Million Dollar Island Australia: Episode 1 Top 5 Takes

0:00 Welcome back here to the nullified Tech Channel on YouTube where we've got the TNT takes for you on million dollar Island Australia that's right we've just had the premiere episode for this new season this new reality TV show that have hit our screens over in Australia and the TNT team will be breaking down every episode and analyzing and recapping and reviewing every single episode if you're wondering where Mucky and Kahuna is at who did the preseason recap and review they will be back to do a deep dive later on this week so keep an eye on for the channel for that but if you're wanting more bite-sized content and just some early thoughts on each episode be sure to follow along as I break down my top five takes for every episode here on the channel enough of that let's get straight into my top five takes here for this episode and my first takeaway is that million dollar Island Australia feels a lot like a very old familiar friend that's right there's a lot of us who are fans of Survivor who have been fans of Survivor for a very long time for over 20 years now and slowly but surely the show that we've loved over in the US has changed a lot even though Survivor Australia has brought it back and it is a great show in its own right this kind of felt very nostalgic for

1:20 Myself watching this episode because we had the classic marooning with a hundred players that's right there's a hundred players in this show which is absolute Madness we had 100 players marooned on boats as they were coming into Malaysia which so many good things that the show is doing we've got Malaysia firstly which is a different location to anything that we've seen in recent times on Survivor and it's great to see a bit of a different backdrop and then we've got a hundred people being put together to come out on this island and they're choosing to pick everyday Australians so if we're talking about the Australian Survivor show it's something that I've been critical about for quite a long time where I've said we have too many celebrities too many sports stars that go out there and play the game and that won't necessarily make for entertaining TV so I'm glad to see that channel 7 with million dollar Island have gone down the route of taking everyday Australians and they've put them out there on the island and what I also like seeing is that there is a very big diverse range of backgrounds that they come from which I think is very important in a game such as this you've got personal trainers Fitness instructors you've got moms of six children I'm sure she went Island for a break from the kids you've got Builders you've got every single

2:40 Kind of background that you can think of out there and my co-hosts at times for Australians why they have said that you know they just don't cast as many great personalities that's why we see such a lopsided edit in Survivor but I think with this hundred people being casted they have the potential here to take away a bit of that loyal fan base that follows Australia a lot if they can hit it out of the park because if a hundred people can go out there which is effectively Five Seasons worth of cast and if they can deliver this season it is going to be a juggernaut show for us all to enjoy which I'm all there for also seeing and out there as a part of this you know familiarity and seeing the show play out I thought he did a stellar job here in this first episode you can definitely see that he has been involved in hosting before obviously doing SAS those who dares wins he's got experience of being in front of a camera and doing some sort of Hosting is also probably the most capable person out there having been special forces himself he would be able to survive out there in Malaysia definitely better than most people who are out there even though we did have some Survivor Specialists and things like that survival Specialists I should say out there as well which has been entertaining to watch but it was interesting to see the marooning it was interesting to see how people were going out there running to select some supplies for Camp some

4:00 Food for camp and what I really enjoyed about this first episode was the fact that they allowed the players they gave them the autonomy to choose who do they want to team up with throughout the rest of this season and who will they camp with who will they share supplies with so where will they Camp even was something that the producers and the host of the show left up to the players to decide you know Survivor can only dream of giving players this much control in the game without a Twist being the thing that dictates the game so I think that it's going to be very fun and interesting to see how this player is out obviously there were certain camps that had the most supplies there were certain camps that had the fewest supplies the ones with the most supplies were trying to hide the fact that they were that rich because you never know I mean sabotage Could Happen what rules are out there would other people be able to go in the middle of the night and steal that food I think that's a possibility as it becomes more Lord of the Flies out there so I'm excited to see what that's going to sort of play out as later on in the game when the suppliers start dwindling down and people get desperate to stay in the game then you also had a tribe with the fewest people out there and you had a tribe of the most people out there you know and at the end of the day is it a benefit to have less people and have a lean tribe where the resources aren't divided between so many people

