Survivor (TV show)

[star-crossed]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

I started watching Survivor toward the end of All Stars, and have seen many of the seasons after that one. Even from then I know what you mean about Jeff having such a different voice and demeanor. I have been meaning to watch the earlier seasons, but so far have only seen the Amazon, which does not age so well in terms of themes I think, and Thailand, which...did not have the most likable set of people unfortunately. You make the characters on the first season, sound very interesting. I would like to see where you go with this.

[Celirra]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

I started watching Survivor toward the end of All Stars, and have seen many of the seasons after that one. Even from then I know what you mean about Jeff having such a different voice and demeanor. I have been meaning to watch the earlier seasons, but so far have only seen the Amazon, which does not age so well in terms of themes I think, and Thailand, which...did not have the most likable set of people unfortunately. You make the characters on the first season, sound very interesting. I would like to see where you go with this.

The first season is an outlier, a lot of older seasons don't hold up as well for me. I think that's because it has the charm and innocence of being first.

I'll get to more once I have motivation sometime

[Celirra]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

hi this is a thing again

Season 1, Episode 4: Too Little, Too Late?

It was interesting hearing the perspective of everyone concerning the heavy storm, notable standout being Gretchen performing the typical practice of stepping onto a pedestal and assigning blame for the incident. That said, her taking charge did set a precedent and likely won good will rather than the contrary of pushing people away.

Greg and his coconut phone, ahhhhhh. I really shouldn’t focus too much on Greg, but I think it’s really sweet how he was able to be amiable despite his antics. I don’t think it’s so much him taking charge as was alluded to, but moreso just staying in people’s minds and especially in a favourable light.
The Sean being a time waster vs. the others “working hard” is the first use of the heavy contrast trope in Survivor, one that I think is most commonly used to portray people who end up not winning. It’s neat seeing how far back it really goes.

The Jeff interaction with the two representatives is such a deviation from what I’m used to, and something I’ve come to realize is that it shifted the feel of the show from a game show (like what’s common in modern survivor), and more of a survival show or social experiment. The lack of structure adds to it as well of course, but something about Jeff coming off almost as one of them is sweet. I guess people who were able to see past the illusory wall of social experiment / survival are the ones who really thrived and made it far, as is shown.

First formalized talk of alliances come up from Hatch, but interesting is more in the context of people listening vs merely blabbering. Though he does spin it for the context of moving further in the game, it is still on the premise of working with people who actually do work well.

Ramona’s focus on struggling and not adapting well, both earlier with the storm and now pre-challenge used to set up less of a villain send-home, and more of a weakest link style elimination. The whiney attitude post-reward is akin to the same tone as well.

Further alliance talk as well, notably with Sue and Kelly; it’s hard to say if Hatch taking credit is just or not based on what was shown compared to how he talked. Rudy not giving a shit was cute and very genuine, and despite that him not going and spreading the plan speaks volumes of his character (Rudy is great).

Back to Ramona, the complexity of her character being explored further works for her to be more three dimensional, highlighting some positives to add doubt while also arguing against them simultaneously to still keep her negative impression in mind.

“I wouldn’t say we’re cocky, I just think that we’re the best” quotes like this are why I think Colleen is such a cutie. It’s the kind of saying I really enjoy on a day-to-day basis even.

Not gonna lie, I don’t care much for the immunity challenge. It as a whole just isn’t terribly exciting. While I appreciate the old-fashioned feel of it, it somewhat lacks the charm of the rest of them this season, pertaining to “Yeah this skill is useful and would likely be relevant to surviving a deserted island”. The reward challenge was nice to fit that theme, but the IC is a bit like a modern survivor challenge with a lower budget and less exciting television magic. Also, shoutout to Gervaise lacking vigour and care for going all-out unless actually being seen by others.

Jenna being sad about voting someone off, as well as a lot of the rest of Pagong, is sweet and a strong contrast to Tagi being very bureaucratic. Greg almost had the right idea with his Sorry analogy I’d say, and was good to keep it from his team. Hard to say what actually went down of course, because of the lack of any shown footage of camp pre-TC.

