Netflix’s ‘Siren: Survive the Island’ Gets it Right as a Sequel

24 contestants, grouped into teams of four by profession – police, soldiers, firefighters, bodyguards, athletes, and stuntpeople – trek across a one-kilometer mudflat, then turn to watch the tide come in, flooding the path and leaving them stranded on an island.

This is the premise behind Netflix’s newest experiment, Siren: Survive the Island.

For seven days, they’ll compete in two types of events: Arena Battle, head-to-head challenges involving strenuous physical activity which grant the winning team an advantage for the Base Battle, initiated when a siren sounds and each team’s flag is vulnerable to capture, resulting in elimination.

After choosing a base on the island, the teams hide their flag and raid the other bases.

It’s a setup similar to The CW’s Capture, a one-season reality competition show from that network’s experimental era, only pitched toward map-making, fortification, and surprisingly violent sieges.

In the very first Base Battle,…

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