Survivor

Survivor Kaoh Rong: What could go wrong?

So there is a chance I might be the worst Survivor fan out. Okay, so maybe not the worst fan, but maybe the worst fan blogger. Looking back over my highly unsuccessful blog I realised that I never even put my thoughts out on the internet about the ending of last season, Survivor Cambodia (not that anyone was reading anyways). So here I am sitting down to post about the pre merge portion of this season, only to make a quick pitstop a couple of months back.

What can I say about Survivor’s third full returnee season? Anti climatic? Is that fair? Yeah, I guess it is. Season 31 started out strong and kind of fell apart when we decided to “invent” voting blocks. Look I’m the biggest Jeremy fan. His blindside in San Juan Del Sur was traumatic to say the least, but we were promised a great returnee season. Instead it felt like a repeat of Blood vs Water where the winner literally walked their way to the million. Seriously many parallels between Jeremy and Tyson could be made, but I really don’t have the time or energy to fall down a rabbit hole, that would make me look like I don’t support or appreciate their game prowess, when it’s quite the opposite.

Okay I’m going to move on. Cambodia was cool, but things could of been taken to the next level if the underdogs came through the the final six.

Now I’m finally going to move on to this season, I think we’re in for a wild ride. These first six episodes have been solid, but the editors are really setting up a few castaways for the fall. Scot, Kyle Jason, Nick, and Debbie all think they have the game in the palm of their hands. Peter would of been grouped in with these guys if he had made the merge, but just like with Obama’s term as president, all good things should come to an end. 

So with that in mind I believe their is only five players left that could actually win, but thanks to the equal editing, in my eyes they all have as good of a chance as the next. The five people I can see winning are Aubry, Neal, Julia, Michele, and Cydney. Any of these I’d be extremely happy with, but for now not much is clear. Hell, I could be wrong and the winner of the season could be Scot Pollard. That would show for once and for all that nothing can be certain on Survivor after 15 years. 


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My Survivor: Second Chance Cast Picks

One of Survivor’s worst kept secrets is out of the bag, and know we can finally talk about it. For the first time ever us Survivor fans will get a chance to vote who we want to see back for a second chance. For the full list of 36 potential castaways can be found here: http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/2015/05/06/‘survivor-second-chance’-invites-viewers-to-select-the-castaways/, but I’m about to give you my ten men and women I want back.

The Men: Jeff Varner, Andrew Savage, Terry Deitz, Shane Powers, Stephen Fishbach, Vytas Baskauskas, Spencer Bledsoe, Jeremy Collins, Mike Holloway, Joe Anglim.

I have a nice split going on here, five older seasons represented and five newer ones. The men was pretty easy. Jim Rice and Troyzan came close to making my list, if not just because I know they both want it so bad. Max, Keith and Woo could easily get on due to recency bias, but it’s not like their seasons already aren’t represented.

The Women: Kelly Wiglesworth, Kimmi Kappenberg, Teresa Cooper, Peih-Gee Law, Natalie Tenerelli, Sabrina Thompson, Abi-Maria Gomes, Ciera Eastin, Kass McQuillen, Shirin Oskooi.

Once again I couldn’t go past the four old school women. After that I locked in Kass, Ciera, and Shirin as they were the stand out females in their seasons. That left me with three more slots. Nat T is someone I really wanna see back after just re-watching Redemption Island. Abi needs to come back because I would want to see anyone from Philippines play again. The last pick I went with Sabrina only because I could see the first time around she had so much to give. I was close to giving my last pick to Stephanie Valencia, but if we get Natalie T, that means four people in total have retuned from Redemption Island, one of the shows worst season, while Thailand and Guatemala have only ever had one rep.

So what are you thoughts on the fan vote, and who are you gonna pick? Would love to hear thoughts in the comments below!

Survivor Seasons 9-16 Thoughts

VANUATU
I always wonder how this season would of played out if it wasn’t divided by gender. Some speculate it could of been a young vs old, but a random draw would of been fine. In saying this, I was happy with the contestants who made the merge.

Why isn’t Chris ranked among the top winner more often?

First non-returnees season to have more than sixteen people. Did this need to happen? The cast feels bloated, and then got way worse with twenty people.

