As promised, time once again for the return of “Survivor” Retrospectives, but given the season we have to talk about today, can you really blame me for some reluctance here? I mean, we’ve got to talk about “Survivor Worlds Apart”! Look, I try to give each season a fair shake, and this is hardly the worst of the worst, but it’s pretty bad. Still, it may have some redeeming value, so let’s take a moment and look closely for it.
First, though, a reminder for those who have forgotten during the long hiatus, this blog will spoil the season for you if you haven’t seen it already. For those just interested in my generic, spoiler-free opinion, scroll down to the bottom of the page and read the section labeled “Abstract”. Otherwise, if you’re looking for an in-depth look at the season that contains spoilers, read on, as we begin our dissection with probably the most important element of any season…
CAST
Sometimes I struggle a little bit with who exactly is the big name from the cast, but this is not one of those times. If you’ve literally been nicknamed “Amazing”, both by the players and the fanbase, you’ve got to be the big name out of the season. Yes, we have nowhere else to start but Joe “Joey Amazing” Anglim, the jeweler who made pretty much everyone fall in love. Joe was your standard archetype of the young, strong good at challenges guy who was inoffensive and contributed a lot to the survival aspects of the show. Kids loved watching him compete in challenges, and adults loved how much of a breath of fresh air he was when compared to your average cutthroat “Survivor” contestant. Granted, Worlds Apart is not known for being the most cutthroat of seasons, but the need is felt nonetheless. Sadly, I think Joe’s personableness only carries him so far, and while he’s definitely a nice guy, it’s a poor outlook on the season that he’s seen as a major character. Don’t get me wrong, I get why he’s loved, and he’s loved for legitimate reasons. Really, the problem with Joe is not that he isn’t a good character, but a problem with what season he’s on. Worlds Apart is season 30 for the show, and while impressive, the trouble is you start to see the character archetypes over and over again. We’ve seen the type of player Joe is before, most notably in Ozzy Lusth (“Survivor Cook Islands”). Now, a new character in an old archetype can definitely work, but they need to have some aspect of their personality that really sets them apart. Here’s where that “Inoffensive” bit I mentioned earlier comes back to bite Joe in the butt. He’s a nice guy, but nice guys rarely make a big impact, and as a result, Joe does not manage to stand out amongst his challenge-winning brethren.
Almost as big a character, and arguably a much better representative for the season, would be our eventual winner, Mike Holloway. We’ll get into this more in the “Twist” section, but Mike is best known as the winner who won by actually pulling off a complete immunity run. True, he didn’t win EVERY immunity prior to the end, and there was even a gap where he was forced to use a hidden immunity idol. Still, with everyone gunning for him, his strategy was risky, and therefore his streak legendary. Like Joe, Mike was another archetype we’d seen before, in this case the straight-talking simple man. However, Mike brought a crazy edge to the archetype all his own, throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, and oftentimes getting good results despite the odds. This, for me, is what makes Mike entertaining. He’s not a mastermind; he clearly doesn’t have his strategy planned out that far in advance. But he’s willing to try, and dives in with such gusto, and such little regard for the possible drawbacks, that it makes everything fascinating. It helps a lot that not every plan of his succeeds. If it did, then it would imply that his competitors were idiots. Instead, he had a good mix of success and failure, which showed him as an average guy trying to do what he could to win. Thus, Mike ends up being a relatable, but fun, winner to examine.
Sadly, we now must come to a pair that, while not together in any meaningful way during the game, do go together on the grounds of being the main factors that drag this season down. Those two are Dan Foley and Will Sims. These two, I can fairly safely say, embodied no archetype that we had really seen before, but DID do a great job coming off like complete jerks, to put it mildly. Mostly this centered around belittling fellow contestant Shirin Oskooi (whom we’ll discuss later), but they also made off-color jokes, and worst of all, seemed to have no self-awareness about how they came across. It’s one thing to insult people when you just make jokes about everyone, yourself included, it’s another thing entirely when you think you yourself don’t stink. Now, I know what people are going to say: “The producers manipulated them! There were extenuating circumstances!” While that may be true, that does not excuse them doing those actions. And these two make it FAR. They’re not some annoying characters who get a quick comeuppance. Instead, they’re mean to be MAJOR PLAYERS in the season! And that, there, is the crux of the problem.
