Eolivet

I was thinking about the Edge of Extinction, and while I don't love it at all, I could tolerate it with a few tweaks. Namely, that it ended at the merge. I think I could be marginally okay with the Edge of Extinction in the early days, when who goes home is based on tribal performance and this season, Joe vs No Joe. In the early days of Survivor, when the pickings are slimmer for who gets sent home, it makes a little more sense. But after the merge, I have a huge problem with it. After the merge, you solidify your alliances, you have to up your social game, you can't rely on Joe to win challenges for you. One person is immune, not six or seven. I can equate "surviving on the Edge of Extinction" to "surviving in tribal rounds of the game," but not surviving post-merge, which is so much more complicated. I suppose that makes it similar to the Outcast twist, with the difference that we've seen what the Edge of Extinction is (versus being assured the Outcasts were totally not receiving any better treatment off-screen). But if they absolutely insist on keeping Edge of Extinction past the merge, there have to be surprise eliminations. I don't think you should be able to check your social game and your competitive game at the door, and only live on a beach for two weeks and have that be comparable to a post-merge game. Actions have to have some consequences. Of course, I'd like Edge of Extinction to go the way of Ghost Island and never come back. But if we absolutely must have it, these are ways to make it marginally less awful, to me.

Physically, maybe. But I think that comparison reflects pretty poorly on Adam, who was smarter/wilier than Gavin has been on his best day. I can't recall Adam ever having petty confessionals like Gavin's "how dare Wardog talk to me in that way!" and "I'm voting out of revenge." Gavin is like ... Donathan without the charm, plus Nick without the brains, and all with Adam's face.

Ron giving Rick the expired advantage seems like it's going to play out like Chrissy and her expired fake idol, where the trickster makes a massive deal about how much fun it's going to fool the person tricked, and it only makes the trickster look like a bigger fool. (I say this based on Ron's edit vs Rick's edit. I can't see this as the audience hoping it will work in Ron's favor. And it might even turn his alliance against him, based on the limited footage we saw.)

I'll take metaphors any day and twice on Wednesdays over the Kama-Strong-bots who say nothing of value except "we gotta get the threats out." Have we forgotten Christian's brilliant "turn the crank on this old car alliance to see if it will run?" from last season? Didn't someone also compare the merge to a first date there? Metaphors are indicative of contestants with a working brain and some wit. I'd rather an attempt at a metaphor than Survivor contestant lingo-bingo any day ("it's about trust!", "it's an individual game!", "who do I want to sit next to at the end," etc.)

If Victoria is the winner, they'd better trot out a sick mom or a pregnant wife for her at this family visit, because I know next to nothing about her. At least Michele Fitzgerald was a challenge beast.

If Rick isn't winning this thing (by going on a ... three immunity win run?), they'd better start ramping up some of these people's edits. I think they've seriously underestimated how likable or interesting the rest of these people are.

Prior to tribal council, I thought she had a nicely humanizing moment. She got the Spencer "I'm a real live boy/girl" confessional, which is never indicative of a winner, but someone where personal growth is their reward instead of the million (see also: David on mvgx). I thought Kelley's insights into herself came off better than uncomfortably desperate Aubry, resigned David or ho-hum Joe. I can't take Reem seriously anymore, and I don't think the editors do either. They're seriously using her like Norm on Cheers. If Survivor was taped in front of a live studio audience, I'd expect them to yell "REEM!" every time she appeared onscreen.

Okay, so you have a double U-Turn, you have several teams who are like "what is a race?" (due to inexperience or lack of competitive edge) and you choose to U-Turn ... two experienced Amazing Race teams? Not the bumbling Survivors or the inconsistent Big Brother teams, who probably would've crumbled had they had to do two Detours, let alone one? Seems like a massive miscalculation to me.

I googled La Cheeserie, and for anyone who didn't know, it's apparently something they (ironically) yell out at golf tournaments. Maybe everyone else knew that, but I did not. I guess it's the ... cultured person's over-the-top touchdown dance? Wardog is exhibit A why flipping on your closest alliance is never a smart move. Although it was so weird to see Lauren -- who should've been out for blood after Wardog turned on her and Kelley -- be all, "oh no, let's not get rid of him yet." Bizarre.

I asked our esteemed mod to make this thread, because I hoped there were people (like me) who are very interested in casting spoilers for Survivor 40 (which won't film for another couple months and will be mainly about casting for a while), independent of Survivor 39 (which should be wrapping up shortly and will have honest-to-goodness spoilers). So ... all your Survivor 40 casting spoilers and spec. Give them to me, please. (my question is will the season 38 winner even be asked to participate, if season 38 made Probst so mad, the casting director was fired? Will it be a 20 person season? 18? Or 24, like Survivor Australia, where the contestants needed nametags for at least the first 6 weeks).

