enlightenedbum

For the record, Daran Norris is primarily a voice actor. The show eventually (I think in season 3?) acknowledges this fact by setting up a fake casting call for such a thing. You almost only ever actually see him on Rob Thomas properties (Cliff and Johnny Frost)

The difference is Troy is an asshole so he was bitter that Kim kicked his ass. Parvati spent too much time mocking her opponents and created bitter jurors.

Best thing about this season might be one of the Rob's (I think it was Mariano, might have been Cesternino) described their tribe as the "buffoon tribe" and then they won like every challenge.

I would not do it, because it is horrible.

It was Cirie's plan to vote out Ozzy, sparked by Eliza revealing who had the idol and the deal with Jason at the immunity challenge. Parvati did take a risk by joining in and deserves credit for that. Not sure how big of one it was because she was pretty well positioned either way, but it was a risk. That episode is actually the funniest one of that very, very funny post-merge. I think it's also the episode where Erik meditates on boobs on the island of Yap? That might be later in the season I don't remember exactly when that amazing bit of comedy happens. It's really too bad the pre-merge is so sad/garbage. I do think for a segment of the jury, giving either of them a million bucks was distasteful. I read somewhere there was an unaired question from Eliza that was "name anyone running for President." Filming started October 29, 2007 so we were like 8 months into the campaign and the actual primaries were like 9 weeks away, by the end of the game, less than a month away. And they failed. I always thought that question was hilarious (if petty and spiteful, as most jury questions are). And it gets at the weirdest thing about Parvati's win to me. She comes off as a spoiled brat in Cook Islands, and while it's less so in Micronesia, it's definitely still there as far as I'm concerned. Then she wins the million and as best I can tell... became a pretty cool person. That's not how I'd expect that to go.

Adam is a slightly smarter Todd in that he talks about strategy more than he actually has a strategy. But he didn't do a bunch of obviously self-destructive things where he had to be bailed out.

Between Cirie's likeability, her obvious brilliance in the game, and her life situation she walks away with that easily. It would feel better to give her the money than Parvati and that;s often a big factor.

Amanda will only be effective when everyone else is a complete moron, like China.

It's Todd. Fuck Todd.

Cirie split the votes the season before, for an even more clever reason (to boot the goat). And you should watch the post-merge of One World because it's the best game anyone has ever played.

Micronesia's pre-merge disqualifies it. The post-merge is amazing, with hilarious nonsense going on literally every episode. But before that you've got the very dumb fans doing very dumb things, the most poorly designed challenge ever taking out Penner, Yau getting caught in the crossfire of an extremely stupid fight between Penner and Cirie, more dumb fans doing dumb things, two quits, and Eliza kicking ass and taking names in challenges. Only one of those things is actually fun to watch. I took Cook Islands. Has a premise that causes you to look at it askance, works out pretty well, blows up that premise, has a couple reasonably interesting tribes, has a giant game changing twist and then immediate comeuppance for the people who act like arrogant assholes who create their own downfall (BONUS: it's to keep the cool white kids together that they make their terrible decision! Which is a satisfying conclusion to the racially divided season, as far as I'm concerned.), you've got Yul using his single idol to protect four people, Penner narrating, Ozzy's ridiculous athleticism, FOUR people they have asked back multiple times (Ozzy, Candice, Parvati, Penner), Penner making fun of Probst's challenge narration. It's just good times throughout, except maybe the dumb thing where Ozzy throws a challenge. But even that results in the hilarious if incredibly cringey Billy confession of love for Candice. The single most stunned Probst has ever been. Honorable mentions: Borneo, Amazon, Pearl Islands, Palau, Micronesia, Heroes vs. Villains And also special honorable mention to Fiji. Not a great season (again the pre-merge is terrible, especially the pre-swap), but it has the single greatest episode (the one where Edgardo is booted, obviously) so I thought it deserves mention.

James was always a jerk. Especially towards women, but also just in general.

