Survivor is back, and for the first time in last few seasons, I don’t feel like it’s going to be a chore to sit through a season … even with Russell Hantz back again. Best of all, this isn’t another all-stars season, which is something they’ve done for the spring, since they tape back to back seasons. This season has a great new twist called Redemption Island, where the tribe member voted off goes to wait for the next person voted off, and then they compete to stay in the game. By the time of the merge, the person remaining on Redemption Island gets to re-enter the game, which could cause some serious drama for the people who cast the votes against them.
What I like about this season already is that these players don’t all seem to have come from Central Casting in Hollywood. Too many players in the past just seem to have been found on the street and cast for their looks or attitude, and really had no clue about the game. We really haven’t gotten to know many people on Russell’s tribe, Zapatera, except for Mike, the Iraq War vet, Ralph, the farmer with Russell potential and Stephanie, the first of the girls Russell zoned in on to form his first alliance. Zapatera proved they are a physically strong team by handily winning the first immunity challenge, but we’ll have to wait to get more in depth with them.
This week was all about Boston Rob‘s tribe, Ometepe. Rob has been trying to lay low and not come off as too much of a leader, although most of the women on his tribe see him that way (the men are outnumbered 5 to 4). He’s been helpful in getting the camp put together, but he’s also been making people do their own work too. I think it’s good strategy on his part not to be the king of the hill right away, especially after Francesca said right from the start that she didn’t want him on her tribe because he’s sneaky. That put a target on her back right away, but Kristina didn’t do herself any favors by blatantly going through the supplies to find the hidden immunity idol (she did eventually find it in the jungle). Then there’s Phillip, who has already secured himself the coveted title of Loose Cannon Who Must Go ASAP (at least as far as the tribe is concerned — for the viewer he’s television gold).
Unlike last season, when it seemed to have taken forever for anything to happen, much less have any breakout personalities, we were immediately given Francesca, Kristina and Phillip. Phillip wasted no time in asserting himself with his “I’m a former Federal agent” spiel telling everyone he can read them and he’ll process everything from all angles before making a decision. I don’t know what Kristina was thinking when she decided to form an alliance with him (and Francesca), but after she convinced him they had the votes to get rid of Rob (which would have been a totally stupid move for a physically weak team) by showing him her immunity idol, everything seemed cool.
Then we had probably the greatest Tribal Council ever, as Kristina’s alliance quickly imploded when Francesca told Rob he had nothing to worry about. This set off Phillip, who was under the impression they were voting for Rob. He called her out, she denied that was the plan, then he called out Kristina and her no-longer-hidden immunity idol. The look on Jeff Probst‘s face was priceless as his jaw basically hit the floor at the spectacle before him. Rob tried to capitalize on Kristina’s discomfort by offering her a deal: Give him the idol and she’s safe. I knew if she had done that, she would have been voted out and she probably did too, because she refused to make a deal. Phillip, feeling betrayed by Francesca, told everyone that he was voting for her so Kristina didn’t feel the need to even use the idol at that point. Why everyone stuck to the plan and voted for Francesca over Phillip I’ll never know, because he just doesn’t seem to be someone you’d want to have in an alliance if he’s going to blab about all of your plans. Does Phillip just not understand that what people say at Tribal doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s actually going to happen? His analytical mind may be his undoing, especially if he tries to overthrow Rob and take control of the tribe. Whatever happens, Survivor: Redemption Island is off to a rip-roaring start, and for that I am grateful.
“They’re sizing us up like we’re prey.” – Francesca, as Rob and Russell arrive
“You have the most impressive man-sweater I’ve ever seen.” – Mike admiring Ralph’s hirsute torso
“I don’t know how it happened. How did I get stuck with the old, annoying guy in the droopy, fuchsia … briefs? He’s such a pain in my ass. (pause) Did I mention that we’re in an alliance together? (sarcastically) How awesome.” – Francesca reacting to Phillip
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Feb 17, 2011 @ 00:07 EST5EDT
I couldn’t stop laughing at Phillip in the last half of the episode. I was iffy at first, but he definitely grew on me and I kind of hope he sticks around for a while. Haven’t seen a Survivor contestant that entertaining in a while. Especially the constant mispronunciation of Francesca’s name, as she beleagueredly corrected him… and then revealing his vote, spelled completely wrong was just the icing on the cake. Fantastic.
I’m a fan of Boston Rob, but what is this, his 8th time on the show? Seriously? Can’t we just have a nice, normal season with normal people, or is that not possible anymore? Anyway, I’d like him to win somehow, because if he has to be there, he should be the star of the show. Russell, on the other hand, is played out and I don’t see how he’s going to go very far. He’s just too prickly.
People are stupid for thinking of individual gameplay on Day 1. It’s the people like Matt and the others who just faded into the background that survive, just by doing nothing at this stage! That is the optimal play with crazies and schemers around you!
I enjoy Survivor a lot but seriously… they keep on casting the same people. We have a new version of the Dragonslayer (“Federal Agent! Drop your weapon!” yelled somewhere up the Rio Grande), we have more hillbillies and they bring Russell and Boston Rob back for the second or third time within two years. It’s all just… well it’s getting repetitive.
It also says a lot that the “most awesome Tribal Council” came to be because we have two very stupid people yelling at each other. I don’t think this was the “most awesome” one. I think it was like Jeff said. It was the one where he didn’t know WHAT was going to happen because the people on the Tribal made no sense whatsoever.
