S33.E05: Idol Search Party

[Superpole2000]

On 10/19/2016 at 9:14 PM, ByaNose said:

Another minority woman voted out. Is this a trend, by accident or design? Nah! She did do bad in the challenge but she was in the majority, right? I'm hpjust glad David didn't use his HII. Now, that would have been really, really dumb. 

The star of the season is a minority woman. It isn't all doom and gloom for anyone cheering along racial lines.

Actually, that fire-starting moment was my highlight of the season so far. I love those little victories in life. We all have those successes, but of course ours never happen with a bunch of TV cameras around. Reality TV has never been very good at capturing those moments because each show seems too contrived. But as contrived as Survivor can be, there is still the occasional moment like this that sneaks onto our screens.

Michaela's celebrations during the immunity challenge were also interesting. She acted like that kid in gym class who never has anything go right for him, but in one particular sport, he somehow flourishes and dominates the game. It's a joy to watch those "I finally get to celebrate something!" moments, but I wonder how Michaela is in that position. She is beautiful and seemingly well-spoken, so I would have just assumed she knows what winning feels like. But her confessional hinted at otherwise. She's interesting.

[hincandenza]

On 10/19/2016 at 11:31 PM, GaT said:

I'm sure Taylor & Figgy ended up on the same tribe completely by chance with no producer interference at all. I'm sure.

There's no reason to believe the producers would interfere.  

• First, it's as good a story if they stick together as if they split apart; the editors can roll with the real outcome just as well, so why "rig' the game?  
• Second, what about Taylor and Figgy make them worth risking the entire series on a rigging scandal?  Remember, this entire season was filmed and completed months ago, with the editors knowing the final outcome; had they split up on this draw, and/or the showmance fizzled after a day, we simply wouldn't have gotten the showmance plotline, just as many other stories and events never see air time.  That we are seeing this means it probably either has a later narrative payoff and thus is worth showing as set up- or simply because it fills TV time with something moderately interesting.
• Third, if you crunch the numbers- I just did- then the odds of two specific people ending up on the same tribe with a 5/5/6 split by drawing rocks is a little more than 29% (70/240).  Not great odds, but hardly some powerball-level fluke event.  I've heard speculation that they also made the rock-picking based on gender (i.e, the women drew from a different pile than the men), but that would only increase the likelihood of Taylor and Figgy on the same tribe.

[NutMeg]

51 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

I think part of it is the last three seasons we had a fan voted returning player season, and the other two seasons featured the likes of Jason, Scot, Dan, and Rodney.  I sure as hell don't miss those personalities, and would take a boring season over one that is all about bullying.  We haven't been able to see much game play from the millennials, and the game play from GenX hasn't been the most exciting (Dave saving Jessica has been the most exciting moment so far).  That said, I'm still hoping when the merge happens, it gets interesting.  These personalities seem boring, so I hope they don't just settle into one alliance and the merge and pick the other side off.  

And I'm right there with you Re. the bolded part, LadyChatts :) Where I differ is in that I don't find this season or the personalities boring, but maybe it's because I know the best part is yet to come: not a spoiler, haha, the middle-end game is always when all that's been put in place in the first part comes to hatch, explode dramatically, flop or get turned around subtly or with a bang :D 

I'd compare it to watching a tennis tournament (or soccer, etc.) Most watchers get much more involved starting from the quarter finals, but if it's a sport I understand enough of, it's interesting to watch all the games. I know strong players won't give it their all right off the bat and will pace themselves, but I'm fascinated by the elegance they show in easy games, the way they react to unexpected trouble, how lower ranked players or team know or fail to take advantage of unexpected weakness in their opponent, etc.

Here we don't know any of the players, so it's like watching a tennis tournament without having any idea of anyone's ATP ranking, and try to gather clues on their physical, emotional and mental strength, based on the game we see. 

Edited October 22, 2016 by NutMeg
typos are much more obvious after I press Reply

[millennium]

1 hour ago, LadyChatts said:

I think part of it is the last three seasons we had a fan voted returning player season, and the other two seasons featured the likes of Jason, Scot, Dan, and Rodney.  I sure as hell don't miss those personalities, and would take a boring season over one that is all about bullying.  We haven't been able to see much game play from the millennials, and the game play from GenX hasn't been the most exciting (Dave saving Jessica has been the most exciting moment so far).  That said, I'm still hoping when the merge happens, it gets interesting.  These personalities seem boring, so I hope they don't just settle into one alliance and the merge and pick the other side off.  

The boredom is compounded by the incessant bloviating about what it means to be "millennial" or "Gen-X."  To be perfectly honest, I have rarely if ever heard anyone in real life use the phrase "Gen-X" or Generation X (except maybe Billy Idol) and the only other time I hear "millennial" is in terms of voter demographics.   The observations seem so contrived and artificial.   All I've come away with from these mini-lectures is the conviction that I would never under any circumstances hire any of these "millennials" for anything more complicated than a drive-up window.  

