Heatmiser, I had a similar impression: we may have been withheld information about Lex and about his interaction with other players to make the show more interesting. Or not; we won’t know more than we know now.
And this may be the case with any interactions you see on the show. It may be shown that the women were supportive of Christy and we were shown out-of-context comments to build tension, as if nobody really liked her where the opposite may have happened. Dunno.
There is now. 
When I opened this thread, I thought the point was for us to do impressions of the Survivor (cast? team members? castaways? . . . guys?) whatever they’re called.
So I’m typing this post naked.
And ?
Well, since the only thing I know about the show is the Richard Hatch, the winner of the first show did things naked. . .
Never mind.
Got it.
I thought it was the best premier episode of Survivor that I’ve ever seen. It was the first time I felt I really got to know the characters in the first show. I do hate that Ryan got the boot, though. He was my favorite on the guys’ team. All in all, I think this is going to make for a great Survivor series.
Slacker - here’s Jenna the swimsuit model - she looks a lot better cleaned up, with makeup, airbrushed, etc. From the size of her she may be used to eating very small amounts of food each day and may get along well without feeling malnourished.
http://www.stuffmagazine.com/sex/studies/index_jenna.asp
I think I prefer Shawna for all around good looks and a nice body, but Heidi has an amazing stomach and a nice waist-to-hip ratio but a freaky face.
I was pulling for the women to win, since too many of the guys just seem young, dumb and full of kumbaya.
If someone has a disability, it is indeed YOUR responsibility to adapt to him/her. Because, of course, they CAN’T adapt to yours.
Some musings:
I liked Roger. He’s a leader and probably used to bossing young, cocky, muscular, wolf whistlers around.
I really liked the guy who was openly scheming. I think it was Rob.
It was hysterical how Jeff Probst was deliberately trying to aggravate the contestants. “Come on, women, it’s a simple word game, not a freaking Rubik’s cube!” and “Well, it’s official, men. You’ve lost your commanding lead.”
Deana rocked. I like her a lot. She’s the only one with half a brain on the women’s team. And she looks like she could single handedly build a fort. Her comments about having clean buffs while they have no shelter was a complete crack-up. So true.
What the hell was Housewife Janet expecting, the Amazon Hilton? How could she not realize how brutal the environment was going to be? Has the woman ever gone camping? Now imagine camping without all the stuff that says “Coleman” on it!
How come the women took 5 hours to build a fire when they had KEROSENE???
And was it just me or does this Roger look a lot like Australia’s Roger? And does Heidi (the blonde with the big boobs) not look like she could be Brian’s (Thailand winner) twin sister?
Oh, yes, and the woman who boiled water for LAUNDRY should have been taken out into the middle of the croc-infested water and dumped in.
Impressions…
I wondered why the women didn’t use some kerosene to light the fire. It reminded me of this old joke: You have a candle, a camp stove, a match, and some wadded-up paper. Which do you light first? The match. Five hours to start a fire? Not using the kerosene baffled me.
I noticed the “comedy music” when they showed the women trying to get their camp together.
The Amazon is one place I would not want to play Survivor. The first thing I would do (after starting a fire) is make a platform so I could get off of the ground. The second thing would be to make a shelter. Why did the women’s team have so much difficulty with that?
Doing laundry at that early stage is stupid.
The men were astoundingly unenlightened. They were acting like a bunch of Bubbas. Yes, they organized their camp; but their sexist attitude was nearly too much to bear.
Overconfidence can cost you the game.
Why were the men scooting across the balance beam? Hell, I have two bad knees and I could have made it across on my feet! I suspected the women would be better than the men, as I’ve heard women have a lower centre of gravity. Good comeback. Ferrous made the point about touching. I hadn’t thought of that when the men were going across, but when I saw the women stabilising each other on the beam I thought that was a good idea.
The tarantula. I wonder how many of the women realise they’ll probably have to eat one?
Insects. The men did not seem to be bothered as much as the women. Looks like creative editing to me.
Johnny L.A. - how do you eat a tarantula? Do you have to skin it?
I thought the extra 30 minutes were crucial. I didn’t watch the last 2 seasons simply because the premier episode wasn’t engaging, and I didn’t have a clue who anyone was or their personalities. (Also, the strategies were a little tired.) I think that’s all changed with the men/women setup.
I’m excited for this season.
Predictions: Despite being shown up last night, I think the men can pull it together and bring a majority to the merge. Embarrassment can be a big motivator - as can an adequate shelter (vs. the women’s pitiful effort at same).
Munch: Last time the tarantulas were boiled. The contestants’ SOs were to eat them whole.
How do I eat a tarantula? Happily, I have not had the experience.
Well, I for one thought that was fun. Actually, looking back at it now is more fun than watching it was.
Whatever is good or bad about splitting by gender, an undeniable good is that they finally mixed something up, toying with the by-now-tired fromula of the past few.
And I found it interesting that both genders came off looking worse. The guys - what a bunch of clueless, narcissistic mimbos. But, they were more effective at setting up camp than any previous tribe I can remember.