The fact that we go from a yellow starting tribe to a Orange merged tribe annoys me. Just as in Thailand going from a Orange starting tribe to a Gold merged tribe.

What if moment: Chris is voted out at final seven tribal.

Player(s) to return: Twila

PALAU
After a eighteen person season, we now start off with twenty, only to get rid of two people before a tribal council. One of the shows worst moves.

Would of loved to see what could of happened if they merged with twelve people remaining.

Who thought brown was a good tribe colour? Were they fired? As you can tell ,the colour of a tribe means a lot to me.

What if moment: Ian wins at final three, but is stupid enough to take Tom. Who wins?

Player(s) to return: Coby and Ian
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TV Couples on Valentine’s Day

Alone this Valentine’s Day? Don’t worry, I’m listing my top TV couples, so you can spend the day watching their romance on screen instead of having one yourself.

Ross and Rachel, Friends (1994-2004) – Ross and Rachel’s relationship has become such a part of pop culture, that other shows look at their characters relationships, and how much they want to “Ross and Rachel it”. In a sense, how far can we drag this out before they get together. Because that’s what David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston’s characters were all about. Everyone could see from the start that they were meant to be, and I think everyone could relate to Ross being “friend-zoned”. After ten years of ons and offs, they finally got together for good, because as Phoebe put it, ‘she’s his lobster”.

NBC

NBC

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My White/Blue/No collar Survivor cast

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As do many other Survivor fans, I enjoy making together my own all star cast lists. With the up coming season having a tribe divide of White Collar vs Blue Collar vs No Collar, I put together a season of returnees with this theme.

WHITE COLLAR
Yul Kwon (13)
Marty Piombo (21)
Andrew Savage (7)
Eliza Orlins (9 & 16)
Kass McQuillen (28)
Corinne Kaplan (17 & 26)

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Top Survivor Tribals

This year The Survivor Hall of Fame is taking votes on the top tribal councils. I realise we are meant to pick from the choices, but her are my three.

Shortlist: Borneo F10, Borneo FTC, Australia F8, Marquesas F9, Marquesas F4, All Stars FTC, Vanuatu F7, Palau F10, Cook Islands F9, China F7, Micronesia F9, Micronesia F5, Gabon F10, Heroes Vs Villains F10, Philippines F10, Blood Vs Water F6, Cagayan F11.

Borneo FTC: Still to this day the best final tribal council speech – Corinne and Penner come nowhere close. It must of been pretty brutal for Kelly to here, because after the vote is read and everyone is congratulating Rich, Sue goes over to Kelly, but Kelly wants none of it. They say that Hatch invented the strategy part of Survivor, well then Sue Hawk definitely started the trend of memorable final tribal moments.

Marquesas Final 9: The fall of the Rotu 4 is one of the most satisfying things to happen on this show. They thought they had it in the bag on day 21. If anything it was a lesson to future Survivor players. If your at the bottom of an alliance and there is a way to get further with somebody else, GO WITH THEM! The whole tribal council was made even better as cocky John Carroll was the first to go out of the group.

Philippines Final 10: First everyone wants Penner gone. Then when he wins immunity it’s Skupin, the other returning player. But lisa doesn’t want him gone so she targets Malcolm to get rid of his idol. When Malcolm finds out the vote changes to Jeff Kent. Minutes before tribal Malcolm is trying to gather numbers to vote out Pete. By the time they get to tribal that night, there are two clear sides. The Tandang 5 vs the rest. At the tribal both Malcolm and Abi pull out there idol, Malcolm for strategic reasons, Abi cause she needed some attention. The confusion is not only too much for the viewers to keep up with, but Penner also loses track ,and doesn’t vote with his group. Jeff is sent to the jury, but Abi’s treatment of Lisa cause her to flip down the line.

Survivor Seasons 1-8 Thoughts

Over the past six months I have been re-watching the first eight seasons of Survivor. Many consider these seasons to be part of the glory days, when the show was at its peek of popularity. I wanted to put some thoughts together about certain aspects of the show, and its evolution, so here it is.

