Survivor: Fiji
SURVIVOR: FIJI ended a few days ago, but I was finishing up the Andrew Mayhem/Harry McGlade novelette (now complete; more details later) and I didn't want my co-author J.A. Konrath to catch me posting frivolous SURVIVOR-themed blogs when I was supposed to be working.
Fiji started out as the Worst Season Ever. The producers took a big risk and set up the game so that one tribe had plenty of food, shelter, a sofa, dishes, an outhouse, etc. while the other tribe had virtually nothing. Now, this twist created automatic underdogs and COULD have resulted in some cheer-worthy victories...but the risk was that the Good Camp tribe would win challenge after challenge after challenge. Which they did. Watching the well-fed, well-rested tribe continually beat the exhausted tribe that resorted to licking water off leaves was not exactly compelling television.
This season had more "Uh, who was that person who got voted out again?" players than any other season. I have a freakishly strong memory for all things SURVIVOR (part of it because it's the only show I watch regularly, part of it because memories about things like "math" and "science" exited to make room) but I couldn't tell you a thing about four of the first six players to go.
A few episodes in, there was a twist where the Good Camp tribe won immunity, but then were presented with a choice: Keep your immunity and move to the Bad Camp, or stay at the Good Camp and vote somebody out. They decided to stay at the Good Camp. A half-dozen SURVIVOR producers went "Dammit!!!"
But in the second half of the season, things really picked up. SURVIVOR: PANAMA introduced the idea of Exile Island, where a hidden immunity idol was buried. In that season, Terry found it and never used it. SURVIVOR: COOK ISLANDS had the same twist. Yul found it and never used it. This time, three immunity idols figured into the game, and all three were played. (If we'd gone a third season in a row without the immunity idol being used, next season Mark Burnett would have handed immunity idols out to players as they got off the plane.)
Now that we've had the great moment where Yau Man was supposed to get voted out, but played the idol and sent Stacey home instead, I hope they retire the hidden immunity idol twist, along with Exile Island. Question, though: We've now had three seasons where, every single episode, somebody gets sent to Exile Island and has to spend the night alone. So how the HELL does "Stephenie Spends The Night Alone," where she was at her OWN CAMP, win the audience award for Toughest SURVIVOR Moment Of All Time?
All the way back in the preview for this season at the Cook Islands reunion show, they promised us that a player would make the Most Controversial Decision Ever. It wasn't an exaggeration. The controversy involved Yau Man, deservedly the most popular player in the show's history, and Dreamz, an idiot. At the Final Six, Yau Man won a $60,000 truck in a reward challenge, and made a deal with Dreamz: He'd give him the truck. In exchange, if both of them were still around in the Final Four, and Dreamz won immunity, he'd give his immunity to Yau Man. Dreamz, who had gone on and on about how much he wanted to win the truck, agreed.
At the Final Four, Dreamz did indeed win immunity. And while crying tears of shame, he backed out of the deal, kept his immunity, and helped vote Yau Man out of the game.
Now, I'm completely into the idea of "It's just a game." In All-Stars, Lex went from my favorite player to the Whiniest Moron Ever when he made the deal with Rob to keep Amber around and got burned. In interviews, he claimed that his deal was outside of the scope of the game, but, really, watching Lex sit on the jury and scowl his way through every tribal council was one of the most pathetic displays in any season.
That said...there was no $60,000 truck involved in the Lex/Rob deal. And I think Dreamz overstepped the boundaries of the game and is fully deserving of any scorn we can heap upon him. Because taking the truck was not a strategic move. It was not meant to get him further in the game or give him an advantage over the other players. He just wanted the truck.
Amusingly, he claimed that the twist in the game (the jury choosing from a Final Three instead of a Final Two) was what changed his mind. This may be the truth, but only because, as previously noted, Dreamz is an idiot. The rules change is what guaranteed that he could NOT win the game. Truck deal or not, Dreamz was never going to beat Yau Man. But he was also never going to beat Earl. He MIGHT have beaten Cassandra. The game ending at Final Three meant that he had no chance of winning: He was either going to face Yau Man or Earl, no matter what. Final Two? Maybe it would've just been Cassandra next to him, and he could've won. So his excuse of "Once I discovered it was a Final Three, that changed everything!" is a feeble one, because that's what eliminated any possibility of him winning the million dollars.
