Survivor: Samoa - Week 3

The Racist is Gone

Obviously the editors at Survivor don’t read my emails because once again Galu got no coverage this episode. While watching this episode, Whitney commented, “I don’t like that tribe.” As soon as she said it, we talked about why that might be and we decided it is because we haven’t spent any time with them. Even though they keep on winning, the way the show has been edited makes Foa Foa the underdogs (even though they have dug their own grave) and Galu as the bad guys, even though there seems to be some very nice people on that tribe. If Foa Foa keeps losing, expect a shake up between tribes very soon. I want to see this just to see how Evil Russell reacts to this.

You know a tribe is dysfunctional when as soon as tribal council is over, they are talking about who is going next. It’s as if that they are already expecting to lose in the challenge. This is when strategy takes over the game too much and you just need to focus on your tribe winning. As it played out the whole episode, Ashley and Ben were on the chopping block from the get go. Ben because he’s, well, Ben... and Ashley because Evil Russell is intimidated by smart girls.

I don’t know if you will agree with me on this, but I am beginning to think that Evil Russell is a lot smarter than what he even displays. Yes, it’s obvious that he loves the spotlight and I think he gives himself way too much credit, but he definitely can get people to trust him. The gullible and to me, boring, Mick is like a King who lets his advisor make all the decisions for him. I keep telling myself that people are going to catch on to Evil Russ, but maybe his seed analogy is true. The reason I am giving him this credit is because of how he backed away from his strategy to get Ashley off. I saw a switch go off in his head that usually happens with great players. Great players know how to be aggressive, yet know when to back off a bit. We’ll see if he stays in this category, because he could easily get bit by the cockiness bug that takes down players (Kenny from Gabon comes to my mind).

For some reason the immunity challenge didn’t click with me this time. I know it was another physical one, but I couldn’t quite grasp the strategy of the players to keep others out of the “block zone.” Also, I don’t like it how some of the players on Foa Foa sat out even though they were down in numbers. I think it was ok for that first challenge because it was just for reward and it started things off, but I think if all possible, everybody should compete. Seeing Mr. Rebel completely miss a tackle was all worth it though.

Following the challenge, we finally got to see some drama at Galu’s tribe besides Shambo’s disgust. Good Russell, as the tribe’s leader, chose comfort over functionality. No matter what he chose, somebody was going to be mad. I wouldn’t have chosen the same way, but that’s not the reason I thought this was a bad move. It was because his explanation to his tribemates about taking care of his women was completely displaying his strategy in this game. He clearly is going to try to make alliances with the women in his tribe, which is smart, but I do think it’s dumb that he declared it out loud like he did. If I were the other guys on the tribe, this would have been a huge red flag for me.

We then saw Shambo throw her tribe under the bus as she became the most amazing person ever in the eyes of Foa Foa. Yasmin, take notes... If Shambo was smart, she would try to mend fences better at Galu, but regardless, she has put herself in a great spot if a merge was to occur. She showed exactly what you need to do if you spend time at another tribe’s camp.

Now to the ousting of Ben... He needed to go and I’m proud of Jaison for standing up like he did. Now, from a game perspective, I don’t know about his threat of leaving the game if Ben stuck around, from a personal perspective, I commend him. I think mentally Jaison is going to check out of Survivor. This pains me to say because he’s my pick for this season, but I think he’s a very smart and athletic guy who could win this game, but other personalities may become the death of him. He’s almost to that point of being so smart the he’s going to put life in perspective and wonder why the heck he is interacting with these wild personalities. Maybe with Ben gone, that will change, but who knows?