Difference is even if you know the algorithm for solving slide puzzles there's some chance for someone else to beat you based on better manual dexterity. In a Nim game, there's literally no chance.

Though if you're asking for best players ever, I actually jump Natalie White a few spots and insert a bunch of non-winners (Cirie and Cesternino first and foremost) ahead of everyone below Denise. Natalie just couldn't play a proactive game with the crazy person she was playing against.

I like putting things in tiers to clarify things for myself, so I'd do something like (and I've ranked these within the tiers): Two Time Winner Sandra, in a class by herself Dominant Games (Solo) Kim, Brian, Rob Dominant Games (With a Partner...They Didn't Necessarily Need) Yul (Becky strategically, Ozzy physically), Earl (Yau-Man), Parvati (Cirie), Denise (Malcolm), Dominant Games (With a Partner...They Probably Needed) Amber (Rob), Tom (Ian), JT (Stephen) Solid Wins (Pre-BIG MOVES) Richard, Natalie White, Chris, Sophie, Vecepia, Tina, Danni, Jenna, Ethan Solid Wins (BIG MOVES!) John, Tony, Mike, Sarah I Didn't Watch Jeremy, Tyson, Michele, Natalie Anderson Unimpressive Wins Aras, Bob, Fabio, Adam, Todd I think the BIG MOVES era is less impressive and would get their clocks cleaned by the more subtle players of earlier times. And if you want to say Rob needed the partner of Probst/casting, I wouldn't agree necessarily but I'd understand the impulse.

I recall even Kim was basically invisible until the asshole quit.

Other thing: the early seasons seemed to have a much more merit based set of tasks so that the outcome felt like it depended on skill as racers and not just luck. And the total finish order would basically make sense (give or take Flo). Like the first season, it's hard to dispute that the final four teams were clearly the best, and I think Momily was pretty clearly the top of the next tier. It started to fall apart by season 6, when there were like five bunches an episode and by season 11 it had completely fallen apart, allowing a final three where one team had exactly one skill (Mirna could find a flight to anywhere on the planet leaving within fifty minutes that no one else could find) and one team that was entirely dysfunctional and transparently didn't like each other. Basically what I'm saying is early TAR is best TAR.

Mostly got focused on "how unbelievably annoying Eliza apparently is in person."

Kathy fairly consistently revealed herself to be a self-absorbed, rather shitty person through this season. See also Jenna's departure and what Rich did to Sue. Which even Rob and Rupert, not exactly friends to women (and who would go on to cover themselves in shit later regarding Sue) thought was disgusting.

I don't think Todd's FTC was that impressive, frankly. Just that the cast was stupid and fell for his transparent bullshit. He couldn't point to anything he actually did so he just talked like he theoretically did stuff but no one was smart enough to ask for any specific thing he did. Because the answer was "hand a (theoretically) athletic dude two immunity idols for no reason" and nothing else, really.

Well, there's a very good reason I forgot those two. Maybe the most boring people to be on either show.

I think there were only four Survivor -> TAR contestants: Rob, Amber, Jenna, Ethan. Can't recall any others. More Big Brother -> TAR, I think. And the Andersons are the only TAR -> Survivor I think, though I think Parvati initially applied for TAR and got shunted off to Survivor.

Todd played a garbage game and had to have his ass saved repeatedly by Amanda. I actually consider him a less impressive winner than Bob or Fabio, because at least they didn't create terrible situations for themselves intentionally. I know I say the jury cannot be wrong by definition, but the jury was wrong in China. That whole cast was filled with absolute morons who were fooled by the most transparent suck up and braggart the game has ever seen. In particular, I wish James were smarter, so Todd would be known for making one of the five dumbest plays ever.

Yeah, the Heroes were basically gigantic unearned egos with no one to calm them down. And once Cirie was gone, the closest thing to a strategist left was Amanda.

They've done that challenge a number of times. It's definitely the one Dani bought an advantage for at the auction because the majority alliance was so very, very dumb, ultimately leading to her win.