Ultimately not a lot to say about Ramona going home, and aside from some preliminary strategy talk on Tagi and Greg with his coconuts, it was a pretty mediocre episode, though most early episodes outside of the first few are weak in all seasons. It did a good job setting more tone to come though, so there’s that.


Plus, Tagi got a spice rack!!! Oh boy!!!!!!!!

[the sun fan]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

I was recently more excited than I shouldve been to get a spice rack. Lol at Romona going out "Weakest Link style btw."

Sorry u didnt like Amazon or Thailand, star. I love both of them (though I might be one of the only people to say that about Thailand). If you like groups of more savory people, Australia and especially Africa would be good old school seasons for you.

[star-crossed]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

I actually did like the Amazon except that the Battle of the Sexes stuff seems cringey. With Thailand, the winner played a seemingly dominant social game in an unprecedentedly cold manner, which was quite interesting. But the fact that he came so close to losing to who he did, made me not respect his win as much, as with some other winners (I do not actually remember why I disliked the runner-up so much, now, but from memory it is kind of like if the winner of Cagayan nearly lost to the last juror). I did not have much respect for any of the men on Chuay Gahn, from how Ghandia was treated, among other things. I do remember one of the early tribal challenges being really funny from Thailand, for some reason, I think because of people not understanding the challenge and getting penalized repeatedly.

[the sun fan]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

the last part is the ATTACK ZONE and that's pretty legendary

[the sun fan]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

Thailand is a season that most people try to forget; its Jeff Probst's least favorite season, for example. I think it has plenty of redeeming factors that make it more than enjoyable.

Spoilers below btw

Brian is a bad person, at the very least. At the worst, he is a sociopathic, wife-beating, puppy shooting son of a bitch. I lean towards the former. He is probably the worst person morally to win the game of survivor. He didn't give a shit about anyone else personally, and it shows, especially when he was drunk and talked about how it was nice to dumb himself down to everyone else's level for a while. He is a terrible winner and probably the worst part of the season imo.

Grindgate (ted and ghandia's fight) is another low point of the season for a lot of people. In my opinion, its really just a misunderstanding. Neither one should've been cuddling like that when they're both married, Ted did, in fact apologize and appear to mean it. Ghandia accepted this, after a lie spread by Brian got pissed, and we all know what happened. Really, it had the best ending possible, Ghandia being voted out and the issue getting buried. Ghandia shouldn't have attempted to use that for leverage in the game, and she admitted to doing after being voted out.

I've seen some people say that Helen is their least favorite contestant because she worked in the military as a counselor for sexual assualt, believe Ghandia, but bury her feelings to better her position in the game. That's probably one of the hardest things to think about on a watch imo. I think to bring Helen down for something that really she couldn't change; even if she voted with the women, Ghandia would've gone home and her position would've been worse as a result. The fact that she was able to do that apparently so easily is a little bit concerning, but I think she looked at it the same way that most people ought to imo, which is that the whole thing really was a misunderstanding that was blown up.

Sook Jai probably WOAT tribe imo. Robb, kinda Jake and very rarely Shii Ann are the only good parts of that tribe. Robb is hilarious, and has a great ending arc that puts him in contention for, at least, one of the top 3 premergers of all time. Most of the enjoyment from the season comes from Chuay Gahn for me.

Jan, Helen, Clay and occasionally Ted make up a very quality core 5 (since I have to count Brian). Jan is a complete nut, and doesn't hide any of it. The fact that she slid her way into 3rd despite having absolutely no business making it to the merge is one of my favorite things. Despite how zany she was sometimes, you can tell that absolutely none of it is faked, that's actually who she was, and that's what I want from a character. She made good TV by being herself. On a bit of a sad note, she also has one of the saddest confessionals of all time in my opinion, when she loses the final immunity challenge and comes back to camp and talks about how she just couldn't get her mind onto the next level to deal with the pain... I like it a lot more than I should.

