NutMeg

Bumping this in case anyone is interested in the portrayal of a Survivor type show in another show. Lucifer season 4 episode 2 has a story on such a show, I was delighted to see one contestant explaining how he plays the villain on purpose, a cameraman doing his best to portrait someone as a sweet person, some shenanigans/collusion between show people and cast... It's a mix of things that happen, things that we suspect happen and things that someone at some point has alleged happen...

I really enjoyed the Fake Survivor story - people playing specific characters to improve their chances, editing that misled, collusion between cast members and people working on the show... A nice hodgepodge of the facts, rumours and conspiracy theories that are as old as reality tv.

The "Creep" song version at the beginning was so good, I love the original but Tom Ellis' cover here was perfect, I wish there was a soundtrack available on Spotify or some such.

I don't usually zone out when watching Survivor, but I did a few times this episode, first during the multiple and repetitive Rick confessionals, later during The Reading of the Letters to Self. The editing is just bad this season.

Maybe then it's an attempt to trick us into thinking he wins the season?

Thank you for the link - I followed the one at the beginning of the slate article to the 3 part NYT article which is a very interesting read.

Much hubris this episode... Rick and Warthog plus Ron so sure they are the only players and all the others are goats! Ron happy to "have the power" because he has a choice of two possible ways to votes: dude, each choice comes with opportunities and risks, but having a choice does not necessarily means you're in power, sometimes you are just a tool everyone wants to use. And seriously, Ron, a power player? Wasn't he, like, curled up and on the verge of tears, just a few days before? On the other hand, kudos to the supposed goats. I've become increasingly impressed with Aurora these past few episodes, I always am when faced with such physical strength coupled with nerves of steel, because that's like the opposite of me! Victoria has been quietly effective from the start vote-wise and continues to be so. Lauren takes initiatives and something tells me it's happened before but we are only now seeing it. Julie might very well control Ron after all rather than the other way around, despite what he thinks. And Gavin got a yes! from me for being the one to call out Warthog for talking at people rather than to them. After the vote, I was hoping that finally someone, well, Warthog, would choose right. I applaud the poster upthread who says there needs to be incentives to choose right. Now I want a big roast placed right there, on the path to the right!

If anyone is getting some kind of hero edit, sitting on top of rocks and gazing in the distance, it's people on EoE. There were some shots in last week's episode that felt very reminiscent of the kind of on-top-of-a-mountain shots winners used to have during a number of seasons. It may have been either Chris or Eric. (I had just gotten out of hospital after fracturing bones and was in that state where watching was a welcome and fun distraction but when the pain was also distracting from the watching, hope that makes senses.)

I loved it because it was giving Randall a taste of his very own medicine. I also thought future Rebecca was blind, if Alzheimer is out. Now, Randall needed to get into a huge speech instead of just saying his name, because that's what he does. That reminds of a very good friend of mine, who never seemed like she wanted kids but was surprisingly super involved in her partner's kids life. One day, as I was wishing her a happy birthday, she sent a reply that seemed off, so we got talking, and it came out that she would have liked to have kids but coudn't. I still beat myself up on being so blind to that, even though she gave no hints, I should not have assumed. (Wasn't there a tread during season 1 where we could talk of things in our life that were triggered by the episode but not about the episode? It may be for another show but I remember it as being super interesting anyway.)

Randall made the profile of the would be sitter very complicated so that there would be no better choice than Beth. He's been guilt tripping Beth since the start. And because of some chemistry in how she was brought up, she reacts exactly the way he expects her to to all his guilt tripping exercises.

Ozzy came close to winning, he was one challenge win away. But his win would have been because most of the jury just wanted a reason to not vote for any of the other 3 of the final 4 and therefore very much wanted to vote for Ozzy. Somehow I don't see Joe ending up in the same situation, but then again who knows when we are still so far from the end game.

I mostly agree with you in that I don't dislike individual players within a dominant tribe, and I've gotten to like quite a number of them when we finally got to know them, but what I dislike, as a viewer, is the dominance itself, I guess. I prefer it when everyone has to scramble somewhat, it makes it more fun to watch, and as an added bonus we get to know the players better. So I don't think they're edited as villains, but I still look forward to when they have to make tough decisions, which they haven't had to do so far.

Contestants from a dominant tribe are often unpleasant. First, we didn't see much of them, so we're not invested in them. Second, by winning a lot, they get complacent, and that makes them unlikeable. It's even worse when it feels like one or two people seem to have carried the tribe. Here, Joe voluntarily decided he would be the Cinderella of the tribe, do all the hard work, provide all the comfort, expect no regards (i.e. not try to work out any firm alliance). We've seen this dynamic before. Koror springs to mind, with Tom and Ian not only ensuring challenge wins but also making tribe life much easier (though in that case Tom did leverage some regards). So, of course we don't like them. They're smug because they've not really earned the right to gloat so far. They've been cynically exploiting labour, even tough it was voluntary labour. I know the episode when they splinter and/or are idol blinded will be most satifying. And with this edit, we know it's coming. This season is like fake Survivor, though. Look at it casually for a couple of minutes and it looks legit. Look longer and it's clearly not the real thing. The weirdest thing though is that the brand itself is manufacturing the fake... (When I was a kid, I used to make new rules for Monopoly, like we all start with no money and see if we make it. That helped make a game end quicker, usually. So I understand changing the way a game is played. But then you call it something else, like Fast Monopoly. I could entertain the idea of a slow Survivor, when no one is ever out until they say they're out, but that should be Slow Survivor, the one that can last many years, not something that replaces what we expect of Survivor.) The one positive I see in this fake Survivor is that those voted out people who lived through the challenge and decided to stuck it out seem to have a strong instant connection, which may well last, as they will build on an us-against-the-rest-of-them spirit, with no mind games (which must be a huge plus), and will now be super well fed with both Joe and Chris eager to be nurturer. I don't mind Reem at all and I even like her. What she said to Jeff resonates a lot with me. There was a time when Survivor used to be for me the time when I would let the phone ring and that I watched with people who were as much into it as I was, good seasons or bad. She's like a throwback in a way, someone who could have been watching with us before I was the only one left who still watches the show. Also, I don't like how the voted off players (or those that don't win the challenge to be back in) are forced to choose between staying in or basically quitting. Someone like Reem, who used to watch with her kids, probably won't want to be seen as a quitter, even if bailing out after a few weeks of that horrible island with a small chance of making it back in the game is not at all the same as quitting because you're tired, and hungry and not having fun, and your tribe mates won't vote you out. Yes they don't realise how easy they had it! The cruel part of me want them to be hungry once the merge feast is gone, while Joe fishes abundantly on Extinguished-not Island.

