re: Beginner Survivor seasons question (No spoilers)

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Before you start Season 40, you might want to watch something like this Spoilers, obviously

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Thanks Joe I'll definitely watch that before I get into 40. I'm a few eps into 34 right now and enjoying it a lot better than 31 so far. My only real bummer is there were some people that I liked that I wanted to see go far that all went out pretty damn early.

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My only real bummer is there were some people that I liked that I wanted to see go far that all went out pretty damn early.

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Thta was my reasoning for undervaluing it in yesterday's discussion. It does end with a bang though, so don't get too bummed.

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She was eliminated a year ago when she found out that nudes will in fact leak.

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*Season 40, and some prior seasons before that thrown in, SPOILERS below*











-What a ride it's been! I canceled the all access after I watched what I wanted and I think I did hit a bit of survivor fatigue, but I'm very glad I watched some other seasons leading up to 40 which I have been looking forward to for weeks.
-Right off the bat I didn't like the new twists in this season (I think edge of extinction has been done before but not in a season I've seen). Really the fire tokens I didn't care for. For a newbie season? Sure go for it. But there are all winners, the best of the best. This group should be left to outscheme and outsmart and outbackstab each other based on their own talents. Not having enoguh fake money to buy a power, or getting fricked over because someone else bought a power from someone else because they were bequeathed a bunch of tokens..just seems like amateur hour. I'm also not big on the EoE concept. In my mind if a jury of your peers has decided by concensus that you are done, you shoudl be done. It bothers me when big brother does it too. If you're out, you should be out. I know EoE was grueling conditions and would be mentally agonizing, but still it's like you're getting to sit on teh bench while the real players battle it out. You basically just get to chill for a few weeks and then come right back in at the end and join everyone. Not to mention they had 2 of them...the odds were very low but it was definitley possible that 1 person could start on day 1, get booted, come back in, get booted again, come back in again, and win. Call me crazy but if you've been evicted you can't say you've played the best game.
-At one of hte last trible councils I kinda rolled my eyes as they got a little SJW-y. Sarah talking about how there's been a female bias because women don't get called nicknames/last names by Jeff. Then Jeff sayign "yeah I've been biased myself! If you go back 20 years I'm sure I've said things abotu women I'm not proud of!" It just seemed hokey and out of place.
-There were a lot of players I wasn't familiar with and honestly, a lot of the new players (I can only assume they've been in the last 5 years) I didn't liek at all. People like michelle, nick, sophie. HOnestly there is zero chance in hell I would watch any of the seasons they won. Michelle is the biggest head scratcher to me, she was essentially furniture all year, didn't really do anything besides finally winning immunity late in the game, wasn't a big challenge threat prior to then, wasn't a huge schemer or move maker, was basically jsut kinda there existing. I know this is a season with all elite players and inevitably there will be a pecking order tier with some maybe "more elite" than others, but it blows my mind how she won a season. Same with Nick. I dont' like sophie or wendell, but I can kinda sorta see how their skillset would at least carry them far in a season with other newbs. At first I didn't care for Ben but he grew on me, I can see how he won his season. And Adam I really liked. Just something about that kinda of quirky, silly, aloof but secretly schemeing nonstop type of personality that I liked. I would watch his season.
-I really didn't like wendell. I think it started with him always trying to have that stick/toothpick thing in his mouth. It seemed ot me like he was tyring ot make it his "thing" like a trademark. There was one challenge early that he had it in even while running and climbing and shite. I was like dude, no one thinks you're cooler for having that in while playing. I also very much disliked the whole "michelle and wendell used to date" thing. They both downplayed it like it wasn't a big deal but she sure seemed to harbor some feelings over it and even called him babe sevearl times throughout. I don't really like either one of them.
-Natalie is another person I didn't know but she impressed the hell out of me big time. She was the 1st or 2nd person booted and lived on that EoE hellhole for like 35 days before finally winning her way back in. She is a super physical threat and I was really pulling for her to make it back in. She seems like a good likeable person overall.
-I was also really surprised by Denise. It would make sense that in a seaosn like this some of the much older players would be easy fodder to go early, and denise certainly fit that bill. I mean she looks like a grandma. But not only did she pull a major strategic move early to oust sandra, she was killing it in comps! She deserved to make it as far as she did for sure.
-I understand why it happened but I was a little disappointed in all my older season faves leaving early. Granted when your reputation precedes you you're going to be public enemy #1 from teh get go and by default everyone is gonna have the numbers against you. But Rob, Parv, Sandra, Yul all going pretty quickly was kind of a bummer. Rob deserved it thoguh, that heavy handed "do what I say and you can't leave my side" thing may work with new folks but you can't boss winners around like that and expect them to jsut fall in line.
-I am thrilled for Tony and I just love him. In 28 I like him a lot, and Woo, and would be happy for either. When Tony came back (I think it was 34) he came out hot and heavy and got an early boot which I hated. So I was glad that he played it a little cooler this time and lasted longer, and I think he was 100% deserving. I think him adn Sarah were probably equally deserving of winning and would have been glad with either. I'm curious where this woudl rank Tony as an all time player? It's gotta be top 3 I would think. I never saw Sandra's first season, so it could have been the most perfect and masterful season ever palyed and I wouldn't know. I did see her win again in 20 which IMO Russell shoudl have easily won but he was just so unlikeable the jury game it to sandra anyway. I haven't seen season 22 but from what I've read Rob basically dominated start to finish in a runaway. That's essentially what Russell did in 20 and controlled things from the jump and eliminted power players one by one, but Rob won because he was liked while Russell didn't because he was hated. So the whole "Sandra is the queen bc she won twice" thing I don't necessarily agree with. I've also seen Sandra in 2 other seasons after 20, this current one and another one I can't remember. In the other one she was somehwat unremarkable and in this one went out early then raised the flag to quit for good and go home. Meanwhile Tony has played 3 times and won twice.

