Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing’ on Max, Which Turns The Beloved Survival Series Into A ‘Survivor’-Like Competition.

Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing, which originally aired on Discovery this spring, is now available to stream on Max. The show is something of an all-star season, featuring twelve of Naked and Afraid‘s toughest contestants, who put their survival skills to the test by competing head-to-head in South Africa, for a grand prize of $100,000. Unlike past versions of Naked and Afraid, all but one contestant will eventually be eliminated, making the stakes of the show that much higher.

NAKED AND AFRAID: LAST ONE STANDING: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “This is different,” one contestant says.

“This is something we’ve never done before,” another states.

“You’ve gotta watch your back, not just for animals this time, but for the other survivalists,” says yet another. These are three of the twelve contestants on this season of Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing, who are not just facing the elements and the wilderness this season, they’re facing each other in an elimination battle.

The Gist: Twelve survivalists are brought to South Africa’s Oribi Gorge where they disrobe in preparation for a series of challenges to see which of them can endure the harsh weather and natural conditions of the area over the course of 45 days.

Among this season’s competitors are some of the most decorated (well, maybe least decorated is a better term, given their nakedness) past contestants. They include Steven Lee Hall Jr. and Matt Wright who are two of the only Naked and Afraid survivalists to endure more than 200 days in the wild, confrontational Jeff Zausch, and Army vet Amber Hargrove, who has appeared on several seasons of the original show.

For the first 21 days, everyone will survive in pairs, with the twist that their survival bags are completely empty: no knives, no tools of any kind have been distributed to help them live off the land, instead, they’re given maps so they can find all these tools themselves. In another twist, if either partner voluntarily has to leave the competition, both partners will be eliminated. Also, every seven days, the pairs will “migrate” to a new location which has its own new set of challenges.

The teams are given maps that lead to the tools and essentials they’ll need during their first 21 days, and they set off in search of them before night falls. Each team has the same map, which means they’re searching for the same tools and racing against the clock for them. SERE specialist Cheeny Plante, who’s paired with Dan Link, is an expert at reading maps and finds several items on theirs with ease. Cheeny seems like an underdog, but she knows what she’s doing, and Dan recognizes that. (And maybe seems like he’ll lean on her to get him through these first 21 days.) Gwen Grimes is paired with NAA veteran Matt Wright, who dominates and won’t rest until he finds a hidden bow for hunting. Steven Lee Hall Jr. and Sarah Bartell focus more on building shelter and less on searching for essentials, while Waz Addy and Gary Golding find a pot they fill with water right off the bat and try to devise a plan to reach a hunting bow. Army veteran Amber Hargrove is paired with hunter Wes Harper, while cutthroat and often confrontational Jeff Zausch is paired with Stacey Osorio, who is nervous to be paired with him.

The real drama of the show comes from the fact that the contestants face double elimination and have to work together and agree on most things in order to stay in the game. When Waz discovers a hunting bow hidden in a poisonous tree, he has to convince Gary not to climb it (any contact with the tree’s sap would require medical intervention and disqualification for both men). That dynamic adds an interesting thrill that wasn’t part of the original series. Not to mention the fact that everyone wants that same bow and is working to figure out how to get it. The partners also have to agree on their priorities, so while some people, like Jeff, want to exclusively hunt for survival tools, his partner Stacey feels unheard when she wants to prioritize a sturdy shelter, leading to tension.

Conversely, despite the fact that the show is a competition, there are ways that the teams work together, as when Sarah and Steven find an impala and share the meat with everyone. Will their goodwill pay off in the long run, or is it seen as some kind of power move? It’s all part of the game, but it seems some people are playing by stricter rules than others.

By the end of the first few nights, several of the competitors are already showing signs of fatigue, including Gwen, whose high blood pressure is putting her health at serious risk and forces her to tap out, and Amber, who eventually has to exit due to hypothermia. That means their partners, Matt and Wes, respectively, are left on their own. There are no torches snuffed out here, it is the survival of the fittest for now, and as the elements get harsher, it’s only a matter of time before more and more contestants drop like flies due to circumstances beyond their control.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Naked and Afraid, of course, but given the competition thrown in, there’s more of a Survivor vibe to the season, too.

Our Take: Part of the fun of watching Naked and Afraid is watching humans think they can outsmart nature. (And generally, despite the fact that medics are often called in, it’s all in good fun and we’re able to laugh at painfully placed stings and bites and penis burns, among other injuries.) Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing takes the show’s original formula, brings together some of its biggest personalities, and adds some new rules to give the show a bit of a refresh, but the biggest difference is that now, the humans are also trying to outsmart one another and nature at the same time.

Maybe you’ll see this is a bad thing, turning a show that celebrated people’s survival skills into a competition, but thanks to the show’s casting, this version still honors the thing most important to survival: working together. There are some people (okay, one person, and he is Jeff) who are doing this solely for the money, but there are others who seem to be finding joy in collaboration, in sharing resources and helping one another, which helps take the competitive edge off a little and still makes for addictive TV.

Sex and Skin: This show is ALL skin, though all the best bits are blurred.

Parting Shot: “I have to try and do what’s never been done. To see the invisible, to do the impossible and be that last one standing,” Matt, now solo with the departure of his partner Gwen, says.

Sleeper Star: While each contestant has their own unique traits, I developed a soft spot for Waz, the Australian rugby player who seems like he’d be a brute, but who is actually a generous competitor who looks out for everyone.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I am here to win,” Jeff Zausch, one of the most vocal and strategic competitors says. Jeff is a classic reality TV villain, the “not here to make friends,” throw you under the bus,” type, so this statement from him sums him up perfectly.

Our Call: STREAM IT! Despite the previous success of the Naked and Afraid franchise, Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing proves that maybe this show should always have been a competition. The strategy and new rules only add to the existing high stakes of the original show, making it more exciting than ever.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.