Coming to you not-live, from it’s new time slot! It’s the return of “Idol Speculation”, my knee-jerk opinion that EVERYONE is entitled to! And hoo boy, do I have opinions. Jumping ahead a bit, this premier felt lackluster, particularly compared to the past couple of seasons, which have generally grabbed audiences right out of the gate. I understand that after 33 seasons, a lot of plot points are going to feel derivative, but this season in particular feels like it’s just copy/paste from other, better seasons. All this one brings is a couple of twists (that, admittedly, I actually like), and the “Millennials vs. Gen-X” theme, which, in the words of Phillip “Special Agent?” Sheppard (“Survivor Redemption Island”) “Annoys me greatly”. Yes, that’s how low we’ve sunk people. I’m quoting Phillip. God help us all.
So, getting to the episode proper, our weak introduction begins with our usual vehicle porn, and even that’s underwhelming. Just our contestants riding on boats, admittedly unaware of the theme of the season that awaits them. Unlike other seasons, where I can complain about the fact that it should be OBVIOUS to people what the twist is from their buffs, this time they actually WAITED to hand out the buffs until they hit the beach, and mixed up the tribes in the boats, so there’s no logical way anyone could have guessed the twist. We of course get our sound bytes from the iconoclasts of each tribe, but even that feels underwhelming, mostly because we’re pretty much hearing the same sound-bytes from the same people we heard from in pre-season marketing. Instead, I’m going to focus on the location. Oh, not the geographic location. We’re in Fiji this time, which we tried once before, and it didn’t go so well. But I’m talking about the specific island here, because this island is familiar to myself in particular. You see, in my quest to understand all things “Survivor”, I watch a number of “Survivor” spinoffs. Amongst these was “Endurance”, a Discovery Channel show that was basically “Survivor” with teenagers and much less backstabbing. It was interesting, in its own way. I bring it up because, sure enough, “Endurance” had a season set in Fiji, and it was, in fact, the island where “Survivor” is now. There’s something ironic about “Survivor” taking a cue from a show that was itself taking cues from “Survivor”. Anyway, enough nerding, lets get down to brass tacks.
Our intro is a shortened version, but a long-form one is available online, and it makes me happy! Why? Well, you see, for the past several seasons, due to the absence of Russ Landau, longtime composer for the show, we’ve been getting introductions that are either a mishmash of previous themes, or straight up previous themes with a location-specific soundbyte on the front. Now, however, they’ve figured out that if they just take a base theme and add other music cues into it, you can effectively create an original theme for yourself. So HUZZAH! Original theme songs are back! Now if only they’d actually SHOW THEM!
After our tribes are divided, Probst naturally needs to get sound-bytes about the twist from the cast. This amounts to a lot what we’ve seen in the pre-season marketing, although with the addition of dirty looks from the opposite side. Michaela in particular gets in a nice one after the oft-mentioned “Participation Trophy” rant. Still, we do get a couple of comment worthy-moments. Adam endears himself to me by talking back to Probst when addressed, which is always fun, and two people manage to make fools of themselves in some way. You see, Probst gives the birth year ranges for each tribe, singling out the youngest on Vanua (the millennials) and the oldest on Takali (Gen-X). Now, Probst doesn’t name names, so these people can easily just not own up to their age, and hide any disparity that could make them an early target. But no! Both Will and Paul immediately own up to their ages, thereby potentially (though not actually) putting targets on their backs. I can give Paul something of a pass, since most people could probably have guessed he was the oldest on Takali, but I think Will missed an opportunity here. True, he does LOOK like he could be the youngest, but given how deep his voice is, he could have lied about his age, and not singled himself out so much.
