CUT OFF

Teenage contestants. Unfamiliar wilderness. A reality show pushing the boundaries of viewership. What could go wrong?

Cut Off is a new survival show with a revolutionary three-dimensional component. Contestants, injected with virtual reality ions that transmit their biological data to viewers’ devices, are trailed 24/7 by drone cameras as they attempt to outlast one another to claim a $10 million prize. Trip Johnson—a clinically anxious gay boy—is a contestant as well as the millionaire inventor of the show’s 3-D immersive tech. Other contestants include defensive, jaded California girl Cam Jaimes; solitary, outdoorsy orphan River Adan; and practical, mysterious Liza Rojas. After the competition is wiped out, these four survivors team up when they discover that their emergency GPS trackers don’t work and they are isolated from the showrunners. As they navigate a remote British Columbia island, hoping to rejoin civilization, they begin to suspect the wilderness has a mind of its own…and that it’s manifesting their worst nightmares, from spiders to earthquakes to abandonment. The stakes rise ever higher as Cam and River’s mutual attraction heats up while Trip considers the broader implications of his 3-D streaming app. The narrative begins a day after the first earthquake and is told from several contestants’ third-person perspectives, interspersed with interview transcripts and official documents. Whiteness is situated as the default for most characters; Liza is cued as Latinx.

Strikes a delicate, and ultimately optimistic, balance between action, suspense, and philosophy.