“Survivor” Retrospecitves: Gabon

Once again, we have a season that, in many ways, was screwed from the beginning, due to it having to follow up a season with at least half returnees, and what many consider to be the best season ever, even today. It’s understandable that Gabon was considered a downgrade from this, but what’s really surprising is that at the time, it was actually considered to be quite good on its own merits, seeming to break the trend of seasons following “All-Stars” type seasons sucking. Unfortunately, most people think it has not stood the test of time well, and the consensus these days is that the season is mediocre, at best. So, which estimation do I agree more with? Was the season actually pretty good, and is now criminally underrated, or is it a flop that hid it’s faults well in the early days? You’ll have to read on to find out.
First, though, a quick spoiler reminder: This is a DETAILED look at the season, and as such, it will be assumed that all readers have seen the season. If you want an opinion on Gabon that has no spoilers, scroll down to the bottom of the page. There you will find a section labeled “Abstract”, where I give a vaguer but also spoiler-free opinion on the season. Now, as to the actual opinion, we must analyze it in detail, starting with…

CAST
Right away, the probable explanation for why this season was popular at its debut, but lost ground over time, is explained via the cast. I’m going first to be talking about people who are still remembered today, and the trouble is that such people are few and far between. Winner Robert “Bob” Crowley probably gets talked about the most, and even then, that’s mostly due to his being the oldest ever winner, at age 57. Admittedly, that’s pretty impressive, but the fact is, Bob didn’t make his mark until late in the game. He was a physics professor who was quite handy in the outdoors, taking on a sort of McGuyver role for the Kota Tribe, but didn’t play the game very much at the start. He would join an alliance, to be sure, but he himself admitted that he was honest to a fault. His real fame came later, when he broke down and started to get deceptive, and won several challenges despite being the oldest guy out there, as many of the challenges ended up being skewed towards physics. Bob is a character who, from my end, broke even. It always bugs me when people say they’re going to play a “moral” game over and over, as we know they’re going to break it, and so I initially wasn’t a Bob person. However, the immunity challenge streak did impress me, I was happy to see an older person win the game, and when Bob actually DID start playing the game, he was pretty good. Bob was a nice addition to the season, but not one of my favorites.
Perhaps it’s just my skewed perception, but another much-talked-about contestant from Gabon was Professional “Super Smash Bros.” player Ken Hoang. Ken made a name for himself by being a schemer with a rough start, who built up a solid alliance over time, and would most likely have won the game had he not gotten cocky in the last week or so. It’s commonly stated that he changed from a boy to a man over the course of the game, and while I think that’s overstating it, it was pretty cool to see Ken’s strategy evolve and change over time, as well as to see someone who did not fit the environment at all do well. Ken comes up when people talk about “smart” contestants, and people who maybe deserve a second chance, and here I completely agree with the public perception.
Less beloved is Randy Bailey, the resident curmudgeon of Gabon. Though less controversial in the post-Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”) era, Randy is still brought up when describing people who really had no clue about how to play the game socially. The difference with Randy is that he KNEW he was bad at the social game, and didn’t care. Psychologically speaking, Randy fits the bill for antisocial personality disorder, leading him to be outright contemptuous and mean towards some fellow contestants. This made several people dislike him, myself included, but in a sort of “love-to-hate-him” kind of way. It helped that he had a suitably humiliating demise, and while he was a bit grating at times, every season needs a punching bag for the audience, and Randy fit the bill quite well.
But why stop at one villain? Ace Gordon was happy to supply a good amount of pre-merge villainy with his phony British accent. To be fair, the accent is the main reason people remember him, but his game wasn’t horrible. He was on the outs on pretty much every tribe he was on from the beginning, but still managed to struggle his way late into the pre-merge phase, and provided a lot of good schemes and one-liners along the way. Like any good villain, he went down dramatically, and in my opinion, he colored the pre-merge portion of the season in a good way. Corrine Kaplan also helped fill this role, with her snarky Jerri Manthey (“Survivor The Australian Outback”) esque comments, and her Sue Hawk (“Survivor Borneo”) style jury speech. I never had as much time for her, she seemed like Randy, but had more meaning and spite behind her bitterness. Still, she held up her end of the bargain strategy-wise, and she wasn’t unbearable, all things considered.
Admittedly, a couple of early boots do still get some play. Danny “GC” Brown is often brought up when talking about pathetic contestants, due to quitting while being in a majority alliance, and not particularly beat down by the elements, and Jacquie Berg is mentioned among people who deserve a second chance, due to having been on top of her original tribe, but nixed after a swap. Beyond that, though, there’s not much play for anyone from this season these days. Look back, however, and you see a lot more faces getting play. Probably the most talked about, and the most polarizing, was Jessica “Sugar” Kuiper, a very “Love-or-Hate” character. She was one of the smallest and weakest people out there, yet she turned out to be a great manipulator, and even found the hidden immunity idol, giving her a lot of control throughout the game. I always came down more on the “Hate” side, as I found her whiny, but I did enjoy her progression though the game, so I give her a pass. It’s her whininess and lack of success in later games that keep Sugar out of the limelight these days.
Also of note at the time was the pair of Charlie Herschel and Marcus Lehman. One of “Survivor’s” many bromances, people at the time fell in love with the smart pairing that seemed poised to take the game. Personally, I found them cocky as all get out, and was happy to see them go down hard later on, but at least that was fun to watch, and again, they brought their strategy game. Of a similar “bro-down” vein was Matty Whitmore, another “moral” person who seemed a physical threat, but failed repeatedly in later portions of the game. He was well-liked at the time, and the season definitely needed him to help balance the cast of strategists, but personally, I could do without him, just for how bland he was.
His counter in blandness, Crystal Cox is yet another who seemed to have no social skills. She was loud, obnoxious, and professed being a challenge threat, but turned out pretty pathetic as time went on. A lot of people were annoyed by her, and I can see why, but I just wasn’t. There was a perverse fascination in seeing just how far she could go, and again, she brought a lot of strategy to the table. As such, I like her more than most, and despite a later steroid scandal (she was an Olympic Gold Medalist in the relay, and later confessed to steroid use), I wouldn’t mind seeing her back, if only to laugh some more.
Apart from Crystal, the only person of note was Gillian Larson, the South Africa-born 61 year-old, who’s known for making a pretty pathetic showing in the game, and the main reason the Fang Tribe failed so much early on (which will be discussed in the “Twist” section), and I quite agree. While she wasn’t that much fun to watch, and I was glad to see the back of her later on, it was kind of cool to see an older lady on the show, and not be the first one voted off.
That about does it for the memorable cast, and I’ll say here that my score may not make a lot of sense for all that I’ve ragged on the cast for either being mean or not well-remembered these days. I’ll go into more detail explaining what I like in the “Overall” section, but I’ll say here that the cast was a good mix of characters and strategists, though with the emphasis on the strategists, and I’d say on the whole that the positives outweigh the negatives. Yes, the early game had some lame boots, and one or two late-gamers were unpleasant, but the cast as a whole was pretty cool.

