Board 8 > Survivor: Ghost Island Topic 4 - I'd Vote For Yanny Over Laurel

(+) Yeah! (+)

Inviso posted...

we were thinking maybe Chrissy tied Ben somehow.

oh yeah, then my anecdote about sarah/brad was wrong then
---

now the real prize of the season: anagrams from the BnB

Bradley Kleihege --> I leaked by her leg
Brendan Shapiro --> hard boner pains
Can you reverse the curse --> search every uterus once
---

Thailand (Orange vs. Purple)

Exile Island (Orange vs. Purple...but only after starting with Blue and Green as well, which off-set the curse by making only orange terrible, and making them lose)

Micronesia (Orange vs. Purple)

Redemption Island (Orange vs. Purple)

Caramoan (Orange vs. Purple)

Cagayan (Orange vs. Purple, but had Green at the start as well.)

MvGX (Orange vs. Purple)

Ghost Island (Orange vs. Purple)

Aside from the two seasons that STARTED with other tribe colors, every OvP season has been below average at best, and a bottom 5 season at worst.
---

here we go shouting our opinions again
---

No, it was definitely GC when Jeff explained the tie FTC vote. I remember Troyzan being all happy when he found out third place breaks the tie because he was finally relevant.
---

HARD BONER PAlNS!
---

Peridiam posted...

here we go shouting our opinions again

Season rankings when

(As I said, I'm willing to "host" the rankdown)
---

Inviso posted...

Peridiam posted...

inviso when did jeff explain this rule in HHH

is this #fakenews

I could've sworn it was in HHH, and we were thinking maybe Chrissy tied Ben somehow.

He explained it at GC and then we thought that HHH would be a tie. Classic Murphy's law put it out into the universe and it happens
---

So, potential returnees from this season?

I say...

Highly likely: Domenick, Kellyn, Chris, Michael

Moderately likely: Donathan

Early boot potential: Steph Johnson, Jacob
---

And DVD cover?

Wendell/Domenick/Donathan/Kellyn/Michael/Chris?
---

Laurel over Chris--but the rest, yeah.
---

Maybe even Laurel over Donathan but yeah.

No rest for the CBS reality binging. In tonight's BB5 episode the basically made the equivalent of the back door plan because of the way veto contestants were picked back then
---

was it the 6-finger plan?
---

Indeed. But the funny part is Marvin has mentioned it Diane before they showed Nakomis DR
---

I also how Jase just had 0 idea lol
---

I don't see chris coming back unless it's a lol rivals season

I don't see Jacob unless it's explicitly has some sort of pre-merge theme, and then that opens the door for more than Steph and Jacob imo
---

Apparently Kellyn and Bradley are a couple now. Didn't see that coming.
---

I guess he leaked by her leg
---

it's interesting that in two close together finales with a tight pair that dominated the second half of the game with comp wins alongwith a floater ended so differently.

Dom and Wendell were much better than Daela though and Paras was much better than Laurel. I guess it goes to show that it's not the kind of game you play, it's how well you play it.

I was personally pulling for Dom and thought he did much better in his speech, but this is how it is I guess. Wendell played Laurel very well recently by backing off of forcing the issue on that immunity win and letting Laurel have it, and by giving her his idol at final 5. I think those two moves really solidified her vote in the end, even though I felt like she worked with Dom a lot more throughout the game.
---

Great_Paul posted...

Apparently Kellyn and Bradley are a couple now. Didn't see that coming.

Isn't she like 10 years older than him?

EDIT: Actually just 4. Bradley is older than I thought he was.
---

5 years
---

this was a boring season

i mean its cool that we finally had a tie on the jury? but even that felt underwhelming in the face of everything else being so unexciting? i dunno. laurel gets a bunch of crap but she was in a difficult spot, because dom and wendell really were her alliance. what do angie, sebastian, etc have to say for doing nothing and being voted out?
---

I believe that she could have flipped at 7 or 6. The problem with the flip at 8 is that she would have been down 3 (Chelsea, Angela, kellyn) vs her and Donathan in that alliance. If you do it at 7 Chelsea and Angela vs her and Donathan in that alliance and they would have more numbers than Dom Wendell and Seabass. But even then Seabass could have flipped back towards the Naveti women.

