Imagine if we could just start again? That's the big question posed by new back-to-basics reality show Eden (Mondays 9pm, Channel 4).
The series aims to challenge “everything about modern living”, raising questions about “what we need to be happy and how we are influenced by society.” Basically it’s Big Brother with naughty goats and gale-force winds.
Eden comes from Liam Humphreys and Ian Dunkley at Channel 4, the team who champion themselves on "authenticity" and "insightful social experiments" such as The Island with Bear Grylls.
Yet Eden borrows more heavily from BBC's 2000 reality show Castaway – a group of 36 men, women and children try to build a community on a remote Scottish island – than it does from Bear Grylls.
Eden follows 23 fit men and women (aged 24-55), including a doctor, vet, chef, carpenter and shepherdess, as they attempt to create a "new life" across 600 acres of land in the Scottish highlands over the course of a year. The series is filmed by an embedded crew of four, on the volunteer's personal GoPros and on a huge fixed rig of cameras.
In episode one, we see the intrepid explores arrive. Some, like carpenter extraordinaire Raphael and junior doctor Jenna, genuinely feel like square pegs in round holes, and hope to escape modern life. Others – hot favourite to be everyone’s least favourite is beautiful, work-shy yoga instructor Jasmine – probably just need an extended iPhone break. With no rules and no structure to guide them, we watch as they get to grips with the wilderness.
Some of what they achieve is impressive – plumber Andrew masterfully creates a hot shower while young chef Stephen creates a fitted kitchen complete with oven and grills that wouldn’t be out of place in a hipster barbecue joint.
What’s strangest to observe is that the group, who were so eager to flee the rituals of regular life, quickly decide on a regular six-hour working day, with all assuming the roles they had back home, and they show a fondness for regular team meetings. Towards the end of the first episode, though, one rogue member threatens the group’s camp mentality and fledgling romances start to form.
Of course the question everyone is asking is will Eden become a utopian nirvana or descend into a William Golding nightmare? Whereas the more interesting question is, what would they all do if there were no cameras?
