ljenkins782

I found this interesting from that article: I can see where he's coming from with Jenn, those early days with Vince/Joe, that's exactly the vibe I got too. But Mike as a flirt? I'm not sure I'm seeing that at all. He had a brother/sister vibe with Kelly and he was nice to Shirin after the big blow-up, but I wouldn't call that flirting nor do I remember any times when he seemed flirty with anybody.

There is tons of potential for Rodney montages, all of the above plus a montage of all his uber-confident sports metaphor confessionals detailing plans that never work out. My favorite part of his birthday meltdown was his fury at the island that refuses to grow coconuts and fruits for him. It was purely irrational foot-stomping in the "My ox is broken" vein and those are my very favorite kind of meltdowns to watch. (And sadly, I can identify with them, I get stupid and irrational when I'm frustrated too. )

Shirin did say that to his face, she was relating the story in an interview. She told the camera that she offered to tell Tyler her thoughts on how he could grow as a person and that he could come to her to hear them. Followed by a rather obnoxiously rueful conclusion that he probably would decline to do so, thus depriving himself of the gift of her wisdom. The whole thing showed a serious social tone deafness, which i suspect is a frequent problem for Shirin.

Lol. Definite corporate-speak going on there. In any case, I just have no interest in seeing Carolyn on a second season. Hell, I barely care that she's on THIS season. Not that she's not playing a decent game or anything, but she's just not compelling TV. She has a good a shot (or better) to win as anyone out there, but it hasn't been entertaining to watch her get there.

I skip every couple seasons of Survivor, but am deeply into the current season, which always makes me want to watch old seasons I never saw/finished. So I went back to Tocantins (watched half but quit on it for some reason) and finally got around to seeing Samoa. First of all, I am amazed that I sat through the entire miserable Gabon season (one of the few that I would never bother to revisit due to not having any interest in any of the players) but bailed on Tocantins! I think Coach drove me so nuts that I couldn't take it but having seen his doofiness in HvV, I found him somewhat amusing back in Tocantins. On the flip side, JT's HvV performance kind of negatively affected my view of him in Tocantins, where he really did play an excellent game. He got one of the most favorable edits I've ever seen, they practically carried him to the million on their shoulders, smiles on their faces to take him there. Stephen's jury performance was just epically bad, which is a shame because that was a good final 2 (unlike this current Season O'Goats.) Overall, that was a fun season with some likeable characters in JT, Stephen, Taj, Debbie, etc. I also liked Erinn and don't know why she seemed so unpopular. The most uncomfortable part of the season was definitely Sierra. I don't completely understand why she was so loathed but it was hard to watch. As for Samoa, I enjoyed the season overall and was very surprised to find myself actually rooting for Russell due to the underdog nature of the final 4 Foa Foas. I couldn't stand him in the first few episodes and was disappointed to know that there was no comeuppance on the way during the game (him crying through the reunion after losing kinda counts :). But I always like to see a small group fight their way through and avoid a Pagonging. I was surprised at some of the last players standing because I never heard anything about them in all the talk through the years. Like, Mick the hot doctor, for example. I thought he must be an early boot and there he was at the end losing to Russell of all people. And Jaison looked like a midseason quit, so I would never pegged him to make it so deep either.

It looks like Joe is pleasantly buzzed all the time at Ponderosa and it's pretty adorable. He and Hali must be a blast to hang with there. Lol, that was Joe that licked Tyler. I like Tyler more in his relaxed Ponderosa state, he seems to fit in pretty well with the NCs and their vibe. Shirin did NOT come off well in that video at all (and I'm a bit baffled as to why there was so much of her in Tyler's video.) Yeah, that was a bad look. I've gone back and forth on Shirin all season, she's irritating but I kinda enjoyed her relationship with the NCs/Mike at the end, but overall, I think she would work my nerves big time if I knew her. And the arrogance in that moment was a stunning lack of self-awareness. She was speaking about Tyler as if he was a 20-year-old kid who just hadn't seen the world and her sage wisdom was necessary to his life journey. It was so arrogant and self-satisfied.

Yeah, that was about the only interesting thing about last night's TC. I'm interested in next week now that the idol is out of there, leaving a shred of suspense about Mike's survival. As for Sierra and Carolyn teaming up, it's a good short-term move for Sierra to pull Carolyn in, but she should get rid of her before FTC. I've been wanting Sierra to flip all season to get rid of the annoying people, but I understand why she hasn't gone for it. That's the crux of the problem with this season, the player's individual best moves are at odds with the viewer experience (well, for MY viewing experience, at least, I shouldn't presume to speak for everyone.) It makes perfect sense for everyone to want to drag Will and Dan to the end to get a landslide victory for themselves, but it sucks to watch that show. I wish there was some kind of twist to make the goat strategy go away for a season or 2. I much prefer the suspenseful endings of the Yul/Ozzy (and Becky), Tina/Colby or even Rob/Amber variety over the blowouts we get with huge, obvious goats.