Anyway, in keeping with our sticking to tried-and-true “Survivor” staples, we have a time-limit scramble for various items to kick things off, this time without stealing items from the other mat (I’m looking at you, “Survivor One World”). We’re also just looking for things in the jungle, but we do shake things up enough to make this a decent start to the season. Most items are free-range, meaning they’re not tied to any one tribe, but a couple are, and that’s where the twist comes in. Both tribes will have to make choices between two sets of items. First, we have a choice between a hammer and a bunch of cooking supplies. Both tribes correctly choose the cooking supplies, since utility aside, more is always better on “Survivor”. The second choice, between fishing gear and chickens, is actually more of a 50-50 choice at least to me. Probst framed it as “Short Term vs. Long Term” with chickens being immediate food while fishing gear feeds the tribe for 39 days, but as Taylor pointed out (in one the few times he will be correct this episode), chickens lay eggs. Therefore, it seemed to me a choice of less output for less effort, or more output for more effort. Not really a wrong choice in the bunch, though Takali would probably disagree. Also of note with this twist: it was interesting to see how this showed tribe dynamics. Right from the get-go, Vanua is obviously the much more unified bunch, making decisions with the majority of people present (to Michaela’s chagrin), which Takali only had a select few make each decision. Shows how unified each team is.
Our second twist comes in the form of an envelope, passed over by Lucy, but picked up by her sharp tribe-mate Jessica, who really shines this episode. I’ll come back to her later, but suffice to say, this is just the start of Jessica’s MVP status so far. In any case, neither tribe seems to have a clear advantage from the scramble, so we head off to see if camp life can give us some strategizing. Sure enough, after introductions are made, we get our first repeat plot point. Someone really loves Malcolm Freberg (“Survivor Philippines”) because we start a bro-down up in here! There’s some focus on building the shelter at Vanua, but “Figgy” (the millennial Jessica, not the awesome one), Taylor, and Jay bond over their mutual free-spiritedness. They pull in Michelle for their efforts, but don’t seem much interested in doing anything beyond that. I compare this Malcolm’s bro-down on “Survivor Caramoan”, but it actually mirrors more closely Reynold and Eddie’s original alliance on Gota from that same season. And it’s just about as smart now as it was then. Basic math seems to elude these new-age hippies, since while they do at least REALIZE they need to pull in two more people to have a majority on a 10-person tribe, they don’t really take any steps towards actually, you know, DOING IT! Action, people, action.
It’s speech time over at Takali, with Paul emphasizing brains over brawn giving them the advantage, and Ken mentioning his off-the-gird lifestyle to his tribe. I said before the season started that this lifestyle might keep Ken on the outs with his group, and it should be noted that later on Ken will be “left out” of the majority alliance, but I actually really like how Ken frames his time in the jungles of Maui. One of my “Survivor” edicts is that “It’s not what information you reveal, but how you frame it.”, and Ken’s reveal here really follows that to a T. This information about his life could easily have made him seem a flake and not fit in with his tribe. Instead, Ken emphasizes that it’s a way for him to help them in camp, particularly in building a kick-ass shelter. Of course, this doesn’t stop people from telling him how to do it anyway, but as reveals go, this is about as good as Ken could hope for. Hats off to him, he does seem to understand the game somewhat.
As shelter construction begins, we see that Rachel is, sure enough, out of her element int his game, not doing much work but talking constantly, and visibly annoying her tribe. That’s about as far as it goes, though, so let’s get back to praising Jessica. She goes off and reads the envelope that she’d found, which reveals itself as a new twist called the “Legacy Twist”. Basically, it’s a “Whosoever holds this sword on Day 36 is rights wise king of ‘Survivor’”. Ok, so it doesn’t say EXACTLY that, but the point stands, whoever has the envelope on Day 36 gets an advantage. Barring that the advantage is a challenge advantage, this is actually a pretty cool twist in my eyes. Especially with tribe swaps, it can often seem like the early part of the game matters very little. Of course, it matters with or without tribe swaps, but with them, it often feels lost. Now, there’s an advantage to playing hard early on, and rewarding the observant, as well as giving people yet ANOTHER incentive to stick around. My only minor quarrel is that, should the bearer be voted out, the twist gets “willed” to someone still in the game. Now, I get why the show is doing this. It’s a new twist. It needs to be shown off. Since you can’t guarantee who’s going to be left on Day 36, and who’s going to find the twist, you want a clause in there to make it stick around. But how much cooler would it be to see someone under the pressure to stick around so as to make use of a potentially game-winning twist? Seems like it cuts the drama out somewhat. Still, we shouldn’t have too much trouble. Jessica seems well-placed in the tribe, and makes a ballsy statement about still being here on Day 36. Good for her.