Dreamz's decision to screw over Yau Man did get him more prize money, but it also pretty much eliminated any future income. When you "promise to God" that you're going to stick with the deal, and tell the cameras (multiple times) that you're going to show your son how important it is to keep your word, and then you weasel out of it at the last second, it's safe enough to say that there aren't a lot of endorsement deals in your future. Granted, most SURVIVOR contestants vanish from the public eye minutes after the reunion show airs, but most SURVIVOR contestants don't get to talk on virtually every episode about how they grew up homeless. If he'd said "I have to keep my promise to teach my son about self-respect, even if it costs me a million dollars that I stood no chance of winning anyway," the guy would've been set! Oprah would've been all over him! As it is, he represents SURVIVOR backstabbing at its worst, and I don't think we'll hear anything else from him except his cry of "I have to pay TAXES on this truck?!? Son of a--!!!"
The Dreamz travesty aside, we did get a completely deserving winner in Earl. He was no Yau Man, but he played a smart game. He was the first person ever to win in a unanimous decision (and this was with a jury of nine rather than the usual seven) and took by far the least abuse in the final tribal council of any player in fourteen seasons. It's virtually impossible to get through the entire game without anybody in the jury holding a grudge, but he did it.
So, SURVIVOR: FIJI started off as a lousy season, but by the end I was totally hooked. Fourteen seasons and the show still works. Lookin' forward to SURVIVOR: CHINA.
Fiji started out as the Worst Season Ever. The producers took a big risk and set up the game so that one tribe had plenty of food, shelter, a sofa, dishes, an outhouse, etc. while the other tribe had virtually nothing. Now, this twist created automatic underdogs and COULD have resulted in some cheer-worthy victories...but the risk was that the Good Camp tribe would win challenge after challenge after challenge. Which they did. Watching the well-fed, well-rested tribe continually beat the exhausted tribe that resorted to licking water off leaves was not exactly compelling television.
This season had more "Uh, who was that person who got voted out again?" players than any other season. I have a freakishly strong memory for all things SURVIVOR (part of it because it's the only show I watch regularly, part of it because memories about things like "math" and "science" exited to make room) but I couldn't tell you a thing about four of the first six players to go.
A few episodes in, there was a twist where the Good Camp tribe won immunity, but then were presented with a choice: Keep your immunity and move to the Bad Camp, or stay at the Good Camp and vote somebody out. They decided to stay at the Good Camp. A half-dozen SURVIVOR producers went "Dammit!!!"
But in the second half of the season, things really picked up. SURVIVOR: PANAMA introduced the idea of Exile Island, where a hidden immunity idol was buried. In that season, Terry found it and never used it. SURVIVOR: COOK ISLANDS had the same twist. Yul found it and never used it. This time, three immunity idols figured into the game, and all three were played. (If we'd gone a third season in a row without the immunity idol being used, next season Mark Burnett would have handed immunity idols out to players as they got off the plane.)
Now that we've had the great moment where Yau Man was supposed to get voted out, but played the idol and sent Stacey home instead, I hope they retire the hidden immunity idol twist, along with Exile Island. Question, though: We've now had three seasons where, every single episode, somebody gets sent to Exile Island and has to spend the night alone. So how the HELL does "Stephenie Spends The Night Alone," where she was at her OWN CAMP, win the audience award for Toughest SURVIVOR Moment Of All Time?
All the way back in the preview for this season at the Cook Islands reunion show, they promised us that a player would make the Most Controversial Decision Ever. It wasn't an exaggeration. The controversy involved Yau Man, deservedly the most popular player in the show's history, and Dreamz, an idiot. At the Final Six, Yau Man won a $60,000 truck in a reward challenge, and made a deal with Dreamz: He'd give him the truck. In exchange, if both of them were still around in the Final Four, and Dreamz won immunity, he'd give his immunity to Yau Man. Dreamz, who had gone on and on about how much he wanted to win the truck, agreed.
