S36.E03: Trust Your Gut

[iknow]

Sebastian reminds me of Dave Franco. Maybe it's the eyebrows and curved upper lip.

I thought Kellyn's trip to Ghost Island was soooo tedious and seemed to go on forever. I can't stand her whiny and strangely loud voice and really didn't need to hear her story (again!) for five out of a forty-something minute episode.

Chris can go any minute. I dislike the giant (and tacky) golden cross hanging over his oily chest. 

Great effort at Tribal, too bad it didn't pay off. Bradley came off really badly in this episode. I did enjoy seeing him literally gulping at TC like a cartoon character who knows he's in trouble.

I hope Laurel and Michael go far, they're my favorites right now. 

[LanceM]

3 hours ago, Gummo said:

I no longer slam contestants for their stupid clothes choices or their "hook" -- both are chosen by the producers and forced on the players. I have a strong feeling that Stephanie is getting confessional questions like, "As a single mother, how does it feel to be away from your family? Tell us how much winning this game would mean to you. And please make sure to use the phrase, 'as a single mom'."

Pure speculation on my part, admittedly, but we've heard from so many contestants on reality game shows over the years about how much of what we see is stuff that production insisted on and that they were contractually obliged to go along.

 

The producers most definitely asked Stephanie about her kids and being a single mom. Just like they most definitely asked Chris about his Mom's battle with MS or Kellyn about her recent marriage and divorce.  They want these players to talk about their personal lives in confessional. They want to flesh out these players as people to give the viewers at home a reason to want to root for these players. To build up emotional connections from the viewers to the contestants. Sometimes they succeed in doing this other times they fail.  All depends on the individual viewer. 

Edited March 16, 2018 by LanceM

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Gummo said:

I no longer slam contestants for their stupid clothes choices or their "hook" -- both are chosen by the producers and forced on the players. I have a strong feeling that Stephanie is getting confessional questions like, "As a single mother, how does it feel to be away from your family? Tell us how much winning this game would mean to you. And please make sure to use the phrase, 'as a single mom'."

Pure speculation on my part, admittedly, but we've heard from so many contestants on reality game shows over the years about how much of what we see is stuff that production insisted on and that they were contractually obliged to go along.

I see both sides.  Sometimes I forgive them because I know they agreed to be this persona in order to get cast, like Ms. Virgin from last season.  Jessica?  I gave her a pass, for the most part.  She's young and naive and cute blonde nurses are a dime a dozen.  

But sometimes I think these people would've been cast regardless and should maybe know better than to play right into the producers' hands with embarrassing or family-oriented crap.  Like Mike last season and his Sex Doctor shtick.    

2 hours ago, marys1000 said:

And this was sort of strange too - what does that mean different stations?  That's what I might say about...royalty or something. 

Holmes: Jenna?
Shapiro: We couldn’t be in more different stations of life, yet she was as kind to me as you can imagine.

It means they're from different walks of life-- gender, age, income level, etc.  

[princelina]

5 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

Well, if we start saying that their lines are producer driven, then we can't dislike Bradley because they might have asked him if "as a lawyer" he thought some thing or other  and insisted he compare beaches and talk about what he found hardest about the game just to make him sound whiney.  They might have encouraged Kellyn to tell us her philosophy of life and  to mention her divorce during every interview. Maybe they talked her out of taking the advantage.  They may have got Chris to cry by asking him about his mother's MS.  Pretty soon we can't hold any of them accountable for anything they say or do  and  even what looks like poor performance in a challenge might just be edited that way.  In which case this message board is just a pointless exercise in posters judging other posters as judgmental while the reality TV cast becomes sacrosanct.

 

I'm pretty sure Kellyn has been asked to tell us about her amazing life change in every TH; in Chris' case he was alone on Ghost Island with a camera crew and producer - so I'll bet they just "chatted" until they found the thing that got him all emotional; in Bradley's case we saw him just whining his ass off from the moment he arrived at the New Beach - no prompting necessary :). I do try to remind myself that sometimes what they are saying is producer-driven, but sometimes it's clearly just what's happening!

 

9 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

Parenting is hard under the best of circumstances, nit picking parents drives me crazy. I hate the Mom wars crap.

Now anytime they are moaning about their families, it is clearly producer-driven.  I wouldn't call it "Mom wars" considering that we got the same thing from Jeremy and Tony about their families that they were playing for.  The producers love this for the same reason they love BvW seasons.  And my least favorite thing about BvW seasons is Jeff demanding to know how they FEEL when it's their WHATEVERTYPEOFLOVEDONEHERE!!!!!  IMO any of these types of muhfamily/singlemom/etc comments are both producer-driven for the feels, yet annoying because doesn't everyone who plays love their family? or at least use it as an excuse to need the money?  Even the young singles are playing for their mom or someone! (Why hello Chris! :)

Edited March 17, 2018 by princelina

[ProfCrash]

17 hours ago, princelina said:

I'm pretty sure Kellyn has been asked to tell us about her amazing life change in every TH; in Chris' case he was alone on Ghost Island with a camera crew and producer - so I'll bet they just "chatted" until they found the thing that got him all emotional; in Bradley's case we saw him just whining his ass off from the moment he arrived at the New Beach - no prompting necessary :). I do try to remind myself that sometimes what they are saying is producer-driven, but sometimes it's clearly just what's happening!