On a slightly happier note, we have Carolyn “Mama C” Rivera. Carolyn was the older, cutthroat strategic lady of the season, who brought a fun spin to things by appearing to be unamused at most everything. Sometimes she was genuinely unamused, sometimes that’s just the way her face looks. Either way, it made for a fun bit of game. It would be like any time on “Star Trek” where Spock was surrounded by zany antics, and had to remain straight-faced the entire time. It helped a lot as well that Carolyn added more than a bit to the strategy of the season, and for one known for zany antics rather than cold, calculated strategy, it was a breath of fresh air for the strategy fans among us. If it hasn’t been clear, I LOVE Carolyn. Yeah, I was a bit harsh to her in my blogs at the time, but in my defense, I was REALLY not wild about blogging this season, and quick to find criticism. Carolyn may not make the “Survivor” hall of fame any time soon, but for this season, she’s quite a good character I’m happy to have in the annals of this season.
Ooh boy. Rodney Lavoie Jr. has to come up next, and he’s one of the hardest contestants I’ve ever had to judge for this series. Rodney exists to be comic relief, plain and simple. He spouts one-liners, does impressions, and has many a colorful metaphor at hand for virtually any situation. Comedy is very relative, however, and unfortunately, Rodney’s comedy doesn’t really hit home for me. This in and of itself would not be too bad (and, being objective here, a lot of people seemed to really enjoy it, and even I got a chuckle out of his “damn birthday” bits), were it not for the fact that Rodney kept getting in our proverbial faces. Seriously, when we were trying to make sense of this season, Rodney would always show up to knock everything off-kilter, which got frustrating very quickly. On top of this, Rodney also had that annoying habit of thinking he was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and lecturing to the camera about his superiority over his fellow contestants. Again, I can take bad comedy, but have some self-awareness, and don’t be afraid to joke about yourself. So, why is it that I’m conflicted about Rodney? Well, out of the game, he softened a lot. He made jokes about himself, and demonstrated both a humility and a self-awareness that made him retroactively more tolerable. For me, this is a case where the edit REALLY didn’t do a character justice. Out of the game, Rodney is a fairly funny average guy it’d be nice to grab a beer with. In the game, as it was edited for tv, Rodney is an annoying, overconfident distraction who drags further down an already bad season. So, what do I rate, the Rodney I knew at the time, or the Rodney I know post-game (or, at least, claim to know based on interviews and other press)? My only real call is to split the difference, and say that Rodney is not the worst addition to the season, but hardly the main selling point.
That about covers most everyone you’ll hear talked about in this day and age from this season. Some would argue that I should include Hali Ford and Sierra Dawn Thomas in this section, but really, they’re only remembered because they appeared on later season. Granted, Hali had that moment she compared flipping in “Survivor” to the American Revolution, and while a fun moment, one moment does not a character make. As for Sierra… she was tall? Yeah, that’s about all you get out of her this season, so let’s talk about those characters who were big at the time, but have since faded into obscurity.
Top of this list as someone who arguably still gets some play today is our second boot, coconut vendor Vince Sly. Just from that intro, you know he should be someone memorable as one of those wild-and-crazy guys you see on the show every so often. For his part, Vince does a good job in his role. While crazy guy is an easy role to make your own, Vince added a creep factor that made him fascinating to watch. Personal space is really not a concept Vince is good at, and while I’m sure it was much harder to live with, it was a hell of a lot of fun to watch on tv. Additionally, Vince had a lack of self-awareness to add to his fun. I know I’ve said that’s an annoying trait in a character, but Vince’s relatively short time in the game, coupled with him 100% being the butt of the joke here makes it ok. He makes an early alliance with Jenn Brown (oh, we’ll get to her), ostensibly a platonic one, but then becomes OBSESSED about her seeming infatuation with the aforementioned Joe. His exit may have been deserved, but if we were denied this feud for the rest of the game, it really is a shame. I think it really was just that early exit that doomed Mr. Sly to obscurity, even if he is one of the great crazy men of the show.