Ha, that would be funny. Plus, it would mean that same idol clue burned 2 people who made the wrong choice after being caught with it. Joe should never have shared it with Tyler and Tyler should never have shared it with Mike. If Tyler joins Joe on the jury based on being considered too big a threat, that would be kind of poetic.

I don't think Dan would see that quote as an insult. He'd probably zero in on the "one of the most colorful characters" in the game and that his goal of "being remembered" is accomplished. Which I absolutely have to disagree with. I really don't think Dan is going to stand out beyond this season unless his double vote plays a HUGE part in the game. And even if it does, we'll remember who got saved/blindsided by the double vote and not so much the loudmouth doofus who cast it. Exactly. He's not a "character" to me because that requires some inherent charisma, even if it's in a negative way. There are some people that are compelling to watch or consistently draw your attention even if you hate them. Dan is not even close to being one of those people.

She has time to hand the idol back to Mike before the votes are read, she can say "nope, not playing it" and give it back to him so it's not in her pocket on the way out. Yeah, the quote onalark was responding to was referring to transferring the necklace after the vote, which is definitely not allowed for good reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHdWX0EoQdE Joe does a pretty damn good impression of Rodney (his Mike impression isn't quite up to Rodney's version of it, but still solid.) The impressions start around the 3:00 mark.

Hmmm, very interesting scenario presented on a Youtube Aftershow with some former Survivors. They suggested that if Mike had given Shirin the idol BEFORE tribal and she presented it as her own before the voting (but didn't actually play it after the voting happened), people probably would not have voted for her. In that scenario, they'd be far less likely to try to call the idol bluff because Shirin had no reason NOT to play it for herself, while Mike obviously had a lot of reasons not to play it for her. Obviously, the only risk there would have been that Shirin would cross Mike by playing the idol, but I don't think she would have.

I was pulling for Carolyn at the beginning, but the above is pretty much how I feel about her now. Particularly the parts about her being unnecessarily harsh to people she feels superior to or who have a lower position in the social hierarchy. She strikes me as that type of person you encounter at work who can play the superficial social political game pretty well, but who's a total bitch if she doesn't perceive you as an important person to schmooze. Ha, fair point, though pretty boys are not my thing. The Mikes of the world are much more my type than the Joes. This should be interesting because I think the numbers are down to the point that Will can't hide anymore. My fear is that thanks to Mike's detailed speech about Shirin being the one to vote Tyler while he voted for someone else, Dan is going to assume Mike was one of the Dan votes and swings even harder to the Rodney side. Given that it's Dan, who can't see past the end of his nose, I'm assuming that is exactly what he will think.

The episode was just okay, but I LOVED that TC. That was a brilliant last-ditch effort, though I agree with the people above who think Shirin could have hung it around her neck while the voting occurred and then declined to play it. That would have been within the rules. I'm truly surprised that Tyler was one of the group that fell for it. I understand it was his name being thrown around, but I would have expected both him and Carolyn to see through that gambit. I don't particularly like either of them (am REALLY starting to loathe Carolyn), but they are cool-headed players. I'm interested to see how/if he recovers from this one AND if Will gets any heat for this. I'm not sure how Will's flip-flopping votes never seem to be questioned. I would also like to hear the reasoning behind Will's vote since there wasn't time for the alliance to strategize and choose where to throw those votes. What made him flip and how did it happen to be the same person Tyler was voting? I loved Mike chirping out "but Dan still got 2 votes!!" as the rest of the alliance was celebrating Shirin's departure. Of all the people in the big group, he was probably the best one to be on the receiving end of those votes. Rodney would have been paranoid too, but he's in a much, much more secure position than Dan. I really need Dan to be spectacularly blindsided because I just can't with this guy anymore. He's the double whammy of being both boring AND loathsome. Even when he's not actually being an asshole (those few minutes here and there), he's dead boring and irritating. As for the adopted child vs abused child, I couldn't even understand what the hell he was talking about. Besides the fact that those 2 things are not at all comparable, he was rambling on about his mother being the only family he had. So, birth mother or adoptive mother, or what? Mike was irritating me when he was on top but I'm firmly rooting for him now (half due to lack of other options and half due to a natural inclination toward underdogs.) On a purely shallow note, he is looking hotter every week but I'm not sure what's different. This, plus I'm pretty sure Rodney's muscles are enhanced by something other than working out. I noticed Mike's lips moving and he looked completely zeroed in on something other than the bar most of the time. I'm glad he's got at least one more week thanks to the idol because I feel like they might be coming up on a 'playing field leveler' immunity challenge where luck or puzzle skills could allow someone else (likely not Dan OR Will ;) to take the necklace. All in all, I'm intrigued by the turn even if I hate most of the people left. Mike has a far better chance than Shirin did so at least there's some hope there. ETA: OMG, my thoughts exactly. If I was trying to concentrate and I had some jackass nattering in my ear NON-STOP, it would make me crazy. Mike is lucky no one was rooting for him with that kind of "encouragement."