Disney night is good for the young 'uns -- it's emotional depth they can manage. Next week, when we get back to singing grown-up songs, I don't think the high schoolers will do nearly so well. Can I just say it really irked me to bring out Caleb onstage with Maddie? She won the show, not him, and nobody even knew they were dating until the finale last year. This is not a love story I was invested in. I loved Maddie as a winner -- I thought she was an amazing talent, with an innate ability to connect with a song. Caleb lost, and deservedly so. This isn't a Clay/Ruben situation -- stop trying to make whatever-Caleb-and-Maddie's-cutesy-couple-name-is happen. (For the record, I have no problem with them dating, but I have a huge problem with the show treating them as equals, talent-wise, because I think Maddie is far and away more talented. She deserved her "winner moment" -- here and last year -- independent of whoever her boyfriend was.)

See, I thought Madison sang Fallin' well, but when I listened to the lyrics, I was like, "she doesn't know what 'falling in and out of love with you' means." Same with Riley and "Suds in the Bucket." At least Laine picked Elvis, so no deep musical interpretation needed. But ever since Jordin Sparks sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" -- which is sung to a grieving widow about persevering after tragedy -- with a big smile on her face, I have been biased against 16/17 year olds having the maturity to interpret the meaning of more emotionally complex songs. Like every teenager who's belted out "Natural Woman." No, please no. Just 'cause you can belt it doesn't mean you get it. I'm sure others have said it, but Walker is like the hipster reincarnation of John Stevens, the ginger-haired crooner from Idol season 3. I can't unsee it now.

I disagree, because goats have to be predictable or at least you have to know they're not coming after you. Wardog is ... well, a rabid dog who will go after anyone. He's the ultimate agent of chaos. And after booting Kelley Wentworth (arguably the Parvati to his Russell), he will clearly turn on anyone and anybody. I can't say Wardog is playing the best game after this boot because to any Survivor player with sense, he's now officially a liability, and the ultimate wildcard. But these are Kamas, so ... we'll see if they understand this, or if they all follow Kelley to 4444 Edge of Extinction Drive.

To me, Edge of Extinction has been providing editing clues about the winner. It has been like a player in and of itself, and its post-merge edit has gone down considerably. I wonder if that says a lot about who was there pre-merge, and why it was important. Edge of Extinction is going to be like those Edgic (ha ha) "second person POV," where they add up all the good/bad confessionals about another person. And the only reason the Edge of Extinction showed up last night was for an advantage for another player. If it becomes nothing but an advantage-haven to help current players, I think we can rule out anyone currently on Edge of Extinction as a winner themselves.

Kelley frustrated me, because of how she hitched her wagon to Wardog. At least David knew he was fighting for his life. Kelley saw or observed how the Kamas turned on first Aubry, then Joe, then David and yet she thought ... what? That she was different than all the other returnees? That Wardog was protecting her? I'm most frustrated with the fact that she and David couldn't work together. Unless she wanted to play Parvati to Wardog's Russell (in a season without a Sandra), they should've gotten rid of Wardog on Lesu. She and David could've formed an uneasy truce, each with their ride-or-die buddy. But they could never work together, and a lot of it seemed to be blocked by Wardog. I don't love Kelley, but I wish she'd have read Wardog for what he is: a sleazy, slimy poker player using her as a shield. He absolutely sunk her game, and she has no one to blame but herself.

I have no memory of Art and JJ at all, not even a little bit. Survivor did not exactly acquit itself well, when Chris and Bret are your top finishing team. There really is a learning curve to the Amazing Race, as evidenced by all four top teams having former racers on them. I also watch all three shows, and other than Art and JJ, who I think they incepted into the show just to mess with my head, I have fond-ish memories of all of them. Rupert is so ridiculous, I have to laugh. I'm fine with Rachel's schtick, since she hasn't changed it at all since her first Big Brother season (though I disagree that Elissa will do a better job calming her down -- Brendon was so zen). Christie was unrecognizable, though I guess it's been a while. Corrine and Eliza look -- and act -- exactly the same. Nicole looks happy. And I think Janelle's going to be carrying Team BB Blondes. I absolutely love this concept, though. I've had it up to here with either "bland, zero-drama sibling teams" and "dating couples that snipe constantly at each other." These are all famewhores, so the playing field will be nice and level, the confessionals will be good and the meltdowns will be epic. And if it keeps Amazing Race on the air, bring it on.

I'm sort of shocked that the two-fer episode was eliminating two returning players, but it sort of harkens back to the Christian boot from David vs Goliath in that when someone has a big edit, they don't need a "big" boot episode. I think Wardog's playing a Russell Hantz game with only a modicum more finesse than Russell. Just because you control everything doesn't mean you're well-liked. He's an Ox more than a Fox if we're talking player archetypes. How much we see Edge of Extinction from here on out is going to tell us a lot about the potential endgame, I think.