It was good to get rid of Ben just from a tribe dynamic position. He was annoying, not really great at challenges, and we really didn’t get to see how much he actually did at camp except just chop one piece of wood over and over and over again. That was one of the most personal tribal councils I’ve seen and I was with Jaison all the way. I thought that Jaison eloquently stated his position well and Ben just was way too prideful to admit that he made a mistake. I don’t remember exactly how he put it, but when he said, “Ok Ben, even if you think Yasmin is ghetto trash, at least admit you weren’t being sensitive to the history of African Americans,” and Ben still wouldn’t back down. That “Southern pride” that just makes me sick. I think it’s one thing to cast controversial people for this show, but I think the producers went too far in casting Ben. Being the way he was in front of everybody, they had to know about his racial tendencies from all the profiling they do for contestants before a show airs. If he had stuck around more, who knows what could have happened between Ben and Jaison, or even Ben and Yasmin, and I think that would definitely had crossed that line of good television versus bad taste. Good riddance to Ben and I hope he gets as little limelight as possible shined on him. I didn’t even love to hate Ben, I just was disgusted by him.

On that cheerful note, what did you think? Am I giving Evil Russell too much credit? What would you have chosen, comfort or functionality? Did Good Russell make the right decision? What did you think of Jaison’s way of getting Ben voted out? What did you think of Ben and do you think the producers went too far in casting somebody like Ben?
Week 3:
The Racist is Gone


Obviously the editors at Survivor don’t read my emails because once again Galu got no coverage this episode. While watching this episode, Whitney commented, “I don’t like that tribe.” As soon as she said it, we talked about why that might be and we decided it is because we haven’t spent any time with them. Even though they keep on winning, the way the show has been edited makes Foa Foa the underdogs (even though they have dug their own grave) and Galu as the bad guys, even though there seems to be some very nice people on that tribe. If Foa Foa keeps losing, expect a shake up between tribes very soon. I want to see this just to see how Evil Russell reacts to this.

You know a tribe is dysfunctional when as soon as tribal council is over, they are talking about who is going next. It’s as if that they are already expecting to lose in the challenge. This is when strategy takes over the game too much and you just need to focus on your tribe winning. As it played out the whole episode, Ashley and Ben were on the chopping block from the get go. Ben because he’s, well, Ben... and Ashley because Evil Russell is intimidated by smart girls.

I don’t know if you will agree with me on this, but I am beginning to think that Evil Russell is a lot smarter than what he even displays. Yes, it’s obvious that he loves the spotlight and I think he gives himself way too much credit, but he definitely can get people to trust him. The gullible and to me, boring, Mick is like a King who lets his advisor make all the decisions for him. I keep telling myself that people are going to catch on to Evil Russ, but maybe his seed analogy is true. The reason I am giving him this credit is because of how he backed away from his strategy to get Ashley off. I saw a switch go off in his head that usually happens with great players. Great players know how to be aggressive, yet know when to back off a bit. We’ll see if he stays in this category, because he could easily get bit by the cockiness bug that takes down players (Kenny from Gabon comes to my mind).

For some reason the immunity challenge didn’t click with me this time. I know it was another physical one, but I couldn’t quite grasp the strategy of the players to keep others out of the “block zone.” Also, I don’t like it how some of the players on Foa Foa sat out even though they were down in numbers. I think it was ok for that first challenge because it was just for reward and it started things off, but I think if all possible, everybody should compete. Seeing Mr. Rebel completely miss a tackle was all worth it though.

Following the challenge, we finally got to see some drama at Galu’s tribe besides Shambo’s disgust. Good Russell, as the tribe’s leader, chose comfort over functionality. No matter what he chose, somebody was going to be mad. I wouldn’t have chosen the same way, but that’s not the reason I thought this was a bad move. It was because his explanation to his tribemates about taking care of his women was completely displaying his strategy in this game. He clearly is going to try to make alliances with the women in his tribe, which is smart, but I do think it’s dumb that he declared it out loud like he did. If I were the other guys on the tribe, this would have been a huge red flag for me.

We then saw Shambo throw her tribe under the bus as she became the most amazing person ever in the eyes of Foa Foa. Yasmin, take notes... If Shambo was smart, she would try to mend fences better at Galu, but regardless, she has put herself in a great spot if a merge was to occur. She showed exactly what you need to do if you spend time at another tribe’s camp.