BORNEO
The Pagong tribe was a mess from the start. All over the place. Even though Gretchen was a great leader, she didn’t have much of a team to lead. B.B. wouldn’t listen to anyone. Ramona was sick, or just wouldn’t eat the food, and couldn’t do much. Gervase thought he could win the whole game by playing cards with people. Jenna was crazy, and Colleen and Greg were always going off on island dating adventures. No wonder they messed up the merge vote.

People may complain about Borneo from a production point of view, but the challenges were good for a show with a summer budget in the first year of the millennium. Yeah, simple, but at least it wasn’t swimming for puzzle pieces every week. And some of these challenges set the basis for what the show would become over the next four years.

Dr. Sean was smarter than you think. The alphabet strategy meant that he would vote for all of the Pagong tribe, before having to write a former Tagi’s name down.

What if moment: Pagong don’t lose the Immunity before merge, and goes in 6-4.

Player that should return: Richard

AUSTRALIA
This is still to this day on the shows best casts. Even the first two to go, Debb and Kel, were memorable.

It only made me hate the Kucha’s more whenever they brought up how they would of been in power if Mike didn’t fall into the fire, but there was a 50-50 chance Ogakor might of won, and I sense Mike would of been voted out anyway if it had to come to it.

Can we all take a moment to think about the moment Colby dumped Jerri on her ass in the reward challenge. And can we just remember how funny the guy was. All they say is five immunities in a row, or how he had a great bod(as Jerri put it), but he was always cracking me up. Hersey bar. Ha!

What if moment: Kimmi didn’t reveal Jeff got a vote at their first tribal.

Players that should return: Jeff and Alicia.

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Ranking Survivor Winners (Season 1-8)

Richard Hatch, Borneo – While Hatch often gets discredited for being part of the inaugural season with a bunch of people who didn’t know what it took to win, I believe this fact makes him even more deserving of the top spot on this list. His perception of others and self-awareness, along with the fact he knew forming a voting block would be necessary, makes him the best of the first eight, and would still be in the top five for overall winners.

Sandra Diaz-Twine, Pearl Islands – “Any one but me”. While this strategy can be linked back to Vecepia three seasons earlier, Sandra really made it her own, and it is how more players need to think. She always had the intentions of booting Rupert with Christa, but the rug was pulled out from under her when FairPlay did it before she could. At the final seven she sat outside the core alliance but somehow made it to the end, and got six out of seven jury votes.

Tina Wesson, Australian Outback – Due to the edit not wanting to show off much of their winner, we didn’t get to see nearly enough off her. All I need to say here is she convinced Colby Donaldson to basically give her the million. Do you need anymore convincing on how good she was?
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Survivor: Borneo, Australia, Africa, and … Cagayan?

While the twenty eighth season of Survivor wraps up today, I’ve just finished re-watching the first three seasons. Survivor Cagayan has been one of the best in recent years, and dare I say, one of the best in the franchises history, but there would of been many who have watched this season of Survivor, that have never seen the shows conception and beginning. I’ve heard over the years people saying the show is totally different now, than what it was fourteen years ago. Maybe in production value, but the core of the show is still there. Only thing is this year with Cagayan, it’s been as clear as ever, how this show is still the same.

What makes the first three seasons, Borneo, Australian Outback, and Africa, is the great characters and everyone’s desire to win. Nobody is sitting around for third place (which is another topic in itself). In Borneo every castaway that made the merge was memorable, and was given quality screen time. Same thing for Australia and Africa. I can also say this for Cagayan, while I can’t say that for all seasons from the past few years.

In this season we had Tony, the villain playing super hard. Spencer, the young underdog. Kass, the outspoken older woman. Trish and Woo, playing under the radar in Tony’s majority alliance, and the challenge beast, Tasha. This final six was one where every single person had a case to win. Which is not un-similar to the seasons I have mentioned, where their final six’s featured legends of the game like Richard Hatch, Rudy Boesch, Sue Hawk, Colleen Haskell (from Borneo), Tina Wesson, Colby Donaldson, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Amber Brkich (from Australia), Ethan Zohn, Lex van den Berghe, Tom Buchanan, and Teresa Cooper (from Africa). So if you’ve enjoyed Survivor: Cagayan, but haven’t seen how the whole show started, definitely check them out.