At the Final Four, Dreamz did indeed win immunity. And while crying tears of shame, he backed out of the deal, kept his immunity, and helped vote Yau Man out of the game.
Now, I'm completely into the idea of "It's just a game." In All-Stars, Lex went from my favorite player to the Whiniest Moron Ever when he made the deal with Rob to keep Amber around and got burned. In interviews, he claimed that his deal was outside of the scope of the game, but, really, watching Lex sit on the jury and scowl his way through every tribal council was one of the most pathetic displays in any season.
That said...there was no $60,000 truck involved in the Lex/Rob deal. And I think Dreamz overstepped the boundaries of the game and is fully deserving of any scorn we can heap upon him. Because taking the truck was not a strategic move. It was not meant to get him further in the game or give him an advantage over the other players. He just wanted the truck.
Amusingly, he claimed that the twist in the game (the jury choosing from a Final Three instead of a Final Two) was what changed his mind. This may be the truth, but only because, as previously noted, Dreamz is an idiot. The rules change is what guaranteed that he could NOT win the game. Truck deal or not, Dreamz was never going to beat Yau Man. But he was also never going to beat Earl. He MIGHT have beaten Cassandra. The game ending at Final Three meant that he had no chance of winning: He was either going to face Yau Man or Earl, no matter what. Final Two? Maybe it would've just been Cassandra next to him, and he could've won. So his excuse of "Once I discovered it was a Final Three, that changed everything!" is a feeble one, because that's what eliminated any possibility of him winning the million dollars.
Dreamz's decision to screw over Yau Man did get him more prize money, but it also pretty much eliminated any future income. When you "promise to God" that you're going to stick with the deal, and tell the cameras (multiple times) that you're going to show your son how important it is to keep your word, and then you weasel out of it at the last second, it's safe enough to say that there aren't a lot of endorsement deals in your future. Granted, most SURVIVOR contestants vanish from the public eye minutes after the reunion show airs, but most SURVIVOR contestants don't get to talk on virtually every episode about how they grew up homeless. If he'd said "I have to keep my promise to teach my son about self-respect, even if it costs me a million dollars that I stood no chance of winning anyway," the guy would've been set! Oprah would've been all over him! As it is, he represents SURVIVOR backstabbing at its worst, and I don't think we'll hear anything else from him except his cry of "I have to pay TAXES on this truck?!? Son of a--!!!"
The Dreamz travesty aside, we did get a completely deserving winner in Earl. He was no Yau Man, but he played a smart game. He was the first person ever to win in a unanimous decision (and this was with a jury of nine rather than the usual seven) and took by far the least abuse in the final tribal council of any player in fourteen seasons. It's virtually impossible to get through the entire game without anybody in the jury holding a grudge, but he did it.
So, SURVIVOR: FIJI started off as a lousy season, but by the end I was totally hooked. Fourteen seasons and the show still works. Lookin' forward to SURVIVOR: CHINA.
posted by Jeff Strand at 8:48 PM
3 Comments:
Jeff: I, too, am a survivor fan(atic). I pulled for Yau Man or Earl, and I'm glad one of my favorites won. Dreamz always got on my nerves. And I'm so with you on the Lex business. I loved him in season 3, but the way he and Kathy treated Rob in the All-Stars edition really ticked me off. Don't make sneaky deals and then take it all personal when the person you're making sneaky deals against does it to you first.
What's funniest about Lex's temper tantrum is that he claims the whole deal was made out of friendship, outside the game, but we CLEARLY saw Lex and Kathy analyzing all of their options. It was a purely strategic move that came back to bite him.
Absolutely! His strategy backfired, period. And after it exploded he verbally crucified Rob (and by extension, Amber), which was so not cool. Though, I have to say, I think that there was a lot of back-door "hey, if we both get picked let's align" type shinanigans before the All-Stars edition. I believe Probst said in an interview after AS that the game is best played by strangers, and I'd have to agree.
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