Gameshow General Election results absolutely definitely hand on heart this weekend, sorry. I will remember not to do it in May, my busiest time of year, in future (shows basically written up, hosts yet to do!).
Enjoyed the Survivor finale (and by extension, the season) a lot, I’ll update this later this evening with some thoughts so you can have the rest of the day spoiler free.
Hang on, let me try something – discussion after the cut.
Ooh, that seems to work.
Let me be clear, my preferred winner would have been Parvati because a) she was fun, b) she played Russell numerous times with hilarious effect, c) she was strong in challenges, d) she was targetted from the off and e) she was fun.
But I’m very happy with the Sandra win, she nailed her anti-Russell colours to the mast from an early stage, bided her time, and struck right when it mattered.
And what of Russell Hantz? I’m so glad Jeff Probst fought against his playing to the gallery during the reunion show – he’s absolutely right, a show where the audience get a proportion of the votes is a different game: It’s Survivor UK Panama. Or the Dutch or Belgian part of Expeditie Robinson, I forget which. Or Big Brother. The point is, it is not the game people sign up to, and it’s not like he hasn’t been handsomely rewarded by being an audience favourite, he’s doubled his money with Sprint Player of the Season polls. There is no doubt that Russell is a tremendously entertaining aggressive player but it’s also no surprise that his arrogance lets him down when it really matters with the jury. He’s a smart move-making player, and as a viewer I love him, the big (short) troll, but I love his comeuppance moments even more.
Right that out of the way, what can we look forward to in Nicaragua? We’re being promised “exciting and innovative challenges”, let’s hope the innovation is more like the coconut kerplunk from Samoa and not “well instead of having a physical element and THEN a puzzle element, we’ll do a puzzle element and THEN a physical element”. There is no doubt that cutting back to averaging just over one challenge per episode is disappointing, presumably it’s easier and cheaper to fly out a few extra contestants and pay them a few thousand dollars prize than it would be to construct and film seven or eight extra challenges.
We’re also promised “something that may surprise them all” – I predict either unhidden immunity idols or a large tiger. I like the added element the hidden immunity idol brings to the game, but I do think it’s been overdone in the last few seasons – do they really need immediate replacing everytime one gets used? Failing that, I always quite enjoyed Exile Island as a twist and hope to see its return sometime soon.
Given that the season hasn’t started to film yet, I think it’s only fair that the surprises haven’t quite been revealed yet. Don’t want the contestants to find out just yet!
Yes, that is entirely what speculation is!
Apparently the coconut kerplunk took over 3 hours to play, when they like their games to be around the 30 minute mark on average. They found that frustrating.
Yes, I read that on Jeff Probst’s blog. But what is our mantra? The viewer doesn’t care about how difficult it was to film, they’re just interested in the end result. DEAL WITH IT, JEFF.
Many thanks for using the “Read more” jump to hide spoilers; I’ve only just got around to seeing the show this morning. More use of this spoiler-prevention technique in future, please!
I’d like to think that Russell is deliberately playing a very long metagame and trying to set himself up as showbiz’s Survivor’s perpetual-extremist Russell Hantz who might crop up elsewhere in future; glad he wins America’s Player awards and that America does want to see someone go all out like that. I wish someone had asked the question of the final three “What would your victory mean as a legacy for future Survivor players?” as a Russell victory clearly sends the message “do whatever it takes”, which is the way I’d like to see the game played.
I enjoyed the series, but will probably not bother watching in future unless I get a consensus opinion that there are one or more contestants at least as watchable as Russell. Without him, there ain’t that much show.