 

Now anytime they are moaning about their families, it is clearly producer-driven.  I wouldn't call it "Mom wars" considering that we got the same thing from Jeremy and Tony about their families that they were playing for.  The producers love this for the same reason they love BvW seasons.  And my least favorite thing about BvW seasons is Jeff demanding to know how they FEEL when it's their WHATEVERTYPEOFLOVEDONEHERE!!!!!  IMO any of these types of muhfamily/singlemom/etc comments are both producer-driven for the feels, yet annoying because doesn't everyone who plays love their family? or at least use it as an excuse to need the money?  Even the young singles are playing for their mom or someone! (Why hello Chris! :)

Agreed but I think that when the mention being a parent or doing it for their family it tends to be treated as something noble but when the women mention it is is seen as manipulative. In a slight defnese of my own actions, I also got annoyed with the BB chatter and Amazing Race chatter about people talking about winning for their kids and then they go on  TV shows. I kind of get it but it feels like it is out of line, to me. Now if Stephanie was running around to the tribe members talking about how hard it was to be a single Mom I wuld be all over it but mentioning it to the camera when she is by herself and bummed by her position in the game feels different to me. Using your kids as a tool in the game is wrong, using them as motivation doesn’t bother me. (Shrugs)

So I see it as different when they show Bradley standing with the gang whining and complaining and acting like a child I relate to that differently then I do private confessionals. And I buy that some folks are prodded by Production, virgin/single parent/sick family member and there are others who are simply bringing up their job/hobby whatever because they think it makes them cooler/better then others. I tend to find the lawyers mention it 9,000 times because they think they are superior (Brad Culpepper) when they are not. 

[green]

On 3/16/2018 at 4:47 PM, JudyObscure said:

Well, if we start saying that their lines are producer driven, then we can't dislike Bradley because they might have asked him if "as a lawyer" he thought some thing or other  and insisted he compare beaches and talk about what he found hardest about the game just to make him sound whiney.  They might have encouraged Kellyn to tell us her philosophy of life and  to mention her divorce during every interview. Maybe they talked her out of taking the advantage.  They may have got Chris to cry by asking him about his mother's MS.  Pretty soon we can't hold any of them accountable for anything they say or do  and  even what looks like poor performance in a challenge might just be edited that way.  In which case this message board is just a pointless exercise in posters judging other posters as judgmental while the reality TV cast becomes sacrosanct.

 

They aren't sacrosanct.  But they are real people who become "characters" per editing on these shows.  And that is done thorough selective editing and manipulation of confessionals etc. 

Now the choice of how to selectively edit the non confessional material comes from stuff the actual person does and helps give the story editor a hook into creating that character's story.  But whether this stuff is an anomaly or their constant behavior during the time of the filming is something I don't know.

But yeah judging these people on these shows as being what we see on TV is most often times falling into the reality show trap that these people are exactly that way always. 

Like Bradley is now set up as a smug villain.  Fine, I'll buy it.  But I buy it as "Bradley" the "character" being that way.  I don't know what he is really like in real life.   Maybe he is smug enough to give the editors a "hook" into developing Survivor's "Bradley."  But maybe not.  I never dislike the real person at all.  But the "character," sure.  But with the full knowledge always (and I mean ALWAYS) that I am discussing a "character" and not a human being in their real life.

And I've known this forever or from at least the second year onward of this show and TAR.  I think way back when this started out almost all of us bought into reality TV = "real" TV.  It was so new and fresh back then and seemed so different than fictional shows.  But you soon learned production has to make a product that the audience will want to watch.  Therefore the basic elements of Drama 101 have to be observed such as heroes and villains and victims and conflict.  It isn't a show about a woman on a beach playing her ukulele in the end in other words.

So I just view it as a show with "characters" and am never surprised to hear that people that are painted as hating each other on a show are good friends after the show ends etc.  Why shouldn't they be?  They probably had a hundred bonding moments and only one or two arguments.  We just got shown the arguments only.  Because, again, woman on beach with ukulele only scenes don't sell a show after we saw that once in the original season.

Edited March 18, 2018 by green

[JudyObscure]

3 hours ago, green said:

I never dislike the real person at all.  But the "character," sure.  But with the full knowledge always (and I mean ALWAYS) that I am discussing a "character" and not a human being in their real life.

Same here, as far as thinking I would actually  hate this person IRL or send nasty messages to their Facebook or Twitter accounts, but, while the show is on, I go with what is shown and don't feel required to couch every message board remark with, "but that might be editing, he probably didn't really mean that, they probably forced him to say that," etc. 

