“Come on in, guys!”
I had to look up John Rocker on Wikipedia (I’m not a sports fan). He sounds like kind of an ass, IMO. We’ll have to see how he does on Survivor.
Strong start. This is already shaping up to be a solid season, I think.
Not me. I watch the show specifically for the dopey obstacle courses. I love all that stuff; can’t get enough. Survivor, Big Brother, Amazing Race, The Challenge, American Ninja Warrior…if it’s got a dopey physical challenge component, count me in.
“…is back up for grabs…”
Like Ellis, I watch the show for the challenges. The rest of the show usually bores me to tears, so the procedure is to DVR it and fast-forward through everything that isn’t a challenge or “pretty women walking around in their underwear.” After 28 seasons, the scheming and alliance crap just isn’t entertaining. Toss in the enormous loss of credibility and good will they punted when they invited Colton back, and Survivor just isn’t essential watching for me any more.
Observations from the first episode:
Looks like someone pussies out again this season.
Take out the wife, and the husband crumbles.
Youngsters got no respect!
Rocker is going to be a monster on the physical challenges. Now let’s see if he can keep his mouth shut.
Twin-Two is going to be pissed at the reveal next episode.
I remember why I didn’t like the B vs W season last year. And it was not returning contestants. Even Colton.
Its was the endless whiny confessionals about their loved ones. And the obligatory question from Probst about how do you feel about winning when your loved one might be going home.
Its a game for christ sakes. You are not sending your loved one to war, or against the Lions. Less than 6 weeks from now, everything should return to normal (or better). If it doesn’t, a game like Survivor should not negatively impact it. I don’t like manufactured drama.
I will watch, because I like Survivor more than I don’t like this twist. But I will try to tune out the whiny talking heads.
I dropped this show a couple of seasons ago after watching all seasons up until then. I just peeked in here out of curiosity. Regarding the stuff Jeff always says. There was something written about that somewhere at some point (!) that indicated that this is a deliberate choice made by the show. Apparently viewers are comforted by hearing the exact same thing all the time.
I accept that the spiel is comforting but damn it gets old! Parody material. The only thing even more grating is Julie Chen’s “…but first…” We have started calling her Julie Butfirst.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the puzzle at the end of the Immunity Challenge took forever to complete:
- Now, it should be noted that almost all Survivor challenges are edited down for time and maximum tension, but this was absolutely ridiculous. Nobody could figure this puzzle out. The crew members could have gone out and ordered Super Big Gulp Slurpees from 7-Eleven and come back and the players still wouldn’t have been done. And guess what? I didn’t even see any 7-Elevens in Nicaragua! That’s how slow these people were!*
Kind of like a Catholic Latin mass.
“Wanna see what you’re playing for?”
“Fire represents life”
“Getting their first look at the new tribe”
John Rocker is *only *famous for being an ass. We’ll see if there’s anything else to him, other than massive bulk.
Decent epi, I liked "Dad’ but I am not sure if he has a chance. The gay partners were also very well prepared.
Funny this, but my first thought on seeing how tall he is was the old Jimmy Reed song that’s a bit more intelligible when Elvis does it:
Well, he did have a good season as the closer for the Braves in a year in which they were in the World Series (1999), but it would be fair to say that he is mostly famous for being an ass.
I was familiar with John Rocker before his big “scandal” 15 years ago, and I’m not a baseball fan. As in, I can count the number of total innings I’ve watched in my entire life on two hands. Possibly one hand.
At the time of his infamous comments about the NY subway system, I was working closely with a bunch of displaced New Yorkers in Connecticut. Their reaction to his comments about the human filth you find on the subway? “Yeah, sounds about right.” heh.
I usually find that no matter how bad it starts off, it gets a lot better after the merge.
Nadiya seemed like she got screwed over by the dropout of the pair of women that left the game with 10 men against 8 women.
Exile Island seems patently unfair without the immunity idol on the island, but I’m glad neither Val nor Keith got voted out. In any case, I don’t think they can keep Exile Island going for very long as members of pairs get voted out.
Nadiya got screwed over because she was an obnoxious twit. So glad one of the twins was the first one gone.
I didn’t watch the first bloody water season – my loathing of Colton meant a complete boycott of the season, although I understand he went home early – so this is a new gimmick for me. So far it looks like it might be an interesting season.
Rocker’s got strength (omigod, did you see the way his team just swarmed up him on the last stage?) and speed – we’ll see if he has the agility and balance for other kinds of physical challenges.
I’m in … so far …
I’m always in for Survivor! It’s funny, everytime John Rocker started talking he sounded just like Kenny powers from “East Bound and Down”, he was just missing a mullet!
MtM
I agree with you. Apparently people ate it up, which is why they’re doing Blood vs. Water again, and why they were originally going to bring back Redemption Island - Probst said they really liked having the conflicts when the voted out persons returned.
Me, I just rolled my eyes. If I was on that island and won a challenge to get my dad/mom/sibling sent to Exile, and Probst asked me hard it was, I would say something along the lines of “hey if he didn’t want to go, maybe he should be better at challenges.” 
It’s a game! I can understand breaking down from the stress and being emotional by Day 20, but c’mon, Day 1??