There have been a ton councils that were better than this one. A couple of Russell’s schemes come to mind, the ones where people were schemed out of their idols beforehand… yeah it was insane but not THAT awesome. I was enormously fun to watch but I have to object here because if the producers think that insane people make for great Tribal Councils then we’re sending the wrong message here Chuck ;-)
*POST AUTHOR*
Sebastian, in the world of reality television they have to cast people who will hold the audience’s attention. The last few seasons have seen more model-types found on the streets of L.A. than “real” people who have submitted applications (and this is mostly because they shoot two seasons back-to-back so they don’t have the time they really need to go through the screening process – it’s easier to pluck someone from the street and say, “hey, you want to win a million dollars?”, which is why I think the show should only be on once a year). Of course they are going to cast “types” with big personalities. Even season one had “types” (Susan, Richard, Rudy) but we just weren’t aware of that at the time. After 22 seasons, it becomes apparent who they’re looking for when they cast the show. At least this season’s batch doesn’t seem to be from a casting call (even though they may well be). They just seem more real. And yeah, we could have done without Russell and Rob again because they do have a strong group of players this season, but they know people will tune in to see those guys square off (well, they may be rethinking that since the episode had fewer viewers than any other regular broadcast in its history).
My calling the Tribal Council “awesome” (which has pretty much been the consensus among viewers and the people who write about the show) was not so much for what happened within the confines of the game and the voting, but because you had someone in an alliance that clearly has no idea how to play the game (maybe he was cast off the street after all!) and outed his entire alliance in one fell swoop at the very first Tribal. There have certainly been more amazing game plays, like Parvati’s double hidden immunity idol switcheroo, but to see an alliance crumble like that was pretty awesome. It’s good TV and after the last deadly dull season, it was refreshing to have some excitement right out of the box. At least no one got drunk and assaulted another tribe member!
I don’t know that Phillip’s behavior sends a message one way or another – except for future contestants to keep their mouths shut at Tribal. Remember, we only see about 7 minutes of what really happened at Tribal (tv.com reports it went on for more than two hours) so we get a heavily edited and manipulative version of events that are designed to create characters. Like Jessica Rabbit said, “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.” It’s the same for these reality shows. It’s all in the editing – for the most part. And it could also be part of that person’s game to come in and play crazy so they get more air time. You have to remember that this is a TV show and the producers will do what they can to make it more interesting for the viewers. They’ll create an entire character just through editing, or manipulate how we see a challenge (not the results but the content of the game). This week, the editing made it look like Russell led his team to victory by solving the puzzle, but all on-set accounts say that David actually directed his tribe to the win (and that it took a lot longer than what we saw). So, you just have to sit back and not take what you see so seriously because it is just entertainment that’s been carefully constructed for maximum impact. As long as they don’t go down the path MTV and VH1 have taken with their “reality” shows, everything will be fine. After 22 seasons, I think the producers know what works and what doesn’t and one awesome meltdown at Tribal won’t define an entire series. Richard Hatch and Susan Hawk pretty much set that formula in stone 11 years ago. We’re just more aware of it now.
Yeah my thought exactly. I would have to go back and loot at it again (to find out his name) but blond guy who says “whoa” a lot was clearly cut off during something he said at tribal council.
There’s a lot going on at tribal we don’t see – who knows what happened all in all. Philip seems to be someone who gets very very frustrated with people who don’t do what he wants them to do because he thinks he deserves authority and when he doesn’t get it just falls apart. Maybe he oozed athority in the casting calls :-)
I also agree that the way it looked, Russell (again!) just kept trying to screw things up during the puzzle. It seemes as if it took ages. Also I thought that the yellow slide was just constructed badly because I really didn’t see that the blue team was that much stronger.
Oh and I didn’t take the show too seriously. It was just that I wanted to underline that I don’t want to see the show praised for getting people on that are plain stupid ^^; Every season they cast ONE person who clearly does NOT understand the game and that after people literally grew up with the show. There are contestants that wanted to be on since they were ten (!) and then someone who is clearly not “getting it” is allowed to win a million bucks.
Funny enought he best line (to me) from the whole episode came from Russell. He told them that this is going to be the toughest thing they’ll ever to in life and he is so damn right. I did this stupid starving myself for three days last year and after three days I had to start eating again because I got the most insane headache you can imagine. The reason they bring Rob back is because when he was on last time he had to quit because his body simply gave up on him, and this is happening at least once every season. People get montezuma’s revenge, maybe because something wasn’t cooked right, and all their stategies go to hell because they just can’t compete. I can’t praise Rupert highly enough for playing almost a whole season with a broken toe. This game takes so much from the players and most of the time I accept that people act irritating because they are starving… but Philip this time so clearly is like that lady singing at the beach two years ago who’s a complete whackjob. It makes for a fun tribal but it’s just… ah well. I liked it too I have to admit :-) And I love Boston Rob and hated it that Russell got rid of him last time. They clearly got him and Russell back because they hated that that had to happen or did happen to early when they plyed last time. They know what I want and they clearly are delivering it to me but still I have to scold them for casting dolts over and over again. I don’t mind that they keep going into warm climates and have at least five models on every year (female ones) of which last year one quit together with the other resident nutjob they casted (Nee).
I mean don’t you think it’s kind of… odd that every time they have a black player on they are so extremely dumb or better acting as if they are absolutely disconnected from the real world?
And I don’t say all this in a “I hate” way it’s more the “I dunno it all is a bit typecast” way. I know that this is what makes the game great most of the time but I don’t know… there must be more intelligent black people on earth. Last time they even cast a guy who was clearly against homosexual people. It is irritating because they don’t really deal with that other than shutting people up by not allowing them to talk anymore at the reunion. I think if someone acts dumb you at least have to interact with them a little bit to show them that they are wrong but to me this is what happens when you cast people who mostly look great and really aren’t great as a person. On the other hand you CAN end up with a guy like Fabio who was just awesome and I loved watching him.
This way or the other, to me Survivor is still the best reality TV show. I enjoy TAR but Survivor has always been the better show for me.
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