Not to mention 5 straight weeks of survivor puzzle time, rather then real athletic IC’s like in past years. When the actually had physical challenges- ie hauling the dummy around the island. Team geezer got womped.
The next 3 weeks are going to suck. Boring predictable IC’s are coming. Why they bothered to merge is beyond me.
To agree with another poster, this is the first year that I am bored with it.
While I really try to avoid being a “me too” poster, this comment…
… leads me to say:
Me too.
That was a pretty predictable episode.
I was also suprised by Helen’s singing voice. I am pretty sure Brian did meet his wife at work I have seen some interesting pictures of her. I thought the video tape she sent was a little weird.
sigh Me too.
How anyone could possibly be surprised by last night’s vote is beyond me. The ex-CGs would have to be completely brain dead not to boot Ken at first opportunity. I hope Jake manages to pull something together and break up the remaining CGs, but it would have been foolish for any of them to hook up with him while he still had his two loyal tribe members.
I think Penny goes next week unless she gets immunity, and then there won’t even be any pretty women to look at.
And Granny, don’t worry, nobody is looking at your “clavage”.
Sun rises, alarm goes off, radio plays “I Got You, Babe” as Bill Murray awakes, tribe talks about how tired, hungry, dirty they are, how TC was a bummer … We’ve all seen this movie before.
Only hope for entertainment now is the possibility of cracks within CG that Jake and Penny can exploit. Don’t count on it, though - Jake is more annoying and therefore next, and Penny is the Last of the Mohicans, then Brian and his “kingdom” assuming he and Ted can’t keep their partnership secret, then Ted and Granny.
Helen’s singing voice wasn’t a surprise. Remember her rendition of “Sleigh Ride” with a grinning Ted clapping along, out of tempo, a few weeks ago? She wins over Clay. Wake me when it’s over.
I am far from bored with this season’s show. C’mon, there’s been some great stuff so far. Big Ted vs. Ghone-dia, Granny’s all-around wackiness, the stupidity that calls itself Knobb, the complete disintegration of Soup Guy, the fake merge that hoisted Shii Ann on her own petard, and the great way that Brian has been playing the game. And the coolest survivor of all, Magilla. This is good stuff, people.
I will concede, however, that there is not a lot that is particularly new about the game. I recall saying as far back as Africa that Burnett needs to shake up the format of the show. The winning strategy has become obvious: fly under the radar. That’s essentially what most contestants try to do these days, and it does not make for the most compelling TV. I mean, how boring were the people on Soup Guy this season? I think Erin’s boobs had more lines than Erin herself. Plus, since UTR works, the few dramatic, over-the top characters tend to get booted early these days.
So how do you make it better? Burnett needs to do something to destroy the UTR strategy. People get too comfortable in their tribal alliances, and there are too few good opportunities to jump ship, since tribal voting blocs essentially control the course of the game. I’d suggest seriously mixing up the tribes in the early going. I kind of like the concept of two tribes, one beach. Do that with all 16 contestants and I think you could have some very interesting stuff going on. You could even randomly select who’s going to be on which tribe every week, keeping the numbers even. That would start the end-game strategizing much earlier. See someone who’s making too many friends? Don’t worry, you will get the opportunity to vote them off.
One other suggestion, which I think I also brought up around the time of Africa: Film and show it in real time. They’re on the island for 40 days, with each episode a 3-day chunk of events. Film and edit everything as you go along, and air that episode the day after tribal council. That way, you give the show an almost live feel, and it would really bring back a lot of the what’ll-happen-next feeling that made the first show such a surprise hit. Watching the show now, we already know that one of these folks is the winner, everybody’s safe and sound back home, etc., etc. How dramatic would it have been if everybody had learned about Mike doing a header into the fire while he was still in the hospital? What if the final TC were live and unedited, so you’ve got these two people who are actually starving trying to convince the people they kicked out to give them a million bucks?
Now THAT’S good television!
minty, sure, some of the characters are, well, characters, but what is boring me is the game itself.
