Survivor 46 Discussion Thread

[cjack300zx]

Hope the next episode isn’t 2 hours.

 

[DryerLintFan]

I listened to Jelinsky's exit interview on RHAP. It's interesting because he said Q was the person who suggested they quit the sweat challenge.

I guess it’s a he said she said situation, and massive a bad edit, but….

When he got back to camp and after the game and at trial counsel, he didn’t exactly relay accurate events. He downplayed his role in Things and until everyone started cracking jokes he didn’t seem to take responsibility for quitting. Twice.

Also, i would have taken off my shirt and lined the bucket

 

[DryerLintFan]

I'm tired of the one weak tribe losing every week. It's been happening a lot in recent seasons. Soda came off as classless with her comments and grabbing the statue that they showed. Bhanu needs to chill. He gets out of control when the pressure goes up.

I don’t like this either. It’s so predictable. Like one tribe gets Fish and water and rewards and stay strong. One tribe sleeps cold in the elements with no Fire and No easy way to eat or boil water. Obviously getting weaker.

They do it because of the morale influence on the drama. It brings out the darker side of the players. But i don’t feel like that’s juice with the squeeze. It’s monotonous. I don’t even bother watching a lot of the challenges anymore.

 

[DryerLintFan]

Hope the next episode isn’t 2 hours.

Watching today, i can say the episode itself might have been shorter than the commercial air time

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

I don’t like this either. It’s so predictable. Like one tribe gets Fish and water and rewards and stay strong. One tribe sleeps cold in the elements with no Fire and No easy way to eat or boil water. Obviously getting weaker.

They do it because of the morale influence on the drama. It brings out the darker side of the players. But i don’t feel like that’s juice with the squeeze. It’s monotonous. I don’t even bother watching a lot of the challenges anymore.

I think the show doesn't want any "boring" episodes. That's a reason we have 6-person tribes as well. Every vote needs to be "interesting".

Meanwhile over on Australian Survivor we had two tribes and a 14-person merge, and it's an absolutely bonkers season where alliances never last more than five minutes.

I get that they want every episode to be entertaining, but mix it up a little. Doing a swap last season was a start but what about trying two tribes again? Mix things up. Keep players on their toes.

 

[TANKERAK]

I've heard he's on it, but I honestly have zero desire to watch that show. Sorry, Rob.

another reason not to watch it.

 

[TANKERAK]

I think the show doesn't want any "boring" episodes. That's a reason we have 6-person tribes as well. Every vote needs to be "interesting".

Meanwhile over on Australian Survivor we had two tribes and a 14-person merge, and it's an absolutely bonkers season where alliances never last more than five minutes.

I get that they want every episode to be entertaining, but mix it up a little. Doing a swap last season was a start but what about trying two tribes again? Mix things up. Keep players on their toes.

Boring is putting it mildly, I was hyped for 2 hour shows, but with 45 minutes to go, the challenge over we get 45 minutes of crying, these people claim to be hardcore yet all cry with I can't believe it is this difficult. Start picking contestant off the street again, because the losers they keep bringing in has driven me from watching. I gave them 2 episodes and I got 6 different contestant crying at one time or another. I QUIT, give me a RAT or a SNAKE.

 

[TANKERAK]

I thought the card game was going to be a bad twist, because it would just come down to a 50/50 guess as to who is lying.

I liked how Maria handled it by being aggressive. Telling Jelinsky he'd be making an enemy by lying was an effective tactic.

Sweat and Savvy continue to be uncompelling, along with the confiscation of flint. Let the tribes start on an even footing, please.

Sweat and Savvy just shows how dumb the contestants are, If the 2 had spent 5 minutes using the twigs and such to fill the holes they may have got some water in the barrel, instead they showed the youth America giving up and crying.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

I don’t like this either. It’s so predictable. Like one tribe gets Fish and water and rewards and stay strong. One tribe sleeps cold in the elements with no Fire and No easy way to eat or boil water. Obviously getting weaker.

They do it because of the morale influence on the drama. It brings out the darker side of the players. But i don’t feel like that’s juice with the squeeze. It’s monotonous. I don’t even bother watching a lot of the challenges anymore.

Another piece to this is the shorter seasons that require them to combine reward and immunity challenges.

The teams that have fire are more likely to win and by including a reward it just widens the gap.

The reward challenge should be separate. It would require the top teams to sit out their strongest player for the immunity, meaning the weaker tribe has a chance to win the reward and get a bit stronger.

 

[PUSH]

I guess it’s a he said she said situation, and massive a bad edit, but….

When he got back to camp and after the game and at trial counsel, he didn’t exactly relay accurate events. He downplayed his role in Things and until everyone started cracking jokes he didn’t seem to take responsibility for quitting. Twice.

