In MY perfect world of reality mediawhores it does…
OK, I think I’m finally settled down enough from my tremendous annoyance of last night to respond coherently to this thread.
In what ways - I mean, seriously, give me one way - did Todd play a better game than Amanda?
For my part, I was terribly frustrated by the outcome last night because it upset what I have always enjoyed about Survivor - the sense that many different playstyles may result in a win, and that therefore anyone can win. I do not think it was possible for Amanda to win this season of Survivor. From a gameplay standpoint, she outplayed everyone else in the game, Todd inclusive, using a coherent strategy that she executed to perfection. She was effective physically both in challenges and as a participant in camp. She was a decent person and generally not mean, spiteful, or crabby in view of the other contestants. There is literally no way she could have played better, and yet she didn’t win. Why not?
Todd, we are told, played well and was a strategic mastermind. What were his strategic decisions? He formed an alliance with Amanda, Courtney, and (later) Denise, decisions for which he and Amanda were ultimately equally responsible.
Well, he organized the ejection of Jean-Robert, which although surprising was not a particularly great strategic coup. Jean-Robert had no friends, no alliances, no prayer of winning the game, no particular physical strength or coordination. He was a lame duck, floating on his own, and he could have been dispensed with at any moment. Voting him out at the time they did was a big mistake on the part of the T-A-C-D alliance (as Amanda observed at the time), because it opened the door for Peigh-Gee to slip through the cracks. Peigh-Gee was a far bigger threat to win than Jean-Robert, and voting off the latter before the former - Todd’s primary strategic contribution - was thus a needless risk, which Todd wanted to execute because: (1) he wanted to demonstrate how “clever” he was; and (2) everyone hated J-R and couldn’t take any more of him.
So that’s element one of Todd’s strategy. Element two was giving two immunity idols to James. This was an incredibly bad strategic move. Without Amanda to organize and execute James’ ouster, Todd and everyone else very likely comes in second to James. So not only was Todd’s second major strategic move a bad one, but it was a bad decision from which he had to be saved by Amanda.
The rest of Todd’s strategy was pretty much cut-and-dry, and was applied equally by Amanda, Courtney, and Denise - pick off everyone outside their alliance according to the degree to which the target was a danger to win.
So, our “mastermind” coordinated one needless and badly conceived booting, and made a second decision that probably would have cost him the game had Amanda not cleaned up his mess.
And, bottom line, although he did make it, Todd and his “schemes” were in constant danger. He was always target one for the minority alliance, and had there been one bad slip, Todd would have been the first to go. He received votes, and had James played his HII at the TC in which he was booted, Todd goes home and his game is over. Todd’s strategy kept him on the razor’s edge the entire game, and it was only good fortune - and Amanda’s timely intervention - that kept him around. And he plain old stunk at the physical aspects of the game.
Now compare to Amanda. She was just as essential an element of the original 2-person Todd/Amanda axis as Todd. I’d argue that her comparatively calm approach to the game helped keep the ultimate 4-person alliance from collapsing under the weight of Todd’s constant paranoia. She was the glue in her main alliance.
But she was hardly riding coat-tails. The ejection of James was her work, beginning to end - right down to getting Peigh-Gee firmly on-board with the plan to make sure James didn’t catch the vibe of what was happening and play one of his idols. She methodically eliminated physical threats until she herself became the physical threat, and then, down the stretch, when the whole group was tired and weak, won three of the final four challenges and both of the last two immunities (including one pretty grueling reward challenge).
Just as important, she kept herself out of the risky spots. She was never in any danger, precisely because she always kept not one but at least two layers between her and the vote. Had things gone wrong with the plan to oust James, Todd would have been gone, but I’ll bet you dollars to donuts Amanda would have replaced Todd with Peigh-Gee and continued on her merry way the following week.
So why did she lose? I think her awful performance at the final TC was part of it. She should never have apologized for participating in the ousters, as her participation in those things was the reason she deserved to win. She should have told Denise, that big nasty hypocrite, to go fuck herself.
I think a healthy dose of sexism was a part of it, too.
Oh, well.
Interesting! I wonder if Burnett is going to take back his 50 grand? Probably not, since it would turn into lawsuit time, methinks.
I really, REALLY hope neither Rob nor Amber is on the next Survivor. Frankly, those two have been on my TV at least three times too many now. I’ll give them credit for making a living out of being famewhores, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it.
The next Survivor won’t start on Feb. 12 – that night’s going to be Big Brother and the return of Jericho, after the fan efforts (sending 20 tons of nuts) to get the show renewed. Survivor is always on a Thursday, anyway, and that’s a Tuesday. My guess is February 7 or 14, to take advantage of what sweeps there will be with the writers strike on.
And while I, too, would prefer to have another Amazing Race, I suspect that there’s just no way they can get another one set up that quickly. It’s not like building a house and locking a bunch of idiots up; it requires travel around the world finding locations, setting up tasks, etc., and I suspect is incredibly more complex. But we should have another TAR by late spring, I hope, assuming that they’ll do another primarily Southern Hemisphere route so they can run the majority of the Race in warmer weather.