Score: 8 out of 10.

CHALLENGES
I do like the challenges of Gabon… when they’re original. This is where “Survivor” started reusing challenge ideas from the past, though admittedly not in a force, and they REALLY showed in Gabon. It felt, in a lot of cases, like they just tacked on a few African masks to old challenges, and brought them full on from previous seasons. We didn’t want to see them again, and they really dragged the season down. With that said, the challenges that WERE original were pretty much all excellent. They were very physical, but with enough of a cerebral bent that people like Bob and Ken were not excluded from doing well. It helped a lot that the challenges tended to be grand events, that really made them stand out of the episode. Admittedly, it took a while for them to get exciting, I remember the first few original challenges being very generic. However, the season quickly got back on its feat, and nearly all original challenges, pre-and-post merge, were nothing short of exhilarating. I say “most” because the first and last immunity challenges come the merge were VERY bad moves on the part of the challenge department. The first challenge was a fire building competition, in itself a rehashed challenge, and the last immunity challenge was building a house of cards, which BARELY connected to the season, and didn’t fit “Survivor”, it seemed to me. I’ve expressed my disdain for this challenge before, and I stand by it here.
Yeah, this seasons challenge have a fair amount dragging them down. To give them their due, though, when they put in a minimum of effort, they were some of the best “Survivor” produced, even providing some challenges of its own to be reused. That said, I can’t score this section as high as high as I’d like, due simply to the number of reused challenges.

Score: 7 out of 10.

