loki567

I'm thinking two scenarios for the spin-off: one is GoT season 9, where they basically retcon and use all the cut storyline material from the book series (Young Griff, Sorcerer Pirate Euron even if it's a new character) and maybe slide Bran into a villain role. Or they transport Jon to a new setting: Essos. Maybe Jon gets grabbed in a slave raid against the Wildlings and somehow ends up entangled in the politics of the Free Cities or Yi Ti or something along those lines. I think there would be a big advantage for the new production team for option 2, because they won't be forced into a position of having to get other GoT actors or immediately rewrite GoT's ending.

Feel free to roll your eyes on this one but CDAN has this blind:

I definitely think it was simply a case of exhaustion. Look at RR's career, she's never been the lead in anything and probably has never had more than a few weeks of filming at a time. To suddenly be thrown into Batwoman's schedule would be absolutely brutal. I don't think there a more exhausting role for an actor than a 22-episode action adventure show. I've heard multiple actors complain how grueling the days could be. Even Buffy ended because SMG was sick of it.

I still maintain that Chris Noble was the only entertaining character from Ghost Island i.e. the season so bad that it got the entire casting department fired.

I think his "idol play," or should I say podium play? is a good example of why I love Adam as a character. He has such a natural, undeserved confidence in himself that makes for some great Survivor moments. My biggest pet peeve about Survivor players are those people who let indecision completely rule their games and they're not willing to do anything at all. Adam does not have that problem. Despite his game being blown up multiple times with numerous messy confrontations, he never played scared. There's a lot of people who would stay glued to their seats during that TC because they wouldn't want to risk the humiliation. Adam jumped up and tried for the hail mary.

I love Adam. Guy was such a mess both times, it was amazing. And idol on the podium actually makes so much sense that I'm surprised they haven't tried it before. Apparently it happened on a foreign season and Adam might be exactly the type of superfan to have watched that. I really don't know where this season is going. In a lot of respects I think it's breaking down exactly like Jeff was worried about an All-Winners season would, where you have a bunch of good players with no personalities gang up on the entertaining winners and we're left with nothing particularly compelling moving forward. IMO, Ben and Tony are still entertaining characters but beyond that, it's all a big mush.

Rob's charismatic, has construction experience, good in challenges, and has an innate ability to read and manipulate human nature. I find it hard to believe that if Rob's first season was in 2020, instead of 2001 that he wouldn't be a good Survivor player. I don't buy for a second the game has "passed him by," or anything. Returning player seasons are weird. Everybody knows everybody's else game and they're usually looking to take out the biggest, most public threats. I don't think anybody's reputation should take a hit because they get voted out on an All-Stars season. Maybe their reputation can improve, but it shouldn't decline unless they make an ass out of themselves (ex. Lex).

I'm not sure I agree. Obviously Dan's a special case of bad behavior. But I think it's quite easy for the editors to create a reaction to someone that doesn't necessarily fit their personality. "So-and-so is an asshole!" A couple mean reaction shots. The general audience thinks that the person sucks. You can do to that to make somebody look smug (I am running the game), stupid (Nick's definitely getting that edit this year), bland, etc. You can also make someone look better than they deserve. I'm reminded of the Amazon cast saying that Christy was a LOT more disagreeable than show and the winner of that season got torched because she didn't get along with her.

Very few brute strength challenges. It's better to have speed, balance, endurance, and some puzzle making ability. The ideal challenge competitor looks like Ozzy, not Jeremy.

Rob's eviction was predictable but still satisfying. Particularly, how the rest of the players pretty much spend the last 20 minutes talking shit about how much Redemption Island and anyone involved with it sucked. Let that be the final word on that terrible season. Michele and Wendell's relationship is so awkward for them but still hilarious to watch. I love the fact that Adam is completely repeating his first season, including voting against former tribe members after a tribe switch.

That's not a bad point but the show put more focus on Jason/Scot and like I said even gave him the big jury speech.

Michele's win wasn't the worst Survivor. Bob and Fabio still exist. But I hated her win for two reasons: 1. Scot and Jason, two of the biggest sexist douchebags in the history of the show were her winning votes and so important to her victory that Scot even got the defining jury speech. 2. There's this weird attempt by Natalie White apologists (and I'm one of those people) who have tried to turn Michele into this feminist icon, when once again she won because of said two sexist douchebags. I guess it's because there more effort to explain away female players' victories and discount them as players that some people feel it really necessary to defend Michele, but I don't want to ignore the reality of what actually happened her season and why it was so unsatisfying.

I actually went back to watch that scene just to make sure and at the end, Rob did tell Adam that he would tell people they were still working together even if they weren't and who could, "tell what the truth was out here?" I wouldn't classify that as bullying, mind you, but it is the type of thing that would make me never want to work with Rob. And Adam should have immediately told Jeremy and Michele what Rob said so Rob wouldn't be able to lie to them first.

The thing that can annoy me about Rob (and Parvati/Sandra to a large extent) has less to do with Rob and more to do with how the show treats him. They are so completely in the tank for the guy that there's no attempt to edit him as a person anymore. They're just constantly talking him up and virtually everytime anybody says anything about him, they're going on and on about how great he is. It gets annoying. Even after he just got completely hookwinked in a vote. The same thing happens on The Challenge with CT. There's no attempt at characterization, it's just, "CT is so awesome, he's the baddest motherfucker ever!" again and again. I get sick of it. It reminds me of a gang of little kids constantly talking up the tough guy of their group.