Also, i would have taken off my shirt and lined the bucket

I agree that Jelinsky doesn't give the accurate version of events. He gives his ideal version of events. And I think I heard they weren't allowed to plug the holes with shirts or sticks or things like that.

 

[PUSH]

I think the show doesn't want any "boring" episodes. That's a reason we have 6-person tribes as well. Every vote needs to be "interesting".

Meanwhile over on Australian Survivor we had two tribes and a 14-person merge, and it's an absolutely bonkers season where alliances never last more than five minutes.

I get that they want every episode to be entertaining, but mix it up a little. Doing a swap last season was a start but what about trying two tribes again? Mix things up. Keep players on their toes.

I feel like larger tribes create more chaos. It introduced so many new options for players. There's the potential for a super majority, but I think players now have so much knowledge of the game that they won't let a Pagonging happen.

I think an issue with two tribe seasons now is that they are probably casts of 20 players (10 on each tribe). Does 26 days allow for the extra two boots? I think it could work now with 90 minute episodes. Have two episodes where two people go home.

 

[PUSH]

Another piece to this is the shorter seasons that require them to combine reward and immunity challenges.

The teams that have fire are more likely to win and by including a reward it just widens the gap.

The reward challenge should be separate. It would require the top teams to sit out their strongest player for the immunity, meaning the weaker tribe has a chance to win the reward and get a bit stronger.

I think a lot of the concerns of the new era stem to there not being enough time from a production standpoint. The 39 days gave the producers the options to have a 20 person cast or run more challenges. Unfortunately, I think that's a CBS issue, not a production issue. CBS isn't going to greenlight the 39 day plan when they can get the same amount of viewers in a 26 day format. They save a lot of money with a shorter season.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

This was one of my least favorite episodes of Survivor in a long time, and I think it had to do with the length. Two hours is great for premieres and finales, or even double-boot episodes. But I think we found out that it's too long for anything else. 90 minutes is the sweet spot. There just wasn't enough to fill the time, or at least they didn't choose the right content.

We did not need 5 minutes of a Metallica vs Taylor Swift battle. I also feel like we got so much negative content about players. There was too much crying, and I'm not normally one to complain about that. I also walked away feeling more negative about players that I came away positive about last week... Soda, Kenzie, Q. Maybe it was just because of how much of a drag I felt this episode was.

And then all the Kenzie talk, only for the most predictable thing to happen. Again, I would rather have a boring episode of Survivor than a fabricated episode. But if there's not enough content on the purple tribe because it's a straight forward vote, show us more of the other tribes. It felt like they were just filling time the whole night.

I shouldn't complain, because episodes like these are why we have too many twists and advantages. And it's likely the producers didn't know this would be a two hour episode when it aired. I'm guessing the only reason it was two hours is because CBS needed to fill an hour since TAR hasn't premiered yet. Next week we will get in the groove of the 90 minute episodes.

As for the gameplay, Kenzie looks like she's playing way too hard. I also didn't love how she was saying everything was too easy. She was pretty much calling Jess an awful player, which I didn't think was necessary. The fake idol was so over the top. Even is Q votes with Jess, it doesn't look good to give her a fake idol.

I agree that Bhanu is too emotional. It's okay to be emotional, but you can't let them control your game. Carolyn was the perfect example of how emotions don't have to control your actions.

I didn't love the trash talk from Soda. I felt like her comments came out of nowhere. Q was talking about how it feels to keep losing. From what I remember, he wasn't targeting or calling anyone out. Then Soda jumps in and says what she says. She's creating enemies before she's even met those people.


Through two episodes, I think Maria might be one of my favorites. Tevin is up there, too.

Also, the chat between Moriah and Liz was fun. Especially when you know they look alike and have been mistaken for each other in the preseason by their handlers. And how they mentioned in their preseason interviews that their doppelgangers were out there.

Jess was the right person to go…there’s 2 problems this season IMHO…maybe it’s just me, but there seems to be too many drama queens…stick to strategy and that’ll work best. The second thing is I think there should just be 2 teams from the start, not 3.
This is the second season in a row that there is one tribe that’s just a dumpster fire…almost like it was produced that way…

 

[PUSH]

Jess was the right person to go…there’s 2 problems this season IMHO…maybe it’s just me, but there seems to be too many drama queens…stick to strategy and that’ll work best. The second thing is I think there should just be 2 teams from the start, not 3.
This is the second season in a row that there is one tribe that’s just a dumpster fire…almost like it was produced that way…

There have been a lot of dumpster fire tribes in the new era. Season 41 had one, too. It got down to just Shan and Ricard.

