Survivor: Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers

[krause]

Thanks for the welcome!!

I do like Chrissy too, but get the vibe that she is not liked by tribemates which doesn’t bode well for her.

Who are the headless Survivor example challenge runners? We see their shirts, shorts, and shoes while Probst babbles on about how the challenge is supposed to work (ending, of course, with Probst "giving them a minute to strategize"), but we never see their faces.

I believe this is the “dream team” that trials the challenges. In old seasons they would show clips like this while Probst was explaining the challenges but it would be the actual tribe doing it like in the future so occasionally you would see spoilers if you could figure out whose shoes or shorts or whatever was whose (like you would see just someone’s shoes fall off the balance beam but if you knew whose shoes those were it kind of spoiled it when you were watching). I do think it’s kind of weird seeing these faceless people do the challenges but at least there’s no spoilers!

 

[PUSH]

Yes! Those people are the Dream Team, used for testing challenges to adjust for it being too easy or too hard. Also giving the producers a better look at what camera angles they need. The Dream Team often runs against members of the media that go out on location. If I remember right, the Dream Team sometimes has other jobs with the show, such as helping with building sets, or whatever else is needed at the time. Sounds like a fun job to me.

 

[sunsetblvd26]

Being a part of the dream team really would be the coolest job! Getting paid to watch a Survivor season play out live sounds nice

You can actually see them do the challenge in the behind the scenes YouTube video:

 

[PUSH]

No!! My favorite!

I really hope she comes back. I'd love to see her in a Second Chance season. She's a very good player, whose game was ruined, in my opinion, by a guy who is a super fan and unnecessarily made a big move too early.

Excited for the merge next week. That always brings some unexpected thrills.

 

[krause]

I will post opinions yet but first things first - WHEN are they going to give these people swimsuits???!!!! This must be the longest they’ve made players go in their dirty underwear

 

[sunsetblvd26]

Really surprised by that episode, I thought the edit was pointing towards JP for sure. To be honest I don’t really care about losing Ali, while she might have been a good player, I don’t think she had an especially interesting personality at all. And honestly, I don’t think she got completely screwed, I feel like she should take a fair amount of blame. She might have legitimately been making Ryan feel uncomfortable with how close she was getting to Roark, which is hard to really show in the edit. Also, when you get into a huge argument like that instead of just swallowing your pride, it’ll make it so that Ryan won’t feel the Ali connection is still open and he might as well get rid of her.

My favorite is still Lauren. She has been consistently hilarious and also a surprisingly really good player. Now that we’ve made the merge where her type of older person/not great at challenges archetype is no longer a target, I could see her going deep.

 

[SAV]

Ali Interview:
http://my.xfinity.com/blogs/tv/2017...y-ali-dont-think-know-chrissy-personal-level/

 

[SAV]

So why is it that we never see Lauren, who is a fisherman, fish? Wouldn't you think that would be something she could do to provide for her tribe?

 

[krause]

I feel like the editing this season gives us a “surprise” at evictions but the reason it’s a surprise is because we didn’t see the conversations that led to the decision - does that make sense? I think Ryan clearly burned his trust with Ali and also she can match him as a strategic threat (whereas JP clearly can not) so that’s why she had to go and it was probably the right decision for Ryan at this time.

I am excited for the merge and seeing who steps up as real players. I’m glad they didn’t reshuffle again into 3 more tribes like they did in Second Chances.

 

[PUSH]

I feel like the editing this season gives us a “surprise” at evictions but the reason it’s a surprise is because we didn’t see the conversations that led to the decision - does that make sense? I think Ryan clearly burned his trust with Ali and also she can match him as a strategic threat (whereas JP clearly can not) so that’s why she had to go and it was probably the right decision for Ryan at this time.

I am excited for the merge and seeing who steps up as real players. I’m glad they didn’t reshuffle again into 3 more tribes like they did in Second Chances.

Stephen and Rob talked about this a little bit... how modern Survivor is giving us more blindsides by taking away more information and gameplay. While it's exciting, it also has us view players in a different way. And it can sometimes feel like the whole story is not being told, because we miss crucial conversation that we've gotten in the past.

 

[krause]

Stephen and Rob talked about this a little bit... how modern Survivor is giving us more blindsides by taking away more information and gameplay. While it's exciting, it also has us view players in a different way. And it can sometimes feel like the whole story is not being told, because we miss crucial conversation that we've gotten in the past.

Thanks! That is one podcast that I always want to listen to but never actually do (I commit enough time to reading Dalton Ross recaps and that about does me in haha). It’s totally true though and I am finding it particularly bad this season (or maybe just catching on more that that’s what is happening). For the last few seasons I have felt like I don’t even know who’s actually in alliances and maybe that’s the problem.

 

[PUSH]

Thanks! That is one podcast that I always want to listen to but never actually do (I commit enough time to reading Dalton Ross recaps and that about does me in haha). It’s totally true though and I am finding it particularly bad this season (or maybe just catching on more that that’s what is happening). For the last few seasons I have felt like I don’t even know who’s actually in alliances and maybe that’s the problem.

From exit interviews it sounds like there are always a solid 3, but the people who come in and out of the bigger group fluctuate. I can't remember the exact group, but in Cambodia I know it was Jeremy, Spencer and one other person, but the edit never really seemed to make Spencer and Jeremy seem like unbreakable allies.

