TV Critics: Eden; Make or Break?, Man In An Orange Shirt

“Briefly, we had the most meta reality show ever as the group walked out of Eden en masse in a protest about quitter Glenn’s decision to return to the camp, some fifth wall of television starting to crack as a producer entered the shot looking nonplussed. Couldn’t we have had more of this mad, chaotic situation? The editors have industriously condensed months of footage and I didn’t feel we were seeing the full picture…

The premise implicit in the Eden title spoke to utopian hippy-ish ideals; now the whole thing feels like an edition of the dystopian horror show Black Mirror.”
James Jackson, The Times

“The first episode only seems to scratch the surface, but few come out of it well – even at this stage… All very silly and inept, and not quite the Lord-of-the-Flies descent into carnage that was hinted at, but, judging by the teasers for the next episode, it gets bleaker when this society-building experiment inadvertently installs its own patriarchy. Castaway 2000 seems far, far away.”

Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“Don’t be surprised if, by Friday, they have started their own cult religion and impaled the heads of unbelievers on poles in the forest.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“An hour-long cacophony of milksop wails and moggy caterwauls from distraught untrusting persons of limited vocabulary… The Roman Empire crumbled with less of a degenerate clatter. Repellent.” 
Jasper Rees, Daily Telegraph

“A Love Island knock-off that’s just as dumb so will probably become the new cultural touchstone for the tabloids and intellectual commentariat to coo over… Sure, it’s knowingly trashy, youthful telly (baiting emotionally fragile couples as entertainment is just a bit of fun, after all), but between this and Eden you start to believe — truly believe — that civilisation is doomed.”
James Jackson, The Times

“The people on this show are not, I’m sure, the screeching thuggettes and whingeing man-baby control freaks they appear. That’s just how people appear to be when their relationships are being shredded. It’s no fun to look at, though, and the odd coconut palm doesn’t help.”
Matt Baylis, The Daily Express

“Perhaps the dominoes of the plot all toppled a little too tidily, but … this solid contribution to Gay Britannia argued that happy-ever-after romance is not the preserve of soppy heteros.”
Jasper Rees, Daily Telegraph