Back at Vanua, we see that the “Bro-Down” is not quite as dumb as they seem, at least in terms of the women. Figgy notes that she’s playing the guys, which I guess is slightly encouraging for their prospects, but the fact that they’ve pulled in no one else, and are being remarkably blaze abou the division, says to me that they’re not really thinking too hard about the game. Sure enough, Hannah and Mari both quickly come to the same conclusion: the bros are dangerous. They round up the remaining six to counter the threat, and we can already see which way this tribe will be swinging.
Speaking of swinging, this is a happy tribe, no? Skinny dipping is the order of the day, with only Mari and Adam voicing concerns that their shelter isn’t built yet. They don’t make too many waves about it, and no one seems to hold those comments against them, but it’s still a division. Sure enough, as night falls and the “children” are called out of the water, their shelter is still not built. They cobble together something that looks decent, but collapses after less than half the tribe is on board. Will declares it “The Most Pathetic Shelter in ‘Survivor’ History”. Not sure I agree with you there, Will. True, the collapse is something of a setback, but at least the shelter LOOKED completed. I still remember the makeshift teepee of the Viveros Tribe on “Survivor Exile Island”, whose roof consisted of unwoven palm fronds played out in about a foot-wide circle over the aforementioned teepee. At least you HAD a completed roof.
And here, we must pause. As I mentioned in my pre-season cast assessment, blogging does not pay the bills, and so I must leave and get ready for the job that I have that does pay the bills. As work tends to frown on doing side projects rather than your job, I knew I wasn’t going to get this done in one shot, hence my general thoughts at the top of this blog. All that you see was written right after my viewing of the episode, with no input from outside sources whatsoever. Hence, I shall return in approximately 9 hours, after my shift is over.
Returning from that horrible “real world” thing, I find to my pleasant surprise that we’ve upgraded from rehashing “Survivor Caramoan” to rehashing “Survivor Cambodia”. Not that I have anything against “Survivor Caramoan”, but it’s hard to beat “Survivor Cambodia”. In any case, we see the return of Stephen Fishbach (“Survivor Tocantins”), posing as one David Wright. Evidently, Stephen/David has been working on his game since his last outing, as he is now able, with some difficulty, to break a small stick in half. His gaming subtlety, however, has not improved a bit. David talks to Chris and Bret about potential alliance building, and when that seems like a non-starter, tries to put it in their heads that Paul has a hidden immunity idol. The fact that both men are clearly no interested does nothing to dissuade David from pushing these points over and over again, proving that David is maybe not as self-aware as we had hoped. I’m all for his style of gameplay, but on “Survivor” you have to adapt. If you’re trying to talk to people who don’t want to talk alliances (at least not with you), you change your tack. Either find new people to talk with (though on this tribe, that may be hard to do), or change up how you’re talking with people. I still like David for how self-effacing he is, but the fact that he can’t grasp a concept this simple is a major strike against him.