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Right off the bat I didn't like the new twists in this season (I think edge of extinction has been done before but not in a season I've seen).

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I don't think Anybody likes EoE. Jeff has said it will be retired. It definitely worked 10x better this time around than it did the first season it was used, mostly because the players were given something to do and it was people we actually cared bout. It's still a shite twist tho and I agree, once you are voted out you should be out.

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Sarah talking about how there's been a female bias because women don't get called nicknames/last names by Jeff.

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Technically Jeff brought up the nicknames thing. There is something to what Sarah is saying. For the first 25 seasons, men won 13 and women won 12. Since we've moved into the "big move/Resume" era 26-present, only 3 women have won (Michelle, Natalie, and Sarah). It's hard to tell exactly why, but there was a stink made by someone a few seasons earlier about women only finding like 5% of idols to that point. I think that has something to do with it because when you find an idol/advantage you are able to play a lot freer and are capable of making "big moves" to take unsuspecting people out. Natalie is the first woman to even get Final tribal votes since season 35.

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I think it started with him always trying to have that stick/toothpick thing in his mouth.

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He did this in his first season and it has always bothered me.

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Michelle is the biggest head scratcher to me, she was essentially furniture all year

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She was much more active this season than the first time she played. That's why she spent so much part of the early portion of the season talking about how she was bothered about the fan reaction to her winning the first time. Most people thought someone else should have won.

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Same with Nick.

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I think Nick got a bit of a "purple edit" this season. Basically he wasn't doing enough interesting things so producers never really showed him. He was really good in his season though he still wasn't really the most interesting character from that season.

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-Natalie is another person I didn't know but she impressed the hell out of me big time.

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One of my favorite winners ever.

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I'm curious where this woudl rank Tony as an all time player?

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Tony is #1 hands down. It's hard to rank survivor players because the best player often times doesn't even win, but Tony has managed to do it twice. I never gave Sandra GOAT status just because she won twice but I would also rank Rob very high (top 3) despite playing 5 times and only winning once.

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That's essentially what Russell did in 20 and controlled things from the jump and eliminted power players one by one

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Let's be clear here. Russell was taken to the end in HvV because they knew he wouldn't get any votes. Rob said it best when he said Russell plays to be the best player ever, not to win the game. I think about this clip any time anyone suggest Russell should win LINK

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I was confused on what happened at the final 4/final eviction tribal council. There were 4 people left natalie, michelle, tony, and sarah. Natalie won immunity and coulnd't be voted for. I would assume, like any other season I've seen, that the 4 of them would vote one of the 3 eligible people. But no. Jeff straight up asked Natalie "who do you want to bring to final 3 with you?" and she got to pick michelle, then sarah/tony had to make fire. If there was some mathmatical thing with immunities and idols or whatever I would understand but I don't think that was the case. It would seem like sarah/tony would both write Michelle and michelle and natlaie would pick one of those 2 to write for, forcing a fire-makign tie between michelle and sarah/tony. So I'm confused on why natalie got to pick 1 person to bring and the other 2 had to make fire. Any explanation?

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So in Season 35 they instituted the firemaking challenge at final 4. The same thinking that went into moving form a final 2 to a final 3 happened here. They want to give the best players a chance to make it to the end. Previously if there was a lock to win, the other 3 in the group would be able to just vote that person out without much gameplay. I welcomed this change.

Yeah totally. Sandra is a better strategist than she gets credit for (see her convincing Russell that Coach was gunning for her) but she won both of her seasons in similar fashion. She's a great character not necessarily a great player.

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At one of hte last trible councils I kinda rolled my eyes as they got a little SJW-y. Sarah talking about how there's been a female bias because women don't get called nicknames/last names by Jeff. Then Jeff sayign "yeah I've been biased myself! If you go back 20 years I'm sure I've said things abotu women I'm not proud of!" It just seemed hokey and out of place.

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This is becoming a theme lately.

A couple of seasons ago they had a whole tribal dedicated to women being the victim of the "all female alliance" myth. That it was sexist. All while the other tribes women openly talked with one another about an all female alliance.

Every season now needs an SJW moment.

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Also of the 20 contestants, 8 or so were weak winners or kinda boring. Kim's season is one of the most dominant seasons ever but she's not exactly interesting to watch. Danni was a nobody who only won because of a bitter jury. The men's side was stronger.

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Yeah, the truth is the winners usually are kinda boring. The most entertaining players usually are taken out ahead of time. Though I felt this season suffered more than any other season by having too many people it needed to show. It could have really used 90 minute episodes. Nick got a purple edit, Denise basically wasn't shown saying or do anything after taking out Sandra. Even Jeremy I felt was underutilized. These are elite players that the edit just didn't have time for when you also have to factor in scenes from the edge.

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Sarah being too loyal to Tony was equally weak

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Normally I would agree but they had one of the strongest, most unique bonds in survivor history so I had no issue with them pledging to go to the end together and sticking to that.

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Part of it was because so many of my favorites got the boot early.

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This is valid and the biggest drawback IMO. As much as I hate EoE, I wanted more time with those players. It reminds me a lot of All Stars, when everyone wanted the former winners out first.

The way he has his hair, his facial hair, the way he wore the buff sometimes, makes me think he's trying to pretend to be donald glover. I could be wrong, and ther definitely is a resemblance, but to me it just seemed like wendell thought he was the coolest motherfricker that's ever set foot on survivor. I truly didn't LIKE most of the newer people aside from Natalie and adam