OPPOSITE WORLDS

What happens when the past and future collide?  On the Syfy Channel you get Opposite Worlds, a reality competition show that professes to be "a social experiment and social media experiment" but is in reality just another reality tv show.

Opposite Worlds pit two teams (Team Chronos and Team Epoch) against each other, competing and losing players until one player is left; that player wins the $100,000 grand prize.  While the teams have to live in a house, the gimmick is that the house is divided into two halves: a future half (with electronic luxuries and all-white suits for the team living there) and a primitive past half (where the team has to build fires, struggle for food, and wear fake animal skins), with the two sided divided by a clear divider so the teams can see each other.  Each episode either has a team challenge (where the teams compete to see which side of the house they live in) or an individual challenge (where two players compete against each other, and one is eliminated).

The "social media" side of Opposite Worlds is something that's been on reality tv shows for years: voting.  Viewers are urged to vote on everything from favorite and least favorite players (who get rewards and punishments) to what players get added to who is the Decider (who gets to select a player from each team to compete to be eliminated).  And host Luke Tipple continually tries to hype up the drama by giving summaries of what's happened and asking the players about what they think and feel.

Opposite Worlds claims to be experimental, but this show is almost completely familiar.  There's the usual planning, scheming, and secret alliances among the players and between teams.  The constant reminding viewers to vote quickly becomes very gimmicky.  There's little question that everyone wants to get on the future side of the house, so there's no surprises there.  Luke Tipple's Australian accent is the only thing that distinguishes him from every other reality tv show host.  And since the Decider doesn't know what the elimination challenge will be, but they're physical challenges, picking which players compete is as much guesswork as planning.  Opposite Worlds is another example of the Syfy Channel's mediocrity with reality television.

Overall grade: D
Reviewed by James Lynch