elimination)
14. Tommy (murdered?)

Remaining: Miljan, Sam, George, Sabina, Carolina, Irene, Daniel, Anne Marie, Victoria, Johnny, Neeko, Esther, Natalie

In Soviet Russia, NBC's SIBERIA Watches You! Tonight!

Nothing to do with Yakov Smirnoff, but we're treated to another reality show that is 'not' reality.

SIBERIA (the 'R' is backwards in the NBC promo) boasts eight men and eight women, a diverse field that includes a rugby player, a bull rider, a DJ, sales clerk and graphic artist among others; representing the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Iceland, Montenegro, Taipei, Colombia and Israel. One of the cast members is from New Orleans. A stellar global representation on a reality show is good and gets those who hate the genre to appreciate the casting done for the show.

It's like survival of the fittest, all set in the rugged terrains of the Siberia region of Russia. In the spirit of Whodunnit?, will we see a fake 'fatality' amongst the cast? NBC tonight at 9pm Central.

A Message To Bob Costas.

You obiously don't understand about how the Second Amendment works:

More on the Jovan Belcher tragedy from this past weekend Thursday.

First Broadcast TV Cancellation of 2011-12 Goes To...

PTC wins this one, but they're probably being the cowards for not waging war on trashy reality shows that are worse than this.

Linky.

Again, to the morons at PTC, this show might suck, but there are hundreds of shows that suck more. Now go after Jersey Shore!

An End of an Era.

After 43 years of the free-to-air network for the Championships at Wimbledon, NBC was outbid...by ESPN. Read it here.

It seems that even though NBC will retain RG's, I think it will be a sign of an improvement because everyone, even myself, are angered over their "same time zone" shit that bothers people. Today isn't really that damn important anymore (same could be said for other morning shows-network or cable-because they're all useless), and that really killed this experiment that the network has done for years.

ESPN outbid Fox and NBC for the rights, but will they relegate some of the matches to be televised live on either Tennis Channel or FTA on ABC? Who knows? NBC needs tennis because tennis is an Olympic sport and All-England will be the tennis venue for the London games next July. But I really think it hits a network hard for all the years it has brought this grand slam event to America, even though they've fucked up the last few years.

The overall story is, who gives a fuck? Radio Wimbledon all the way!

Anne Robinson, With Eight Votes...

And 11 years, including a US version in 2001, you are the weakest link. Goodbye.