By FIONA RAE
Right. Throbbing dance music with faux church choir: check. Scantily clad tempters and temptresses: check. Eight Americans who think a TV show will sort out their relationships: check.
Survivor, Castaway, Treasure Island, and now the six-part Temptation Island, a gameshow for the "reality" era where people play with their
relationships rather than general knowledge. No building shelters or eating rats. No prize, either.
But whether the contestants are actually playing with a full deck ... well, one person at least thinks the show will be a chance to "explore and really find out who I am." Turns out he's a model.
The game goes like this: four couples are sent to an island resort on Belize where they are separated and offered plenty of "temptation" (that is, single playmates) to see whether their relationships will hold.
They've been chosen because one partner clearly doesn't trust the other. There's Taheed, who says he has "stepped outside" his relationship with Ytossi.
Then there's creepy Andy, who likens the game to the Pepsi challenge. How about Mandy? Billy says he thinks their relationship is strong, but "there's no telling what she'll do." Oh, and Valerie and Kaya. Kaya's the model.
The show has been a free publicity bonanza for the Fox network because of the controversy when three big-name advertisers, including Sears and Quaker Oats Co, pulled their ads. A television watchdog group, Parents Television Council, has urged the US's top 100 companies not to advertise during Temptation Island.
Certainly, if Survivor was a kind of Survivalist's Weekly, then Temptation Island is Sports Illustrated (its 7.30 time slot is questionable).
Babes in bikinis, hunks in trunks. Loads of flesh shots. Men and women who are described as "fantasy singles" - chosen as "ideal" dates for guys (among the lineup are a former Playboy model, a singer, a dancer, a bartender and a real estate agent) and vice versa (an artist, a social worker, a massage therapist and a flight instructor).
As the "fantasy single" women arrive, and the camera switches between them and the tempted guys, there's an interspersed shot of two dogs on the beach.
But for all the flesh on display there's a whiff of morality. The programme makers might have brought them to the island to do some sinning, but it wants to pretend outrage.
The titles scream "26 singles chosen to entice," with shots of temptresses dancing like Salome without the veils. "They thought it was a game. They had no idea how far it would go."
In other words, you break the rules, you pay, as the first voice you hear in last night's opener has.
"I feel like I sold my soul to do something fantastic, which is come to this place and now the fun is over and I'm paying for it. I hate to say it's a mistake but now I'm in hell." This is followed by crying women. There were tears after bedtime.
It couldn't have been designed any better to make us feel thoroughly smug. Call me old fashioned, but I'm tempted not to watch.
Temptation Island
TV3, Mondays, 7.30 pm
By FIONA RAE
Right. Throbbing dance music with faux church choir: check. Scantily clad tempters and temptresses: check. Eight Americans who think a TV show will sort out their relationships: check.
Survivor, Castaway, Treasure Island, and now the six-part Temptation Island, a gameshow for the "reality" era where people play with their
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