Day 2 dawns with an oddity: a tree mail gift of a tarp. Normally this would elicit a rant about how easy they’re making the show, etc, etc, but not today. You see, a tropical storm is a-coming, and while “Survivor” does endeavor to push contestants to their limits, they try not to kill them. Don’t believe me? Well, there are foreign versions of “Survivor”, and on them, people have died. A man participating in the Bulgarian version of the show had a heart attack during a swimming challenge and drowned. Perhaps more famously, a contestant on the French version of the show died after being okayed to go into the game, despite having some sort of tropical disease. You’ll notice how neither of these versions is on the air anymore. Yeah, despite what some critics will say of the genre of “reality tv”, we’ve yet to descent to the point of killing actual people and airing it on national television. We’re not that cruel. Which is why, despite what the hard core internet survivalists will say, I’m totally ok with Probst coming in and taking both teams away from their beach. Yes, it takes away from the “survival” part of “Survivor”, but to be honest, for most fans of the show, that’s not what we care about. We care about the gameplay, and not having people die can only improve the gameplay. Yes, it is a “Survivor” first, but apart from that, it’s really not anything special. They come and pick up the tribes, Takali weathering more of the storm due to being picked up second, and they keep them safe. What I WILL criticize is them evidently leaving camera-people on the island. They’ve got shots (MOVING shots, meaning there HAVE to be people operating these cameras) of the destruction of the two camps, which look cool and all, but what about the poor camera-people? Yeah, they aren’t on screen, but their lives are no less important! Save them as well.
Oh, and I do have to complain slightly that despite Probst telling Takali “Personal items only”, we clearly saw Figgy taking the chickens from Vanua. Guess they matter more than the people operating the cameras.
Getting back to the destruction of the camp, we get some comments from CeCe confirming that yes, there was real danger, before we get more of David screwing up again. He tries exactly the same alliance building tactics on exactly the same people and it goes about exactly the same as it did before. The only difference is that this time, David gets an inkling that maybe, just maybe, the people who have made it clear that they don’t want to be in an alliance with him, don’t want to be in an alliance with him. Worse, they’re not talking about getting him out for being annoying. David falls back on plan B, which is “find a hidden immunity idol”. Normally I’m disdainful of looking for an idol when there’s alliance building to be done, but in David’s case, I feel like that avenue is exhausted. So please, look for the idol some more! They can’t vote you out any more than once.
Vanua is in similar disarray, but Takali had a tree fall on their shelter, so they got top billing. Still, our resident non-stereotypical millennial Zeke decides that enough is enough. He rallies the troops and whips camp into shape, even starting fire with the “Rub two sticks together.” method. Impressive, but guys, what are you doing? Don’t you know that the millennials need to be the lazy, scheming clowns and the Gen-X’ers need to be the hardworking organized group? Remember, you need to fit into Probst’s preconceived notions of what defines your respective generations!
CHALLENGE TIME! And boy, have we got a good one for you today! After dutifully returning their tarps (the tree mail they came in having ominously warned that if they failed to do so, more would be taken from them), we find out that both teams will have to get through a rope crawl, untying four clubs as they go. They must then make their way through a rope tunnel and cross a balance beam before carrying a crate of puzzle pieces to the finish. Then, two tribe members try and solve the puzzle, with the first puzzle solved winning immunity. This sounds like your standard obstacle course. Not that big in scale, not all that exciting. True, but here’s where it gets interesting. You see, at two specific points in the challenge, these being the rope tunnel and balance beam, the tribes may use their club to smash a mask, indicating that they would like to make that part of the challenge easier. Half of the rope tunnel goes away, and the balance beam just about quadruples in width. The catch? The puzzle at the end can have 50, 60, or 70 pieces. You take no shortcuts, you do the 50 piecer. You take one, you use the 60, and both the 70. Choice almost always makes a challenge a lot more intriguing, and this is no exception. We see how the tribes think and strategize, and it can make things more back-and-forth than you’d think. Also, jumping ahead a bit, I love the fact that despite how millennials have been branded as “lazy” by the show in general and Takali in particular, they use less shortcuts overall then Takali. Not that I fault either tribe for their strategy, as I’ll explain in a minute, but it does seem funny to me. Really, the only complaint I have about this challenge is that it’s a bit short, and even that’s mainly a nitpick.
So, naturally a challenge this cool has a kick-ass immunity idol to go with it. And Probst is revealing it… HAHAHAHA! No, seriously, where’s the immunity idol? You’ve clearly just stolen the cheap tiki I got at the beach one summer to use as a prop in “Survivor” audition videos. You know, the type of thing that no one in their right mind would buy. So yeah, you’ve got to be doing better than that.
