The Syndicate

Ok, sell me on one Survivor season.

One.

You can collaborate at will on this one.

And not the first one, I've seen that one back in the day. I actually still strongly remember Richard for how much of a vile, yet laudable ass he was. Dammit, I even vividly remember the last 3 challenge, that Rudy lost after, what, nine hours or something? I think my parents were heartbroken by it or something. Damn you brain, why you choose to keep these memories, of all things!!

The Last-Person-Standing-like challenge, competition and spectacle would interest me the most, by some distance. I attribute the challenges more towards the episodic nature of the series, so with exceptions that are gripping or truly interesting (like the Rudy stuff I mentioned, stuck in my brain webs), this will probably not attract me as most. Further down the rainbow, I don't see myself either perceptive enough or downright interested in the (actual) survivor skills on display throughout the tournament.

I'd be tolerant to watching mostly anything unfold, methinks. But that's as far as I can understand your question. It would not be the same as saying I also condone what veers on edgy and dirty or that I'd intentionally ask for big drama to go with my popcorn. Then again, I've watched enough Weakest Link to know gamesmanship and strategy don't always match.

Well, since this seems a thread of three lately, I say that'll be enough and that the tribe has spoken.

Ugh, and I told myself I wouldn't do this. #shutthisreviewingfactorydown #shut.it.down

Pearl Harbour ep1

Didn't plan on watching a new episode for at least one or two days, but I didn't pick a movie for this evening, so I said to myself, whatevs

Pearl Harbour ep 2

That what?

Oh, well you see, for a second, I thought you typo'd smilie lol

Also, being a music man, simile is first of all "similarly / the same way".

Golden wrote:

Scotty wrote:

Golden wrote:

Scotty wrote:

Ricochet wrote:That what?

A simile is like a metaphor

No, a simile is a metaphor

Mine is righter (hi Epi)

No, yours is a simile and mine is a metaphor. Both are equally correct

So they're... simile.

Forgot to write an update in here just as much, over the weekend.

Pearl Harbour 04

Golden wrote:You didn't like the premiere? The whole 'buy supplies in the village' is one of my favourite Survivor openings.

Mine too, but did I like like the entire episode, as I've written? Mneh.

Golden wrote: Fair enough for Rico Cynico to surface, although my cynicism over single events has waned over time as Survivor shoots itself in the foot just as frequently with their twists (just this season a big twist eliminated one of their most beloved contestants to the benefit of a complete no-name). I do think there is evidence that, more often than not, they are pre-planned - and the kidnapping twist fits with the pirate theme. Besides that, though, I believe that production will never tell people how to vote or endeavour to control the outcome of a tribes decision, but they are more than willing to do things that can influence the game that fall short of that. This is far from the only time in Survivor history that a healthy dose of cynicism about a twist is appropriate.

I am willing to believe this.

Golden wrote:Is it possible this twist was cooked up simply because Drake wanted to throw a challenge? Sure. As it happens, in my this weeks blog on the last Survivor episode, I talk about the merits of throwing a challenge, and one very firm view I hold is that production will do what they can to make sure it doesn't work out for you, since they don't want it to be seen as a popular or successful strategy (as that undermines the basic concept of tribes and challenges). In that sense, I could completely believe that this twist was cooked up on the spot. It still required the other tribe to pick Rupert (which was highly likely but not guaranteed) or potentially Burton (their most likely second choice), which also might have changed the course of events, so production fell short of giving Rupert immunity from being blindsided.

I am willing to believe this, as well.

W-what happened? O.o

Anyhoo

Pearl Harbour e05

Pearl Harbour e06

Interesting. Didn't see Sandra as cocky, at least not at this stage, not with this rebuff.

(lol @ this being in Side Missions part... of the Museum section)

Can't use spoiler tags any more, right now, but since this thread has an audience of 2 (two), frak it. I watched the whole two-parter that was Pearl Harbour ep07 & 08 and this was around the time the update happened on the site (hence me waiting on writing about it, afterwards). Here be my stray observations:

-- I don't remember the exact moment - sometime after returning from Tribal and having a meltdown about having received votes, or maybe the morning after - but in this ep, perhaps for the first time, there was a confessional from Rupert out of which he came off a bit too, idk, bitching and eager to complain, profile others and maybe even scheme. His tone gained some kind of edginess and resentful.