Very old post, but I just found this forum. :) I tend to hate crime procedurals (and there are so damn many of them!!), so this show's only hook for me was the historical settings and period costumes. I was always disappointed when the crime year would show up on the screen and it was only like a year or two prior to the present, though there turned out to be quite a few "current" episodes that I really liked. But if my first episode hadn't been an old-time setting (the 1932-set Best Friends was my first), I'd never have been drawn into the show. I've seen all of the episodes in seasons 1-5 and have seen a few from season 6, but I've only recently gotten to see several of the season 7 episodes. I really enjoyed the classic story/flashback elements of these episodes (the cruise ship one, WASP, Runaway Bunny, etc), BUT the cop drama/lead character backstories were absolutely out of control and disruptive to the parts of the show that I like. I was never all that bothered by the minor backstories in the earlier seasons (except for the repeated, colossally lame and ultimately failed attempts at giving Scotty an adversarial love interest), but these episodes were just way over the top with all of the cop stories. I guess it doesn't help that I wasn't watching them in order/hadn't seen all of the season 6 episodes so I had no idea what was actually happening with this guy that Lily was being stalked by (? that she ended up killing, I think? Not even sure and don't care.) Given this turn and with all the ratings problems they had with sports running overtime, I guess I'm not surprised it was cancelled. Still a bummer because I did love the original concept and execution, and honestly, it's the type of show that could have gone on a good long time with that original formula. Wish they hadn't tried to make it so much about running storylines about the main characters instead of the stand-alone stories that could have contributed to a very long shelf life.

Are you sure he was talking to Will? I honestly thought he was saying that to Shirin. Not because she was saying much in that moment, but because Will was accusing her of running her mouth about the food and because it's generally established that everyone thinks she talks too much. Sad to say, but based on who was sitting around the fire at that moment, Rodney wouldn't be currying favor with anyone by defending Shirin against Will and I don't see him being a good enough person to defend her just because it's the right thing to do. Tyler, Carolyn, and Dan all seem to hate her and who knows how Sierra feels so standing up to an ally against a non-alliance member pariah doesn't make sense from Rodney's point of view. As for the episode itself, way late to the party, but agreed with everyone who found that an uncomfortable watch on so many levels. Enough has been said about Will's behavior, but I guess it's enough for me that he dug his own grave vote-wise by continuing to be a remorseless asshole at TC in front of Joe and Hali. There was plenty of cool-down time in between and that he could be so awful again with so little heated emotion behind it says a lot about him. Also incredibly uncomfortable to watch in a less serious way was Mike's incredibly baffling gameplay. It was like watching a "How to lose Survivor in just 1 day" how-to video. So many possibilities for a serious advantage and he blew every last one of them. IF he was going to pull that shit at the auction, he should have stuck to it. And in that vein, I do think all sales should be final at the auction. Nobody's ever gotten to "return" the glass of water from camp that they bought for $100 or whatever, why should that change now? I'm not sure if Jeff would have denied the return, since Mike seemed to get up immediately upon Carolyn's statement, so this could all be moot, but if he stuck to his guns, he'd be on the outs but on the outs with a big advantage. As it is, he's on the outs with nothing but the lowest on the totem pole as allies. He also had a shot at blindsiding one of the secret 4, what on earth made him think that publicly blowing it up was the way to go??? Such a bizarre episode, by the time they showed Mike, Shirin and Jenn holed up together in that cave area, I was like "wtf just happened here?" Last week, he was riding high as king of the majority alliance and now he's got no one but the 2 freebie boots. Though I have to say, I must have a thing for underdogs because I liked Mike more in this episode than I have since the first episode. And weirdly, I'm more okay with the idea of him winning if it's not a ride to the end on everyone's shoulders like it seemed to be in the last 6 weeks or so.