TWISTS
Alright, Gabon kept the twists coming hard and fast, so let’s waste no time. Right out of the gate, this season kept people guessing, with the tribes allowed to pick their own teams, the elders (Gillian and Bob) allowed to start due to their seniority. We’d seen this before, and while it was fun to watch, I wasn’t too terribly impressed. On the positives side, though, we did see a very lopsided pick, with Bob’s Kota tribe picking more for challenge strength, and Gillian’s Fang tribe picking more for social cohesion (though even that would be short-lived). As it turned out, this led directly into a challenge with a twist: the tribes would run to a finish line up a very steep hill. The first to finish on each tribe would get immunity at their first tribal council, and the tribe as a whole that finished first would get an extra supply of rice and beans for their journey. Thus, the challenge became a choice of “Help yourself or help the tribe”. This was an INCREDIBLY fascination dilemma, and started the season off with a bang.
GC and Marcus took home the individual immunity, and Kota as a whole won, thus setting the tone for this season. You see, the overarching twist was that Fang lost. A LOT! Not quite Ulong (“Survivor Palau”) levels of losing, as they did score a couple of immunity wins, but even now, they’re still remembered as one of the losingest tribes in the history of “Survivor”. I’ve said before and I’ll say again that watching one tribe get decimated was fun the first time, but not all the subsequent times, and this is no exception. While I generally enjoy the twists this season, this is one of the few I can’t stand.
The other overarching twist, which worked much better in my opinion, was Exile Island. It was brought back, but this time with a “Garden of Eden” theme, fitting the season’s lame subtitle “Earth’s Last Eden”. In this case, whenever someone went to Exile Island, they could choose between a clue to the immunity idol, which once again was strung along via a series of clues, and would be hard to find by chance, or the key to a hut in the middle of a lake, which was pre-made shelter and contained certain amounts of food (starting with an apple, and getting bigger as time went by). It was great to see Exile Island back, and this was a phenomenal idea to bring to it. It added an element of sadism to the twist, and even though pretty much everybody who knew who had the idol picking the comfort, it was still fun to watch, both for the dilemma, and for the hilarity of seeing those who did NOT know who had the idol pick the clue when there was nothing to be gained from it. On top of that, it was distinctive, and felt right for the season, so this twist gets a big thumbs up from me. Another twist related to Exile Island was who was sent. In the past, only the big, bad, physically dominating alpha males generally got sent to Exile Island. Ken Hoang, on the other hand, saw an opportunity to send the weakest and hope they quit, and thus Sugar of all people holds the record for most days on Exile Island, and even ended up getting the immunity idol. Give the girl credit, she is TOUGH! And clever to boot!
Keeping the twists coming thick and fast, episode 3 gave us our first switch-up, but in a unique way. Each tribe ranked its members based on value to the tribe, and the person named number one on each tribe got to stay, then devolving into the usual pick-‘em style redraw, with the caveat that you had to pick from the opposite tribe as yourself. Once again, an excellent shake-up of an old favorite. While a tribe swap was getting a bit predictable, the ranking of people lent a new social dynamic to the whole affair, and it was another unique addition to the season. Not that it helped Fang win, though.
From here, there was a slight dry spell, interrupted by GC’s quit, which is one of the few negative twists of the season. The next big twist was a blindside of Ace, which seems odd, as Ace had been on the bottom pretty much all of the time, so it should come as no surprise that he’d get voted out, right? Well yes, but the thing is that Ace though he had a solid alliance. Ken, clever that he was, managed to convince Sugar, who was Ace’s main ally, that Ace wanted her immunity idol, and she became convinced when Ace asked her for it. Very reminiscent of Gollum putting paranoia in Frodo’s head about Sam in “The Return of The King”, and very effective. And all this after another double tribal council, where the winner of individual immunity for one tribe got to give it to another tribe (Marcus won, giving immunity to Sugar), this was where the season really began to take off, with one great twist on top of another.
Ace’s departure, and the departure of Dan Kay left the number of contestants at 10, so when the tribes were brought together for a feast, people assumed a merge was on the horizon. First, however, Ken found a clue to another hidden immunity idol (this one buried close to the feast site), which was a great twist to add to the feat, but no one could have predicted how it would turn out. Charlie saw Ken grab the clue, and had Ken read it out for everyone (leading Ken to have a vendetta against Charlie). This led to everyone finding the idol as a group, and after some smooth maneuvering by Marcus, all agreed to throw it in the ocean, as having it would put too big a target on their back. As if THAT wasn’t enough, they later found that this was NOT a merge, but instead another tribe shake-up. This was a great series of twists, all unexpected, all adding to the paranoia, and giving us stuff we’d never seen before.
As a result of the shakeup, and a rare Fang victory, the new Kota went to Tribal Council, where we got out next twist. Marcus and Bob were from the old Kota, and they’d pulled Susie in at the second Kota. This left Kenny and Crystal on the outs, but it turned out that Marcus was friends with a relation of Crystal’s, and didn’t trust Susie, and so invited Crystal into the alliance. However, this would require voting off Ken, who at this point was Crystal’s main ally, which Crystal would not have. She spilled the beans to Ken, who worked his magic on Susie, who flipped to his side to vote out Marcus, who up until that point had been leading the game. It’s this manner of exit that Marcus is remembered for. This was a great shakeup that set the stage for how the merge would play out.
First, Ken got Sugar and Matty back under his wing, and blindsided Charlie. Then Bob made a fake idol, one of the best the show has ever had, and gave it to Randy, thus making his vote-off a blindside for him. Most people cite this as the funniest fake idol play ever, and I’ll concede it was a nice comeuppance to Randy, but somehow, I find it funnier when it’s an unintentional play, and this one felt a bit mean-spirited. It at least gave Bob a chance to show off his idol-making skills, however.
The REASON Bob had to make an idol was that he was sent to Exile Island during a reward auction by Ken. This was an old twist, as was the buying of a challenge advantage, which Corrine ended up taking. What WAS new was that the person with the advantage did not win. Ken made it to the final round of the challenge (Corrine’s advantage being that she got to skip to the final round instantly), and won (yay!).
The final seven gave us another blindside, but a convoluted one. Bob made yet another fake idol, and using it he and Corrine convinced Ken and Crystal (who were running the show) to get rid of physical threat Matty. This meant that with their flip, Bob and Corrine would be safe until the final four, even without the actual immunity idol. However, while Ken and Crystal agreed that Matty was the biggest threat available, as Bob had won immunity (incidentally, this was the start of Bob’s awesome winning streak), they decided to play it safe and flush Corrine’s supposed idol by voting for her anyway. Of course, Corrine had no such idol, and so she was voted out. The gambit pile-up was hilarious, and always fun to watch.
This, however, was where Ken’s plotting and cockiness caught up with him. Fed up with his and Crystal’s treatment of Matty (as they intended to blindside him after Bob won immunity again), Sugar warned Bob not to go with Ken and Crystal, and first Crystal and then Ken were voted off. In here we have one final minor twist. Rather than randomly draw colors at the final five immunity challenge, the contestants picked their colors beforehand, decorating themselves with paint and cloth. It’s fun little touches like that which help make the season distinctive.
Bob’s win could be considered a “twist”, but I’ve already gone over it, so I won’t analyze it here. While the twists of Gabon came more in the later half of the season, and there was a minor dry spell after episode 3, there was enough strategizing to keep one going, and what few ops there were are overwhelmed by the better twists of this season.
Score: 9 out of 10.

