Oholibamah

My litmus test for "favorite season" was revealed in how I felt rewatching each one with somebody who hadn't seen them. For a lot of them I would "count down" the episodes until a certain big episode or moment would happen. With Micronesia that never happened, because every episode had a big play or a memorable moment or a blindside or just a fucking stick, and there was no waiting game or counting down episodes. It was like a symphony of perfection from start to finish. Watching in real-time is admittedly different: there's a dynamic of bingewatching and watching week to week that some seasons do better than others. For example, sloughing through weekly episodes of MvGX was impossible, but the season was admittedly good when taken all at once. Meanwhile something like Outback keeps you wanting more week to week, but is very slow to binge. The seasons I can recall being insanely excited about watching each week would be Cambodia and Pearl Islands. I even rewatched the Pearl Islands premerge before the merge started, which I haven't done before or since (although this is likely a function of being 15 and having a ton of free time). And then, there are emotional reasons as mentioned by Daisy. For me it would be Heroes v Villains: I stopped watching Samoa halfway through and vowed to never watch again, but the promise of Rob, Courtney and Parvati brought me back and delivered. I also think of Africa fondly because Kelly Goldsmith was my TV Girlfriend/Beard for a long-ass time. I had her face on a t-shirt, celebrated her birthday, and did school projects about her. Creepy now, hopefully cute at 13. But I tried rewatching this recently and it gets very dull after she's booted, although I don't think thats the only reason.

I think she means a season that "goes back to basics" with no swaps or twists of any kind, possibly with a surprise late merge to keep them on their toes. Tocantins and China are both solidly in my top 6 seasons. They had the double exile and warrior steal twists respectively, but both featured unplayed idols and few twists otherwise. 16-person casts results in me actually remembering specific stuff about every player. The problem? I've been seeing a lot of comments lately that these seasons are "boring". For me they prove that the players themselves make interesting gameplay without external factors. But MMV.

I too have this "JT and Stephen kind of suck" phenomenon come over me when I rewatch Tocantins. I always end up liking them again after, but I hate seeing how shitty they treat Sierra and Erinn, then turn around and coddle Coach. I do enjoy the season though because I generally think it's well-edited and interesting. It helps to watch with Erinn as a guiding perspective ("who is this jackass" will never not be amazing), even though she doesn't get a ton of airtime. For me, Cirie's genius here is that her pitch to Erik actually does make sense. She voted with the Fans against Amanda in the previous vote, which provides Erik a reasonable expectation of a common goal. She establishes a narrative that Erik is untrustworthy due to past actions: this both gives him reason to "redeem himself in the eyes of the jury", and figures giving away immunity as a transaction to prove his loyalty to Cirie in exchange for her vote against Amanda. I still think it was a bad decision, but viewers backseat-drive all the time that people should play to win, not just advance themselves one more week. I don't see Erik winning at FTC just from running Immunity until the end. He needed a move. This wasn't it, but that's easy for us to see from our couches.

I agree with the analogy of the Idol-Pass being predicated on a series of assumptions that made it too house-of-cards. But as a risk:reward ratio, was it really that destructive? If it had worked, the Heroes go into a merge 6-4, and JT has an assured ally. That's huge. The risk/downside is exactly what we saw happen: the Villains have an extra Idol to use. But did it really change anything? Maybe the Heroes would have played their Idol on the right person. Maybe Parvati wouldn't have played the one Villain Idol on Jerri (although I think she would have). Maybe Sandra would have flipped. Maybe a Villain would have pulled the PRoD. But all these maybes become card-house-esque just like JT's original move. Is it any less risky? Not to mention, JT had a lot of trust issues within his tribe, and vowed to use the HII for their mutual benefit. There was reason for him to publicly get rid of it to try and gain trust with his tribe. Tl;dr: the move failed, but the risk:reward ratio made it worth it. I don't see the Heroes in much better a spot had he not done it.