Helen is hilarious, straight up. Most people cite the ATTACK ZONE or Robb getting stung by a stingray as their favorite part of the show, for me its Helen yelling at her husband to eat that gross insect AND EAT IT FAST AND EAT IT NOW I NEED YOU TO DO THIS FOR ME. She has a great arc of a character that was beaten by a better player. Through the whole season, everyone from all the merged Sook Jai members to her own husband were telling her that Brian basically had no soul, but she ignored them and believed that he was trustworthy, down to her harsh blindside. Her justified anger at final tribal at knowing that Brian is a terrible person, but that Clay is even worse because he is a racist (which she maintains she heard him say racist things and was not just trying to force a Brian win) is the kind of real dilemma for voting that we just will probably never see again (also apparently Ken maintains Brian said racist stuff too, and after the season I think all jury members have said that they think Clay is an amazing person, whereas no one excepting Tanya of all people still maintains contact with Brian. I think this is definitely a vote that most jury members regret making).

It kills me to know that she'll probably never be brought back (she apparently pissed off production during the airing of all-stars), because she's my #1 pick for a character that should play again.

Clay is often called a goat, and its probably true that once Jake was voted off, he had no chance of winning aside from lightning smiting Brian on day 39. People often use this to say that he's not a very good character as a result of this. That's completely unfair imo. Dude's fucking hilarious. I find him to be the funniest survivor not named Courtney Yates. I get that some of his comments haven't aged well and others are straight up offensive, but that's who he is. If people don't hold is against Rudy when he says some of the things he said, while I know that Clay isn't from the same generation, the fact remains that its who he is and he's not going to change (plus, they are both old at the time of the airing of their seasons).

Ted isn't quite as good. Him edging out Brian in the car reward challenge and getting drunk with Helen are two really good moments though in my opinion. His legacy was definitely hurt by grindgate, and some of that is fair, but I think he's still a decent character on one of the best and most entertaining alliances imo.

I know I'm one of the few people that enjoyed Thailand, and really I guess I'm just expressing how its possible for someone to like the season. One of the best core alliances, some of the funniest moments definitely redeem the season's terrible winner in my mind.

[Celirra]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

Season 1, Episode 5: Pulling Your Own Weight

Why is tapioca so important that it’s even in the episode recap?! Also, while things are off topic, one thing I’m really looking forward to about future seasons is better quality streams and such.

The idea of Greg being referred to as a leader is quite scary to me honestly, great guy and seems smart, but… well he’s just too goofy to be a prominent leader. Not sure if that’s a testament to the weakness of the rest of ‘em, or the strengths(?) of him.

So like, Sean vs Dirk… Like, it does seem Sean is somewhat trying with good intentions, but Dirk is kinda just a lazy ass. That said, they both get lumped together. Also, good ol’ Rudy with the unintentional controversial comments.

Probst doing physical work will never fail to make me happy, and I will comment on it every time. Also I feel like this kind of dangerous activity wouldn’t be allowed on modern Survivor, and kinda rightly so… imagine if a Brandon Hantz had one of those weapons, I’d be pretty nervous.

I wonder if a blowgun is hard to use. It would probably be pretty fun. Also, I’m with Sue on this one, in this kind of scenario I’d like to not be the best at something so there’s less onus on me in the case of failure. Winning gets you little favour, but losing gets you all the vitriol.

Joel throwing that spear is a lot like how I throw a football honestly, I mean I understand the theory behind it but I can never make ‘em go straight. You’d think the ability to throw things like darts, or launch paper airplanes, or even a knowledge of how physics works would help, but it really feels like a crapshoot. That said, I think I’m pretty solid at throwing big sticks if memory of grade school serves me well enough.

Despite that, my man Joel with the clutch spear toss. And I guess good news for the chickens, it probably doesn’t have to fear for being impaled by a spear. Also, every chicken I’ve ever known has been super aggressive when near people, I’m amazed they didn’t put up a fuss about being cradled.

I love how Sue doesn’t even care about the fruit or the chickens, and only wanted to beat a guy on TV at spear throwing. Can hardly blame her honestly, pride is more important than food.

Greg the Bachelor Bird, joined by Colleen eh, yo props to my man Greg though. And I love that Colleen is just super upfront about the whole ordeal and Greg completely denies anything. In all honesty, I bet it would be fun being romantic on a deserted island, if it weren’t for the other people too etc.

YO that snake would be pissed I bet, Richard is a bigger man than I ever would be. I’d hardly touch a caterpillar, let alone a deadly snake.

Probably the worst immunity challenge in Survivor, not a lot to say but props to Gervaise. Throwback to earlier when I said I’d hate to be the best at something; what happened to Kelley is a big part of why, I can relate to how rubbish she feels.

