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It’s a horrible behavior of TV producers – significantly these of the truth persuasion – to work backwards from a present’s title to its format. Bare and Afraid, Ladette to Woman, Milf Manor: all have immediately memorable pitches, however have produced blended remaining outcomes. The identical, it feels, could possibly be true of Celeb Bear Hunt, a brand new Netflix present involving survivalist Bear Grylls and, as is important below the confines of the chosen title, a lightweight quantity of searching.
The premise is easy and compelling: 12 celebrities are dropped into the Costa Rican jungle the place they have to survive on their wits whereas making their technique to a checkpoint. The catch? They’re being hunted by TV’s piss-drinking wild man, Bear Grylls. That sounds simple sufficient to observe, besides, really, that’s not what Celeb Bear Hunt is about. As a substitute, a dozen celebrities mattress down for 18 days in a glamping cove. From there, they compete in extravagant every day duties, after which a number of shall be despatched, semi-randomly, to the “Bear Pit”, a neighborhood wilderness space into which Grylls will ultimately parachute to chase them for an hour. After which some could be despatched again to Blighty, whereas others will return to their yurt. Oh, and, for some purpose, Holly Willoughby is there, dressed like a colonial spouse on safari.
Breaking out of “nature’s deadliest escape room” is not any imply feat. Not least as a result of the present is structurally reliant on not giving its contestants a good shot. Grylls – contemporary from his stint baptising Russell Model – crawls across the undergrowth, telling a cameraman what the contestants are getting unsuitable, all with out acknowledging the ludicrous, tension-sapping spectacle of watching a former SAS soldier stalking Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. The mixed-ability contestants vary from former athletes like Danny Cipriani and Boris Becker, to 29-year-old TV chef Large Zuu and Gen X mannequin Lottie Moss. It’s a surprisingly starry solid – Mel B, Shirley Ballas and Inbetweener Joe Thomas all head to camp – which means that Netflix was prepared to get the chequebook out.
What it’s did not spend money on is a fascinating format. Camp sequences are full of the spectre of meddling producers, off display with a cattle prod, getting the celebs to interview one another. Was being within the Spice Ladies “a enjoyable journey”, Mel? Going to jail, “did that not stress you out”, Boris? How will your “fellow judges” on Strictly “view you” after this, Shirley? It’s extremely inane, shiny chatter, missing even the banal intimacy of I’m a Celeb. When Thomas describes his relationship along with his fiancée (“we’re, like, so shut”) he appears like an unwilling attendee at an workplace celebration. And, in any case that, the challenges themselves are interminable and low stakes, stretching skinny materials throughout this eight-episode sequence.
On the plus aspect, Llewelyn-Bowen is at all times a superb reserving. “Takes me again to ’Nam,” he says whereas crawling by way of the undergrowth. “Cheltenham.” (This works higher out loud than on the web page.) Moss brings some welcome vulnerability – this seems like an even bigger alternative for her than the others – whereas Steph McGovern is the camp’s straight man, a wise head among the many extremely strung antics. Grylls himself is an interesting specimen, by no means as soon as stooping to even fractional self-awareness, and he appears to have a unilateral say in who stays and goes from the present. Quite than working as an odd-couple double act with the immaculately coiffed Willoughby, Grylls intermittently parachutes into the locale (“bit a lot,” Willoughby grins to digital camera – maybe she missed the manufacturing assembly), his face pre-smeared with dust.
Netflix has had a hit-and-miss time with its actuality TV programming. Exhibits like Love is Blind and Too Sizzling to Deal with have proved dependable, multi-season successes within the relationship area. However Celeb Bear Hunt demonstrates a misunderstanding of the British public’s televisual pursuits. Celebrities are usually not objects of inherent fascination, however stunning, charismatic prisms by way of which to mirror our, typically perverse, wishes and ambitions. We need to see them dance elegantly; we need to see them eat an ostrich anus. What we don’t need is to see them making half-hearted small speak, adopted by a extremely choreographed, zero jeopardy, set piece. If Netflix executives had watched Grylls’s earlier celeb survival format – Celeb Island with Bear Grylls – they might’ve understood this.
As a substitute, Celeb Bear Hunt is kitsch with out being camp, and overcooked the place it must be uncooked. The casting workforce ought to be applauded for placing collectively a set of celebrities who really justify the time period, however maybe a surfeit of riders and allowances have blunted Bear’s enamel. In contrast to the Aussie outback, this Costa Rican seaside resort feels virtually hospitable, extra like a spa retreat than the eviscerated hole of a camel’s abdomen. That’s not what we anticipate from Bear Grylls – and never what we would like for our celebrities.