Really? You’re not? Sigh… I guess as “Worst Things about an Episode” go, having a cheap-looking immunity idol is relatively minor, but still, it annoys me. Not greatly, but it annoys me.
Oh, and while there WAS some mystery of who was going before we heard the tribe’s strategizing, since both had had some sort of strategy talk pre-challenge, the strategy talk right before the challenge means there’s no way Vanua loses. True, Takali was the most likely loser anyway, since they had named targets where Vanua did not, but the talk here solidifies everything. Vanua just has Zeke talking about needing to at least shortcut the balance beam. A wise move, given that the dread balance beam has crushed the challenge hopes of many a tribe. Takali, however, has a very blatant scene of Rachel stating that she’ll be the one to whack the club on the mask and do the puzzle. If you;re not reminded of seeing Semhar volunteer for the basketball portion of the first immunity challenge on “Survivor South Pacific” then welcome! You must be new here! Or you never watched “Survivor South Pacific” for which I could not blame you.
As I alluded to earlier, Takali takes both shortcuts, while Vanua only does the balance beam, and for both, that makes sense. I’d chastise ANY tribe that didn’t do the balance beam shortcut, and as Probst mentioned, Takali has a lot of big guys who would have difficulty fitting through the rope tunnel. True, Vanua has Zeke, but for the most part, they’re skinny mini’s who can afford to make the puzzle easier at the end, especially since that leg of the challenge matters most. Add in Rachel and David choking on the puzzle, and an easy win for Vanua is in the books.
Back at Takali, most of the heat starts off on Rachel, for being annoying and for being a large part of that challenge loss. Standard stuff, but David and his idol hunting have also made him a target. Jessica brings him over to ask if he has an idol or not, and here’s where we see the full awesomeness of Jessica More than anyone on either tribe, she seems to have her head in the game. She was the one who found the “Legacy Advantage”, and we see here that she seems to be the crux of Takali, talking to people on the outs to take things to her advantage. And, as we’ll see later, she did all this while injured. This woman is a beast, and looks to be a highlight of the season. Plus, she’s playing her tribe really well. She’s clearly a schemer like David, as she talks about how IF he had had an idol (he admitted he didn’t), she would have allied with him. Unlike David, though, she has the sense to approach things cooly and calmly, as we soon see that she’s part of the core 3 with Chris and Bret. Here we get the alliance spelled out, as they mention Rachel, CeCe, Ken, and David as being on the outs, with Rachel and David being primary targets. Ok, Rachel and David I get, but when did CeCe and Ken fall into this category? And when were Sunday, Paul, and Lucy brought into this main alliance of Takali? This is only a minor misstep, since there’s only so much time to show an alliance forming, but I feel like we were missing a step. True, we got that Chris and Bret were a power couple, so to speak, and there was some indication that Jessica and maybe Paul were in on the take, but suddenly we’ve got a full majority out of the blue, and seemingly with little rhyme or reason. Mind you it’s a good alliance, but I’d have liked to seen more of its formation.
Oh, and one misstep for the alliance? They talk about splitting the vote between David and Rachel, which makes no mathematical sense. If those four bond together, then their four votes trump the 3-3 split you’d create. Fortunately for that alliance, the four on the outs don’t actually do this, but had they done so, things could have been disastrous.
Tribal Council, both in looks and in content, is pretty much bog-standard for the show at this point. Nothing particularly bad about either element, just that it’s been done better other places. Those torches look pretty cool, though.
Actually, the content of our first Tribal Council could in many ways be seen as a microcosm for the episode as a whole. We get pretty much what we’ve seen on a lot of other seasons, but with one or two pleasant moments thrown in. David jumping at being asked a question by Probst, only to have the whole tribe exclaim in unison that he’s scared of everything, is pretty hilarious. I did like that the whole tribe (sans Lucy) admitted to being scared of being voted out first at some point. It showed good self-knowledge on their parts. Oh, and we see how Jessica is even MORE of a badass, having done pretty much all of her biggest accomplishments while having a double eye infection! You go, girl!