5:20 I feel like that tribe with all those players there's going to come a point where they're going to struggle to maintain that group of people out there's a lot more hands like ansig which makes work a lot lighter especially in the beginning of the game but as they survive out there longer I think it could actually be more for detriment than a benefit for them takeaway number two here is that we finally get the rules of the game explained to us here in this episode they all go into the game with a bracelet each bracelet has got ten thousand dollars associated with this and it did remind me a little bit of you know we're always going to talk about Survivor and compare it a bit to Survivor as well but it did remind me of fire tokens in the scene said you can barter with it you can give some of that away but towards the end of the episode it becomes a little bit unclear as to you know when someone wins five bracelets can they choose to give one of those bracelets away or if they've got two bracelets like the other player had at the end can they potentially give one bracelet away to save another person's game where alliances and social sort of situations might come into be clutch at the end where they can save you or does it mean that it's a one and done you either give all of your bracelets away or you don't give anything away and I think that's something that I would like for it to be made a little bit clearer as the C season progresses but I'm sure we will get that answer as the show continues

6:41 On it's quite interesting that each bracelet has a number associated with it so when a roulette wheel gets spun the number that it lands on if you've got that number you've got all the power in the game and you can choose who will go down into an elimination now I do like this in the sense that unlike Survivor if the majority votes you out you don't have a way to fight your way back into the game at least with this one you do have a chance but if it's going to play out like it did in this episode you have to win against five other players to be able to stay in the game so the odds are still heavily stacked against you in that scenario now obviously Mike had a decision that he needed to make here he could have chosen to put weak players in the against them so he could win all of that money and become the richest person out there he didn't obviously know that if he's the richest person in the game he is safe from an elimination which maybe he would have thought about doing that but he wanted to come across as being strong going up against strong players getting them out early on and in that way he maybe would have deterred people from throwing him into an elimination in the future but that plan was always a high risk reward type of plan with not knowing what to expect in the arena takeaway number three hears that everyone avoids Mike in this early stages of the game they don't really want to talk to him because obviously there is kind of safety and numbers in the game where you've got a hundred people playing it

8:01 You're just hoping that if you ignore him if you just stick to yourself and work with other people hopefully you know he can only put five people down there you know the numbers are in your favor that you're not going to be one of those people because it's interesting when you see other games being played out there they're always sucking up to the person who's in power be it big brother be it survivor be it the challenge people always want to be close to the person in power and work with alliances to ensure that hey you keep me safe this round I'll keep you safe next round that didn't really come into plan I think if we sort of saw how Mike went through this game being very much an alpha male kind of guy who wants to go out there and dominate and do well in the challenges I don't really think he thought about the Strategic part of the game so you know if I was out there I probably would have avoided him as well because I don't think he could have had Alliance talks with him he just wanted to be the best show what he came down there to do and throw himself against these strong players which you know that would be something that I would try and avoid especially you know if he did potentially look at me as someone that it could be a threat could be socially or strategically strong because when he finally nominates his players to go down there he was picking the players that were standing out trying to take leadership early on in their tribe bringing people together people that he thought might be resilient out there and obviously physical capable young guys that's who he wanted to go against

9:21 To prove himself early on in the game I just want to say ultimately he makes the worst decision in throwing himself in there whenever you play a game like this where there is such a higher risk of you going home early why do that to yourself and such an early stage in the game he definitely should have kept his head low in the game and definitely you know the next day and the day after you would learn more about the rules like he didn't even know that the player with the most bracelets would be the person that is going to be safe in the next round that could have maybe influenced his decision making in the game this being the first season and the first season playing out in Australia a lot of players are still learning this game and maybe they will make different decisions coming into next season if there is a season two all right so takeaway number four the nominated players compete in the very first challenge here of the season so it gives people a little bit of an idea as to what they can expect for the rest of the seasonal so they think it starts off with all of the players being on a high platform they have to jump and hit a ball with which is attached to some puzzle pieces swim out collect more puzzle pieces and then build a tower with those puzzle pieces and definitely again reminded me a lot of Survivor and the way that this whole challenge was set up and funny enough the physical guys they do extremely well you know we would have who would have predicted they do