Can't speak for Dan because I hate him enough to not want to bother dissecting his possible motives, but as for Shirin, I don't believe she's able to hide her true self enough to be playing a role. She just gets SO excited every time she sees some perceived opportunity that it can't be fake (for example, when she thought she'd swung Kelly to the WC side after the tribal shake-up.) I think she's such a fan of the game that experiencing those little Survivor hallmark moments get her so pumped up that she might forget that she's playing OR she's just not able to capitalize on them based on her poor position in the tribe. If she could somehow last to the end and is sitting next to Dan, Rodney, Will, or Carolyn; she'll have the 3 no-collars locked down but not sure if she'll get anybody else. And I'm almost afraid to see that FTC, I'm sure she'll get shredded again by at least 2 or more people.

I don't think Shirin would fare a whole lot better in a return appearance, she reminds me very much of Shii Ann, who was about as equally disliked by most in All-Stars. They're both obviously smart and accomplished in their real lives, but personality is a real problem. If they had any social game at all, they'd both be threatening players but your plans can only work out if you can get others on board. That actually would have been a good move. I can't fault Joe for not knowing that he was showing his fake idol to the person who had actually found the real one and Mike apparently the go-to person for trying to break into the BC alliance, but Rodney would have been an inspired choice. He doesn't have the idol/doesn't know Mike has it, he's a reactor who can't help but jump to action when he thinks he has a plan, and he might actually have some sway over the people in the alliance. In my dreams, they could have blindsided Mike with that idol in his pocket. I laughed when Joe 100% correctly chose Dan as the person to help him sneak off for fake idol-making time. I feel like the last 2 episodes have been Mike desperately trying to keep a tail on Joe and Dan falling down on the job of watching him. After last week's red herring-fest where I dared hope that Dan was gone, I gave up hope on Joe pretty early in this one. I kept a glimmer alive when the editors played that "ding" noise over a shot of Joe/Jenn listening to Rodney mocking Mike. I was hoping that might signal a crack that they were going to be able to exploit, but I guess not in time for Joe. I'm back and forth on Jenn, she was petulant and obnoxious about "her" chickens, but I can't pretend I wouldn't be the same way, especially under miserable conditions/being outnumbered/losing my best friend and ally in the prior vote. She's obviously moody but I still like kinda like her and if nothing else, I'd like her to be the spoiler in the BC alliance march to the finals. She's not Joe, but she's way up there on the scale of challenge performers. Rodney's impressions were my hands-down favorite part of the episode, they were brilliant. And Jenn has a great laugh. It actually made Rodney likable for 2 minutes, his inability to stop laughing at himself mid-impersonation was endearing.

My thoughts exactly. I was dying at his spot-on Mike impersonation and actually wanting to see him get more airtime, but I had the same question: is he improving or do I just hate/am bored to death by the others. At this point, I would actually root for his [probably-doomed-to-failure-since-it's-Rodney] final 4 plan to work out.

Oh man, they did a slo-mo replay of part of his dance last night (maybe when he got injured) and the faces he makes....oof. Stupid yes, but also hilarious. Obviously it's tougher on the non-dancer/performer contestants to manage their faces because they're working so hard on the steps, but he's particularly bad. And that was a seriously unfortunate choice of costume for the quickstep, a dance which by its very nature makes everyone look like a prancing pony. If you ignored his upper half, he looked like a schoolgirl skipping around the playground in a skirt and knee socks. An awkward, 2-left-footed schoolgirl at that. Just bad all around. OH!!! Val was the eel, I did not catch that. I was wondering WTF the Incredible Hulk had to do with The Little Mermaid, guess I didn't look beyond his green painted face, heh. I was not into that dance at all. I'm sure it was technically fine and whatever, but it was bland. I kept waiting for something to kick in, because Rumer's been excellent up to now, but I just was not feeling that. I liked Riker's dance a lot, but SOMETHING went slightly wrong on that spinning move. That was definitely the moment I thought Allison was going to go flying, it looked like he got an awkward start lifting her and overcompensated by just throwing her as hard as he could. I do wish he'd gotten a different pro (though I've liked their stuff well enough) because he has a lot of potential and I'd enjoy him in the finals more than say, Nastia. He's got a more fun energy. I would have liked to see him with Witney because I really enjoy her, but as mentioned, Chris is a total albatross. I haven't watched the show in a couple of seasons and I am not loving some of the additions they've made, such as the backup dancers. There are times when I literally can't find the celeb/pro pair because there are so many damn people on the stage. (And the animation last night was totally irritating.) That was so incredibly awkward. I guess she was told to feature Minnie Mouse somehow and shoehorned it in in the most ham-fisted way possible?? I generally like Erin, but perhaps that's partially informed by the fact that her predecessors were Samantha Harris and Brooke Burke. Being a "better" host is pretty low-hanging fruit, but she's (usually) a step up.