Dirk really looks like a dirk in that yellow jacket, like I know it’s hard to pull off something like that but he looked quite silly especially.

“I can’t think myself into being more effective” what a quote that is, good job Dirk. One thing I’ll say is that the editing isn’t even super obvious this episode, like all that’s known is it’s likely Dirk or Sean. If I didn’t already know, it’d be a coinflip, with maybe a bit of special priority to Dirk because of him being unwell and such too. I think it’s really sweet how much Sean likes Rudy actually, I didn’t expect it at all from what’s been shown, but props to him regardless. It’s sweet seeing a break of character like that.

Pretty glad this episode is done, definitely very underwhelming. As Sunfan said though, all uphill from here this season.

[the sun fan]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

“I can’t think myself into being more effective”.

H O L Y

[Celirra]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

H O L Y

[Celirra]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

Season 1, Episode 6: Udder Revenge

Merge incoming ayyyyyyy.

I never heard of Gervaise being a pervert, but if Sue says it it must be true. Gonna read up on this sometime.

Yo Gretchen the cold-hearted killer. Colleen is still a cutie though, Greg chose well I’d say with her.

In modern Survivor, the strategy of killing all the chickens pre-merge so the merged tribe wouldn’t get any would be Survivor suicide, all it really does is segregate the tribes when they should be merged, causing a distinctive us vs. them mentality. Arguably, it’s even worse in the social game of season 1.

Richard walking around naked had good timing, like I bet if Dirk the Christian was still around, there would be a lot of feuds about it. Rudy though, man Rudy is such a sensible guy and I’m so glad he’s buying into the alliance finally.

Hearing Richard deep game strategy is so nice finally, and the strategy of bringing Rudy as a sacrificial lamb almost, a target ahead of him, is definitely a good one. In some newer Survivor a likeable player is brought to near the end as a kind of blocker that ensures [insert winner] makes it to the final tribal council, because bringing the aimable player would just cause for them to insta-win with jury votes. Of course, there are some intricacies that make it more complicated, but that’s the gist of it. It’s a bit different with Richard vs. Rudy though, in that it’s much moreso that Rudy would be more dire to go home than Richard due to not caring about camp as much as Richard would.

“Women are the stupidest things on the planet next to cows” ok so this kinda reminds me of the Shirin vs Will thing of Worlds Apart, in which Will came off as a sexist (and a bully of course but was more vindicated for the sexism angle), and was widely villainized for it. Gervaise… isn’t getting a similar treatment despite his arguably more sexist comment… plus this was at the height of Survivor fame. Now now, yeah the context is way different but still, tonal shifts between generations. It probably helped he took it back of course, but I really don’t remember any controversy about this outside of survivor.

Taking that somewhat back though, Gervaise with the cocky yet goofy villain edit is pretty hilarious, he plays it so well. He totally owns up to everything, and everyone seems to know it but laughs about it. I’m naturally fond of this kind of player honestly, likely due to my soft spot for sarcasm mixed with narcissism.

Real talk I’d eat the dog food without hesitation, like protein is protein, and dog food is pretty condensed nutrition if memory serves me. It’s like medicine, but food, really.

I can really appreciate the history mixed in to the reward challenge, and it’s a pretty neat challenge despite being so simple in style. Using the “natural” environment, such being something that didn’t particularly seem built specially for Survivor, is a plus to me.

Richard getting his tribe disqualified, oops. Congrats to Pagong!!!!

It’s pretty astute of Pagong to realize that they need to stick together despite no other strategy talk previously. Props to Gretchen for being honest, another rare trait to have on Survivor that isn’t old school.

I feel like Joel actually did go on to do a bunch of modeling actually, didn’t he? (RE: mention of him being the golden boy, etc)

Getting the Green Berets involved is one of the cooler things I’ve seen in Survivor, and I know my bias is really showing by saying this so much but I really liked how Rudy got somewhat emotional about it. It’s like if there was a DDR challenge or something on Survivor, I’d be pretty emotional too, even if it doesn’t mean as much to other people on the island.

I also think this is one of the most complicated challenged this season yet. Like, it actually required instructions. Yikes!