OVERALL
Despite not falling prey to the problem of “Generic South Pacific Island”, this season’s theme, as a whole, is not memorable, partly due to seeming a bit similar “Survivor Africa”, and partly due to the stupid “Earth’s Last Eden”, subtitle. Despite this, I would not say that the theme is bad, just less reliant on production to pull it through. Although more polished, the resemblance to “Survivor Africa” in terms of challenges is too similar, but in terms of landscape is much different. Gabon is more jungle than savannah, but also had the benefit of gorgeous sweeping vistas. This is where the season really shines: in what great shots they can get. Just look at the overheads for Exile Island. You will “ooh” and “aah” like nobody’s business.
As to the how the season comes together, I think it’s quite well done. No element really slacks, and especially late game, the good qualities of the cast and the twists their strategy brought really stand out. It’s the late-game aspect, though, that turns people off, and explains why this season has fallen from grace in the past few years. For those who didn’t find the minutia of early strategy as interesting as I do, or who just don’t like the producers going “twist-heavy” early on, the season drags, and only gets good in the end. On top of this, a lot of people were mad that such hateful, terrible, “undeserving” people made it far, and this, for them, ruins the season.
I, however, disagree with the consensus. I don’t look much into the concept of “deserving” on “Survivor”, and actually LIKED that it was the underdogs that made it far. It helped make for a distinct season at the least. While I accept that it has some negatives, on the whole, I would say the positives outweigh them, and if only for the ending, Gabon is a great watch.
Score: 33 out of 40.

ABSTRACT
While Gabon is not strictly speaking a “necessary” season for you to watch, as it has very few returnees later on who don’t do very well, it’s still an underrated, entertaining ride. While it starts off slow, every element works well, and if you’re a fan of underdog stories, this is the season for you!

“Survivor” Retrospectives: Micronesia

Ok folks, I know we’ve had some hard times. We’ve slogged through the horror that is “Survivor Fiji”. We lasted through the average likeability of “Survivor China”. Yes, either the season or the blog about it was bad, but this makes it all worth it. This is Micronesia, and this is where things really get good.
Before we delve into why, however, I would just like to once again put out there that this review of the season will contain spoilers. Those who do not wish to have the events of the season spoiled for them may scroll to the bottom of the page and find the “Abstract” section. There, I will have a brief broader and spoiler-free look at the season, which will tell people at a glance how watchable this season is. Now that that bit of business is taken care of, let us begin!

CAST
As with many seasons, this is Micronesia’s main selling point. Nearly all of the returnees made their mark, as would be expected. Old favorites like Yau-Man Chan, James Clement, Cirie Fields, and Oscar “Ozzy” Lusth remained popular, and those favorites who weren’t as popular gained new life. Notably, eventual winner Parvati Shallow, who sort of filled the “Amber Brkich” (“Survivor The Australian Outback”) slot, was not well-remembered, though not outright disliked. After this season, she gained her reputation as a master-strategist, and looking back, she does kind of deserve it. While her main skill is simply playing the flirt card a lot, the woman can pull together a good alliance, even across tribes, as this season showed. Even Jonny Fairplay, back from “Survivor Pearl Islands”, made a mark despite leaving first. He chose to get voted out at the first Tribal Council, claiming that he missed his wife and impending baby too much, though the general consensus (with which I agree), is that Fairplay was simply trolling the production, and that he did. Still, for what it’s worth, it was nice to see him get voted out so soon, and his jabs at Probst actually were somewhat funny. In retrospect, Amanda Kimmel was actually somewhat bland as well, but again, at the time she was a great action girl, and she hadn’t worn out her welcome by this point. Eliza Orlins, back from “Survivor Vanuatu”, made much more of an impact this time around for her great jury expressions, and Jonathan Penner’s return from “Survivor Cook Islands” gave everyone a new appreciation for his wit and strategy, even if his game did crash and burn. Really, the only favorite who could be considered a “flop” for the season might be Eliza’s ally from “Survivor Vanuatu”, Ami Cusack, and that’s because she wasn’t a driving force this time around. I’ve always personally had a soft spot for Ami (my dog is named after her), and so I give her a pass, and call this a great group of returnees.
Not to say that the new players were slacking, by any means. No, the new players are almost as well-remembered as the returnees, just not always in as positive a way. The three biggest characters given by the new players were Kathy Sleckman, Chet Welch, and Erik Reichenbach, none of whom are particularly remembered for positive traits. Kathy is often dubbed one of the more clueless contestants ever, and is most remembered for a tearful, if justified (they’d just had a day-long rainstorm) quit, Chet is remembered for being pathetic at all things challenge-related, and Erik is remembered for an event that will be covered in the twist section. Also remembered (though less so than these three) for equally negative reasons is Joel Anderson. A hulk of a man, Joel the firefighter had a distinctive voice, and a very derisive attitude towards his fellow contestants that made him come off as mean. He’s particularly remembered for an incident where during a challenge in which he was chained to Chet, he unapologetically dragged Chet THROUGH several obstacles, and upon losing, was unsympathetic towards Chet’s pain. Still, due to his voice he got in a few good one-liners (“The tribe picked Chet. Over me.” is a personal favorite), and I think he had a softer side that didn’t really come out, so I think I look more positively on Joel than others do.
All this is not to say, of course, that all new players are remembered negatively. Indeed, a lot of them are now thought of as some of the greatest strategists on the show. Alexis Jones was a favorite at the time, and is still considered an all-around good player and nice woman. Tracy Hughes-Wolfe, despite not doing too well in the standings, made the most of a bad situation and was still considered to be pretty damn good at strategy. And, while I at least didn’t appreciate her at the time, Natalie Bolton made several major contributions to the winning alliance, lasted the longest of the new players, and definitely needs more respect.
Sadly, the new players weren’t quite the home-run that the returnees were. Michael “Mikey B” Bortone didn’t have much of an impact, Mary Sartain was almost non-existent, and while Jason Siska was a perfectly nice guy, he’s really only remembered for being in over his head, and for playing what has to be the most pathetic fake hidden immunity idol in the history of the show (literally just a stick with a face on it).
So yeah, this cast might have been slightly skewed towards the returnees, but even then, the new players still had a pretty big impact, and nearly all managed to shine through in adversity. This cast is a lot of what I love about this season.

Score: 9 out of 10.