Just getting around to watching the "Day After" videos of the booted contestants and was intrigued by Joaquin's take on his game. He saw himself as a challenge monster and social threat, which is not at all the way I thought of him but then again the editing has been weird this season. He was pretty good in challenges, but he's remembering it as him being first on the mat every single time...which seems to be Joe's thing. Outside of nailing the basketball throwing in that one challenge, I don't remember him standing out from the pack. But the social thing is what I really didn't see. In fact, it surprises me that he's a marketing director because he just doesn't seem very animated or articulate. I can't picture him selling anyone on anything. He also didn't seem particularly friendly to anyone, save So and Rodney, but several people said that they loved him, so again, it seems like editing is at play.

Rodney would be a DISASTER at a final tribal. So much so that I could almost root for it to happen for sheer foot-in-mouth entertainment. With the first whiff of "disrespect" from a juror, he would lose his mind and blow his chances all to hell. ETA: From the article upthread: Ha, Freudian slip? Either that or Jeff really doesn't understand the meaning of the term "jump the shark."

Mike maybe, but there's no way Probst likes Rodney. He's always seemed biased toward strong men, but not clear jackasses. Rodney's cut from the Fairplay cloth, maybe valuable to Probst/producers because he's good TV, but not someone that anyone likes on a personal level. And he's not a Hatch type villain, he's just a basic meathead and his edit is setting him for a hard fall.

Yes, in Hali's Ponderosa video, she gives a toast to Jenn, Joe, Sierra and Will saying "and whoever else didn't vote for me." She also said that the only person she's really mad at is Shirin, who Hali thinks has flipped on them twice (so I guess Shirin's getting the blame for Will's Hali vote last week.) Then why did he say "sorry" when Jen and Shirin looked back at him? You can always tell Joe's vote because he draws something on it, he drew a fish for Dan and there was that band-aid for Kelly last week. Wonder if that irritated the editors with regard to trying to hide who people voted for until after the vote is revealed? Tyler is a potentially interesting player. (I'm personally a little irked by him at the moment because his moves are ensuring some of the more irritating BC members' survival, but that's a purely selfish viewer feeling). He's certainly smart and clearly not prone to making rash decisions based on emotions or the pressure of a situation, so I'm hoping that he'll make moves soon. He's smart to lay back and get lost in the shuffle of the majority group because he's not THAT valuable to them at this point. They can still vote someone out without him so flipping to the minority side would paint the unnecessary target on him. But with the NC alliance looking doomed, I'm hanging my hopes on Tyler to make bolder moves later when there are fewer players and knock out some of the BCs. ETA: Forgot to mention that I was surprised and impressed by the number of people who got the relatively unusual spelling of Hali's name right last night. The same group that can't be bothered to even LEARN Shirin's name can manage to come up with "Hali" over the more traditional "Haley/Hayley" spelling.

I didn't understand what sharing the clue was buying Joe either. He didn't get any kind of assurances from Tyler or forge any kind of bond, he just basically handed over the info to the majority. If anything, Tyler got more out of it by using it to suck up to Mike (and possibly hand him the game, unfortunately.) Very disappointed in the outcome but it was probably inevitable that an NC would go. Part of me is hoping that the producers will introduce a twist that will save Joe/Jenn/Shirin somehow, though I don't know what that could be at this stage of the game. Sure, it's interference in the game, but if it spared me from weeks and weeks of Rodney/Dan/Mike, I'd be fine with it. I have to hand it to Dan for managing to make Rodney look like a more palatable option. Rodney is an idiot, but it's amusing to watch him get frustrated and act out. Dan is annoying at his most harmless moments and almost alarming at his worst. He gives off some really disturbing vibes when he's worked up. I usually find the classic golden boy types annoying (was never a Colby fan or Malcolm fan), but I genuinely like Joe. He handles himself well most of the time and some of the funnier little moments have come from him (the "Is Rodney smart" look, picking on Rodney for eating more than everyone else, and also for choosing Shirin directly after Dan mocked her appeal to get chosen. I'd like to believe that Dan's response is what swung Joe over to choosing Shirin.) Mike's THs are beyond obnoxious. He bothers me a lot less in the day-to-day footage, but he gets WAY overexcited in his interviews and it drives me crazy.