"Temptation Island" (2001) TV series 2001-2003

User Rating:

2.4/10   

Writers:

Aliyah Silverstein (writer)
Brendan Wentworth (writer)

Release Date:

10 January 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Reality-TV

Plot:

A real-life dramatic series where boyfriends/girlfriends travel to a romantic place to quiz and fascinate the strengths of their relationships...

Plot Keywords:

Non Fiction

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Mark L. Walberg	...	Himself / Host
Mandy Lauderdale	...	Herself
Billy Cleary	...	Himself
Kaya Wittenburg	...	Himself
Valerie Penso	...	Herself
Shannon Roghair	...	Herself
Andy Lukei	...	Himself
Ytossie Patterson	...	Herself
Taheed Watson	...	Himself
Catherine Chiarelli	...	Herself (2002)
Edmundo Cruz	...	Himself (2002) (as Edmundo)
Genevieve Deittrick	...	Herself (2002)
Tony Schmitt	...	Himself (2002)
Shannon Rutledge	...	Herself (2002)
John Dolan	...	Himself (2002)

Also Known As:

"Temptation Island 2" (USA) (second season title)
"Temptation Island 3" (USA) (third season title)

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Ambergris Caye, Belize

Company:

Fox World

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "30 Rock: SeinfeldVision (#2.1)" (2007)

Temptation what?

Reality television has never looked so silly. FOX, known for such memorable television such as WHO WANTS TO MARRY A MULTIMILLIONAIRE, obviously wanted to create a show that would come close to relating to every poor soul who ever screwed up or ruined a relationship. Hot on the heels of SURVIVOR and BIG BROTHER, TEMPTATION ISLAND was released a few weeks before the former 's sequel, THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK, a smart move by FOX, since nobody would want their show squashed by the champion of reality TV. Mind you, ISLAND 's 'competition' came in the form of THE MOLE, another reality show that pretty much received little to no press. ISLAND 's media attention was pretty huge though. Naturally, it came from the morality of the show, pitting four couples and separating the men and women and having them tempted by singles to forget and potentially break off their relationship. The media likes to write on a topic like TEMPTATION ISLAND as much as Fox loves to desensitize the entire public with creating shows such as this. Many mistakes did happen throughout the show. Most notably was the couple of Ytossie and Taheed. Not only does the couple have a child, but Taheed was already married to another woman with kids! It's kind of embarrassing to watch considering the sixth episode determines how much they love each other and their decision to stay together. Knowing that the couples and singles were tested for sexually transmitted diseases did not help either but at least if the couples do break apart, they will be safe in at least one thing.

The goal of the show is to test the couples' devotion and love to one another. Have they found the one? We'll find out later on as the show goes. The four couples, Kaya and Valerie, Billy and Mandy, Andy and Shannon and Taheed and Ytossie all board a plane to an island just off of Belize called Ambergris Caye. Getting acquainted with their host, Mark Walberg and the singles, they then part after the second night, the men to the Captain Morgan Resort on the island, the women on the Mata Chica Resort. To test their devotion, they are stuck on this island for two weeks with the all too ready to please singles and plenty of alcohol to drunken everyone to be seduced.

One redeeming quality about TEMPTATION ISLAND is the dramatic irony is rather hilarious at times. Whether it was the result of terrible editing or just people with terrible memories, I guess we will never know. The most significant is Shannon's video to Andy on the third episode where she asks him to not focus on one, but by the fourth episode, she is geared solely to Tom and by the ending has moments with him that she will have a hard time forgetting. The most amusing moments definitely came with Mandy where she threw out the idea of being tempted and wanted to become the temptress. The same thing with Kaya where he pretty much wanted to test his "market value" if he became single again. All of them pretty much forgot the basic idea for the show: to test their devotion to one another. They all lost. As a matter of fact, many of them thought it was a game. To play their relationship around as if it were a game probably was the biggest mistake in my opinion. If you knew each other 's love and devotion were true, you would not have to go through this. Looking back at the show and seeing all sides of the story, the show did have an anti-infidelity message sent across but TEMPTATION ISLAND was done so terribly that no one will ever notice, or care. The music they constantly played was awfully annoying. The feeling that TEMPTATION ISLAND displayed was that of a daytime soap. Terribly long, horribly boring at times, TEMPTATION ISLAND was an awful experiment that succeeded well. Although we can expect to see more of it as times go by, it's great to see where it's roots began, sometimes only to wish that we never thought it up.