Edited October 22, 2016 by millennium

[Guest]

Eh, you take the good with the bad.  No one's holding a gun to anyone's head making them watch.  I'm fine with the annoying "theme" remarks, if the show overall is good, and for me it has been.  What I like is an interesting cast that's not packed full of villainy fame hos and has some nice blindsides, some big moves and schadenfreude.  

I know others love the villainy fame hos and such, though.  I'll trade a Russell or Phillip or Will (of Shirin fame) for a Ken or David or Michelle any day.  

If you would pigeonhole an entire generation as unworthy of employment besides fast food, that's pretty much buying right into the stereotype Survivor's selling, isn't it?  

[SVNBob]

12 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

David was right that he had a big advantage by knowing to look for the little painted sign.  

True, and he found that out apparently without a clue.  As we saw when Adam found his HII, there are also clues hidden in the typical hiding places that include maps to the HII location and the information about the symbol painted on the item actually containing the HII.

So David was doubly lucky each time.  Not just for finding the HII without clues or anyone else knowing, but also that no one else has apparently found the clue.

However, I expect that might change on the Purple beach.  Adam knows about the clue and will probably be searching for it on Takali.

Edited October 22, 2016 by SVNBob

[millennium]

39 minutes ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

If you would pigeonhole an entire generation as unworthy of employment besides fast food, that's pretty much buying right into the stereotype Survivor's selling, isn't it?  

I purposely wrote "these millennials," confining my criticism to "Fig-tayls" and friends.

[KimberStormer]

On ‎10‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 3:20 PM, peachmangosteen said:

Yea, I thought that was strange. I wondered if maybe they did, in fact, do a challenge as two tribes that just wasn't shown, but that doesn't really make sense. But I don't understand why they created a challenge and set it up for nothing but a second of suspense before the tribe swap.

Maybe it's a challenge setting they'll reuse, or one they had set up in case there was a medevac that screwed up the schedule?

I think pre-merge is always fairly boring, we always say "ugh I don't even know their names yet", etc.  At least, this time, we mostly don't say "worst cast ever" because there is no Dan Foley or Kyle Jason.  I'm honestly pretty bored by The David Show, but I personally found the second episode to be a super-great one, pure Survivor with no gimmicks or idols even, and I feel fairly positive about a lot of the cast.  Obviously I really like Michelle, Michaela, Hannah, and Jay; there's nobody I hate or even really dislike.  I think David is playing terrrrribly, but I wouldn't mind him as a character if it wasn't for his humongous edit, and that's somewhat justified by the fact that Gen-X went to tribal a lot and David was deep in the mix each time, as both target and 'mastermind'.  I might like Zeke and Adam a little less and Figgy (gasp) a little more but I'm quite ready to believe everyone in the game is pretty great.  Even the low-screentime Sunday is not doing anything wrong, just playing standard Survivor in the BIG MOVES ALL THE TIME era; and as soon as I figured out who Chris was (i.e. this episode) I like him too!  I admit I will be super-bummed and less interested if Michelle goes home but then it will just turn into San Juan Del Sur level, "everyone is fine but I don't love anybody" kind of Survivor, which is fine with me.  San Juan Del Sur had a fantastic winner, super strong Final 3, and some people who really justified their return for Second Chances, after all.

The conspiracy theories never make much sense to me.  If anything the big tribe logos on the objects the idols are hidden in seems like an effort to make them easier for anyone to find -- and it's not a conspiracy, guys, that they want the idols to be found and played.  That's what they're there for.  If David found an unmarked coconut and said "AHA THE IDOL!", that's when you get suspicious.  If you think they, I don't know, paid Sunday and Jessica to not get the idol, I hope you imagine they paid them something over a million each, because that's the only way that makes any sense.  "Hey, Sue from accounting once worked with this guy David" might be the way David got cast, but it sure ain't any reason to throw the game to him...

I do think the Second-Chances style pre-merge they seem to be going for is maybe a little too chaotic.  I like that it makes for a lot of chances for cross-tribal alliances, but if they're really going to go from 2 to 3 to 2 tribes it's just too much and makes the game too much of a crap shoot.  I really don't like the 2 tribes going to 3 tribes dynamic.  Start with 3 tribes, I love 3 tribe seasons; but starting with 2 and going to 3, to me, means none of the good things about 3 tribes (the impossibility of a majority/Pagonging) and just punishes anyone who was doing well in their original tribe, like Michelle, Taylor, and Figgy, who are all three now in serious trouble.  Bayon was always Bayon, and if Spencer weaseled his way in there, it was because of his previous connection to Tasha, not the swapping.  If you're going to swap, I say, start with 3, then swap to 2, not the other way around.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, SVNBob said:

True, and he found that out apparently without a clue.  As we saw when Adam found his HII, there are also clues hidden in the typical hiding places that include maps to the HII location and the information about the symbol painted on the item actually containing the HII.