I I was cringing (especially since "Native" isn't appropriate terminology in Canada, although I know this differs south of the border), and surprised the show would be so tone-deaf about it. I almost wondered if they were setting Alexis up for a no-win trap. But if Michelle/Ru really feel that way, then I guess that explains it. Emotionally I wanted Sasha to win, but I couldn't fully get behind it because I knew Shea had more runway appeal. I can't decide if I'd rather own Shea's patchwork cape or Sasha's tapestry coat. I need to take sewing lessons!

I rewatched Fiji a year or two ago and laughed when they played Battleship for an Immunity Challenge. I hadn't remembered that from the original broadcast. That said, it gave Stacy a win which probably wouldn't have happened otherwise, which is why I like these offbeat challenges. A season is more interesting when lots of players win challenges.

I don't think the show has objectively lessened in quality: I think it has (thankfully) just lasted long enough that it isn't fresh anymore. There's only so many types of challenges and runway assignments they can come up with, and it's bound to become formulaic. I wouldn't mind some small tweaks to existing traditions (maybe Hollywood Squares instead of Match Game, or an Idol-esque hometown visit to the queens' regular clubs for the final 3), but shows tend to start sucking when they mess with the formula too much. ANTM took a huge nosedive after Allstars, and never recovered despite experimenting with format changes. I am fine with RPDR continuing to find 14 new queens and putting them through the same challenges, and experimenting with format for Allstars. It is better than a jump-the-shark alternative!

I found it was plodding along toward being a completely servicable season, until the merge hit and 3 of the only people who were playing hard were axed immediately, followed by 2 players quitting. After that carnage, somebody winning was bound to feel like an afterthought. So I suppose Fabio's victory was the perfect cap to the season. I would be interested in seeing Holly return. I'm also one of the few NaOnka apologists, and thought she was playing well pre:quitting.

I have yet to see anything from Michaela that even begins to approach the condescension and disdain Brad showed towards Tai. Michaela is hotheaded, sure, but has shown more maturity and class than Brad despite being two decades his junior.

This one's tough because it's a returning player season, which always comes with extra baggage. Candice and Rupert had well developed relationships with Sandra outside the game, while Courtney's early alliance with Sandra made her vote a no-brainer. Amanda was indeed bitter, but that was from stuff outside the game and for having lost to Parvati previously. Not sure if that makes it better or worse, but there's 4 votes Parvati was never going to get. JT and Colby were bitter. But it wasn't just a case of bitter jury. It was avoidable had Russell and Parvati taken Jerri to the F3 instead of Sandra. Instead, Sandra spent weeks playing into Russell's ego and preparing herself for the F4 boot. So, bitter jury, or jury punishing the mistake of taking a known social threat to the end? Parvati was at risk of getting booted herself if she pushed for Jerri instead. In retrospect she should have taken the gamble. I think Parvati played a better game, but I see how Sandra won and am fine with it. But Sandra's reputation is from managing to win twice, not so much just for her performance in any individual season. So I'm not sure it's accurate to deem her overrated based on just one season.

Wow. Guess there was no way to edit around that level of complete douche. Even his "apology" at the reunion came across as a self-serving attempt to save face.

I think what she means by "slave" is this exact dynamic of having to change parts of herself so others understand and like her. That can be an incredibly suffocating feeling and in some ways replicates experiences around slavery and colonialism. I think the players who didn't like her are equally guilty of not making the effort to understand that her worldview is different than theirs. Which isn't entirely the same as them being racist. I wouldn't say she's blaming "the system" or "the man": frustration at always having to fit with a majority who doesn't understand you sucks. This was subtly alluded to by Cirie: Michaela is still learning to balance being true to herself and fitting in with people who don't "get" her. Regardless of having older mentors, it takes some getting used to because it's a shitty thing to have to do.