Not to disparage such bastions of truth as Sucks or TWoP, but if that’s a press release, why ain’t it in the press? Google News gives nothing.
Re: lunch lady. That press release looks legit, it is up on what appears to be the school web site here. (warning, that site appears to be buckling under a crush of traffic this morning.)
I think this is mainly it - it was probably the worst jury performance I can remember. She looked sad, bewildered, and unworthy. She played down her strong points (ousting James, staying out of the line of fire by putting Todd there, winning the final two challenges) and up her weak points (making it seem like Todd made all the decisions).
Also, she didn’t understand the importance of ego in how the jury votes. If she played that up to James maybe she gets his vote. If she had placated Denise before booting her (instead of lying to her) maybe she gets her vote. Todd had a plan to win the jury - manipulate people in order to boot them and then make them feel good about losing to such a “strong” player. This got him JR’s vote directly, and probably helped with James and PG too.
Slightly off-topic, but why (and tell me if the writer’s strike is the answer), would CBS run Big Brother and Survivor concurrently? I’d think they hook the one right on the tail of the other like they did from this summer into the fall.
He got more votes from the jury than she did. :rolleyes:
Not necessarily true. Had James played the HII, it would have been a tie between PG and Todd. Who knows what would have happened then.
Well, true. Which is why my enjoyment of watching the entertainment in question was reduced. I have previously - in every previous season - been able to understand the jury’s vote, and consider it a de facto expression of who played the best, even when I didn’t agree. But this year… I don’t know. If the outcome is going to be basically random, as this year’s outcome appears to me, then they’re welcome to their game, but there’s nothing particularly interesting about watching it.
Thanks, squeegee. There’s a Google news entry now as well.
Let’s not overlook Jeff questioning Denise about the mullet! And that she responded it allowed her to be more womanly for her husband (complete with a cut shot to him nodding hungrily) was more than I could take.
Mark Burnett should show up at her job with a scissors and a camera… take back the check and snip off that mess.
Not happy with Toad winning, but as others have said Amanda blew it by playing a better manipulating game than Todd, but then trying to act apologetic, and not actually owning up to it. So in the end he stayed far truer to himself and that is what got him the million.
I would have LOVED if at least one of the finalists had refused to answer Jamie's catty "say something nasty about the other two" question. The rest of the Jury might not have responded well, but to see the look on Jamie's face when someone came back with "I will not play your silly game" would have been worth the million. Ghod, I feel sorry for Eric, dating that little b**ch.
While I didn't like the hairstyle, I was shocked to find out how attractive Courtney was with a few pounds on her.
As for fe-mullet, I do hope Burnett takes back the 50,000. After accepting a trip on the coolest reward ever, and twice failing to pay her benefactor back, playing the "poor me, I should win because I'm so pitiful" card, then lying about what happened afterwards, she has proven to be as ugly in the inside as she is on the outside. Courtney was right, she does suck at life :pEspecially since the short for work excuse really doesn't fly when we find out she is, and always has been a janitor. Janitors don't have to wear hair nets.The fact that Todd’s sister, and her pregnancy, didn’t come up at the reunion leads me to believe that she did indeed miscarry. Which puts another weight on Courtney’s karmic scales…on the “biggest bitch on the planet” side.
And no car was given away this season.
I was surprised that the subject of Amanda’s bum being pixillated all season didn’t come up. They talked about Courtney’s weight and Denise’s mullet, but not the single most intriguing question of the entire season? :dubious:
Would the contestants have seen any of the shows when the Reunion show was shot (I don’t recall if it was “live” this time)? Would anyone there have even seen Amanda’s blurry butt, or know what someone was talking about if it was mentioned?
Well aren’t you special.
Survivor’s kind of a weird game in that the only objective measure of being “good at Survivor” is: winning Survivor. You can be honest or scheming, nice or bitchy, strong or weak, but in the end there are only two things to do to win: 1) get to the end 2) get votes from the Jury. And once it comes down to #2, #1 is moot, because all three options got there equally well. Thinking as a Jury member, Courtney’s “I deserve to win because I got this far” doesn’t really mean much, and I’d be surprised that she got more votes than Amanda, except for the fact that Amanda completely imploded at the end.
Maybe it was exhaustion or starvation, but it seems that Amanda, for all her strategy before, had nothing left at the last two tribal councils. Todd was eloquent, friendly, commanding, and explained things well. Amanda was speechless, apologetic, and floundering.
I thought Amanda could’ve easily won with a tactic of “I’ve been just as scheming as Todd, but didn’t have to obvious about it to do so. I used him as my shield to deflect attention from myself while we worked together to oust those that could beat us. I had several moments where I considered taking him out so I wouldn’t have to face him now, but kept him around because I was confident the jury would see we both played the same game, but I played it with subtlety.” That and a better handling of Denise would’ve won it.
I’m not terribly mad that Todd won, because he followed through where Amanda didn’t. I did like him early on, before he started to flail in the endgame. But in any case, he won, therefore he deserved to win.
The reunion was live, so they would have seen the shows. I, too, was hoping Jeff – or even Amanda – would mention the blurring.
You don’t know the half of it. 