And the women, I can’t recall any prior tribe being LESS productive. Should be fun next week when they get wet.
The Amazon looks like a miserable place to be. Bet we see a lot of folk looking the worse for wear pretty soon.
Does it seem to anyone else that they left out the middle - a lot of really young kids, and a couple of older ones on each team. Where are the 30-45 year olds?
Couple of guys who HAVE to go soon - Dan, and the restaurant designer tool. My faves there were Roger, Butch, and the triathalon coach. The computer guy should provide a couple of laughs. The rocket scientist reminded me of Val Kilmer for some reason. Could he be more humorless? But he does seem to work hard.
On the women’s side - few impressions other than the older attorney seemed to be the only one with any clue. And the blonde bimbo was somewhat more than eye candy. And I guess the two who went fishing, tho I’ll personally get tired real quick of the one chick’s gospelling, praying, and allelujahing.
The deaf girl could go either way. Unless she develops one or 2 close friendships quick, she’ll be gone.
I liked the 90 minutes. Of course, I taped it and was watching it later, forwarding thru the ads.
I think the others underestimate how disabled Christy is. After all, it’s not like the woman can’t talk (she’s quite articulate, actually). I know this would throw me off. I don’t blame the women at this point…Christy needs to pull one of the older women to the side and reemphasize that she cannot hear. Just saying it once is apparently not enough.
I wonder how she’s able to cope when Probst is explaining the challenges. I’m sure her lip-reading is fine, but I wonder if they have a signing interpreter or something to help her out.
I don’t like any of the guys. Rob thinks he’s cute and witty, but I don’t see it. He’s like Dr. Sean from the first Survivor, and I can see him deteriorating into stupidity really soon.
I too don’t understand why it took the guys so long to get over the balance beam. It wasn’t that difficult. Ryan got the blame, but it was ALL buff-boy Dan’s fault. The women ended up smoking them, but if I were them, I would be worrying. They won only because the men had a weak link. What are the chances of that weak link appearing in the next challenge? What are the chances of that weak link messing up again?
The men were insulting and just prove to me that PC-ness isn’t as rampant as everything thinks it is. Strong men are confident enough in their masculinity that they don’t have to be initimidated by women’s success. All that, “If we lose to a bunch of chicks, we’ll be laughing stocks of the world” is a bunch of BOOOL SHEE-IT!
On the women’s team, I don’t like Jenna. Bitch must go; she’s definitely going to slow the team down and turn me into a self-hating woman. I like Joanna. The gospel singing made me laugh and plus, my cat is named Joanna and it would be good for her to see someone with her name on TV.
That was pretty good. I feel like I have already seen more personality than the previous series.
A couple of things:
-Yes, Christy is deaf. Good for her in trying to succeed at this. However, I feel no sorrow for her because she knows going in that a good portion of this takes place in the dark and is not built for her convenience. And, if they focus on her deafness much more, I will be openly rooting against her.
-Jenna is irritating and kind of weird. But, I want her to stay because I think it will be interesting to see just how much she wastes away.
-Heidi may have implants and strike people as just a hot chick. I think she wins this whole dang thing after watching last night.
-Janet is sort of pathetic. A general rule should be no complaining until you puke. Otherwise, you wirte your ticket home.
-Speaking as a guy, I am amazed how anyone can live to adulthood and think how the guys thunk. Idiots. Granted, some of it was probably played up for the cameras, but still a bunch of maroons. There are different ways strength can be used. Just because you are strong (Daniel) sure doesn’t mean you are a good athlete or able to do all varieties of physical activities. If swimming is ever involved I bet he’ll fail miserably. But, he’s got big muscles.
-Rob, Dave, and Butch will do well at this.
As far as Christy getting the challenges, Jeff Probst was on Howard Stern, and he said that she and Jeff had work out a signal she would give him if she missed something, and he would repeat it without the others knowing it was for her benefit. That seems fair to me. I loved the show, and was really glad to see the women help each other out and slap the arrogance off the mens faces.
I loved the splitting the sexes. I expect lots of cattiness on the women’s side and pissing contests on the men’s. It should be great TV.
Watching those two guys fail so miserably on the balance beam so one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen. Unless one of them has an inner ear disorder they should be ashamed of themselves.
Hmm, I’ve always had the impression that the ‘Jeff Explains Today’s Challenge’ speech was done for our benefit, and that he or someone had earlier gone over the challenge slowly and in more detail for the players.
I mean, jeez, sometimes a challenge is so damn complex, and Jeff’ll just rattle it off – “Go here, do this, solve this, run over here, make an 8 course meal with the secret ingredient, yada yada yada.” And then he looks at the contestants, “Everybody got it?” and they all nod, “sure!” every damn time. There’s no fucking way that was the only time things were explained.
Does anyone know why getting off the ground is so critical? I mean, can’t the creepy-crawlers crawl up a one-foot stump to the platform where you’re lying?