Reality programs and competition shows are common during the summer months of network television. So naturally no one thought twice when Siberia began airing on NBC back in 2013. For most of its first episode, this reality series checked off all the necessary boxes: alliances, enemies, and obstacles. Toward the end of the episode, though, something unexpected happened. The once amiable host, now with a grave look on his face, announced that one of the contestants was dead.
While its artifice was made apparent in NBC’s advance trailer, Siberia still may have come across as genuine to unsuspecting viewers who had been channel surfing. At least in the very beginning. The producers captured all the fine details of actual unscripted television, which include the deliberate pacing and characterizing first-person interviews. Yet once the most likable member of the group, an environmentalist named Tommy (Tommy Mountain), was killed in an accident of some kind, the vérité aspect was more obvious. Even so, this moment is exactly where Siberia became intriguing.
Had this been a legitimate reality show, production would have presumably ceased after someone — especially a castmate — died during filming. Nevertheless, and for the sake of entertainment, Siberia continued. However, the invisible producers and their messenger, host Jonathon (Jonathon Buckley), offered the remaining contestants a chance to leave at this point and take with them a small consolation prize. The fact that most chose to stay, in spite of what has happened, is as unrealistic as it is cold. Life, including imitations of it, must go on.
Siberia 1.02: “A Question of Reality”
The basic setup here is a familiar one: people compete for a big prize as they fend for themselves in the remote wilderness. Left with literally just the clothes on their backs, the contestants were dropped off by helicopter somewhere in the Tunguskan region and sentenced to live in a pair of cramped cabins until there was only one person left to claim the cash reward. In actuality, the show was filmed in Birds Hill Provincial Park in Canada, but not every viewer will pick up on that. In initial episodes, though, the characters rarely left the area around their cabins. They wandered off in the nearby woods in search of food, supplies, or clues, but never for too long. They were compelled to always hurry back to camp. Needless to say, something was very off about this place.
The casting of less known actors helps sell this exercise in verisimilitude. The average American would not recognize that the show’s crafty villainess, Esther (Esther Anderson), is played by an Australian model and soap star, or that Carolina/Joyce’s actor, Joyce Giraud, competed in international beauty pageants. Others come from far more low-key backgrounds, and for many of them, this was their first major role. As a result of the broad casting, the performances did not always come off as natural. A few of the characters sounded overly rehearsed, however, their horrified reactions to the series’ startling moments were persuasive.
Siberia was indeed a slow burn, but it wasted no time dumping exposition or revealing its morbid inclinations in that first episode. As the sixteen contestants sprinted through the forest and toward their new home to avoid losing in a first-day elimination, the host told viewers at home that this region is called “The Valley of Death” by locals, and the camp was once a primitive settlement as well as an outpost for fur traders. To play up the creep factor, Jonathon added that the supposedly cursed camp was abandoned in 1908; its fourteen residents vanished without a trace. Coincidentally (or maybe not), the mysterious Tunguska event happened that same year on June 30. The show capitalized on this bit of eerie real-life history by premiering on July 1, and the game’s original number of contestants was cut down to fourteen after two people were immediately sent home in the pilot. Of course that number dropped even lower and lower until the main cast was reduced to ten for the remainder of the series.
Siberia 1.04: “Fire in the Sky”
Siberia was marketed as Lost meets Survivor. And based on the first few episodes, that description is accurate. Shortly after Tommy turned up dead, another player, Victoria (Victoria Hill), experienced brief but disturbing visions. As she made her exit from the show, Victoria told the brains of the group, Daniel (Daniel David Sutton): “You guys are all gonna die, I know.” Soon thereafter, a phenomenon in the sky caused two characters to black out and not recall what happened during that lost chunk of time. The truth came out later. Then there were the disembodied, bestial roars coming from the woods that conjure up thoughts of the Smoke Monster. Maybe the most relevant instance of the show channeling Lost, though, was the unseen but ever present strangers spying on the contestants. These “Valleymen” left behind peculiar footprints in the dirt, and somewhere along the line, the characters discovered the meal they had made out of a full-grown Siberian tiger. While Siberia did not get the chance to show the Valleymen in person, their existence was clear, not to mention unnerving.
Despite its creeping pace, Siberia features an eventful, out-there story. Cold war conspiracies, monsters, and mutants are just some of the things to look forward to in this singular TV experience. The horror parts are admittedly more subtle and out of sight than genre buffs might like. Yet from an early start, this series mastered the art of using practically nothing but the faintest diegetic sound or a peripheral, questionable sight to make the characters — and the audience — feel absolutely unsafe.
For a short time, Siberia was an ideal summer diversion before “normal” television resumed that following fall. It became increasingly screwy and unpredictable. Not everyone was won over by the show, but avid followers tuned in every Monday night to see how this was going to turn out. Unfortunately, Siberia lacks a proper ending; the series concluded with fewer episodes than planned, and the finale only offered more unanswered questions. Creator/executive producer Matthew Arnold and the cast had all hoped to make another season, however, nothing has since materialized. And with production company Sierra-Engine now out of business, fans may never get closure.
There has been nothing quite like Siberia since it went off the air, and perhaps there never will be. After all, reality TV simulations have not been able to match the success of the real deal so far. Yet with its commitment to uncanny storytelling and presentation, this series remains a memorable disruptor in the history of modern summer television.
Siberia is currently streaming on Tubi.
Siberia 1.09: “One by One”