I suspect that Rob played Redemption Island as a correction to HvV where Russell got into Tyson's head and then his alliance crumbled when he lost Jerri and Coach to hidden deals being made. As unsettling as it comes across, and as boring as it made the season, I don't think Rob could have won without the Buddy System. People have to play relative to how threatened other players are by them, so the extremity of this strategy was reasonable given the size of the target on his back. Because I do believe he had a target on his back, and I don't think this season was full of Idiots/Rob's Zombies/Sheeple like everybody says. Andrea and Ashley played solid games, Grant operated under a reasonable expectation of loyalty, Matt/Kristina/Francesca made defensible attempts against Rob, and David/Mike/Steve/Julie/Ralph (as much as I detest him) played from the minority in a way that could have turned the game had there been Reward Challenges. My biggest issue with this season was how it was edited. It was presented as the Coronation of Boston Rob with Russell Hantz as his failed foil. So no wonder viewers found it boring/predictable/rigged. I wish they had it edited as a battle between Rob and Ashley for Natalie's loyalty, because that's really what the game came down to: had Ashley won the final Immunity or Natalie forced a tie against Phillip, we'd be remembering this season very differently. As it stands, the season had a number of interesting storylines that were overshadowed by a fan-service edit.

My intent wasn't to condone the nicknames, even though the post was admittedly written in jest to show how some people's brains remember various players, to varying degrees. I always make an effort to second guess how I approach discussing identity, and that was no different here: using race as a descriptor (based on how someone identifies) can be acceptable in appropriate contexts. I also make an effort to self-reflect. And, separated from the rest of the list, the descriptions did make me cringe, meaning this wasn't one of those appropriate contexts. Thank you for elaborating on your initial post and helping me adjust my thinking.

Fair enough re: Andrea. I quoted your post specifically, but it was also a build-up of other posts questioning her choices. I think her willingness to work with Zeke last week shows she didn't have tunnel-vision about getting revenge, and wasn't so vengeful that she jumped the gun. What I meant by playing for reputation could be playing to the jury, which your analysis of Tai references: yes you need to build a resume, but you also have to get to the finals. Players who make "big moves" for the sake of it, like Zeke, are hard to predict, because they may be making moves to show off rather than advance themselves It can also get meta, where they're playing to the audience, which I think Zeke is also guilty of. As a superfan, he seems aware of wanting to be perceived as a strategist who makes bold moves, resulting in erratic/unpredictable, and thus ill-informed moves. One of my favorite scenes from the show was Penner talking Lisa into flipping on Abi/Pete by referencing what the audience would want to see. I suspect players think this way far more often than we see.

I don't disagree, but that's the point: people have a tendency to reduce people on television to simplistic categories, often based on race. I find this more common with Reality TV, but I'm not sure if that's due to editing, casting, or something else about the format. That said, I found Michelle and Stacy to be interesting foils to one another throughout Fiji, and both went from strong positions to being on the receiving end of unfortunately-time twists.

I don't think being a "good player" is the same as being a "dangerous" player. The best players tend to be rational and calculated, which increases their chances of winning. And, as the numbers dwindle, it can indeed be dangerous to keep these players around lest they figure out that you're their biggest threat and take you out next. The most dangerous type to play with are unpredictable players: the ones that make decisions emotionally (Kass), erratically (Tai), or because they're driven by reputation (Zeke). If you can't sense what they'll do next, not only do you risk entering their crosshairs, but you can't confidently navigate the next few boots to put yourself in the best position. This was the logic behind Aubrey dumping Debbie last season: it was a risk, but it was worth it. Zeke's initial move against Andrea a few rounds ago was illogical given the number of people/alliances left in the game, and makes him a dangerous player. Not only is Andrea justified in being concerned, but even the others should wonder whether he'll move against them next. I'm willing to bet he would have flipped on Sarah soon after Andrea was gone. Andrea made the only good move available to her this round. There will likely be negative consequences, but unfortunately they were unavoidable: the risk of leaving unpredictable/dangerous players in the game increases as the numbers dwindle. Andrea's heated commentary re: Zeke is probably what makes her seem petty/vengeful, but I think the urgency she used helped sell the boot. She may very well have been driven by vengeance, but that doesn't make this the incorrect move. "Voting blocks" was coined by Stephen et. al in Cambodia and differs from Hannah's "trust clusters" which have even lesser defined "hierarchies". I know many feel the terms are much ado about nothing and that they've existed since the beginning, but I think using this type of terminology is a good way of maintaining loyalty and masking true alliances.