MB will always be able to find interesting people. That is not enough to keep me interested in the game. The fake merge was the only thing to keep the gears in my brain turning. Everything else is the same thing, over and over again. I’m sick to death of all the alliances, both fake and real.
I think they should really shake up the format, but alas, they won’t because they can’t afford to mess with success.
Interesting shake-up proposals, minty green. It would be cool to have two tribes, one beach—and shuffle the tribes every 3 days. Just draw lots to see who’s team you’re on for this IC, and keep tribe vs tribe all the way to the final 4.
I think they should just dump the people there and proceed to not tell them anything. Let weeks go by without them seeing Jeff, and make sure the camerapeople don’t say a word. By the end they would be screaming at the cameramen to tell them something.
Either that, or set up a Truman show type of island with hidden camera everywhere, and tell the contestants that they’ll only be taped during interviews and challenges. Then we’ll see how they really act. 
Just one thing. I really, really hope that the next two episodes don’t come down to tribal lines. I mean, enough already. It was tedious enough the FIRST time it happened (Kucha/Ogakor). Next time they should go with three tribes just so this doesn’t happen again.
I don’t see what was so bad about Jake’s stories. Look, when I’m stuck on a big rock and constantly fearing for my continued participation in this contest, I don’t give a flying monkey how truthful the guy’s tales are, I’m just happy to have a little diversion! And if that actually improves his position, well, more power to him. This is Survivor, dagnabbit, ya gotta take 'em any way you can.
The only thing Shii Ann did wrong was not making the jump when she had the chance. The hell with projecting the wrong image; you’re dead in the water as it is. Make the bold, decisive move, and you at least go down swinging. What might have been…
Is it just me, or was Erin incredibly stacked? I mean, when you compare those to the rest of her body…oh, and my view on this is that while I do believe in better living through science, there is such a thing as diminishing returns.
As for projections…I’ve said it before, I’ve said it again: It’s a huge, drawn-out lottery. Nothing more. Trying to predict who’ll win $1 mil. here is like predicting who’ll win $20 mil. there. Probably not gonna happen.
I wonder if she’s mad while watching the shows now: They really didn’t exploit her assets that much. It seemed like the cameras leered at Sarah a lot more last year.
I thought it started with Kucha/Pagong. In fact, I thought it made “pagonging” a verb.
Didn’t see it, dammit. I take it that the tribes finally merged and there was only one person with immunity, right? Who won?
Did everyone get to see home movies or just the winner of the reward challenge?
I wasn’t too suprised to hear that Ken got the boot although I thought Jake would ally with Ken to boot Penny off and try to make it an all-guy final 4.
Try DavidB’s own recaps over at RNO.
Brian won the reward challenge. Everyone saw a clip of their own tapes, and then they all watched all of Brian’s tape and learned he has a hot but brainless wife, a grand piano, and some nice cars in the garage.
They merged, and Clay won immunity.
IMDb’s entry on Brian, his wife, C.C., and the Movie that they starred in together (her in the title role).
Hee hee. They were also together in this one. I need to order Cinemax. 
To shake it up a bit, I think the easiest way to do things is do away with the initial tribes entirely. Start with all 16 on a single beach, and have individual immunity from the start. For the first few immunity challenges, they could have multiple individual immunities, ie the first four finishers get immunity in shows one and two, then three for the next two, and so on. Or they could have shared immunity–the winner of the immunity challenge gets to pick one or more other people to also be immune, regardless of where they finished.
CG has a big enough lead that they might pull a Jerri and dump one of their own if someone annoys them enough. I don’t think it’s going to happen, though. It looks like another repeat of the Tagi alliance from the first series, which was the first use of the strategy.
Nitpicking, it was Tagi and Pagong.
I thought it was funny that they edited some instrumental backup for her. I kept expecting the camera to pan around and show us the band.
Am I the only one who though Brian seemed to have a lot of thinly-veiled hostility toward his wife? He made a couple of mean-spirited cracks. I get a bad vibe from that guy.