10:41 Extremely well in the opening part of this challenge they dominated get to the end but when it comes to bowling the stack of puzzle pieces most of them don't have the patience or the big match temperament to be able to clutch the win out and the person who really impresses me here is Brett he struggles twice tries to jump misses the ball he goes for the third time finally gets it and gets to the end shows that he's got composure and he's got big match temperament even though he kind of does a false end there saying that he's done and he has a block behind him he still recovers put that block in and actually takes out this win here against all expectation and it then shows you that physical you know strength isn't always going to be the thing that's going to win you this game and that's something that I'm enjoying but obviously if you're a very big alpha male you're going to be a Target in the game and if you're extremely weak you're going to be targeted in the game early as well I think the best place to be is to be in that middle ground where people don't know what your streams and your weaknesses are where they're kind of like I don't know if this person is going to be strong or weak maybe I won't throw them in because they're a little bit of a wild card in the game I won't lie throughout this whole challenge I was definitely shouting for Tim to take it out because Tim to me he was extremely entertaining from the start he looks to be the person who's going to be that conniving villain type of player in the game and then when finally Brett

12:01 Takes this out I thought that his duck was or his Goose was cooked and he wasn't gonna be able to make it back into this game but ant does throw one Lifeline out there to the players that are in the game and this is takeaway number five that the in part of this game is that you have another night of every everybody coming together which would have kind of been like a tribal council I guess for a Survivor where everybody sits there and has a bit of a discussion and the players have until the evening those that have lost to try and find a way to get a bracelet so they're not eliminated from the game which is not an easy feat if you're looking at the fact that they're only on day two people have just started this game I'm very sure that more people are gonna a drop out of this game as this game continues and continues to get harder and we're going to see more people getting bracelets that way but in this case there's a few players that go around and hustle from the start to try and get in there and to finally get someone to give them a bracelet and again this is why I'm not too you know he does seem like a real nice guy but Mike didn't end up fighting in the end I don't think his head was into the social strategic side of this game so I'm not too worried about seeing him go I felt really bad for I think it was Brad apologies if I get some of the names wrong there's so many players to lift in the game

13:21 The one that Nate promised that he was gonna give the bracelet too and then would as soon as he heard that he would be quitting he decided against it and he stayed in the game rather than giving his spot up because he felt like he had that connection there but again Tim here really impresses me he makes a great connection with Donald who is already deciding to quit the game he said that the survival aspect of the game didn't bother him so much but it was specifically the people aspect and knowing where people will go in this game to win it I think ultimately made him decide that he didn't want anything to do with this it's again similar to Survivor where I think when there's early days started in Survivor a lot of people thought that it was going to be about survival and if you are out there and you can withstand the elements and learn to live off the land but the social Dynamic doesn't play a big part then maybe a lot of other people would do better but in this game where strategy friendship alliances and things like this will definitely come into he decided to opt out early and I'm glad he did so for Tim because I really think he could bring some entertaining TV for the rest of the season so I'm excited to see him continue in the game there's one more player that does get pulled obviously here in the early stages and that is Kelly due to a medical emergency and she also has the ability here to give

14:41 Her bracelet to someone in the game to continue on in the game and she has a very random choice but obviously we didn't see that friendship between her and her fellow tribe mate there developed so much which ultimately means that Tim is the only person here that is going to be saved by Donald who leaves the game we also know that Jonathan at the end here gets power so I'm very interested to see how that's going to play out he does get a little bit of a tip that the next one will have to be an attention to detail and I'm interested to see what that challenge is going to be and if it does now create a target for the fellow that Kelly gave her bracelet to because effectively this person is now the second richest person out there on the island but does not have the protection of the richest person which can't be put down there to lose so if you're smart about this you potentially would want to put that person down there so a new richest person will be created in this next Arena anyways that's my top five takes here for this first episode of million dollar Island let me know in the comment section below what did you think about this first episode that you enjoy it are you gonna stick to it for the long run and leave a like comment below because it does help with the YouTube algorithms and please consider subscribing because we will have plenty more content

16:02 Coming out throughout the season hopefully we even get some interviews here with some of these cast members that have competed in this season as well thank you so much for listening to this catch you guys next time bye