Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointing, October 1, 2001
I need to preface this review with this note: I am a HUGE fan of "Survivor," and despite the bad reviews, I actually enjoyed the DVD of the first season quite a bit.There's nothing very interesting in this "best of" compilation. It basically starts off with each contestant's audition tape/interview, then proceeds to one scene of something that happened to them during their stay. This is immediately followed by tribal council and their final words. Unlike the first season's video release, there are no additional challenges here, there isn't any additional nudity or profanity (other than the one of Alicia and Kimmi fighting, which we've seen on TV at least a thousand times by now), there isn't any graphic footage of Michael slaughtering the pig. In fact, even the "Symbolic Tribal Council" for Michael's departure that Mark Burnett said wasn't shown on TV but would turn up on the DVD didn't make the final cut. What do you get as far as additional features go? There's footage from all the contestants' appearances on The Early Show. If you have a DVD Rom drive, they've recreated the official CBS web site for the show on disc - including the weekly show summaries, contestant profiles, popularity poll ratings, Outback feature, games and the Real Media video clips. This is rather interesting, since you can read about what happened during their stay in the Outback in full detail, with pictures and video supplementing the experience. However, not all of the video clips on the online site made the transfer to the disc. So basically, if you have an internet connection, logging on to the official site is still a better option. What's good about the DVD? The transfer is brilliant. You can see actual rainfall during scenes where it didn't seem to be raining when the scenes were aired on network TV. But for me to be writing a review about a show and to have to focus on this aspect should tell you what you really need to know about this DVD. After months of anticipation, it's quite a letdown.
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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Bad But Could've Been Better, October 2, 2001
I am a die-hard Survivor fanatic. And I enjoyed the second season of the show, in particular. How does its DVD stack up against the first release? Ehh... It is essentially the same feature that the first release had: a two hour retrospective on the season. But that's where the similarities end.First off, the good. For every tribal council you get to view the comments of everyone who voted specifically for the person who was voted off. The Special Features show us a lot of the footage from The Early Show. Some of the included audition videos are quite amusing. And there are a few moments of footage in the feature that we never saw on tv. Now, the bad. Too many of the challenges are left off. Many of the show's best (and most notorious) moments are nowhere to be found, including the pig hunt. Unlike the season one disk, there are no animated menus (a major error, for DVD lovers). And the data on voting history is also missing; while the Early Show footage is nice, there is but a fraction of what was found on the special features last time (and that wasn't a lot, to begin with). Heck, the post-Survivor special that CBS showed could've been included as an easy bonus, but it's not even here. I could've also used more footage of Elisabeth and Rodger, but that's just me. In essence, this is a bare bones release. I love Survivor, but I'm disappointed with this DVD. It could've been so much better. It's a good refresher, if you just gotta see those sixteen people again. But hard-core Survivor fans will probably be disappointed in the lack of attention and care that was given to this project. THREE STARS.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Try to get it as a gift, December 27, 2001
By A Customer
I am a big fan of Survivor and I enjoyed having some new Survivor II video to watch. There is definitely nothing hugely exciting or revealing in this DVD. If you're expecting to see the uncensored pig-killing footage, or the uncensored footage of Mike burning his hands, you will be disappointed. But what you will see are some extra details of the game, for example: at every tribal council, the survivors offer reasons for voting the way they did as they hold up the name. Usually on the TV show you only get to see 1 or 2 explanations, because they want to maintain the drama/surprise. This DVD shows what almost all of them actually said when they voted each other off. You get the "final words" of all the survivors as well. You also get all of the Early Show interviews (edited for length however). The main portion of this DVD goes through each survivor in the order they were booted, you get to see portions of their audition tape and also some footage from their audition interviews. I was surprised at the total length of this DVD: 2 hours of retrospective and 1 hour of Early Show interviews, for 3 hours total! The boring parts are: seeing the same old footage that you've seen a thousand times before, and also even some of the footage is repeated from the retrospective and the Early Show interviews. I haven't seen the Season 1 DVD so I can't compare to that. Some of this video may have appeared on the web site but it's good to have it in normal video format. This is the first DVD I have seen that originated from a D1 video source, and I was amazed at how sharp and clear the picture was. The DVD-ROM offers the Survivor 2 web site, but it tried to install "InterActual Player" on my computer. I was able to surf website contained on the DVD straight from the disc without installing that player. Overall, this DVD is a good gift to receive if you are a fan of Survivor. I wouldn't pay my own money for it though.
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