What, is there no topic for this? Survivor is back baby after the longest break between seasons ever. A new cast, a slightly new look, and the same old Jeff.
Here are my random thoughts from the first episode in no specific order:
I’m glad there’s no overall theme to the season. Just “41”. We kinda need it to reset.
I like the Behind the Scenes view of the show. They’re doing it in the just the right amounts. And my wife was able to spot where Jeff left the advantage before they flashed back to it.
On the flip said, the “cinematic” slow mo shots were too much and unnecessary.
Also, we didn’t need the “here’s how my life has been a struggle complete with footage” scenes. MAde the show feel like every other reality show out there. Be better Survivor
I honestly don’t care about them dropping “Come on in guys.” But I don’t like the way they did it. I feel like Jeff was planning on dropping it anyways, but then put it on the players to make the choice for him. I was hoping they would’ve learned their lesson from Island of the Idols. If you want to do something, do it. Don’t make a player stick out their neck before they even hit the beach. You could tell no one wanted to answer him.
I think maybe the show introduced too many changes in one lump, but I can’t say I hate any particular one of them, will wait to see if/how they work out. I do think the ‘trade your vote for a chance at immunity once’ change might make for some interesting twists…unless we come down to another episode where everybody on a tribe simultaneously uses one or has a Hidden Immunity Idol or regular Immunity, like that CF a season or so back. That was ridiculous. You shouldn’t need a blackboard to explain to the audience What the Hell? just happened.
I’m indifferent to the disappearance of ‘guys’ – already seen a bunch of ‘anti-woke-ers’ ranting about how it’s totally ruined the show and they’ll never watch it again. But I very much like the much more variegated players. I have moderate face blindness, and in past episodes it seemed there always were a clutch of good looking young brunette guys and another of good looking young blonde girls and it would take me FOREVER to sort out who was who. Sometimes not until the herd was majorly thinned by eliminations. Don’t think I will have that problem with this season’s group.
So far I think I’m rooting for the woman who has her own “I’m being an evil conniver” theme song. She just better be careful not to hum it out loud in her victim’s presence.
I could really have done without the performative virtue signaling of “We can’t use the word guys anymore, guys!! We are sooooo progressive!” None of the women cared at all, but as soon as a man, Ricard, decided to play to the Twitter crowd, oh no guess it’s gotta go!
I absolutely believe that the possibility of the saving throw is what led to the various acts during the TCs in this episode. I think Shan was playing up the possibility of voting for Brad just to keep Sara from rolling the die. And I think Evvie was doing it too to keep Abraham in the dark by talking up “tribe strength”.
If anything it just encourages players to keep others in the dark. Also encourages misdirection where possible. Could be fun.
I’m not sure if I’m rooting for her, but I absolutely love that the show scored the song for her. I hope they keep playing it for any scenes where she is discussing strategy.
I really got thrown off by the slo-mo autobiographical segments. I absolutely thought they meant JD, in particular, was going home. But instead it was two players who got very little screen time (in my recollection at least).
Other highlight for me - the team with an NFL player literally dragging an anchor behind them trying to row their boat. I’m still giggling thinking about it.
Sure, they can remove “Guys” from the vernacular, but Jeff makes a bad toss and… “Sorry, man.” And that’s supposed to be okay?! Is it time to cancel Jeff???
Liking the show so far, liking the cast. The team that voted off the Cyber Security guy, they are gonna get smoked if there are any more physical challenges… until the tribe mix in about two episodes.
I was happy - for a minute - that nobody cared about “C’mon in, guys”. I guess all it takes is one opinion vs. 17 to make a change in a 20-year benign tradition. If they felt they must change it, they should have done it with zero hoopla; not so much as an announcement of the change. Just do it without drawing attention.
The water bucket vs. triangle puzzle challenge: I would have advocated for the triangle puzzle, suggesting that each member calculate it independently then come together to reach a consensus. Six people spending 4 hours on it should be very get-able. I’ll admit, though, that I thought the water carrying portion would be more difficult to complete than it turned out to be.
I hate, HATE the personal evil theme song. Almost as much as I hate devoting any time at all to the players’ personal struggles. You’re not special. We all struggle. There are so many shows I refuse to watch because this angle is played up so much. Survivor is, so far, stringing me along, but they’d better watch their step
The guy I would be wary of if I were on the green team is Brad, the guy who looks like Bill Walton. Anybody who doesn’t have enough sense to not talk about voting somebody off who is standing right in front of you is sure to screw up your plans at some point.
Jeff has been really open about how the pandemic let them rethink the show. Not having to film two whole seasons like they normally do gave them a chance to sit down and say “what needs to change?” and figure out how to make it better.
I believe the shorter schedule(26 days on the island) is NOT just a money saver, but is intended to up the pressure and reduce the down-time on the island. They really think that by pressuring the players more, they can make the game a little more exciting than some recent seasons.
I think there are more changes coming than has been said so far. Jeff really seems to love the show(he is showrunner now) and they didn’t just come back normal. They tried to find a way to improve an already successful formula.
My wife and I have watched Survivor Australia the last two seasons during the pandemic and honestly, it’s better than the American one in some respects. They cast kinder people, for one. It’s hilarious that Jonathan LaPaglia, the host of Survivor AU, is ripped(veins popping, etc.) and now we come back from the pandemic and Jeff is also ripped. Wait, did he watch Survivor AU?
Good diversity - no celebs or retreads. But, a guy whose husband is a pregnant male impersonator. And the pregnant ‘he’ will show up on family day? That’s a bit much.
I’d like to see more time on meeting the challenges of camp craft. What did they do for fire, food and shelter? The cutsie song reminds me of the woman long ago who sang her Survivor song as they rowed to the island. She was the first voted off.
I think it was a pretty straightforward case of targeting the person that targeted your ally. Abraham said Tiffany, so Evvie went after him. It turned out that she had more pull with the tribe than Abraham did.
Really in these early episodes unless you are very sure of your majority you should probably refrain from naming targets. You never know this early who has made a quick friendship, and by picking somebody you may make yourself a target. If Abraham just keeps his mouth shut maybe they go after somebody else.
Jeff was super lean and muscular, I thought. I don’t know that it was all that “woke”. I do think Jeff could have just started saying, “Come on in, everyone!” or “Come on in, survivors!” and not mentioned the shift. If asked online, he could have said they switched since he wanted to. Asking the players was a lame-o attempt to look like they were discussing it.