CHALLENGES
Ironically, the challenges are probably the worst aspect of this season. Not to say they’re bad by any stretch, they’re actually quite good. The problem is that the other categories are just so good that this one pales in comparison. I’ll mention here that the season returned to Palau, but this time the theme was more about the native culture than World War two, and it showed. I remember a lot of fish and stones when I think of the challenges this season, but they found good ways to use them. Likewise, the challenges themselves were not epic in scale, but still pretty big, very clever, very tough, and just felt right for the season. The few issues come mainly after the merge. Once again, the scale seemed to drop somewhat right after the merge. It picked up again at the final 7 or so, but there were a few episodes where the challenges just weren’t memorable for me. On top of this, there was the issue of some reused challenges. Granted, innovative challenges dominate the season, and the reused ones felt appropriate, but it’s still a downgrade. With that said, I still enjoy nearly every challenge from this season, and while it’s the weakest category, that’s out of very strong categories.

Score: 8 out of 10.

TWISTS
The season’s other strong point, as I’ll discuss in the “Overall” section. Standing on its own, though, the twists hold up surprisingly well. The overarching theme of the season was “Fans vs. Favorites”. Given that this season was divisible by 8, it was time for another “All-Stars” season by the unofficial schedule. However, in a brilliant move, CBS decided to only cast 10 returnees, and instead pick 10 “superfans” to play on this season, thereby changing up the game from what we expected, and also reaping the viewership bump of an “All-Stars” season with the originality of a new cast season. Quite a good twist, and one that would come up a lot even after fans and favorites were not on opposing tribes. Exile Island also came back, but this time with the twist that two people had to be sent each time, the winning tribe picking both. I quite like this, as it honored the past but still changed things up, and after only 3 straight seasons of it, Exile Island was starting to seem a staple of the show.
After finding out (in the middle of a torrential downpour) who they would be playing against, Probst sent everyone on a cross-ocean swim to find outriggers. Probst also said that there was an immunity idol for each tribe, good only for their first Tribal Council, hidden on that other island. Cleverly, the idol was actually attached to the outrigger, but in such a way that it was not obvious on approach. This was a great idea that led to a hilarious scramble, culminating in Yau-Man bashing Fairplay’s head into the outrigger accidentally in an attempt to get the idol. Yau-Man suddenly jumps up in my estimation.
Fairplay’s sabotage makes for something of a twist, and we’re introduced to the next in the second episode, in the form of our first blindside. Rather than vote out Chet, the fans (particularly Joel) decided to take out a threatening alliance started by Mikey B., by targeting his closest ally, Mary. This would set up how unpredictable this season would be.
Not to say that the favorites didn’t have their share of the treachery. Following Fairplay’s exit, there were two main groups of four: Jonathan, Ami, Eliza, and Yau-Man against the couple’s alliance of James, Parvati, Amanda, and Ozzy, leaving Cirie caught in the middle. After gaining a promise of final three with Parvati and Amanda, Cirie split from Jonathan’s group (which made Jonathan quite angry), and voted out Yau-Man, out of fear that Yau-Man would easily find the idol. In hindsight I can appreciate the strategy (even if I don’t agree with it), but at the time I was upset, due to not liking Cirie and liking Jonathan. Still, it kept me on my toes, and gave us the one good Cirie line ever: The term “Ozzlets” for children of Ozzy.
Ozzy found the immunity idol in episode four, and subsequently made the fake Idol Jason would play later (or more accurately, have Eliza play later), and like I said, it was pretty pathetic. A stick with a smiley face. HOW did Jason think this was an idol? Still, it was hilarious for it.
Episode 5 brought us a tribe swap, and it led to Joel’s surprising ouster, once again, keeping us guessing for the season. Episode 6 gave us the first of three non-conventional exits with Jonathan Penner’s knee getting too badly infected to continue. James would go the same way post-merge (though admittedly, there the infection was in his finger), and Kathy would quit shortly after Jonathan left, due simply to fatigue. While I’m normally not a fan of such exits, the sheer number hit such an improbability point that they became interesting, and helped to make the season unique.
Slowly the fans on the new Malakal tribe were taken off, but just before the merge we got thetwist of Ami being voted off, due to Erik’s relationship with Ozzy, and him throwing Ami under the bus. Again, always good to be unsure of how things will go down, and it made the favorites seem less dominant than before.
Post-merge, Eliza played the fake idol, but in so doing outed Ozzy as having the real idol. This led to what is, perhaps the greatest series of Tribal Councils in the history of the show. First, Ozzy is blindsided with the idol. Then, Jason got the idol, and was also blindsided. At this point, it was very clear that there was a woman’s alliance going on. James left at this point, but then Erik won immunity, forcing the women to eat each other. However, in yet ANOTHER twist, Amanda found the idol, actually PLAYED it, and got Alexis sent home.
Then, the crown jewel. The thing that Erik is so remembered for. After winning immunity at the final five, the women convinced him to give up immunity! It’s so crazy I almost can’t believe I just typed it. It’s completely stupid. What Erik was thinking, I can’t possibly know. Rule 1 of “Survivor”: You DO NOT give up immunity! EVER! Still, the very fact that I rave about it makes it a good twist, and it also led to the first ever successful women’s alliance. Score.
What more can I say? Every twist hit home, and this was one of the most unpredictable seasons ever.

Score: 10 out of 10.

OVERALL

This season managed to overcome the problem of “Generic South Pacific Island” and seemed to have a flavor all it’s own. Not one episode was weak, and it helped that each individual element was strong. If the cast was slacking, there was some sort of twist. If neither, there was an impressible challenge to watch. Everything had great synergy, and I just love it to death.