Our vote ends up being more unified than you’d think, with CeCe and Rachel being our sole dissenting votes (for David and Sunday, just to add some chaos to things), and while there is a split between CeCe and Rachel from our majority plus David and Ken, things still end up predictably going for Rachel. And nothing of value was lost. Even she doesn’t seem to think so, weathering that first boot confessional very well. Good for her. And good for the tribe. We didn’t get enough of CeCe to definitively say that she was a better choice to keep around, but early on, getting rid of the non-contributing outsider is a tried and true way to start off the game. Unexciting, but it works.
I feel kind of bad saying that this episode suffers from being season 33, but it’s true. Apart from that immunity idol and the “Millennials vs. Gen-X” theme, there’s really nothing bad about this season, and a lot of the plot points we’ve seen here developed into really good seasons in the past! But that’s the trouble: we’ve seen them before, and with little to stand out, this premier just falls into the category of “ok”. And before you say that it’s impossible to have an opening episode WITHOUT rehashing plot points, bear in mind that “Survivor Cambodia” and “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, the two seasons IMMEDIATELY preceding this one, had fantastic and original premiers. So yes, it is possible. It just didn’t happen here.
Lackluster or not, this is a premier, though. Thus, it is once again time for…
TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5
Nothing in this episode itself stands out enough to merit doing a list about it. Instead, let’s celebrate the return of the original introduction with a list of the best and worst introductions! For the record, I’m including both music and visuals in this list. I went back and forth on this, but since most people AREN’T huge nerds like myself, most probably haven’t heard the music detached from the visuals, so it makes sense to do them both together. Also, I’m excluding the introductions from “Survivor Cagayan” through “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, since as mentioned, they don’t technically have original music in them, and it doesn’t seem fair to judge them against original compositions. With that said, let’s get to the list!
TOP 5
5. “Survivor Fiji”: Since the return of the original music is mainly what I’m celebrating here, normally music will get a higher weight in terms of the intro than the visuals. If it were SOLELY music, this season would easily make bottom 5. However, those visuals man. Some of the best the show ever had. As Dalton Ross has put it, “It’s hard to top leaping Fijian warriors”. It loses a few points, though, because this season had a change of font from the usual style, and frankly, it just didn’t look as good. Those leaping Fijian Warriors, tho.
4. “Survivor Micronesia”: In a similar vein, it’s also hard to top Micronesian warriors hitting bamboo rhythmically. What this season might lack in visuals compared to “Survivor Fiji”, it makes up for in music. The loud clashes and shouting give the whole thing a dramatic feel, and something about the background music gives the whole season an air of grandeur. For something that was at the time rumored to be the final season, this is pretty impressive. It again loses points because it too has the stupid font, but like with “Survivor Fiji” the other elements are just too strong to ignore.
3. “Survivor Thailand”: Both of the “East Asian” seasons had an advantage in the music category, since they can more easily be distinctive as a result. Both this season and “Survivor China” had good intros, and it was a close call between the two. In the end, though, “Survivor China” had the aforementioned hated font, and that gave “Survivor Thailand” the edge. In an era where the introductions weren’t that distinctive from one another, this one stands out, and in a good way. Mind you, the season isn’t that good, but you watch this intro, and you think “Survivor Thailand”. And that, after all, is what a good intro should do.
2. “Survivor Pearl Islands”: Ya’ar, matey! One mustn’t forget that establishing the theme of a season be the major point of an introduction as well! And what could be more pirate-y than the introduction to “Survivor Pearl Islands”. It loses a few points for inconsistency on how the tribe names are displayed in the introduction, but you hear that music, you see those visuals, and you immediately want to go grab some rum, a good ship, a crew, and pillage a village. Put simply, this introduction is fun, and well worth the number two spot on this list.