 Part of the fun of the show is picking people we like or don't like based on what we see and what they say,  because anything else is just speculation on our part.  Maybe Bradley spends 10 months a year volunteering for Lawyers Without Borders, but I'm not going to shut down anyone who criticizes him with that hypothesis.  We heard him whine and brag about himself and we heard Stephanie call him a whiner and brag about herself.  That's what I'm basing my show-opinion on and whether or not they go to each others homes for  Christmas  doesn't interest me at all.

Actually the people who criticize the Bradley-types rarely do get slammed.  White, straight men are regularly ripped to shreds on this board with no kick-back.  It's all the other types who are beginning to be off limits.  I particularly dislike being expected to, "support," all other women just  because we share some of the same physical properties.

[Nashville]

On 3/17/2018 at 2:47 PM, ProfCrash said:

Agreed but I think that when the mention being a parent or doing it for their family it tends to be treated as something noble but when the women mention it is is seen as manipulative.

I disagree; they’re ALL being manipulative.  :>

[Lamb18]

I'm rewatching the episode right now. I just noticed Donathan's tiger-striped socks at the immunity challenge. Also Chelsea sounds like Michelle (Kao Rhong) when she talks.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Lamb18

[Superpole2000]

I half paid attention, but I was fully lost. One of the problems is the reliance on tribe names instead of "Purple Team" or "Brains." Survivor tribe names go in one ear and out the other without registering in my mind.

The Ghost Island concept is not helping spice things up. Every moment spent on the Ghost Island concept is the worst part of the episode. Just give it up, guys.

On a personal note, I may finally be bored with the show. 36 seasons in, and I could barely get through this one. I don't think it's all my fault either. The editors really kept a lot of this cast hidden from us until this episode. It's mildly amusing when one random person appears who you hadn't noticed before, but it felt as if 3-4 random people showed up in this episode and were dictating game outcomes. That's bad season-long editing.

[backformore]

1 hour ago, Superpole2000 said:

On a personal note, I may finally be bored with the show. 36 seasons in, and I could barely get through this one. I don't think it's all my fault either. The editors really kept a lot of this cast hidden from us until this episode. It's mildly amusing when one random person appears who you hadn't noticed before, but it felt as if 3-4 random people showed up in this episode and were dictating game outcomes. That's bad season-long editing.

Yes, and not only that - sometimes one person is talking, and I hear them talking, but what I see is the reaction of others.  Or two people are not facing the camera, and there's no way to tell who is saying what.  I swear they add at least one person each episode.  Chelsea?  we need the names of who is shown on screen! 

[Guest]

Yeah, the editing and chyrons don’t seem as good as usual.  I also noticed sound issues this season.  A lot of times in challenges I can barely hear Jeff (which isn’t totally a bad thing).   But it seems like maybe they used to overdub his lines and now they’re not bothering?  Or at least clean up his audio track to remove like ocean sounds.   He often sounds drowned out by the sounds around him.   

[ByaNose]

Once thing I thought that was supposed to be a factor this season was the limited supply of rice. I don't think I even heard them say they've been starving. Of course, some of them have won food at the Reward Challenges but I thought the lack of rice was going to be a bigger story. Jeff made such a big deal about it in his pre interviews and even to the tribes on Day 1.

[ProfCrash]

And then there is the unlimited rice available at Ghost Island. Seriously, go to Ghost Island and eat up. See how much you can stuff in a sock and bring it back with you

[LanceM]

20 hours ago, backformore said:

Yes, and not only that - sometimes one person is talking, and I hear them talking, but what I see is the reaction of others.  Or two people are not facing the camera, and there's no way to tell who is saying what.  I swear they add at least one person each episode.  Chelsea?  we need the names of who is shown on screen! 

This is usually a good indication that they are splicing together two different conversations into one. 

[Guest]

On 3/20/2018 at 3:43 AM, Winston9-DT3 said:

Yeah, the editing and chyrons don’t seem as good as usual.  I also noticed sound issues this season.  A lot of times in challenges I can barely hear Jeff (which isn’t totally a bad thing).   But it seems like maybe they used to overdub his lines and now they’re not bothering?  Or at least clean up his audio track to remove like ocean sounds.   He often sounds drowned out by the sounds around him.   

After a rewatch, I don't think it's that they need to remove ocean sounds from Jeff's vocal track.  I think that probably all of the ocean sounds during a water challenge are added in post production, just like the music is.  And that they just are going too heavy with all the 'post' sounds, compared to Jeff's vocal track.  It's really bad during Jeff talking through the 'previouslies' this ep (music too heavy), and during the challenge (splashing and music too heavy).  

[NutMeg]

Well, I was surprised how hoarse Jeff sounded when commenting the challenges in the previous episodes (but not this one, or it was less obvious), so maybe they have indeed stopped dubbing his comments.

I also feel the background noise has increased this season. 

[NutMeg]

7 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

It occurred to me it might only be on CBS All Access that the sound is bad.  That’s the only place I watch.  Though finally someone else noticed.  Do you watch on that, too?  

No, I use another streaming platform.

Thanks for quoting me, because it made me realize that the name of the 3rd episode would have fit nicely for the latest one :)