I think RC gained weight pre-show, but not during the show.

My money's on Susie in a classic endurance-based Immunity Challenge. Even something out of left field like Tocantins' simmotion challenge may have been up her alley. She was bizarrely good at things involving dexterity and careful movements (i.e. card stacking and fire making, both of which she won). She likely boots Bob and wins handily, which I would have preferred to the reality. Dawn and Monica also would have had a good chance in a final endurance challenge, but would they have been wise enough to boot Cochran and Tyson? Methinks Monica yes, Dawn no. Either way, I would much prefer to recall Dawn and Monica in the winner circle than freaking Cochran and Tyson who were so terrible their first times out that I can't even appreciate their easiest-setting wins against a bunch of n00bs. #WWMD Ken losing to Hannah also would have produced a very satisfying ending for me, although I wonder if her Final Tribal would have been as strong if she didn't have Adam to play off/defend herself against. In this way I also think the Tocantins FTC would have been interesting with Erinn as an intermediary between Stephen and JT. JT probably still wins unanimously, but she played well at Tribal and could have messed some stuff up. Even though Courtney beat Amanda IRL, I think Amanda wins in a F2. She still gets Erik, and probably amasses Jean Robert, Jaime, James and Peih-Gee without Todd there. Frosti and Denise still go Courtney, with Todd's degree of betrayal irrelevant. Regardless, this is probably the most interesting F3 we've had. More interesting is Todd winning final immunity and booting Amanda. Does Erik vote Courtney along with Frosti and Denise, and does Todd force a tie? Courtney FTW! SJDS had an awesome final 3, so it can stay final 3.

You should spend an afternoon with my boyfriend and he can teach you his Periodic Table for remembering Survivors. Some of his mnemonic devices include Dan 2.0, Kat 2.0, Mortician, Dentist, Fishmonger, Zookeeper, Zookeeper's Mom, One-Legged, One-Legged's Friend, The Blonde Who Made it to the End in Rob's Season, Eyebrows, No Eyebrows, Big Bird, Mean Asian, Nice Asian, Caveman, Caveman Joel (to differentiate from Caveman), Miss Delaware, Not the Cutest Not the Smartest Just Someone Who Was There, and of course Kelly Goldman which he says just to piss me off. On second thought, you'd probably be better off just not remembering them at all.

I hope they aren't just teasing about Veronica. Love her or hate her, she always brought the entertainment and I've wanted her back for years!

Ashley from Andrea's original season was also pretty decent. If you watch carefully, she keeps up for most of the ridiculous stair challenge (and at the very least avoids being called out by Probst a la Natalie and Phillip) and wins her share of challenges. I'm interested to see how some of the early boots would have faired in individual challenges. Stephanie from Thailand, Jolanda from Palau or Gina from Marquesas could have been the challenge beasts that never were, kinda like Monica on her return appearance.

It's interesting that a post about Boston Rob immediately followed a Varner reference, because BR "outed" John during Marquesas yet went on to be an unqualified fan favorite while Varner gets roasted. I get that Varner made a huge mistake, but much of his error was taking something personal into the game. Yet, fans seem to have no problem taking things from the game into the personal and giving him a hard time. I feel for him.

I recall that conversation re: Erin happening on boards when it aired, but my older self still doesn't really see it. Their logic was fake breasts + broad shoulders + husky voice. All of which I've seen thousands of cis-females have, so not very convincing. Oddly, Erin was my 14-year-old self's favorite when Thailand first aired. On rewatch she wasn't edited heavily enough to remain a favorite, but I thought she seemed sweet, and reminded me of the character Maria from Roswell that I also loved at the time.

Wow I didn't even realize that... she was there for Phillip/Steve, Brandon's impromptu Tribal Council and now this.