Following in the footsteps of fun weirdos is Max Dawson, our resident nerd of the season. With his distinctive silhouette (seriously, look at that beard), Max was always going to stand out, but again, how to distinguish himself from the “nerd” archetype? By being incredibly weird of course! Apart from taking his cue from Richard Hatch (“Survivor Borneo”), and walking around naked all of the time, Max seemed to have no understanding of general social niceties, from no knowing when to shut up, to putting his foot in the pot for their drinking water (though I give him a pass on this last point, as he was TOLD to do so by his tribe for a stingray sting). Again, this could easily have been annoying, but with his short time in the game, coupled with his obvious good humor about the whole thing (seriously, the guy is nothing but cheerful the entire time), you can’t help but like Max, even if he is a bit of a helpless goober. Again, I think his relative lack of time in the game kind of doomed him to obscurity, and he certainly wouldn’t be the main draw of any season, but for what he brought, I think he did a good job.
Max’s partner in crime was the aforementioned Shirin, who really I think gets a bum rap these days. Shirin started out just as crazy, if not crazier, than Max. Need I remind you that this was the lady who watched monkey coitus, and then told the rest of her tribe about it in nauseating detail. And initially, Shirin seemed like a less self-aware, less interesting Max. However, what Shirin lacked in initial interest, she made up for in character development. Being spared by Max’s exit, Shirin was able to look at her game and attempt to develop into a much better player. By most metrics, she succeeded. Granted, by the time she did so, she was in the minority alliance, so it was too late to do much of anything, but the effort is there. Sharon upped her social game, talked strategy, and attempted to make big moves. She also gained a lot of sympathy, due to being the target of the aforementioned Dan and Will ire, but then got a great badass moment of denying Will a letter from home as the sole dissent. All this sounds like the making of a fascinating “Survivor” character, so why is she not remembered so much these days? Unfortunately, Shirin would return on the next season, and put simply, would not do so well. For whatever reason, this doomed her in the character department, and makes her forgotten today, which to my mind is a shame. She had a good story, good growth, and I think could be a power player if given another chance.
Now, I’ve been pretty positive on the forgotten players of the season. That ends here with the discussion of our last player in this category, Jenn Brown. Initially, Jenn seemed like a great addition to the cast. Young, athletic, and with a good head on her shoulders, Jenn seemed like a savvy player to root for. And she might have been, IF SHE HAD ANY INTEREST IN PLAYING THE GAME! Oh, but this wasn’t just moral conflict or apathy, no no no! Those might have actually been tolerable. Instead, Jenn had an open disdain for the game, and was not shy about letting other people know about it. This made her preachy and irritating. As fans of the show, we want to see invested people. Anything else is just a waste of a spot. The final nail in the coffin for Jenn is her ultimate (effectively) quit, thus consigning her to the realm of obscurity. For her apathy, good riddance I say!
As to those I think need more love… there really aren’t any. Yeah, I’m normally the first to complain about the fanbase being fickle, but in this case, while some people ended up forgotten despite popularity at the time, and could use more attention, I think the fans were spot-on. Those that deserve to be remembered (for good and for ill) are, and those that aren’t are consigned to obscurity. Good on you, fanbase. That said, the cast for this season still does not hold up well. There are a few good standouts, but in the overall history of “Survivor”, they’re mid-level characters at best. Then, when your discussion of a cast inevitably centered around bulying, you’re not setting a good example, and really dragging your season down.
Score: 3 out of 10.
CHALLENGES
Unlike the cast, I can actually be somewhat positive about the challenges this season. None of them area really the stuff of legend, but here the challenge department started experimenting a little. There weren’t that many repeat challenges this season, which is always a plus, and where we got familiar concepts, we started getting shake-ups to them. A lot of challenges involved choice or some other cerebral aspect in the middle, as opposed to at the end, of the challenge, which makes the challenges stand out in a good way. As I’ll discuss in the “Overall” section, this season had a theme of “Shipwreck”, and they actually did a decent job of incorporating this into challenges. Again, not the stuff of legend, but it helps the season stand out from the competition, which deserves a decent score, at least.
Score: 6 out of 10.
TWISTS
While not immediately apparent from the title of “Worlds Apart”, this season was centered around what’s commonly referred to as the “Collars” twist. This being a three tribe season, the tribes were divided based on their status in life: White Collar, Blue Collar, or No Collar, for those who didn’t fit neatly into either category. With the reusing of locations, I get the need to theme your seasons, but this is the first one that felt really forced. Something like Brains Brawn and Beauty makes sense. It’s a logical division people might subconsciously think about throughout their day. But collars? Yeah, not exactly the most natural of divisions. However, all that could be forgiven if the twist was unobtrusive, and the cast interesting. Sadly, as I’ve discussed, the cast was sub-par, and we seemed unable to go an episode without Probst forcing the idea of “collars” into the discussion somehow. We tried to forget, but he would not allow it. Hence, this section starts out on a low note.