Now to the ousting of Ben... He needed to go and I’m proud of Jaison for standing up like he did. Now, from a game perspective, I don’t know about his threat of leaving the game if Ben stuck around, from a personal perspective, I commend him. I think mentally Jaison is going to check out of Survivor. This pains me to say because he’s my pick for this season, but I think he’s a very smart and athletic guy who could win this game, but other personalities may become the death of him. He’s almost to that point of being so smart the he’s going to put life in perspective and wonder why the heck he is interacting with these wild personalities. Maybe with Ben gone, that will change, but who knows?

It was good to get rid of Ben just from a tribe dynamic position. He was annoying, not really great at challenges, and we really didn’t get to see how much he actually did at camp except just chop one piece of wood over and over and over again. That was one of the most personal tribal councils I’ve seen and I was with Jaison all the way. I thought that Jaison eloquently stated his position well and Ben just was way too prideful to admit that he made a mistake. I don’t remember exactly how he put it, but when he said, “Ok Ben, even if you think Yasmin is ghetto trash, at least admit you weren’t being sensitive to the history of African Americans,” and Ben still wouldn’t back down. That “Southern pride” that just makes me sick. I think it’s one thing to cast controversial people for this show, but I think the producers went too far in casting Ben. Being the way he was in front of everybody, they had to know about his racial tendencies from all the profiling they do for contestants before a show airs. If he had stuck around more, who knows what could have happened between Ben and Jaison, or even Ben and Yasmin, and I think that would definitely had crossed that line of good television versus bad taste. Good riddance to Ben and I hope he gets as little limelight as possible shined on him. I didn’t even love to hate Ben, I just was disgusted by him.

On that cheerful note, what did you think? Am I giving Evil Russell too much credit? What would you have chosen, comfort or functionality? Did Good Russell make the right decision? What did you think of Jaison’s way of getting Ben voted out? What did you think of Ben and do you think the producers went too far in casting somebody like Ben?

Survivor: Samoa - Week 2

The Woods Ain’t The Hood

Ladies and gentlemen... Survivor Samoa will now be called Survivor Foa Foa. All I really know about the other tribe is that their color is purple and that Shambo’s antics, although highly entertaining, may cause a good character to be booted early. Despite the fact that all the focus has been on Foa Foa, I though that this was a great second episode. Usually the early episodes are forgettable, but like Fans Vs. Favorites, this episode had plenty of memorable moments.

The episode quickly started off with Betsy’s weariness of Russell, so we knew either of them was probably going to go. Then all of a sudden, the villain of the season with the awful strategy actually showed some intellect as he quickly found the hidden immunity idol before any clues had been dispersed. You have to give him some credit here. He was thinking way ahead of everybody, including the producers. How crazy is it that he found it in pure daylight in front of everybody? The producers had to be throwing their hands up in excitement knowing that the “love to hate” character of the season may be sticking around for a bit longer. Now, I don’t know how smart of a move it was to show Jaison the idol. I think he was brilliant for making a true ally in Jaison because they are such an unlikely pair, but we will see if that lasts (according to the sneak peak for the next episode).

As an audience we were then privy too watching probably the most physical Survivor challenge ever. I’m going to sound like an old fart, but they are going to have to tame these ones down a bit. Each season it grows more brutal, which I think is due to contestants trying to raise the stakes each season. The fact that they had girls and guys in that pit at the same time was pretty crazy to me. Regardless of all of that, I think they made too big of a deal of Probst pulling Ben. I had the privilege of watching this episode with Whitney and both of my parents, and we enjoyed the debate of whether Ben should’ve been kicked out. I was in the position that yes he was because he could’ve broken Russell S.’s leg with his trip, but Whitney’s argued that there was just as much choking going on. I’m sure Ben wasn’t intentionally trying to hurt somebody, so I understand that he was trying everything to help his team win. I think it’s an interesting debate.

So Foa Foa lost the fight and Mike left pretty banged up and had to leave the game. You had to see it coming and the fact that they voted out Marisa before him might come back to haunt them. Because the show started off with 20 contestants, you knew at some point there would be two people gone on one episode, so this gave the producers a perfect opportunity to use Mike’s departure to dwindle the number down a bit. This was unfortunate for Betsy because I thought she could’ve really made an impact on the game. I think with a little more time she could’ve really recruited some of the young ones to her side, but despite Ben’s annoying and cocky behavior, I don’t blame them for voting her out. They really have to win challenges at this point being three members down.

