It seems strange that Netflix would release two reality competition shows with virtually the same exact premise in the same week. The German series Fight For Paradise: Who Can You Trust? drops a group of beautiful, luxury-loving people into a jungle and forces them to form alliances and go into survival mode in order to win a big prize. It’s almost the same show as last week’s French release Don’t Hate The Player, and while they’re both entertaining, just one would have been enough.
Opening Shot: A group of sexy, glamorous contestants are shown on yachts, toasting champagne, and saying things like “Money! Money! Money!” as an announcer explains that this group will be competing against each other for 100,00 euros. Oh, and one more things, the announcer declares: “They believe they will be living in luxury. They’re wrong about that.”
The Gist: Netflix has released two competitions shows based on the same rules within the same week, the French series Don’t Hate The Player, and this German show, Fight For Paradise. The premise of both is the same: a group of 20-somethings is dropped on a tropical island without knowing the premise of the show they’re taking part in. At first, they’re brought to a waterfront mansion where they get to know one another, toast some Champagne, and begin to form friendships…seeing them all assembled together drinking and dancing in their club wear is like an Ibiza fever dream. But the dream will become a nightmare because after a few short hours, the host, model-actress Bonnie Strange, tells them that they’re not going to be living in luxury after all, they’re being relocated to a beachside camp with no electricity, a bunch of cots, and no hot water.
From there, they will have to engage in a series of challenges and votes that will determine who will remain an “outsider” – literally, a contestant forced to remain outside, and who gets to be an “insider,” one of the lucky ones who is allowed to sleep in the villa. The last remaining contestant in the villa at the end of the season will win the big prize of €100,000.
On the first day, the contestants are told that they are each allowed to vote for one person who will get to sleep in the villa that night. This is where the strategic campaigning begins – one player, Eleyna, casually starts mentioning she has her period and really could use a shower, trying to elicit sympathy from her male competitors. In a confessional, we see her smile a devilish smile after this happens, and it’s clear that her strategy is to make these guys uncomfortable and get their votes that way. (With so many contestants on shows like this trying to flirt or barter their way into alliances, I at least have to throw some respect on Eleyna for this lesser-used period angle, and – spoiler alert – it works and she’s given a spot in the villa.)
But advantages are also given to contestants who compete in camp challenges, who are also allowed to vote people off the show entirely. It feels a little odd that so much of the show’s outcome is based around random votes for one another, because the cast thus far hasn’t really built up alliances and they seem unsure of why they would want to vote for certain people to receive advantages, because ultimately, everyone on the show is in this for themselves. That’s part of the strategy, I suppose, but it also feels frustrating and arbitrary as a viewer.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The show has elements of Survivor and The Traitors, given the strategic game play and alliances that need to be formed, but it’s also an exact copy of the aforementioned Don’t Hate The Player.
Our Take: It’s hard to know what is the underlying intention of a show like Fight For Paradise. Obviously survival/strategy shows can be addictive, but when you plop a big group of seemingly entitled, appearance-obsessed young adults with no survival skills into the woods and ask them to rough it, does the show become more about Schadenfreude, as if the audience is meant to take pleasure in their discomfort? In many way, it seems like we’re supposed to actively root against some of them for that reason. This cast, perhaps more than most other reality competition casts, feels more stacked with superficial types; models and influencers, self-proclaimed spoiled brats, people who aren’t shy declaring that they want to be famous. Even though one of them will walk away that much richer, it still feels like the joke’s on them.
Ultimately, as their highly primped exteriors are removed over time, we get to see at least some of these people for who they really are, whether they’re truly manipulative and motivated solely by the cash prize, or if they’ve made genuine alliances and seem honest and worthy and deserving of the prize. The audience should know that this is billed as a “social experiment” rather than a reality competition, so maybe that’s the lens we should view it through. Seeing it that way makes it more about the players’ behavior and how it can (or can’t) be justified, considering that they all have the same end goal, it’s just a matter of which personality type and game tactics will help the eventual winner stay in the game the longest.
Sex and Skin: Some of the contestants dress in skimpy attire that is comically inappropriate for roughing it, but so far there’s no sexual chemistry or strategy in play.
Parting Shot: The group stands in a line, having just voted one of their own into a coveted spot in the villa. But there’s a catch. Two of the contestants who successfully completed a camp mission earlier in the episode were given the chance to instantly eliminate another contestant. Bonnie informs the cast that one of them is about to be eliminated just before we cut to the credits.
Performance Worth Watching: Right away, contestant Greta seems like one to watch, because, as a self-proclaimed “boss bitch” who runs her own modeling agency in India at the age of 23, and can’t stop talking about her amazing life, she started making enemies not even five minutes into the show.
Memorable Dialogue: “You will eat nothing but vegetable soup,” Bonnie tells the contestants, who look horrified as they learn that they won’t be living in a luxe mansion during their stay, but a shanty town filled with only vegetable soup.
Our Call: SKIP IT! While the premise is fun, it would feel, I don’t know, maybe more fun if I hadn’t just watch this last week on Don’t Hate The Player. There are some different rules in each show, but unfortunately for this one, they feel a bit arbitrary, whereas Don’t Hate The Player felt like a lot more risk and chance was involved, and the tension was much more real. I wouldn’t typically hold two shows up against one another while reviewing them, but these shows are so similar, that it feels like a disservice not to point out that a slightly more interesting version of this one exists on the very same streaming platform, and is still releasing new episodes.