Things don’t get much better with a “leader” twist. Right out of the gate, each team has to pick a leader, who then picks a co-leader. The purpose of these leaders is not immediately apparent, but after arriving at camp, it transpires that these leaders must go off and make a choice: either get more rice for the tribe, or a clue to an idol. And this would be kind of a fascinating twist… FOR ONE PERSON! I get the need to change things up, and a adding a co-leader certainly fulfills that requirement, but it also disincentives making any choice but taking the rice. An idol clue for one person is a big advantage, possibly work screwing the tribe over for. Between two people? Not so much. Sure, So and Joaquin on Masaya (the “White Collar” tribe) did do it regardless, but since both left before the merge, I’m going to say it was not a smart idea.
Moving on to the realm of GOOD ideas, we have our first immunity challenge, which is a primary example of the “choices” I was talking about earlier. At first glimpse, this is your standard “obstacle course with a puzzle at the end” challenge we’ve seen a bunch before, but with some twists. The challenge requires a ladder, which must be freed in one of two ways: either undo a bunch of knots, or unlock three locks. The former is consistent, but takes a decent amount of time. If you’re lucky, the latter might not take much time, but could also take an inordinate amount of time. It’s the latter choice, however, that’s the really great one, in my opinion. Rather than one puzzle, each tribe has a choice of three. Each puzzle has a different number of pieces, but the fewer pieces there are, the more obscure the puzzle gets. For all my kvetching, this is a great way to start off the season, getting us insight into how the teams work together, and spicing up an otherwise bog-standard challenge.
Our first player-induced twist comes with an episode two blindside. This is a Nagarote (the “No Collar” tribe) tribal council, and this tribe had been divided between two threesomes. There was the “Normal” threesome of Joe, Jenn, and Hali, against the “Weird” threesome of Will, Vince, and Nina. This in and of itself makes for an intense Tribal Council, but adding in Vince to the mix only makes things crazier. A split vote plan gave the “weird” threesome a chance to take control, but paranoia about Will’s challenge ability (he’s not the greatest) made him rethink things, leading to the aforementioned blindside of Vince. While definitely a loss, it was a very entertaining Tribal Council.
Not much else happens until the tail end of episode four, when we get a tribe swap. If you think they’re going to do it in a new and interesting way well then, you don’t know modern “Survivor”. Yeah, it’s just randomly done, with the new Nagarote getting screwed in terms of challenge ability, because we’ve never seen a situation like that before! At least they brought interesting dynamics. Unlike the new Escameca, where original tribe members had a clear majority, Nagarote was a 3-3-1 split between the old Masaya and the old Nagarote, with Kelly being caught in the middle as the one. Unsurprisingly, she was courted by both sides, but there was more intrigue than just that. Rather than the sides being solid, Carolyn was sick of dealing with Max and Shirin (who went to the new tribe with her), and thus Max was blindsided. Not the most exciting defeat ever, but better than a normal “Which side will they go to?” question.
Adding further interest, Nagarote overcame their relative weakness to win the next two challenges! Granted, the immunity challenge was thrown by Mike to make sure Kelly stuck around, but still, a fun watch. This culminated in the blindside of Joaquin, in a power grab by Mike. Joaquin was voted out over the more athletic Joe, due to the former developing a relationship with Rodney, which Mike saw as a threat. Again, an intriguing episode, and one that would have consequences down the road. Don’t expect this kind of competence much, though, it’s not coming again.
And so we come to the merge. Now, as merges go, this was decently exciting. Some good inter-alliance play, but really, with Joe around, you knew whatever alliance he was in would be targeted by everyone else, thus putting the former Nagarote (save Will, but including Shirin) on the outs. However a well-timed idol play by Jenn saved her, and ended up eliminating Kelly. Sorry to see her go, since she was a big part of the strategy of the season, but it at least temporarily stopped the season from being predictable. After this, it would be normal vote after normal vote. There would be some drama about Jenn quitting, but since she didn’t, it was mostly just a straight Pagonging of the alliance with the strong guy in it.