1. “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”: If “Survivor Micronesia” had elements of a grand tribute to seasons past, this introduction OWNED that category. It keeps things simple from the base theme. Add a nice deep filter onto things, and some clashes, and you’ve got a pretty good intro as well. But they also added slow-mo at just the right times, and some sort of filter over the visuals, and you’ve got something, distinctive, unique. Something that says “This is the season of seasons”. I’m one to disagree when people say this is the greatest season, but judging on introduction alone, I really can’t blame them.
Honorable Mention: “Survivor The Australian Outback”: This introduction epitomizes the idea of “Running with a theme”. We’re doing a season in the Australian outback. DIDGERIDOO EVERYTHING! Yeah, this is basically just the original show’s theme with a TON of didgeridoo slapped on it, but as someone who plays the didgeridoo, I can’t help but have a soft spot for it. the visuals aren’t half bad either, what with some gorgeous shots of the outback, and people jumping off of cliffs in time to the music. Because of its simplicity, I can’t put this one on the list proper. But it’s got SO MUCH DIDGERIDOO!
BOTTOM 5
5. “Survivor Samoa”: Technically speaking, there’s very little wrong with this one. Some good visuals, nice native chanting, a war-club closer, and the first introduction to ever feature Jeff Probst in it. Mostly pretty standard stuff; might have won a spot on the top list were it not for one thing. Maybe this only irks me, but near the end of this intro (right when you see Jeff Probst), you very clearly hear the word “Samoa” being sung. Given that it’s the location of the season, I guess it’s understandable, but for me, it just seems corny, and takes me out of the moment.
4. “Survivor Gabon”: Like East Asia, Africa opens itself to a good, creative intro, and while “Survivor Africa” didn’t make the top five list, it was a close contender. The same cannot be said for this season. This was the first season in HD and I feel like they were trying to show that off visually. It’s hard to describe, but something just feels wrong about the shots of the cast we get. They’re too smiley, too NICE, which doesn’t even fit the season. This was the season of lovable misanthropes, not nice people. And the native music, for whatever reason, just sounds like it’s trying too hard. It overrides everything, and just feels cheap.
3. “Survivor South Pacific”: This one is kind of a stand-in for all generic themes (seasons like “Survivor Redemption Island” and “Survivor One World” would also fall into this category), but it’s the visuals that put this one in particular on the list. The order in which the contestants are shown bothers me. I know that returning player seasons like to emphasize those players, but putting Ozzy (“Survivor Cook Islands”) and Coach (“Survivor Tocantins”) before even the tribe names is a bridge too far. In a season that actually had good NEW contestants, we were stuck with effectively seeing “Nope! These old guys are the ones you care about!” was a slap in the face. Plus, Brandon Hantz came after the “One Survivor” part. That’s just wrong.
2. “Survivor The Amazon”: I’ll give this one credit: it does fit the location. Sadly, panflutes are not the stuff of legend, and it just makes this intro lackluster. Plus, the yucky filter they put over everything makes the season look unappealing.
1. “Survivor Cook Islands”: Remember that horrible font change I keep ranting about. Yeah, this is the season that started it, and I’m not happy. A generic island theme on top of all this make this choice a no-brainer.
Honorable Mention: “Survivor Nicaragua”: This one escapes on a technicality, as neither theme that it has can really be considered “its own”. You see, an original theme WAS composed for this season. It had a mariachi theme, and it did not give the intro an epic feel, which is a major misstep. However, I can’t really judge on that theme, since it was never used on the show. Instead, they used the “Survivor Borneo” theme, which made the season feel derivative, and on a non-tribute season, felt out of place. But if I blame it for that, then I’m blaming it for something that wasn’t technically its own, and that isn’t right either. No matter what, this introduction sucks, but because I can’t define HOW it sucks, it stays off the list proper.
And there you have it! A lackluster start, but hardly bad, and there’s plenty of room for good stuff to grow from it. Granted, the next episode preview isn’t promising, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Only not as long this time! While the time you see the blog being posted now will generally be the “regular time” from now on, next week is an exception. I need to work first shift next week, meaning I’ll be home in time to watch the show when it airs, and blog accordingly. YAY!
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
idolspeculation 