-- interesting experiment with the outcasts (for the record, I had read that this would be introduced, having read Skinny Ryan's wiki page, but aside from knowing his votes, I didn't pick up after all on who would re-enter, so I think I'm still on course with a non-spoiled viewing); I don't have anything special to say about the face-off with the other two tribes, it seems like that contest at the end of which you just say "this team won and no loser is to be faulted for it, that's that"; Burton was a given, following his performance; pretty ok with Lillian's re-entry as well, purely on the basis of her unjust blindside; maybe I would have felt the same about Michelle, but that's about it - Nicole didn't deserve to re-enter, her strat game was shown to be poor right off; nor Trish, her late phase strat game would have probably been just as poor; and Skinny Ryan, aside from the episode of him being bullied by more macho men in the tribe, wouldn't have struck me as a player going deep into this game

-- Shawn's removal from Drake was sort of a clean-up business, nothing special to comment; Osten's quitting was frustrating, especially after forgetting about it for, what, 15-16 days since his first meltdown; kinda amusing that both Jeff gave him the glare treatment and then the production team skipped on airing any confessional from him - banned from collective thought, lol. Anyway, I've read since that he did contract strep or something, plus he felt disenchanted with The Outcasts return mechanism, which is interesting and changes my perspective a bit on his quit, nonetheless I still wouldn't say he was a competent and likeable player in any way.

-- Savage falling one short of Jury duty was, well... savage, because he really gave it all in Morgan, during tough times and all. However, his post-Outcast game was quite execrable, moaning and being so resilient about their return. It's sad to see that his involvment and performance in the game was undone by one strategic move of his own - which was blindsiding Lillian (plus that he's out, whereas players I still have no idea, opinion or impression on (Darrah? Tijuana?!) are still in it and will make it on the Jury seat at least), but yeah, this elimination had "doomed" written on it, ever since Lillian happened to return and it was clear she was not in a forgiving mood. If there is one player I would have punished with falling one short of Jury space, it would have been Jon, obviously, which almost happened, but nah, this was all about Lil flipping or not.

So... guess I should wrap this up?

I think the site revival cut off only your answer to my post above, Golden, and my post on Rupert's exit. If you recall your notes on that and want to post them once more, feel free, otherwise I don't think it matters that much. I'll now go in order of the remaining eliminations, which more or less still makes for an episode by episode review.

8. Rupert was of course a "NOOOOOOOO" moment, although not truly entirely so. For one, I really think his mental game was toast; his exit episode was a tough one to watch him in (and a tough one overall - borderline weird and almost inaesthetic): mumbling, rambling, being delirious about wanting to catch a figgin' shark. Sure, he went down as a strong threat elimination, but overall I doubt he would have been able to hold up till the end. I really liked Rupert, but his last two active episodes both made me go 'dude, he okay'. Otherwise, this episode was cut like a pure Rupert send-off, which further damped the shock of him actually going. Overall this might rank among my favorite episodes, although I'm not sure if that's because of how crazy and "ugly" it looked - those scenes back at camp, with everyone bruised and battered after the ship reward challenge, looking sickly and with fungi growing all over their body... that was not an easy watch.

7. Next was Tijuana. Mkay. I don't recall much about this, other than Jon negociating to keep Burton alive (which, given that he used his dead grandma talk, made me think it was sure to turn out a blindside move). I don't recall much about Tijuana per se. I have nothing (additional) to comment on this player, really.

6. Christa was interesting from the point of view of the Rupert-Sandra-Christa alliance purge proceeding further, after a one phase halt, less so from the point of view of Christa as a player. I think Christa was a nice person, engaged but not power moving, loyal to her core group - it just wasn't a winning one (well not in the sense a winner didn't emerge, you get what I mean). I think Christa had jury member written on her even if her alliance would have made it deep.

5. Burton's exit was also more interesting from a strategic (Sandra's scheming and the other women turning their weapons - I'm sure Burton did not go into Tribal Council oblivious of their attempts, but that the real burn was that it paid off), gameplay ("strong player not quite making it to the finish line" trope) and psychological (Burton's cockiness becoming his downfall) viewpoint. If I would have played like Burton (just go with it, I don't even had a semblance of abs or muscles) and then see on reruns how macho I've turned by endgame, I'd probably facepalm myself. But hey, maybe that was him. He played a daring, scheming, outlast-intent game and got too comfy on the power throne, I suppose.

4. Darrah... remember when I said I've no idea why Darrah was still in this or who Darrah was in this game? Man, did that change once she started racking up immunity wins. Honestly, if there's one person I regret not having made Final Council (at least), it's probably her. Even more so than Rupert, after a point in the game. I know! But yeah, I basically see Darrah's exit as a "Weakest Link" blindside move from the rest - as in that stage in the Weakest Link game where you get to the final three and actually vote off the strongest challenge, rather than a less worthy finalist. They did it and that was that. Sad for her strong endgame, but such moments are bound to happen, along with bitter juries and other psychologically unfair - or at least "unkosher" - moves.

