Siberia: NBC TV Show Review

The latest TV thriller show to come out of NBC is "Siberia". 16 contestants must survive in the remote Siberian territory of Tunguska. 

It's a drama about a group of 16 reality show contestants who get dropped off in the Russian wilderness. It's a game that's considerably more energetic than the Siberian Storm slot machine, although in both cases you have the chance of winning a tidy sum.

Things quickly turn sour, however, after the 16 players are blindfolded and helicoptered into a remote area of Siberia, then forced to race to a reconstructed, turn-of-the-century Gulag camp where a group of settlers disappeared back in 1908. There's a $500,000 grand prize for those who win (ie survive the winter).

The cast is full of the usual weirdos and ne'erdowells. There's Johnny, an loner who’ more interested in getting his next nicotine hit than helping the rest of the crew.
Then there's Esther, a model with ulterior motives. And Tommy, an environmental activist so goody goody that he put himself out to help injured geek Daniel make the trip.

Oh, and let's not forget weirdo Sabina, (a ghost? Or a part of the TV crew?)

The show stars Joyce Giraud, Johnny Wactor, Esther Anderson, Miljan Milosevic, Irene Yee, Berglind Icey, Sam Dobbins, Sabrina Akhmedova, Natalie Scheetz, Neeko O.J. Skervin, Victoria Hill, Anne-Marie Mueschke, Daniel Sutton, George Dickson, Tommy Mountain, Harpreet Turka and LA radio personality Jonathon Buckley.

The group, is packed full of the usual stunning, curvaceous, big-hair women, silver fox men,  former surfer hunks and a the usual gamet of computer geeks..

“Siberia” can be pretty frustrating with it's gonzo style Blair Witch shaky camera—but the first episode does pick up in the last 10 minutes when everything go horribly wrong and the first character gets killed off. The first of many, we presume, as the plot thickens.

So what killed the contestant? Coule be a monster, could be human. We'll have to wait and see.

Initial Ratings
The drama kicked off with a modest 3.2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen.

CBS' rival show  "Under the Dome," (small-town residents find themselves imprisoned beneath a gigantic transparent dome) pulled in 11.5 million viewers, so I guess that's a "watch this space".

Not Popular With The Russians
The Russians are taking fire at the show, for being stereotypical and depicting Siberia as it was 100 years ago.

‘...this show was filmed ...in a Canadian prairie province,’ storms The Siberian Times.
'....not that most viewers will realise this as they watch this negatively-slanted portrayal of Siberia,’ 

NBC is also being accused of ‘censoring’ Siberians from seeing online trailers

When they try to access it, Russian viewers from the Urals to the Pacific are told: ‘We're sorry, but the clip you selected isn't available in your location’.

Whoops!