Going back a little bit... How big of a win for the episode was the fact that Yasmin came over to Foa Foa’s camp? Out of all the people Russell S. could choose, he chose her. When she went over to that camp and just started down-talking everybody, it blew my mind. I can’t see how any of those rants could benefit her in this game. What a perfect opportunity missed to maybe make some friends when a merge occurs. Her and Ben’s fight was like watching our two political parties duke it out in Washington D.C. You just knew it wasn’t going to go anywhere. But boy was it entertaining to watch.

Ben amazes me with his no-apologies personality. I personally can’t stand arrogant people like him, but if he keeps up his antics there is now way he can win this game. He isn’t even playing mean smart, and when somebody like Russell starts having disrespect for you, you know he has to be pretty bad.

What are your thoughts on everything? Are you giving Russell H. more respect knowing that he found the idol early? Do you think his alliance with Jaison will have legs? Was the challenge too physical and do you think Ben should’ve been kicked out? Do you wish the focus on both tribes would be a little bit more equal? Were you sad to see Mike and Betsy go? Could Yasmin be the next spokesperson for Micro Machines?

A lot of questions... I look forward to hearing what you think!

And remember... never lose the fishing gear! (How does that seem to happen every season?)

Survivor: Samoa - Week 1

Where Did My Socks Go?

First impressions... I think this season is going to be a good one. The cast already seemed more appealing to me than I had seen during the interviews. This is probably due to the fine editors of the show, but it looks like a group that fall in two categories: Really fun people to be around or very vocal and opinionated people.

Right off the bat, I liked how they did the first impressions this time. Instead of calling out the people who are leased liked, they decided to elect leaders of the tribe, which started this season on a positive note. It was also nice to see two challenges instead of one, and I thought the device of picking out particular people to participate was ingenious. I thought it was interesting to see the difference between how the two elected leaders approached their new positions. Russell S. embraced it with full arms knowing that by being one of the older ones, being catapulted into this position was a great way for him to stay in the game longer. Mick on the other hand never seemed comfortable with it and that attitude definitely carried into the camp. With such outgoing personalities like Ben and Russell H. on his tribe, Mick is going to have a tough time being the leader. I think the tribes seem to be very well divided, so hopefully that’ll prove to be true when it comes to the challenges. It just makes the show more interesting when the victories go back and forth.

I suppose the big standout already is the pure evil nature of Russell H. I honestly don’t see how his strategy will carry him to the end. This is Survivor, so I may be proven wrong, but his charade will eventually have to crumble. I really don’t understand the strategy, and although it may take a scapegoat to reveal his evil ways (cough, cough, Betsy, cough, cough), I can’t see him making it very far into a merge. What will keep him around is his contribution to the challenges. The girls will certainly turn on him, but we’ll see what the guys do. Him and Ben could join forces and reek havoc worse than three Johnny Fairplays combined. Russell’s antics might be shocking and entertaining at first, but I think his presence will get tiresome quick. Pouring out water and burning socks??? There’s a difference between manipulating somebody and endangering somebody’s health.

It’s always hard to write a summary for the first episode because there is so much to see and dissect. You had to feel bad for Marisa because if it wasn’t for Russell, she had potential to go far (think of Erinn from last season), but she made the mistake of not talking to others about Russell before he did the same thing about her. I think it kind of stinks for females like Marisa and Ashley who are confident and outspoken in this game. They always seem to be the first to go, but if you are a guy and have the same qualities, it seems redeemable because a guy may swim faster. That said, this show seemed to focus on certain people more than others for sure (Shambo, Russell H.), but I don’t know if that means that their exit will be fast approaching or if they will be around for awhile. Time will tell...

So... do you think there is any redeemable quality to Russell H.? Did you like the beginning as much as I did (voting leaders in, the first challenge)? Do you feel like this season seems promising?

And on one more note... if you haven’t had a chance to see this show on HD, try to as soon as possible. The crew shoots this show so well and the quality puts live NFL games to shame.

Until next time...