Score: 37 out of 40.

ABSTRACT
While Micronesia is not a season I would recommend starting on as it builds from a lot of previous seasons, it’s still one of the best ever. Every element is strong, and I recommend checking it out, whoever you are.

“Survivor” Retrospectives: China

Get out the defibrillators, it’s time to resurrect an old column!  Yes, for those who have forgotten, this is the return of “Survivor Retrospectives”.  A more analytical and less humorous look at past seasons of “Survivor”, this is my more loosely-scheduled column for the long off-season.  Here I proved my unfiltered view on seasons past, and give a recommendation as to how good it is/whether or not it’s worth watching.  As such, I’ll mention here that as this is an unfiltered, in-depth look at seasons past, this blog will contain spoilers. Those who have not seen the season, or who simply want my recommendation of how watchable the season is, would do well to scroll to the bottom of the page, where I will have a spoiler-free “Abstract” section.  With that said, let us begin our examination.

Our subject this week is “Survivor China”.  Following on the heels of the flop that was “Survivor Fiji”, many speculated, and CBS all but confirmed, that this meant “Survivor” was on its last legs, and while season 16 had already been produced, that would be the show’s swan song.  The fact that we are currently going into season 29 proves that this was not, in fact, the case, and China is given the credit for this turn-around.  Very often, China is referred to as “The season that saved ‘Survivor’”.  This might seem odd these days, as China is very rarely talked about by fans, and when it is brought up, the consensus is that the season is just “Pretty Ok”.  I tend to agree, but for very different reasons than most people give.  How, then, did this season “save ‘Survivor’” if it’s not that well-remembered?  Hopefully, the analysis will demonstrate, so let’s jump on in!

 

CAST

When people DO rarely discuss the strengths of China, the cast is the first thing they bring up, and I cannot deny that there were some gems among them.  Far and away, one of the best characters is James Clement, the Louisiana gravedigger, who could be described as another Rupert Boneham (“Survivor Pearl Islands”) but with a bit more of an edge.  James was pretty physically strong, and had a certain morality about him, but unlike Rupert, that morality was not a hindrance, and as James showed up again and again on the show, that morality gradually diminished.  Still, James was a hard worker, got in some good lines and metaphors, courtesy of his “Southern Good-Old-Boy” upbringing, and was just a lot of fun to watch.  James is also remembered for his exit, but we’ll discuss that in the “Twist” section.  As to my take, well, it doesn’t differ much from that of the general audience.  James was my favorite of the season, and while my opinion of him has changed over time (due to his actions on the later “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”), at the time the show aired, he was pretty awesome, and I still enjoy watching him on this particular season.

The other audience favorite I have less time for.  Courtney Yates, the deathly skinny New Yorker who came in second overall, won the hearts of fans and producers alike by being snarky and making it incredibly far when it was clear she had no skills whatsoever.  She even managed to win a challenge, which people never stop pointing out.  I would like to point out that the challenge she won favored people who were pretty much weightless, so of COURSE she won, but to be fair, every challenge favors somebody, so good for her.  No, I’ll try not to be too harsh on her, but I have little time for Courtney.  Her sense of humor did not mesh well with my own, and since I didn’t find her snarky comments funny, they came off to me at least as mean spirited, which did not endear me to Courtney.  Further, while I’m hardly of the school of thought that says one has to be hard worker to win “Survivor”, the extent to which Courtney complained and was useless overall just rubbed me the wrong way, and I lost any and all patience with her.  I DON’T like Courtney, in short, and I think she ought to be forgotten.

So, those are the fan favorites, but let’s talk about some producer favorites.  Amanda Kimmel, the Montana nature guide, was at the time quite popular, given that she came back twice, and also for a while held the record for longest time spent on the show, having made the final Tribal Council twice.  She was also made famous for being TERRIBLE at said final Tribal Councils, but hey, nobody’s perfect.  For a while it struck me as a bit odd that Amanda was brought back so much.  True, I liked her well enough at the time, but she’s very bland.  A decent strategist, good in challenges, not much of a character to speak of.  However, it then occurred to me that it was rare to see a woman dominate this show in every way that Amanda did.  We’ve had strong women, physically, mentally, and socially, but rarely all three at once.  In a show in which men tend to dominate all categories, it’s good to see a woman triple-threat, and while Amanda is not the most interesting character out there, and while I personally don’t want to see her back, due to overexposure in previous seasons, I still like her.

When it comes to analyzing winners, and particularly final Tribal Council performances, Todd Herzog, the ultimate winner of the season, usually comes near the top of the list.  Todd was the strategic leader of the dominating Fei Long Tribe, and yeah, he was a good strategist, but with enough bite to his confessionals to make him better than your average winner.  Certainly I would never deny his strategic prowess, and whatever else I’ve thought about him, I have to give him credit for playing a masterful game, particularly with the final Tribal Council, where he managed to flatter those he’d betrayed into voting for him.  Todd was also a superfan, which always made me very happy.  While I liked Todd ok during the season, he wasn’t one of my favorites.  Partly this was the editing’s fault: his win was just too obvious.  However, like with Courtney, Todd’s attitude towards his fellow players, particularly how condescending he could be at times, turned me off a bit.  Not as much as Courtney, as Todd saved his snark for one-on-one interviews, which I respect more than talking to people’s faces, but it still rubbed me the wrong way.  Todd was not bad, by any stretch, just not one of my favorites.

