The Island is compulsory viewing in my house, and I reckon it should be in yours, too – especially if you have children. They could learn more about sexism, self-respect and resilience in a couple of episodes of this survivalist reality drama than in a couple of years of health and wellbeing classes at school.
Of course, they might also learn more than you're comfortable with about swearing. And while there's nothing explicit on screen (the odd bare buttock aside) they could get an earful of sex talk, too.
This is my second season of watching The Island with my daughters, aged 11 and 12. Season one – in which 13 men were stranded on a Pacific island for a month – passed us by. Season two – 14 men and 14 women on two separate islands, each party having just three knives, three machetes and two jerry cans by way of provisions – was where we got hooked.
This third season has two groups of eight* – men in one, women in the other – dropped on the same island, each group unaware of the presence of the other. The jungle is so dense and the coastline so difficult to traverse it's just possible they might never have stumbled upon each other. Thankfully they did, and that shifts the show from a study of the different ways men and women adapt to similar challenges (as in season two) to a study of how they interact while adapting.
The women's group on Bear Grylls' The Island, season three: Alice (left), Shaney, Sarah, Erika, Roz, Tilly, Hannah and Cassie.
The groups met five days into the 33-day exercise and by then they were each failing in their own ways. The women were sick from drinking water they didn't realise was contaminated, the men exhausted from their inability to find or construct decent shelter.
"A woman's not equal on physicality," insurance salesman Simon had said early on. "Men are better at physical stuff like fires, hunting, moving stuff. Women can multi-task, allegedly."
It didn't take long for at least some of those assumptions to be turned on their head.
When the group finally catches and kills a turkey this week, it's a collective effort, with even Shaney – a self-confessed daddy's girl who barely lifts a finger at home – getting in on the action.
By this stage young Patrick is so hungry he chomps down on the bird's skull like there's no tomorrow. The day after, he's wishing there had been no yesterday. He's bleeding profusely from his backside, as the shards of bone work their way through his system. Enter doctor Dan with his latex gloves and probing finger.
No wonder Dan is so eager to get the hell out of camp and lead an expedition around the rocks at low tide to look for fresh hunting grounds. Naturally, disaster strikes.
The men: Dan (left), Simon, Elliot, Patrick, Riz, Ben, Chris and Rob.
Like any reality show, there's a sense that at times the editors have "cast" individuals in certain roles – there's the gorgeous flirt (hello, doctor Alice), the outrageous sexist (Simon, I'm looking at you), the slightly batty separatist (Erika), and a whole slew of alpha males who think they know best but rarely do (doctor Dan, cameraman Rob, chef and former banker Elliot). But the things that help rather than hinder the group are the gentler virtues: co-operation, resilience, empathy. Above all, having a go and surprising yourself with the results, regardless of gender.
Actually, maybe The Island shouldn't be compulsory viewing at home. But it really should be at school.
* There is no external crew on The Island. Two professional camera operators are embedded with the group, and everyone has a micro-camera with which they record their activities. This season, one of the camera operators, Cassie, left after just one day. She was replaced by another, Zoe.
Grylls' role on the show is minimal: he drops the survivors on the island and collects them at the end, but otherwise his role is confined to narration and occasional interjections about there being enough food to survive on the island, if they can find, catch and kill it.
WHAT The Island with Bear Grylls, episode 4
WHEN SBS, Monday, July 4 at 8.30pm