 

[PUSH]

I also think the purple tribe this season had a lot of "unserious" players. I believe it was Rob and Stephen who discussed it on the Know-It-Alls podcast. Jess, Jelinsky, and Bhanu seem unserious about playing the game. That can cause a tribe to spiral.

It's obviously very early, but at this point it feels like there are so many characters rather than game players. Characters are great, but you need a balance. Again, we're only two episodes in, and we've only seen one tribe go to Tribal Council. I'm expecting a lot to change as the season goes along.

 

[DryerLintFan]

I liked Jess. I don’t think she was unserious as much as i think her ADHD got the best of her. I’m not sure if they’re allowed to take their medication on the show? I know some meds are allowed, but not sure if ADHD meds would be seen as an advantage.

Like i don’t think she was just not interested in the challenges, i think she just got distracted.

 

[PUSH]

I liked Jess. I don’t think she was unserious as much as i think her ADHD got the best of her. I’m not sure if they’re allowed to take their medication on the show? I know some meds are allowed, but not sure if ADHD meds would be seen as an advantage.

Like i don’t think she was just not interested in the challenges, i think she just got distracted.

Based on her exit interviews, she pretty much said she didn't care and just wanted to leave. She pretty much said she would have quit if it wasn't so frowned upon.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Based on her exit interviews, she pretty much said she didn't care and just wanted to leave. She pretty much said she would have quit if it wasn't so frowned upon.

Maybe these contestants need to be vetted a little more…there has to be some type of incentive NOT to participate for an episode or two and leave…it’s almost like they’re trying to fulfill a social media role for clicks…”see, I did it, I was on Survivor”. I’m sure for every contestant picked, there must be hundreds if not thousands who don’t make it. How about a pool of 3-4 ready to step in within the first two episodes…also, Covid is over, make the season longer like it used to be…

 

[PUSH]

Maybe these contestants need to be vetted a little more…there has to be some type of incentive NOT to participate for an episode or two and leave…it’s almost like they’re trying to fulfill a social media role for clicks…”see, I did it, I was on Survivor”. I’m sure for every contestant picked, there must be hundreds if not thousands who don’t make it. How about a pool of 3-4 ready to step in within the first two episodes…also, Covid is over, make the season longer like it used to be…

Seasons 41-44 were good for casting contestants who really wanted to be there. Last season obviously had a couple flaws. This season seems to as well. It could be the focus on Survivor being a journey and an experience, rather than a game. Jeff really loves players who are there to go on some type of growth journey, but like Sean last season... if there's a player who is only focused on that, they might just leave when they feel like their journey/experience feels fulfilled.

I can see how Hannah and Sean got cast. On the outside before the season started, they both seemed very focused and ready to play to win. I don't know how Jess got cast, though. Her preseason interviews didn't seem like she cared that much.

 

[PUSH]

This was another dud of an episode, although there was no way to avoid it. You can't plan for a med evac. And even with the med evac, I enjoy it more than last week. There were some enjoyable moments.

Bhanu on the journey had me cracking up. I know it's not good to laugh at someone being in an emotional state like he was, but the entire situation was hilarious. Bhanu couldn't believe his tribe said he isn't strategic, and he's too emotional while he's in the middle of a break down. And then Liz says, "Noooo...... really?????" in a very sarcastic tone after he says that. Then Ben says to his tribe that he barely said anything and Bhanu just let lose. It was hilarious.

I don't like Bhanu even gave all the correct information. He's saying Q and Tiff are tight, which is true. But then he said Kenzie is the mastermind calling the shots. That's not true. Q and Tiff have had control so far. Q decided to get rid of Jelinsky. He and Tiff decided to get rid of Jess instead of Kenzie or Bhanu.

Even though they threw Kenzie's name into the mix tonight, I don't think Tiff would have voted her out. Kenzie is loyal to Tiff, and Tiff is too smart to lose that for a wild card player like Bhanu. Q wants Bhanu to stay because he knows Kenzie will come after him at some point. Not because he thinks Bhanu will be an asset. Also, what an insult to tell Bhanu that he's the Phillip to his Boston Rob. That's such a slap in the face, but Bhanu doesn't know the game to realize that. It was actually kind of funny.

I feel for Randen. He did nothing wrong, and ultimately the doctor was the reason he couldn't stay. I know he was just doing his job, and you have to lean towards being cautious, but Dr. Will kind of ruined the whole experience for Randen.

I was hoping to see a tribe swap in the previews, but was sad to see we didn't get that. We have to stop with the three tribe format, because it becomes so lopsided. Especially when rewards are tied in with immunities. And the flint on top of that. The strong get stronger and the weak get weaker. Even before the new era, there are examples of three tribes having a disaster tribe (Philippines and Cagayan).