If you want to talk about people who DIDN’T know their game from the get-go, the person you’d think of this season would be Peih-Gee Law.  Peih-Gee had a terrible social game from the start, and her strategic game did little better.  Still, to give credit where credit is due, Peih-Gee learned, and slowly developed a tight alliance, and ultimately became a power broker herself.  I respect this a lot more in later years, and I’m sorry to say I did not appreciate Peih-Gee enough in her time.  Still, I grew from finding her annoying at the outset to liking her a fair amount by the end, so I give her a pass.  Not the best character, but still pretty damn good.

Now to talk about the people who were famous at the time, but have since been overshadowed.  The biggest of these is Jean-Robert Bellande, one of the “celebrities” of the season (the other being Ashley Massaro, the professional wrestler, who is not remembered at all), who took on the guise of “villain”.  Jean-Robert’s elaborate plan was to come off as a lazy jerk early in the season, then slowly ease off the laziness and jerkiness over time, so as to come off as “most improved” at Final Tribal.  Even in my young, pre-strategy days, I could see the obvious flaw in this plan: first impressions last, and you could still be voted off very early.  Thankfully Jean-Robert stuck around for a while, and showed some hidden depths later (speaking Mandarin, which actually came in handy a few times), and he was something of a loveable asshole in my book.  Much promoted  was  Michael “Frosti” Zernow, at the time the youngest contestant ever, and parkour master.  Frosti was something of the Zhan Hu Tribe’s answer to James, and it was pretty cool to see him go, but he had little personality, and it’s easy to see how he was phased out amongst all these other contestants.

Even a couple of the early boots managed to get in on the enjoyable action.  Steve “Chicken” Morris still gets mentioned occasionally, if only for an over-the-top cry of “DAYUM!” upon being blindsided at the first vote, and crazy leader Dave Cruser was always good for a laugh.  Not the most memorable, but certainly good additions to the season.

Overall, I still like this cast ok.  Not as much as others, but then, I never quite liked the cast as much as others to begin with.  What’s caused the dropoff in popularity of this cast?  Why, despite being what most people consider the best aspect of this season, are they so rarely talked about?  Well, the answer to that is twofold: time.  We’d just come off “Survivor Fiji”.  Virtually ANY cast would have seemed better than that snoozefest of a cast, so it’s understandable that the hype would die out after a while.  Plus, now we’ve had other seasons with bigger characters and better strategists, that have kind of phased out China as a season.  The big one, in my opinion, is just how much unpleasantness came out of the woodwork.  I don’t know what it is, but China has a disproportionate number of scandals tied to it.  James’ performance on “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains” was considered hateful and earned him a lot of detractors.  Denise Martin, the fourth-place finisher who was sort of the “sympathy story” of the show, was well-liked and remembered until she lost the fan-favorite vote of the season.  Then, she complained at the reunion show that she lost her job because of “Survivor”, causing producer Mark Burnett to award her another prize, only for it to come out that Denise had lied, and that the job change was actually a promotion.  Denise did give the money to charity, but the damage was done, and her reputation ruined.  Even dear Todd was not immune, having recently gone to rehab for alcoholism resulting from attendance at “Survivor” after-parties.  Not the best images to project for your case.

However, for how average they may have been, however they may have fallen from grace, this cast deserves credit for one thing: longevity.  While a few sleepers were present, and so I didn’t talk about them, most had at least ONE defining trait, and the biggest characters lasted the longest.  You can get by on fewer characters if they stick around, and that’s just what this cast did.  For all that they don’t do it for me as much as others, give them credit for sticking around and still being enjoyable.

SCORE: 8 out of 10

 

CHALLENGES

Unlike most people, I think this is where China shows its strength.  Despite regrettably not setting a precedent for better challenges later on, China gave us a lot of great, epic challenges, contests of physical strength and cunning that had me on the edge of my seat almost every time.  The battering ram challenge, the boat brawl challenge, that meteor mallet challenge with that AMAZING (if pointless) bamboo tunnel!  Greats all.  Not to say that China is without flaws in the challenge department.  Things seemed a bit scaled back come the merge, and some challenges were simple to the point of ridiculousness.  One previous contestant, I recall, compared the first immunity challenge after the merge unfavorably with a Dr. Seuss book.  To be fair, though, if the challenges weren’t epic in scale, they were at least clever.  One that deserves mention, in my mind, is the final reward challenge.  Contestants used a replica of an ancient Chinese crossbow to shoot arrows at a board, attempting to hit their name.  The person whose name is hit the most wins.  Simple enough, BUT, everyone was not allowed to use their own arrows.  Instead, going behind a curtain, everyone gave arrows to the other four, distributed however they liked.  That’s really clever!  It reveals the pecking order in a more subtle way than, say, smashing that person’s effigy, and made for a lot of fun.

Yeah, there were a few stinkers, but overall, I simply LOVE the challenges of China.

SCORE: 9 out of 10.

 

TWISTS

This is another “twist happy” season, so I won’t bother with a clever intro.  Probst, in the opening narration, tells us that this is the first American television show “entirely filmed in China.”  Good for you, but so what?  Frosti being the youngest contestant ever is also classed as a twist, and was kind of a novelty.  Best of all, though, was the “nothing but the clothes on your back” twist, which I always enjoy, and I particularly liked this time as it led to several people lugging heavy suitcases up a steep mountain for no reason.  Ahh, schadenfreud.

After a welcoming ceremony at a Buddhist Monastery (which religious radio host Leslie Nease refused to participate in), the tribes were divided randomly, and each given a copy of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” to consult in the game.  A bit over the top, but a good way to work in some culture.  It certainly influenced the game, as it had the tribes “pick a leader”, which I always hate.  There’s a “Lead Role” every season, but you do NOT need an overt leader on “Survivor”.