3. So Jon made Final Three......... F*ck! Funnily enough, re: his dead grandma shtick, I'd be more willing to salute it as a gutsy move than be all outraged by it; within that game, I would have hated his move and called it reproachable, of course, but looking from the outside: it's a game, yo, and he clearly stated some ideas of treatchery and manipulation throughout the game that are not out of the game's bounds. Nonetheless, Jon ends up far from a player I can say I liked. There's a swag to his villainy, sure, but that doesn't mean I have to praise it all the way through. Not in my nature. It was rather headspinning to see on how many reward boats he got, as a co-reward receiver. He sure got a lot of space to scheme and weave webs with individual members, that's for sure. I don't even know how to interpret his loss... it came down to Lilian's... moral sense?!

2. If I were to describe Lillian's endgame move "in a nutshell", I'd probably say she made a Final Three vote/choice that cost her the game. I find it reasonable to conclude like this - and I remember this even being tested during the post-show talk (Lil would have gotten at least the necessary four votes over Jon). I read there's another season in which a runner-up made an even derpier such wrong move, but whatever. Otherwise, however, I'd compliment Lillian overall. She lost bad on paper in the final, but I would certainly not rush to downplay her performance - her first elimination was undeserving, so I personally liked that the Outcast twist allowed her back in; she did a heckton of outlasting, even if, yes, she tied herself to the "vote off everybody" boulder. I don't even recall too many jury rebuttals that were sketchy or weak - Sandra really just burned her in one or two instances with a strong(er) answer or evidence against her deserving the win. I'm surprised by Lillian as a Final Council player (my preference would have been Darrah, of course, for the sake of giving the Ceaser what belongs to him), but not underwhelmed.

1. Now, I know (have read up on) who Sandra Diaz-Twine is, in the history and legacy of the game (and did know before agreeing to watch this season; tbh was hoping Golden and INH would recommend nothing but one of Sandra's winning seasons to contemplate and evaluate); I know how her game's been described. And yet allow me to play the fool, act all pleb and express some partial bewilderment to her win and go all Russell Hantzy with the evaluation: no challenges wins or prowess, a whole lot of invisible or under-the-radar presence in the game (this is probably more elegantly labeled as "understated" by the community), a surprising amount of times she's been blindsided in losing allied players (both Rupert's and Christa's voteoffs left her in a daze) or voting way off (she didn't even vote right to give Rupert the numbers to hold on close, ffs). So... how? How did she do it? How did she manage to win this? Of course, given my 2) viewpoint, it could be as simple as "Lillian made the wrong million dollar vote". But focusing on Sandra, this is quite intriguing.

Of course, I said partial, because I have to at least recognize she faced a big Final Five hill of outlasting. Since Rupert's exit and the shift of power, she was always slightly hounded by the prospect of not lasting much longer (even though the other players failed to act on that, overall). Her scheming to get rid of Burton was probably her strongest move - afterwards it was coasting-while-the-alpha-threat-got-booted (Darrah) and being-at-the-mercy-of-the-Final-Three-sole-voter. The one moment my brain switched on noticing Sandra's finespun deeper game was when she gazed into the camera, away from the players, letting out a small grin after screwing with the tribe's fish load. That was glorious. That almost made me jump on my couch, when it happened.

So, cheapeau to her, overall. Not... 100% sure what for, but there you have it.

Golden wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2017 9:26 pm She could see through bullshit from a mile away (Jon's grandmother lie)

(wow quote codes suddenly got 2.0 complicated)

This is the only part I don't recall. I mean, I remember her giving frowny looks in the background, but I far from interpreted that as "I'm on to you, Jon". The only time she didn't bother with Jon's swear-my-hearts was when they voted Burton - but that was because she was already set on that.

Golden wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2017 9:26 pm Would you watch another season?

I suppose?

Also, I never think I said or impled that Darrah would have won over Sandra... (did I?). I said I wanted her as a finalist. Though I do think she could have easily played the "hey guys remember me winning stuff" card. Ok, so she was not quite Opt_Outside dominant tier, but she still had two more challenges to make it there. (Though funnily I think Lil would have beaten her too at that stay-on-your-feet final challenge. I only have the image of scout Lil beating anyone apart from Spiderman at that final challenge.)

I sort of feel worse about the Jury vs Final Four immunity challenge trick, rather than the Outcasts' insertion. That quiz thing was recooked from an earlier challenge (the last one Rupert won?), anyway, and "nobody gets immunity" - wow, what a twisteroo. Ech.

Another thing I forgot to write down was that her social game got interesting. It halfway seemed like she willingly wanted to stay out of the debate / conflict boiling pan at times. Maybe that blindsided her a bit in the end?

Golden wrote: ↑Mon May 22, 2017 12:29 am OK, well try season 13 (Cook Islands) on for size.

Huh. Not Heroes vs Villains. Now that's a twist.