‘Win The Wilderness’ is Netflix’s strangest Reality show. Plastic surgery procedures, a friendship with Paris Hilton, even an adoptee- biological father reunion. The genre of reality competition show has thrown up some crazy, and often problematic, prizes over the year. First screened on the BBC in January, the six-part series sees six British couples attempt to summon their inner Bear Grylls in the hope of inheriting an Alaskan property 100 miles from civilization.
Self- isolation is taken to the extreme you may say. The show is the brainchild of Duane and Dena Ise, an awe-inspiring couple who took advantage of the US Homestead Act and built a three-story home from 7,000 trees deep in the heart of the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness. Grainy camcorder footage was taken during its early construction three decades ago further highlights just how mammoth their task was. It’s exhausting just to watch.
Sadly, with their advancing years and various health problems, the eccentric survivalist must relocate to somewhere a little more hospitable. And with their offspring, entirely understandably, unwilling to spend their days without other human company, 4G broadband, and pizza deliveries, the pair need to find a more willing successor.
Win The Wilderness suggests that perhaps reality TV wasn’t the way to go. Duane and Rena shopped the idea around to multiple American networks without much luck before attracting the BBC. Subsequently, the couple is left with a pool of plucky but native Brits whose knowledge of Alaska seems even more limited than Sarah Palin’s one hapless contestant needs to be warned about the dangers of chopping firewood in open-toed sandals.
The six couples, notably all Caucasian, all straight, are a likable bunch largely free of the bitching and melodrama you’d expect in such an intense situation. But all appear to have grossly underestimated the challenge ahead. Their sense of wonder the first time they set eyes on Ose Mountain in a four-seater plane seems entirely genuine but several also appear mightly relieved when told that they’re not the chosen ones, too.