I say “mostly” because the auction did come with some excitement this season. First, there was the new twist: Will bought the first mystery item, which turned out to be a big mistake, as said item eliminated him from the auction entirely. He would get a secret stash of food , which does shake up the auction bit, but we’ll talk about that in a minute. More important is what happened with the family letters and advantages at the auction. Carolyn, Dan, and Mike all agreed to pay for the letters from home, keeping them at the same level for the future advantage. Mike, however, went last, and attempted to reneg on the deal. I like the gustiness of this move, and fallout was well deserved. Mike got read the riot act from everyone else, and then made the particularly dumb move on caving in. Now, not only did everyone still hate him, but he had no advantage to show for it. The three had to draw rocks for it, with Dan getting the advantage. While definitely fun from a chaos perspective, it was tinged with the negativity that, as I’ll discuss, so affects this season.
And what was this advantage everyone was bidding on? An unexpected extra vote! Yes, for the first time, one could choose to vote twice at Tribal Council. A decently powerful twist, and one well worth implementing, though I’d say later seasons would do it better. As a prototype, though, it’s all right. Shame it had to go to Dan, though.
So, let’s talk about Will’s secret stash. Correctly realizing that it would be difficult to keep hidden, Will shared the stash with the others. Shirin made the unfounded, but not unreasonable, accusation that Will had hidden some of the stash for himself. If Will had simply argued back this would barely have been worth mentioning. But no, Will instead has to make everything personal. See what I mean about the ugliness of this season? On the plus side, this did lead to a badass moment for Shirin. Will, upset at not getting to bid for his family letter, asked to sit out the immunity challenge for it. Prost agreed, but only on the condition that the rest of the tribe agree as well. Shirin stood up and effectively said no. Not malicious, but a good bit of empowerment.
The Pagonging continues until only Mike is left on the outs. This is where Mike’s streak starts up, beginning with an idol play that blindsides Tyler. Tyler was a good strategist, but never really relevant to the season, so this is not a bad start to Mike’s reign of terror. At this point it’s a downward slope to Mike’s win, but we do get some shake-ups here and there. In the penultimate episode, Dan uses his votes to try and save himself against a possible coup. In response, Carolyn plays her idol, thus causing the very coup that Dan feared. Then there’s the fact that Mike doesn’t just want to win, he wants those he perceives as having betrayed him (Rodney and Sierra) to suffer, manipulating things to make sure they exit the game. This did cause some good alliance shifts, but with such a foregone conclusion, it’s basically one blip of niceness over the course of a boring conclusion.
On paper, Worlds Apart sounds better than it actually is. True, there’s a lot of Pagonging going on, as well as a disdain for actual strategists. However, all that could be forgiven in the cast was pleasant to each other. But they’re not. They just go on being jerks to one another, and it just ruins the otherwise good points of this section. I still stand by those challenge twists, though.
Score: 4 out of 10.
OVERALL
Despite not taking place in the South Pacific, Worlds Apart somehow managed to have the obstacle of “Generic South Pacific Island” going against it. Impressive enough in and of itself, but more impressive is how the season triumphs in its adversity. You see, rather than the plastic look of a lot of more recent seasons, Worlds Apart really went in for the hand-made look. They even got it into the challenges! One particularly memorable one had contestants using machetes as carrying platforms. That’s both clever, and impressive! All this is undone, however, by the merge tribe name. “Merica”? Really? You couldn’t come up with anything better?
Sadly, this is where the praise ends. Worlds Apart was not doomed in concept, but it needed a REALLY strong cast to pull through. What we got was a bunch of idiots who didn’t care about the game looking down on those who do. When your audience is mostly made up of hardcore gamers, this PROBABLY isn’t the look you’re going for. On top of that, everything felt SUPER personal this season. This was a cast unafraid to go on the personal attack, and it really dragged everything down. If that wasn’t there, I could look back on the season with apathy, maybe a little respect. Instead, all I see is disgust, and that’s really the biggest problem of this season.
Score: 14 out of 40.
ABSTRACT
Worlds Apart is just simply an unpleasant season. Maybe if you’re someone who really likes watching interpersonal fights, this season’s for you. Otherwise, stay away. The only thing I could say to recommend this season is that it does get a fair number of returnees, but since they’re all pretty much blank slates, it’s hardly necessary to understand future seasons.
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
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