Congrats to the cute lizard for winning the chicken, I bet it was quite happy about Pagong being on the beach for the free food.

Man, Jeff is so obvious that he knows all that goes down at camp, like he doesn’t beat around the bush at all this whole season.

Ah, the ol’ “He’s rich enough already!” vote.

Moooooooooooo :cowboy:


Not much to say about Joel going home, like he lost the popularity contest moreorless. Probably would’ve been strong in individual challenges, might’ve changed the end result honestly if he didn’t go home.

[Celirra]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

Season 1, Episode 7: The Merger

“Rich is a sweetheart, so easy going, he’s naked a lot.” oh

The ambassador idea is a really good way to do things, I like it a lot more than just going to a brand new beach and leaving behind prior progress.

Okay so like, stingray is commonly eaten in iceland, and apparently it smells HORRIBLE, like incredibly fermented and such if you want it done right. I’m amazed it’s better on the island than off it, and good enough to be well liked.

Anyways though, I think Tagi did a much better job presenting their camp. Like, it seems genuinely fun there, compared to just surviving at Pagong.

It’s interesting to hear the alliance = unethical mentality being pertinent, I can see why due to the infancy of Survivor and bonds being borderline more important than winning up to this point, but as Richard did say, ethics are pretty distinctively different from the idea of alliances.

Wow 4 bottles of wine, two beds in one tent, how cute and romantic!!! That whole idea was interesting to be set up by production, I wonder if they got what they were hoping for ultimately.

Ah, the ol’ reward gloating paradigm, where the nice stuff excels particularly with ostracizing yourself and creating rifts. That said, I’d do the same I’m sure, 4 bottles of wine between 2 people is enough to get me talkin’.

Colleen: “Sean is super intelligent” yeah probably is compared to Greg… I guess she’s not got the highest standards for men.

Whoever brought those playing cards is smart and has foresight, that’s a good luxury item to bring. I think I’d bring something similar, maybe a dominion set or something, or at least some kind of game with diversity.

I’m with Rudy honestly, I naturally don’t much enjoy hearing about sex stuff being discussed by peers, another score for Rudy. That, or maybe I really am just a crotchety old man on the inside after all.

Aren’t holding your breath competitions like… soft banned on Survivor now? I don’t think many modern seasons have something like that, which is too bad because I always found them interesting, though the reasoning is understandable too. I think it’s a pretty… iconic style of challenge for this kind of show, so it’s too bad they’re at least uncommon in modern survivor if nothing else.

I really really enjoyed the second part of this challenge. It’s the kind of thing that’s exciting, has an element of a “Survivor” skill so to speak, and has a nice sense of progress. Props to Gervaise, the non-watery guy, for being watery. He didn’t win in the end, but hey he did well in part 1!!!

I kinda wish there was more strategy and alliance talk pre-tribal cou- oh cool flying fish! I think the mystery and suspense was neat to have, and I can appreciate it somewhat because it allowed for plenty of personal discussion re: the merge and group dynamic, but it still would’ve been cool to have an indication of what may have happened without just guessing mostly blindly. Mind you, Greg’s vote for Jenna and his message maybe indicated some kind of partition in the tribe, like maybe she shifted over or had notion to drift from him.

Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sean with the alphabetical order strategy, quite a sound strategy I’d say and I’m amazed a cunning strategist such as him did not win in the end. Truly bewildered!

Gretchen felt really… underused almost. I liked her from what I saw, and wish she had more screen time and exposure and such. She seemed like a sweetheart. That said, I like the whole cast in some way, be it for comedic or personal, so I guess I’ll be saying this every episode now. I do still maintain that she deserved some more time to be shown at least.

[Celirra]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

wow 2 in one day

[the sun fan]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

gretchen's vote off is one of the coolest moments of season one

"Oh my gosh... its me" is such a great line from an anti-alliance member as they're being voted out

[Celirra]

Re: Survivor (TV show)

gretchen's vote off is one of the coolest moments of season one

"Oh my gosh... its me" is such a great line from an anti-alliance member as they're being voted out

I think that was one of those subtle moments that helps add to the emotion felt by the viewers when it was originally airing. It really drives home a... severity, in a way, to the whole situation.