 

[artvandelay]

I think Ryan made the right decision. Ali is a smart player and could be easily flip to Devon and his new allies. JP might be a big physical presence, but he doesn’t have a good social game and is loyal to Chrissy. He probably wouldn’t flip on them.

 

[JenniferS]

I am liking my initial favourites less and less.
At this point, I’m Team: Ben, JP, and Dr. Mike. The B Team would be: Devon, Desi, and Lauren.

Ali was disappointing this episode. Can’t stand early favourites Cole, Jessica or Chrissy now. And Ryan, meh. Tony Light has irked me since Day One.

I’m not crazy about how super easy it is to find idols the past few seasons. I remember how absolutely wowed we were when Russell Hantz found three (?) of them in his first season - all without benefit of clues? Now it’s just - Oh it’s Monday, someone’s bound to find an idol. Tuesday too.

I still look forward to watching every week, but I’m just not as engaged as in previous seasons. Is it just me?

ETA - And oh yeah, Cole’s fainting spell looked totally ...

Totally desperate ploy for extra food!

 

[krause]

Tony Light has irked me since Day One.

I keep trying to think if Joe would bug me as much if Tony never existed because I also think of him as Tony Light . I think he would still bug me.

 

[PUSH]

I am liking my initial favourites less and less.
At this point, I’m Team: Ben, JP, and Dr. Mike. The B Team would be: Devon, Desi, and Lauren.

Ali was disappointing this episode. Can’t stand early favourites Cole, Jessica or Chrissy now. And Ryan, meh. Tony Light has irked me since Day One.

I’m not crazy about how super easy it is to find idols the past few seasons. I remember how absolutely wowed we were when Russell Hantz found three (?) of them in his first season - all without benefit of clues? Now it’s just - Oh it’s Monday, someone’s bound to find an idol. Tuesday too.

I still look forward to watching every week, but I’m just not as engaged as in previous seasons. Is it just me?

ETA - And oh yeah, Cole’s fainting spell looked totally ...
View attachment 241430

Totally desperate ploy for extra food!

Chrissy is my #1 disliked person. I really liked her at first, but she is very arrogant. Smart, but arrogant. She reminds me of Kass, except more sly.

Ryan was okay to start off with... I knew he was going to get the dorky underdog edit, which has become so stale for me with two iterations of Cochran, and to some extent Dave. Although I loved Dave. His self-esteem problem was real. Cochran and Ryan's are just things they turn into jokes to use strategically (which isn't a bad strategy, but overplayed and over edited). But I dislike Ryan's move. Ali's biggest ally was Ryan. Chrissy is with whoever is giving her the best play at that moment, and it won't always be Ryan. Ali plays with more personal feelings, where as Chrissy is pure strategy, and that's where I tend to not like her. I used to be all strategy, but if you don't have any emotional intelligence, you won't have a strong shot at winning the game.

I agree with idols being too easy to find. And that stems from production wanting more uncertainty. More uncertainty means that the cast doesn't have to be as good, because the random gameplay is interesting. But it takes away from seeing such great and dominating players we've had in the past like Rob, Parvati, and Kim. We might have had suspicions of who was going to win, but as long as you liked them (and let's be honest, most die-hard Survivor geeks are pretty fond of the three I listed), it was entertaining to watch such dominating performances.

I think that can also go back to the reason people were so upset when Michele won Koah Rong. Aubry put in a dominating performance, but fell short due to a bitter jury. I think Aubry and Tony are really the only two people who have been dominating first-time players since Kim in One World. If Aubry had won, I think she'd be talked about as one of the greats. Andrea turned into a dominating player, but her first time out was anything but.

I'm not sure how I got to all these thoughts, but there they are!

 

[SAV]

I think that can also go back to the reason people were so upset when Michele won Koah Rong. Aubry put in a dominating performance, but fell short due to a bitter jury. I think Aubry and Tony are really the only two people who have been dominating first-time players since Kim in One World. If Aubry had won, I think she'd be talked about as one of the greats.

Don't forget about the most deserving player who was shafted by a crybaby jury...Russell Hantz.

 

[krause]

The best part of that episode was that they finally got swimsuits. Ryan’s swimsuit isn’t much more concealing than his underwear was but at least it’s clean

At least with the merge it makes it a bit clearer who is with who. Chrissy is making herself into a massive target which is good for Ryan in the long run she will always be a bigger target than him. I think Ben and Lauren would be the bottom 2 on the totem pole no matter which side they chose but with the Ben-Chrissy alliance it was probably a better move for him at least.

I still don’t have terribly strong feelings one way or another on this cast. I guess I like Chrissy? She’s playing the game at least although slightly arrogant and I don’t think she could win. I think I like JP but we don’t really hear anything from him. And Devin seems like a nice guy but maybe not cutthroat enough to make it to the end. I still think Ryan is getting the winners edit so I hope he steps up and proves that he deserves it at least.

Those are my thoughts for now. Haven’t read Dalton Ross’ recap yet though and he usually has some good points so maybe my thoughts will change yet

 

[flynnibus]

bitter jury - ruined the show for awhile now...

 

[sunsetblvd26]

Shot of the night: