SURE, I LIED -- BUT SINCE I WAS LYING TO JERRI I WON'T LOSE ANY SLEEP OVER IT: The "Surviving Survivor" recap/preview show has made me irrationally excited for the upcoming Survivor: Heroes v. Villains season. I may even have to recap this one.
That said, I know basically nothing about contestants from seasons 13-18 (I know enough about Russell -- how could you not?) -- so if someone wants to brief me on Tyson, Randy, Amanda, Sugar, Parvati, JT, "Coach", Candace and Courtney, I'd appreciate it.
Tyson, who bills himself as a Mormon pro cyclist, is an asshole, but also kind of witty and entertaining. In his best hours, he was Evil Dr. Will, but sometimes he crossed the line into gloating prick, and his blindside was kind of fun. Entertaining and welcome.
ReplyDeleteRandy, on the other hand, was just an asshole. Not enjoyable to watch.
Amanda lacks much personality, but twice set Survivor records for blurred nudity. I think she had some kind of wedgie or underbutt problem with her swimsuit that caused her to be blurred literally all the time.
Sugar calls herself a pinup girl, but I'm guessing more bartender or barista. She's not as cute as she thinks he is. She was also much better strategically than anybody her season realized, so she made it pretty far. Tyson, for one, underestimated her. That season, you could choose either to spend exile in luxury or look for the immunity idol; she found the immunity idol in about 45 minutes, but the other team thought she was too stupid to find it. So the other team kept sending her to exile, and she kept relaxing in the bungalow.
People don't like Parvati because she is willing to flirt to get ahead and she's kind of proud of it. I don't know why people don't criticize guys for this -- it's not like Parvati flirting is a one-way thing. Anyway, all of the talk about her flirtiness is a distraction from the real issue: she is strategically very strong. She is extremely intelligent (at least within the show's strategic framework), but because she is pretty, people on the show seem to have assumed she is a one-dimensional player. She reads people pretty well and has done a pretty good job figuring out when to turn on them.
JT is a lovable everymany who plays up his folksiness to win friends. He is good in the challenges and great socially.
Coach is deluded and loathsome. Burnett and Probst's love of irritants like him is why I won't watch this season. He is just about the worst douchebag I have ever seen on television.
Candace was pretty and petty. She was the one who got all pissy with Jonathan when the tables were turned on her, right? Something like that. I remember giving her the benefit of the doubt right up until the point where she unloaded on Jonathan and then being done with her.
Courtney is one of those people who is never happy. She seems to have alienated everybody by sheer force of negativism. She has the strength of three babies. I think she lucked into a longer-than-expected stay.
The big thing with Sugar is that, after ending up the swing vote multiple times and alienating a bunch of the jury, she realized she had no shot at winning, so she played hard to get the people she liked the win, and especailly went out of the way to make people she disliked go out embarassingly (she set it up so Randy had a fake idol just so he'd look stupid playing a fake on his way out). She was very good at manipulating events to go the way she wanted, but a lot of her power was because people knew she couldn't win.
ReplyDeleteParvati and Candace were alliancemates in Parv's first season, Cook Islands. I'd argue Isaac's description of Parvati is really only accurate in Fans vs Favorites. In Cook Islands, she was pretty awful. Petty, bratty, no real strategic moves. Honestly, Candace seemed to have more going on than her, strategically, and Candace was pretty much as Isaac described. But she definitely earned her win the second time around.
Amanda is really washy personality wise, but she's pretty strong strategically, with one glaring weak spot. She made it to the finals both times she was on. She's absolutely horrible in front of the jury though. Easily the worst survivor in final TC ever.
James played with Amanda in China and Fans v Faves, and Probst has a major hard on for him. He's charming and affable, and kinda dumb.
Isaac's right about Courtney, except, I really grew quite fond of her. She was very candid in her interviews, in a very amusing way, IMO.
I'm wondering if Jeff's head is going to explode with so many manly and self-proclaimed dominant men to root for.
ReplyDeleteBtw, I wish Yul were coming back (although not really, because it would imply he didn't have anything better to do. Instead, according to Wikipedia, he's Deputy Chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau for the FCC). But he explained why an elephant can't run up a tree, and for that, I thank him.
Oh my gosh, Adam, PLEASE post about this season of Survivor. (It's no secret that I am a rabid fan...)
ReplyDeleteIsaac and Patrick summed things up pretty perfectly. I am a massive nerd who went to the Survivor "we've been on the air for HOW LONG?" party a few weeks ago and talked to a few of the cast members.
Stuff that might be pertinent/at least is interesting:
Penner was supposed to be back for this season but got booted when Russell became such a force last season. He was cool about it, and a ridiculously nice guy overall. His son is in junior high and completely sweet and adorable. His son told me he doesn't think Parvati has a chance - "she's hot, but she's a bitch." Too funny.
Amanda (my real name doppleganger) says she flamed out in front of the jury twice because she hadn't gotten to watch her season before going on "fans v favorites" (that season was filmed immediately after China). She promised me if she got to the finals again she would NOT make that mistake and is overall planning to own her strategic game in a way she hasn't in the past.
Patrick is spot on about Sugar, though I'd add that I don't think she cared about winning, ultimately - she wanted to use the show as a springboard to an acting career so really just tried to a) seem cute and telegenic and b) as Patrick said, help those she liked beat those she didn't. Apparently she had a fling with JT before the season shot - interested to see how that plays out (positive or negative) in the season.
Yul explaining why an elephant can't run up a tree is one of my favorite Survivor moments ever.
I won't lie. I'm watching just to see Colby again. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteIf you stopped watching in season 13, you really missed out. Cook Islands was a really great season, and is worth trying to find somewhere. It started off looking like it would be a disaster (this was the one where they started with race-based tribes), but quickly became awesome. Jonathan Penner was easily one of my favourite survivrs of all time, and I was really disappointed he isn't returning for this season (even though they would have wrongly classed him as a villain). Plus there was Yul, and Yul was awesome - for many reasons, not just the much quoted "elephant up a tree" moment, which was laugh-out-loud funny.
ReplyDeleteOk, here's Yul on elephants.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-4ttBVU93w