So David was doubly lucky each time.  Not just for finding the HII without clues or anyone else knowing, but also that no one else has apparently found the clue.

However, I expect that might change on the Purple beach.  Adam knows about the clue and will probably be searching for it on Takali.

I'd be surprised if they didn't remove a clue once an idol was found without it.  

5 hours ago, millennium said:

I purposely wrote "these millennials," confining my criticism to "Fig-tayls" and friends.

Ah.  That still seems like a lot of generalizing on a small amount of info.  Michelle, Hannah, Michaela, Will, Jay, Adam and Zeke all seem stupid?

[azshadowwalker]

Not seeing that Figgy is stupid, either, or "entitled" or ugly or...or...or anything but a typical 20-something young woman with an athletic background and a guy who likes her. Like Julia last season, I just can't work myself into a lather to find a reason to hate her. Of course, as I have said many times in the past, the accusations of being "entitled" mean less than nothing to me. Maybe even less than "vocal fry", which is saying a lot.  Anything can and has been used to accuse someone of "entitlement". Angry that your name was brought up to be voted out? How entitled to think your name would never come up! Let the fact that your name is being discussed roll off your back? How entitled to think you will survive anyway! It just doesn't mean anything to me, because the same behavior can be interpreted based on the point one is trying to prove. Likewise, opposite behavior can be used to reach the same conclusion based upon the desired conclusion. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

The boredom is compounded by the incessant bloviating about what it means to be "millennial" or "Gen-X."  

Agreed, although the season isn't necessarily boring me, just the theme. And this has already been pointed out but the show kind of went out of its way to cast certain "types" that would fit the mold of what they've defined as "millennials" and "Gen-Xers." Online gamers and surfing instructors for millennials, Boston cops and football players as Gen-Xers. Whatever. I'm sure you can find just as many posers who are Bret and Chris's ages as you can Mari and Taylor's. And just as many blue collar, 9-5 workers who are in their early 20s.

[laurakaye]

On 10/20/2016 at 11:32 AM, peachmangosteen said:

I feel the exact opposite. I absolutely love this season so far and in general I think this is one of the best overall casts in while. There is not a single person who is so odious that I am actively praying for them to be booted. It's such a breath of fresh air to not have a hardcore misogynist in the cast!

+++++1.  To me, it's like watching a brand-new and improved Survivor.  I look forward to Wednesday nights with a renewed enthusiasm.  There are so many players I'm enjoying this season - Ken, Zeke, David, Chris, Michaela, Michelle, Adam, Jay, and all for different reasons.

That said, I wouldn't be sad to see Sunday go - I don't dislike her, but there's something about her that bugs me - I think she has a sense of superiority that is out of proportion with how she's playing the game.

And I'm really starting to like Chris for the simple fact that he is what Scot (last season, basketball player, ugly tattoos) could've been if he hadn't instead been a bullying misogynistic jerkface.  After the meathead posses of Dan/Rodney and Scot/Jason, it's great to see a big "tough" guy and former athlete be a decent person.

Even FigTayls, while irksome and stupid, makes me laugh because they are both so clueless.  I greatly look forward to their demise.

[Lamb18]

On ‎10‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 10:34 AM, NutMeg said:

This season is so extraordinary is that there is really no one I don't like. Sure, there are a few people I could see voted out without losing sleep over it (not that I ever do, but, you know), and Cece was one of those. She seemed nice and all, ad maybe she strategised as hell and we never saw it (just throwing this out there but without any conviction). Others that seem dispensable at this stage, because either they have no story or we already got their story? Sunday: if she's suddenly front and center, she's gone! Ditto for Taylor, if the best we've seen of his is his being love struck, even if he has mad strategic schemes behind the scenes, he's being edited as an amateur. But still, that leaves a lot of (other) likeable people, to fulfil anyone's criteria of what likeable means! It's really been a long time since there was no designated or self appointed villain, and just for this, I'd say thanks a bunch, TPTB, and as this takes place in Cambodia (right?) I'll bow to you with my hand nicely held to my chest. 

This takes place in Fiji, not Cambodia.

[jumper sage]

On 10/20/2016 at 1:42 AM, loki567 said:

Nobody else finding these HIs suspicious? I mean these are the most obvious idols ever and the guy benefiting from them, Dave, has connections in the industry. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere there's a Survivor producer who has a connection to Dave through some other show they've worked on together. 

Maybe one could just run over to where the camera crew is and look there.