I really wonder if they'd have Michele Fitzgerald back. She was rumored to be really close to being cast on MTV's The Challenge, so I'd think CBS has sort of "given up" her "rights." Wendell also expressed interest in The Challenge, but I think CBS still "controls" his "rights." The reason I never wanted an all-winners season is because I don't want to see two/three/four-time players versus "played once and won" players. I will laugh so hard if Adam abandons his poker cult in the Virgin Islands to compete on Survivor, only to be a pre-jury boot. I'd love to see Nick again, though. I feel like these people wrote their own bios, or at least provided details, because some of these are so obscure, there's no way a researcher could've found them. (i.e., there's no way Michele advertises her love of Harry Potter that much on her social media).

Was this Elizabeth from Kaoh Rong, as described by @fishcakes above? If so, that was Cambodia, not Fiji. I believe part of the reason they've stayed in Fiji for so long because the location-related medical issues are less serious than prior seasons. Or maybe they're just less serious than Cambodia. I don't remember any location-related medical issues in the Philippines or San Juan Del Sur, but maybe that's just time dulling my memory.

This. After last season, I learned no matter what the game is telling you, we have to like the winner, feel a connection to the winner, even if the winner seems impossible based on the game. And they completely ignored Kama to the point of parody in the early edit (with the exception of Aubry and Joe -- neither of whom have gotten big Edge of Extinction edits), meaning I have to believe the winner is on Manu/Lesu. I agree Victoria is playing a good, solid game, but I feel no connection to her personally. I know nothing about her, and I don't feel I'm meant to sympathize with her. She's like the Kara Kay of this season so far.

I'm confused -- I thought Kaoh Rong was the one with flesh-eating bacteria (where Neil had to be medically evacuated because of a skin infection, and I thought Aubry's Joe did, too? Unless that was another medical condition). In fact, I always thought that was the reason they left Cambodia like a bat out of hell, instead of spending the requisite four seasons there: to escape the flesh-eating bacteria and associated infections. Fiji contestants might have short-term acute skin problems, but the only medical evacuation since 33 has been Pat's freak accident in the boat (and Bi spraining her ankle and quitting) last season. Love Fiji or hate it, one medical evacuation (from a freak accident) in six seasons is a pretty good track record. Everything else must not be severe enough to worry them.

Then last episode needed to be make all three dates awful or perfect. But setting one date aside from the other two (as a less idealized, more realistic version of love and affection) set up a narrative sign post towards that ultimate romantic choice (even as a throwaway line). Make all dates awful or make all dates perfect and the show has absolutely stuck within narrative parameters. The minute the show made one "better," it stuck a signpost there. Kicking it over and going "ha! fooled you!" is not redefining tropes, it's just bad writing.

The more I think about this ending, the less I like it. To me, you don't separate out one suitor above the rest narratively, as they did in the last episode, in order to "trick" your audience. Yes, lots of people guessed Rebecca was going to choose herself, but it wasn't set up as such in the text. A "choosing herself" ending would've been showing three equal dates, not two artificially perfect dates and one with a love confession. By doing that, you've set it up narratively for her to lean towards the third guy. Now I never expected a big, sweeping romantic declaration or even for the "choice" to take up more than three minutes of screen time. Even a "hey, what are you doing after, maybe let's get something to eat." But if the show was going to explicitly reject what it explicitly set up in the last few episodes to do a "it was all about self-love and finding my happiness" ending, then was it necessary to pull the wool over the audience's eyes to do it? And that's what bothered me about it -- no, romantic love is not an ending, and maybe romantic love is a tool of the patriarchy, and that's fine. But going through all the narrative sign posts leading to an ending that includes some type of romantic love (including the "we're here for a big reveal" at the beginning of this episode and all the dialogue that pointed to a romantic choice), and then going "ha ha ha ha, gotcha suckers" isn't creative or surprising. Especially when many people guessed that's exactly what the show would do. Maybe "life doesn't make narrative sense," but television shows kind of should, and there was a way to foreshadow a non-romantic ending in a more explicit way rather than laying out all the sign posts for an ending with some type of romance and then going "ha, you seriously thought we'd go there?" I'm sick to death of "surprise" endings on TV shows. Tricking an audience doesn't make one a good writer, it makes one a trickster. But I guess these days, an ending that actually makes narrative sense with the text is the biggest surprise ending of all.

I actually don't think Rebecca "chose herself" so much as "decided not to decide." I also don't think that Greg's "I'm not going to wait anymore" and still single a year later was a narrative accident, so I'm calling myself half-right. (they did not give him another romantic interest nor something else to make him happy) It actually made me realize that I loved the songs of this show first, and the story second. I saw it as a musical, while it saw itself as something else. So, I'd have loved a stronger musical "finale" (concert special not withstanding). But the story finale was pretty good, too. I just don't think the show ever had the narrative chops to really pull off the "drama" they wanted to in a believable way, and it worked a lot better as a slyly self-aware musical with an intensely likable lead, and cast. Take a bow, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. You put on a heck of a show. And by show, of course, I mean "musical."

Anybody starting to get Michele Fitzgerald vibes from Lauren? On the outside of a big alliance (didn't Aubry's group run post-merge), had to save herself (Michele won immunity, Lauren appears to be a comp threat and appears to have made savvy alliances). I know it's early, but I wonder if I'm seeing things.