It's interesting the way they're editing this season. I'm not seeing too many story arcs or things of that nature. I wonder if the editors just assume that we know these people enough that they don't feel it necessary to over-indulge on characters explaining themselves again and again, and are just letting things breathe. Also wonder if that means that a minor character at this point (ex. Nick or Wendell) might still be able to suddenly swoop in at the end for a win. I am happy that a surprising amount of heavyweights have made it this far: Kim, Sandra, Tony, Yul, Parvati, Rob, Jeremy. Also glad that Tony, Adam, and Ben are still in the game. They're acquired tastes I know, but they all have such squirrelness in them that they're all capable of any foolish notation that can suddenly blow the game up.

I agree with most of your points, Eolivet, particularly the Adam/Spencer comparison. There's an attempt to present them as these two gamebots but strategy isn't the strength of their games. More of a case that they're both well-liked socially by their tribes and people are willing to give them an extra chance that they won't necessarily give to others. Ben already has given that extra chance to Adam. I absolutely won't be shocked if Adam is able to recover in roughly the same fashion as he did during MvGX, that with his game blown up again somebody tries to take him under their wing.

It entertains the hell out of me that Adam did the exact same thing his last season, trying to play this strategical game that makes complete sense in his HEAD while ignoring all social dynamics. Remember when he immediately tried to start an alliance with Taylor after voting out his girlfriend all, "Nobody would suspect us working together," and Tyler was like, "Yeah, there's a reason, dick. Fuck you," and completely blew up his game at the next TC? Hilarious. I cannot think of a messier winner than Adam and for that reason alone, I love the guy. And he might in a position to do the exact same thing again as I can't imagine Rob and Parvati will take being blindsided well.

Rob and Parvati have played the game NINE times and that's not counting Rob's stint on EoE. Parvati use to host the aftershow. They're celebrities in the way a lot of these former players, even former winners, aren't. That being said, the jedi mind tricks aren't going to last forever. I think Rob and Parvati might already been in trouble if their tribe goes back to TC as it seemed like it was a wake-up call to Jeremy, Ben, and Michele.

Even if Ben isn't a good winner, I'm not sure he's a bad player. A lot of great players can look bad if they're shut out of conversations. We saw that with Kim in the first episode of WaW. Ben because of the marine backstory, immediately got the, "winning if he gets to the end of the game," tag and because of that, the social and strategic elements of the game were closed off to him. So he had to go at it through idols, comps, and twists. I can understand not liking the win but it seems like the hate goes past that and lands on Ben directly like he's a moron or something. I don't think he is.

This episode actually reminded me that I liked Ben in his season even if he did benefit from ridiculous twists. But he personally is not to blame for that. And even though I don't want to oversell him as a great player, he's a constantly proactive player. Yeah, Ben looked like a rube for letting Rob verbally bitch-slap him, but he admitted it immediately in a confessional. Other people would pretend it was the first step in their genius strategy. But Ben also seemingly set himself up as a middleman in the vote, saving Adam, and now looks like he might be able to turn the Michele/Adam/Denise/Jeremy group against Parvati and Rob.

I dig the hell out of that Yul/Nick/Wendell/Sophie/Sandra/Sarah/Tony alliance. I hope that's the group that ultimately gains control of the game. Mainly because I love Yul, Sandra, and Tony and can tolerate the others. I think Rob and Parvati made a huge mistake targeting Natalie for her Jeremy connection. I could easily see Jeremy wanting to have worked long-term with Rob otherwise.

I get the feeling that he's way too out in front now and is being set up for a downfall a few episodes down the line but it only took a single confessional to remind me why I liked the guy so much. He is by far the most articulate player in this show's history. And he always does in a way that doesn't come off condescending. I think I could enjoy an hour long conversation about physics with him and I know nothing about physics.

Mentally preparing myself for one of my favorite winners to be voted out first because she's such a target: 😔

Very debatable how much this is media but Reality Blurred did a post encouraging people to campaign against EoE popping up on future seasons as casting for S41 begins: https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2020/01/survivor-edge-of-extinction-future-probst-criticism/ Probst seems very set on it because he apparently likes the idea that a guy who was in the game for three days could win it.

Not to defend Treem, she's the only mentioned in the original article as pressuring actors to do scenes that make them uncomfortable and she's the one that Ruth specifically got barred from the set when filming her final scenes, meaning she was definitely the main problem during filming. But I still wonder how much of this is institutional. The same issues popped up with SMILF, a show on Showtime that also had a female showrunner. And considering the laundry list of sexism issues that have been exposed at CBS, Showtime's parent company, I wonder if the execs at Showtimes are forcing this stuff on showrunners, who in turn are forcing it on the actors. And it might not just be a Showtime problem as every premium cable network usually have ridiculous amounts of nudity on their shows. I still remember an interview that Neil Marshall did after directing an episode of GoT, talking about a producer coming up to him and saying he represented the pervert side of the audience and not to be afraid to zoom in a prostitute character's genitals.