In episode 2, we found out that Exile Island would not be back.  Instead, expanding on a twist from “Survivor Pearl Islands”, the winners of each reward challenge got to kidnap someone from the losing tribe.  Additionally, that person got a clue to the hidden immunity idol, which they had to GIVE to someone from the other tribe.  I actually really like this.  It makes the season distinctive, adds a new strategic layer, and got well-explored.  Yeah, I’m cool with this.

With the mention of clues to the hidden immunity idol, I suppose I should talk about the twist with the idol itself.  There were a few holdovers from “Survivor Fiji”, such as the idol needing to be played after the vote, and it being hidden at the tribe’s camp, but there was one major change that made the idol both a great and terrible twist at the same time.  Specifically, the idol was not hidden in plain sight, actually being a square with a Chinese Character on it that was attached to the archway that was the entrance to the tribe’s camp.  Or, as Todd Herzog put it “It’s those stupid bats on the freaky thing!”  I love the idea of an idol hidden in plain sight, and the clues for finding it were just the right balance of vague and clever.  Also, this square being the idol led to a funny moment later in the season, but we’ll talk about that in just a little bit.  For the moment, lets discuss the DOWNSIDE to the idol being hidden in plain sight, specifically the “hidden” part of the word.  While hiding the idol in plain sight is fun at first, the trouble comes in getting it.  You see, if the idol is in plain sight, when it’s gone EVERYONE sees it, thus eliminating the “hidden” aspect of it.  Part of what makes the hidden immunity idol fun to watch is the paranoia that results from trying to figure out who has it/if it’s been found.  If people can see that it’s been found, they can usually figure out who has it, which makes things less interesting.  Still, for what it’s worth, I still enjoyed the twist.

Episode 5 brought us something new, with fishermen arriving at the camps with a note for each tribe instructing them to select two members of the opposite tribe to join them at their new camp.  A pretty obvious, but fun, way to shake things up, and it was hilarious to see the Zhan Hu tribe (who were down on numbers) think they were suddenly going to have the advantage.  This twist directly led to the next, wherein the Zhan Hu tribe threw a challenge to get rid of former Fei Long leader Aaron Reisberger (one of the few snoozers of the season).  For once, the throwing of a challenge was not seen as a bad thing, and I enjoyed watching it happen, particularly as it led to the great next episode.  James, the other member of Fei Long sent to Zhan Hu, was kidnapped after the next reward challenge, and told Fei Long of the Zhan Hu plans to throw the challenge and eliminate him.  At the same time, Todd had FINALLY found the hidden immunity idol.  Correctly surmising that the idol at Zhan Hu must be in the same place, Todd gave James HIS idol, and told James where to find the one at Zhan Hu.  James would then help Zhan Hu throw the next challenge, use an idol, and vote out Jamie Dugan, who was perceived as the biggest threat for her social game.  Seems like a flawless plan, apart from Todd giving James the Fei Long idol, which was stupid and pointless.  However, it was made hilarious by the fact that Zhan Hu had a change of heart while James was away, and so was NOT trying to throw the challenge. The result was an indescribable spectacle that needs to be watched to be believed.  Needless to say, despite James trying to sabotage things, Zhan Hu won anyway, leading to the events of the next episode.

While James was out crabbing, Jamie noticed that the squares on the archway that had housed the hidden immunity idol were missing (James had accidentally pulled off the wrong one at first, as denoted by a blank backing), and so went looking.  She found the discarded useless square, and after rummaging around James’ bag in the dark, discovered his idols (though only through touch, hence why she didn’t realize the backing thing).  This led her to believe she had an idol, which she played at the next Tribal Council, leading to the first instance of a fake idol being played.  This, to me, is the highlight of the season, and is my favorite fake idol play, just for being the first.

Part of what makes this season so great is the next twist, which is that despite Fei Long’s numbers advantage and united front, this was not a straight Pagonging.  Todd got rid of threats, whoever they were, and this led to a number of good characters sticking around longer.  It added to the unpredictability of the season, so it gets a thumbs up in my book.

This was also the first season to have a reward challenge where one person sat out at the merge, and therefore did not get to go on the reward.  An interesting note, and fairly unique, but nothing major.

Things were fairly dry from here on out, but were sustained by the unpredictability of the votes.  It should be noted that despite only being a 16 castaway season, we were dealt a final 3 once again, which aggravates me.  Still, it was the first time that three people got votes at the final Tribal Council.  We also got a fake-out that the votes would be read in China, rather than LA, which was mildly entertaining.

Ups and downs abound in this twist section, but most were winners, and this was an unpredictable season, so I still like them well enough.

SCORE: 8 out of 10.

 

OVERALL

“Survivor” analysists often say that China was terrible as a location, but I have to disagree.  Sure, there weren’t a lot of water challenges, and things were often puzzle-heavy, but the location stood out, and we got some great challenges and art direction for it.  As to how everything blends together, there’s not much to say.  Most of the elements were pretty ok, and they come together, pretty ok.  I would have liked a more likeable cast, but for what we got, it’s not bad, and I still enjoy China pretty well overall.

SCORE: 32 out of 40.

 

ABSTRACT

China is a mixed bag.  It pales in comparison to some other seasons, but for what it’s worth, it’s a pretty decent watch.  Also, a lot of old contestants from this season come back later, so for the completionist, it’s a must-watch.  Even if you’re just a casual viewer, I’d say give China a go.  It’s not the greatest season out there, but it’s really entertaining, and odds are it won’t disappoint in the area of unpredictability.