DWilson

She's a bit like the extra who thinks the movie revolves around her, because in her mind, it does.

davidh777

I thought Sydney was interesting and easy on the eyes, but not nearly as much as she seems to think of herself as.

GatorDeb

Unpopular opinion but I'm having such a blast with this season, loving everything so far.

gryffinmaster

These three posts essentially sum up my opinion of this season, which is largely negative. I'm missing Survivor.

I like seeing the purity of Naseer's attitude to playing the game -- him single-handedly making sure his team didn't throw a challenge was outstanding, and how he slipped in that third phrase was really amusing -- and I did enjoy Xander's sleight-of-hand manipulation of the chaos in the last tribal, but it's all just a giant, convoluted mess with a melodramatic lean to the editing. What's frustrating is that as soon as certain social things and game components seem like they're making sense, all of a sudden the Shot in the Dark element comes back in the picture as a reminder that, nope, there's still one more wacky and unpredictable aspect that has to be taken into account. The addition of the Shot in the Dark really bugs me, as it's literally nothing but chance and an imbalanced risk-versus-reward layer that feels tacked on.

The hourglass dilemma and how thoroughly it screwed over a whole section of people who have been doing well in the game was essentially the point-of-no-return for my outlook of the season, though. It's worse than what happened with the Outcast twist in Pearl Islands since one person actively chose this outcome. Earned immunity shouldn't be on the table to be taken away. The merge and the shifting opinions of everyone from an individual game standpoint would've inherently taken care of tribal alliances ... or not, as that's how Survivor goes.

I'm sure the next season will be similar due to how they're shot, but they need to do some serious reevaluation of the game after that.

Rob V

^ There was NO way she wasn't going to break the hour glass... so that "twist" was lame. I was hoping that young lady would have been given a bigger choice or an advantage to be used down the road; as it stands, she survived one more day but is likely on the outside looking in next week.

SunMonkey

I see a lot are disappointed in this season like I am. It really feels like the game is playing the people anymore.

I don’t want highjack this thread. So…




windom

Re: Spoiler above

A scripted version of Survivor? How does that even work?

SunMonkey

Just scripted in that the things that Jeff repeats in every episode are said nearly verbatim by its host, Jonathan.

Decker

Well Heather, who so far has been the least memorable contestant by a wide margin, chose this week's episode to enact an insane and totally illogical strategy to flip, align with the on-the-outs players and put a huge target on her own back. It's amazing to see someone play the game that badly.
And Ricard trying to get Xander to flush his immunity idol.

cdollaz

Yeah, these people are mostly just a bunch of kooks. I don't care much for Evie, but at least she seems to be playing the game and trying to be successful, even if some of her attempts are misguided. I am very tired of Ricard and Shan. I think at this point I am rooting for Naseer above everyone else. And probably Xander (not sure how he missed seeing that advantage) and Danny next. Really glad to see Tiffany go.

Finisher

Shan is getting the most air time so I'm assuming she's there at the end. Really just a terminally boring cast with nobody to root for.

Damfino

Exactly. Heather did her best to sacrifice herself and save Tiffany, but it didn’t work.

Decker

Tiffany voted for her.

AaronHernandez

I would probably go the other way around and say this is one of the better casting jobs the show has done. Xander is far more multidimensenial then most of the young guys they cast in the Ozzy/Joe/Malcolm archtype. Ricard/Shan/Deshawn any given episode can be highly sympathetic and likeable also petty irrationally villians. Naseer is like an old schol fan favrite, and Liana is a more fully realized version of the tryhard young college kid in most casts.

Decker

Shan used her extra vote advantage and used it to vote for BOTH people on the chopping block??? ​​​​​​
That. makes less than zero sense. I don't get it at all. This is the most confounding move in the history of Survivor.

Edit : I guess this is the explanation. I don't fully follow but there is logic behind it I guess, it keeps Shan & Ricard safe if that was their concern.

Further explanation

Josh-da-man

That's actually pretty clever and well thought out...

(I guess. I have trouble keeping track of who is who, who is aligned with who, and who has what in their pockets at any given time...)

Cardsfan111

I was confused at first on the extra vote as well. I had actually forgotten about that advantage during TC. When Jeff read the 3rd vote for Heather and kept going, it threw me off. Then I wondered what the strategy was until it was explained.

Sad to see Naseer go since he's a fun guy to root on. On the other hand, I was delighted to see Evvie taken out.

Decker

Two players who played too hard and didn't have the numbers to back it like Shan does. Hard to imagine a different final 5 than Shan, Ricard, Liana, Deshaun and Danny. But Xander does seem to have nine lives.

Cardsfan111

I'm not a big fan of Xander, but I don't hate him like Liana does.

Decker

It really is a testament to Shan and Ricard's game that they seem to be in the power seat when they joined the merge as a tribe of two, and got absorbed by a totally intact tribe,

Shannon Nutt

Shan is my least-favorite contestant. Hard to believe she's a minister given how selfish/self-centered she is.

So she'll probably wind up in the final three, right?

I didn't like Ricard at first, but he's grown on me since the season started.

Decker

My son will never forgive him for unilaterally excising "Come on in, guys" from the Survivor lexicon.

Shannon Nutt

That's why I didn't like him at first, but I'm guessing the producers put him up to that - I could be wrong. I think Probst was dropping that phrase regardless.

Rob V

Agree with you about Shan (still don't like how self-righteous Ricard is)... but with Shan, she made mention of how diverse this year's group of contestants was. How there are so many walks of life... next scene she's in an alliance with all the other black people. And while Naseer is a dark skinned person, I don't believe for a second that they considered him to be part of their alliance for the long haul.

Goldberg74

If I can be completely honest, I haven't watched a single episode all season - so I have no idea what is really going on.

I'll be binge-ing this over the Thanksgiving break and am looking forward to seeing how all the spoilers I know (I don keep up with this thread) come together to create this disaster of a masterpiece.