Review: Survivor
©2018 C. Henry Martens
©CBSOdds are you don't watch Survivor. If you do, you might not admit it in public. But the show is still on so someone is watching.
I watch Survivor. There, I admitted it. And I feel good.
Reality shows are not reality. They are orchestrated, producer driven, made for TV to be entertaining, and have little to do with real life. Especially Survivor. I mean, what are the odds you end up on a remote, tropical beach with a group of thinly clad strangers?
But there is one thing that is real. These people are the real deal. Even though it is pretty obvious that the women are often picked for the show because they look good in a bikini, and the guys by their BMI and how many ripples they have in their belly, there are glaring exceptions. Gay people get a lot of play, and there is often a geek or two, and in past episodes, there were actually some people of age.
The people have real personalities. They have real accents. They have real families and real problems and a very real lack of experience in the situation they have been placed in.
I'm not a big fan of team sports because the fervor over the “home team” seems so artificial. I look at the teams and see a bunch of talented people from all over the country, people that change their jerseys as often as they change their underwear, many from outside the United States, and can't quite get behind the “home team” mentality. Besides that, who cares how much air is in a ball?
On the other hand, in Survivor, I have seen spontaneous gameplay that was completely out of the box thinking. One player stole all of the shoes belonging to the opposing team when they left them unguarded. That wasn't scripted. There may be rules, but in some cases, there are no rules.
The show is set up with games to challenge the players. Early in the show, the people belong to tribes, and the players have to form a social game as well as perform in the challenges or be voted out of the game by their own tribe members. As people are weeded out, the tribes get smaller, and eventually, they merge into one group. The larger tribe, sometimes much larger because they did well in challenges, has the advantage. Sometimes tribes are remixed before the merge. The game is fluid, with new situations and new rules thrown into the mix almost randomly. To throw another monkey wrench into the mix, there are ways to protect yourself from being voted out... and those immunities can be shared or kept secret. All of this is in the context of a tropical beach where people are often starving and sleeping in a primitive hut and having to use a wood fire to cook whatever they can catch or win in challenges... while wearing little to (sometimes) nothing.
What's not to like?
I've watched some of the other reality shows, but most don't impress me. In fact, Big Brother turns my stomach. I have no patience for a bunch of Kardashianesque wannabes vying for popularity within a group as the only criteria for winning. I was intrigued with the Amazing Race for a season. I even tried to talk someone into applying as a contestant with me. Where do you get the opportunity to travel the world with one in sixteen odds of winning a million dollars? But none have held my interest like Survivor.
So yeah, I watch Survivor. I'm out of the closet. Actually, I've never been in the closet. People that make fun of Survivor probably watch Let's Make a Deal or Wheel of Fortune. And just so you know, I watch Jeopardy and often run categories.
So the new season just started. It's not too late to watch, to get involved. In this world you need something fun occasionally, right? Wednesday night when nothing else good is on. Hell, you might even get addicted.
Vicarious thrills included...
Click HERE to watch a full episode and decide for yourself.
Click here to receive the Apocalypse Observer Newsletter in your inbox
www.readmota.com
To comment, scroll down and type in your comment. Under Comment As, you can select Anonymous or Name/URL (you don't need to enter a URL). Then hit Publish.
©CBSOdds are you don't watch Survivor. If you do, you might not admit it in public. But the show is still on so someone is watching.I watch Survivor. There, I admitted it. And I feel good.
Reality shows are not reality. They are orchestrated, producer driven, made for TV to be entertaining, and have little to do with real life. Especially Survivor. I mean, what are the odds you end up on a remote, tropical beach with a group of thinly clad strangers?
But there is one thing that is real. These people are the real deal. Even though it is pretty obvious that the women are often picked for the show because they look good in a bikini, and the guys by their BMI and how many ripples they have in their belly, there are glaring exceptions. Gay people get a lot of play, and there is often a geek or two, and in past episodes, there were actually some people of age.
The people have real personalities. They have real accents. They have real families and real problems and a very real lack of experience in the situation they have been placed in.
I'm not a big fan of team sports because the fervor over the “home team” seems so artificial. I look at the teams and see a bunch of talented people from all over the country, people that change their jerseys as often as they change their underwear, many from outside the United States, and can't quite get behind the “home team” mentality. Besides that, who cares how much air is in a ball?
On the other hand, in Survivor, I have seen spontaneous gameplay that was completely out of the box thinking. One player stole all of the shoes belonging to the opposing team when they left them unguarded. That wasn't scripted. There may be rules, but in some cases, there are no rules.
The show is set up with games to challenge the players. Early in the show, the people belong to tribes, and the players have to form a social game as well as perform in the challenges or be voted out of the game by their own tribe members. As people are weeded out, the tribes get smaller, and eventually, they merge into one group. The larger tribe, sometimes much larger because they did well in challenges, has the advantage. Sometimes tribes are remixed before the merge. The game is fluid, with new situations and new rules thrown into the mix almost randomly. To throw another monkey wrench into the mix, there are ways to protect yourself from being voted out... and those immunities can be shared or kept secret. All of this is in the context of a tropical beach where people are often starving and sleeping in a primitive hut and having to use a wood fire to cook whatever they can catch or win in challenges... while wearing little to (sometimes) nothing.
What's not to like?
I've watched some of the other reality shows, but most don't impress me. In fact, Big Brother turns my stomach. I have no patience for a bunch of Kardashianesque wannabes vying for popularity within a group as the only criteria for winning. I was intrigued with the Amazing Race for a season. I even tried to talk someone into applying as a contestant with me. Where do you get the opportunity to travel the world with one in sixteen odds of winning a million dollars? But none have held my interest like Survivor.
So yeah, I watch Survivor. I'm out of the closet. Actually, I've never been in the closet. People that make fun of Survivor probably watch Let's Make a Deal or Wheel of Fortune. And just so you know, I watch Jeopardy and often run categories.
So the new season just started. It's not too late to watch, to get involved. In this world you need something fun occasionally, right? Wednesday night when nothing else good is on. Hell, you might even get addicted.
Vicarious thrills included...
Click HERE to watch a full episode and decide for yourself.
Click here to receive the Apocalypse Observer Newsletter in your inbox
www.readmota.com
To comment, scroll down and type in your comment. Under Comment As, you can select Anonymous or Name/URL (you don't need to enter a URL). Then hit Publish.
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