‘Siberia,’ more chills than thrills

Playing a fictional reality-show contestant has to be the easiest acting job in the world. If an actor nails the scene, great. If the scene comes off as forced or hammy, the actor can say that regular people tend to behave artificially in front of the camera.

In NBC’s new drama series “Siberia,” 16 unknown actors play contestants on a fictional “Survivor”-like reality show, and they’re too convincing in their roles. In other words, they’re just as tiresome as the usual casts assembled by reality-competition producers.

If this show had premiered soon after “Survivor,” it would have some satirical potential, but reality TV has already been sufficiently parodied and self-parodied. The show uses the “found footage” gimmick, which is familiar from films like “The Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity” and from the short-lived ABC series “The River” and which also feels stale. The first episode, moreover, fails to provide enough clues or conundrums to make us want to come back for more.

Premiering next Monday, July 1, at 10 p.m., “Siberia” opens like a “Survivor” premiere, with the contestants being transported somewhere in a helicopter. The difference is that they’re blindfolded.

Upon landing, the Jeff Probst-like host tells them that they’re in Siberia, near an old wilderness camp from which 14 settlers mysteriously disappeared 100 years ago. He says they have to trek through the woods to get to the camp, which has been refurbished for the show.

They’ll be left to fend for themselves but can request to go home at any time. The contestants who remain in the camp until the end of winter will divide a $500,000 prize.

The host also says that region, Tunguska, is called “the valley of death” by the natives and that something mysterious once happened there. (In 1908, in real life, a meteor or comet is believed to have caused a massive explosion in the area.)

Told that the last two people to arrive at the camp will be eliminated, the contestants race off, following a path marked by red flags. They provide the usual narrative banalities in sound bites.

(NBC, which is going through the motions of maintaining the illusion that “Siberia” is an actual unscripted reality show, hasn’t provided credits, so the actors will likely remain unknown.)

Two characters are clearly trying to be the villain you love to hate. Esther, identified as an Australian model, hides a flag from the people running behind her. After they’ve reached the camp, Johnny, a bull rider from South Carolina, suns himself while the others rub sticks together to start a fire, even though he’s managed to smuggle in a cigarette lighter.

On the other hand, Tommy, an environmental activist from Massachusetts, risks elimination by helping Daniel, a computer programmer from Minnesota, after Daniel twists his ankle. Johnny tells the camera that he thinks Tommy’s kind act is stupid.

After the elimination, the contestants realize that there are only 12 bunks for 14 contestants. Irene, a fashion designer from Taiwan, butts heads with Esther, who insists she will not sleep on the floor. The producers make this conversation as tedious as it would be on a real reality show.

The host has told the contestants that a “revealer box” will periodically open and provide them with helpful things. On the first day, they receive a laminated notice telling them that they should seek out a certain kind of mushroom in the woods, which is poisonous unless boiled.

The first sign of trouble comes when Daniel finds a frog with three legs. Later, the contestants are all relaxing around a campfire and they hear what sounds like a pack of scary animals out in the woods. They flee to their cabins.

Throughout, viewers will be wondering idly which of the contestants will die first. Will it be someone we’re supposed to like, someone we’re supposed to hate or one of the many contestants who are too nondescript to make us care either way? Although the eliminee actually is one of the standouts, viewers will be surprised at how little emotional reaction his or her death provokes.

We eventually see the footage shot by the cameraman just before the death. The clip tells us next to nothing and is far less scary than what we imagined we would see. And as often happens in found-footage projects, viewers will find themselves wondering why the cameraman didn’t drop his camera sooner.

The creators of “Siberia” should have learned a lesson from a previous found-footage show about reality TV, “The Real World Movie: The Lost Season,” a 2002 spoof that ran on MTV. In it, a typical “Real World” cast was murdered one by one, and we were glad to see them go.

The premiere episode of “Siberia” doesn’t make viewers care who lives or dies, and it doesn’t suggest the show has an intriguing mystery up its sleeve. If “Siberia” were airing in the regular TV season, it probably wouldn’t last until the end of winter.