After dozing off a couple of times last week, I found this episode quite pleasant to watch, and even entertaining. My favorite moment is probably the convo between David and Wendy, but there were a number of funny moments here and there. Oh, and I felt for the chickens, being woken up and taken out of their warm and comfy coop in the dead of night - that one chick did all it could to keep on sleeping and was still tossed in the cold, at night, brrrr. Plus, chicken are NOT nocturnal animals. My enjoyment fell towards the end of the episode, however, and it's only when the new exiled left tribal council area that I realised why: there's no real ending to the episodes this season. Everyone's still there on the screen every week. I think it's really time I knew a bit more of what's in store, so I can start being interested in the whole game again, rather than only enjoying random moments and getting detached by the end of the episode. (I once read a book which was one long sentence. Or rather I tried to read it. At some point, I became annoyed with the author for putting me through that, I resented the gimmick so much that it took me out of the story, and I gave up on the book. I need full points in a narration. Now I've realised that I want full points not only in written narratives but also in filmed ones.)

I see different kinds of advantages for where to hide a secret idol: - somewhere not linked to you: you know and production knows it's yours, so no risk of losing it. If indeed even if contestants change camps without notice they will have to idol brought back to them, that's one less risk. Even if someone else chances upon it, and is told it's spoken for, the only intel really is that some unknown person has it, not who it is, so it's easier to pretend you're not the idol owner. - on your person/ in your bag: no need to get to it before tribal (or in case of sudden tribal), so no risk of having it back somewhere when you realize it's you who's going, maybe some sort of emotional blanket for the player, and the possibility to show it easily to someone who needs that certainty to ally with you. Then again, if it's seen in your bag, you may become a target you otherwise wouldn't have been. In conclusion, I see both options are equally valid, and I'd think the choice depends on the specific individuals (idol holder and make up of the tribe) and on whether the holder is more comfortable keeping it a secret or using it for leverage.

I found them delightful in their twinset on TAR, I hope the outcome on Survivor didn't alter their twin dynamics.

And on the other side of the call, sometimes there's me, on a receiving call, getting a "hello" and then hearing what food the person is ordering or whatever convo they have with the cashier. Super rude. I usually say "let's talk later, when you're free". Some insist that they're free and still continue talking with the cashier ☹️

I know. I think it's a way for her to somehow see it as a proof that at some stage he really loved her and was happy with her. But yes, it's weird.

This series and the posts have been most useful for me to understand what happened to a close relative (one generation above). I know I'm supposed to take it to small talk, which I'll do in due time. Still, I want to thank all posters who explained a dynamic that I couldn't comprehend before.

Returning players... either that haven't changed (hey, Joe!), or they feel forced to change their game (hi, Aubrey!), and in both cases we most likely are critical. and, on the critical part, Aubrey, what were you thinking? that fake smooching will reek of dishonesty when they all start comparing notes, and they are already sharing that you shared with them. 😕

I'd say there is being social/sociable and then there's social game. Joe is the first kind, he gets on well with people, he loves everybody and everybody loves him, but that still is no social game, because he does nothing to lock all the good vibes and convert them into some kind of loyalty. He's having a good time being himself. The only way this turns into a social game is by default, if he somehow (via immunity run) finds himself at F4 and builds the fire first, and makes F3 without having any enemy on the jury.

Sometimes I think promising teenagers should be kept on hold for a while before being cast on Survivor.

Glad to be back here for the snark. Somewhere around episode 6 or 7, I stopped watching, but I finally caught up one wintery weekend (I probably mostly craved the fantasy perfect weather) and then resuming watching more or less on time the past two weeks or so. This break seriously worked for me, as did the zipping through five or so episodes in two days. Any ridiculousness was more fun than annoyance. I highly recommend this kind of break for shows you've gone lukewarm on but still somehow keep on your radar. Individual episodes are not all that, but it's still fun to catch on, and when you don't like an episode, it's easy to move on to the next one. For me, it was such a perfect break that I'm back all in! Watching mucho episodes in a row, I saw many instances of the Pearson magic (I mean the monologues) not working anymore, and I hope that continues. Of course, we the had St Jack lose some of his shine, and I hope that continues, so the other characters can finally become real people rather than Pearsons bound to carry the St Jack flag.

Since the upgrade, clicking on a thread I follow, I'm randomly sent back to a post from 2016 if the thread existed back then, or sometimes to the first pages of many if it didn't. In other words, not to where I last was. I course correct by moving to the last page, but it's quite annoying, because it's such a great feature to get back to where you were in any thread.

I understand that an idol found is the property of the founder (even when destroyed by another contestant). I would think that's cannon, but I have no idea if tide taking the idol would also count as void. I tend to think it would still be a valid / replaced idol though.