So the final 6 plan would have been fine if Angela didn't think Seabass was too big of a threat to go to the end with... yup that's what she said on the exit interview
---

I just don't see how Laurel flipping on Dom and Wendell doesn't result in Kellyn voting her out the very next week in any of those positions. It's what Laurel was afraid of and I think that's exactly what Kellyn would have done.
---

I'm glad the tie happened just so we could see it play out, but it doesn't make me feel anything besides that. It felt arbitrary and coincidental because we had no indication of how half the jury was voting. Especially because Laurel didn't seem to have much justification for her vote other than it just feeling right.

I don't even think it particularly adds to Dom/Wendell's story because yeah they played super similar games and were neck-and-neck right up until the end but Domenick very clearly did better at the jury questioning so ??

I might write a longer review of the season because honestly this is easily the most I've hated a season of any CBS reality show on my initial watch.
---

Squirrelgate posted...

I'm glad the tie happened just so we could see it play out, but it doesn't make me feel anything besides that. It felt arbitrary and coincidental because we had no indication of how half the jury was voting. Especially because Laurel didn't seem to have much justification for her vote other than it just feeling right.

I don't even think it particularly adds to Dom/Wendell's story because yeah they played super similar games and were neck-and-neck right up until the end but Domenick very clearly did better at the jury questioning so ??

I might write a longer review of the season because honestly this is easily the most I've hated a season of any CBS reality show on my initial watch.

I agree with that first paragraph entirely. Wendell won because he had a stronger social game with the people who made the endgame. People who shouldve gotten larger edits given how small the cast was at that point. Yet the editors SUCK at showing ANYTHING that isnt 100% strategy-focused, so we have no idea why these people voted the way they did.
---

Underleveled posted...

Is Sebastian stoned??

Well I was close.

http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/24/survivor-finale-sebastian-noel-ghost-island-drunk/amp/
---

Got a rant coming up later today. I'm at work right now so it won't be until mid evening at the earliest but... It's coming.
---

Apparently, Sebastian was drunk at FTC. Thats fucking great. Drunken righteousness is how we got a win for Natalie White.
---

lol

how is that even allowed
---

seabass is one of my faves from this season
---

Espeon posted...

Apparently, Sebastian was drunk at FTC. Thats fucking great. Drunken righteousness is how we got a win for Natalie White.

Was Erik really drunk at Samoa's FTC? I've heard you say that a couple times but never anywhere else.

Sebastian still can't touch Erik's speech though, even if they were still allowed to give individual speeches.

Man, I miss that. The jurors actually getting to speak their peace about the game instead of having to follow a game script.
---

i didnt mind seabass in general but he looked pretty pathetic in that final tribal. i don't really have a problem with bitter jurors but man he looked dumb. does he even know what game he's playing?
---

Pretty bad season overall, the final episode was ok but that's about it. Makes a strong case for bottom 5 overall for me.

I still don't like the way final tribal happens as much as where you used to hear from everyone - I think at least three jury members didn't even get to contribute in that part, besides maybe 1-2 words. Possibly mix the two up (short summary from each player on how they handled each of the three areas, then an individual question/statement/grilling from each jury member) and it would be better.

Not a fan of the tie breaker, it just means that whichever of the other two bonded better with the goat gets the win (and viewers don't get to see this as it isn't strategy related). May as well let the random kid in the audience break the tie, seeing they get more coverage than 3/4 of the tribe members at the finale anyway.
---

Well, another season is over, and it was a bad one. Really bad. I have placed it in my rankings and it's low. Really low. I won't give an exact placement because I do hope we do a conglomerate ranking again this summer, but I will say that it is sub-30.

And this morning, for the first time ever, I began to seriously question if I wanted to continue watching the show. The thought briefly dashed across my mind at the end of last season, but this morning I actually genuinely began to play with the thought.

Here's the thing - the show has gone downhill over the past few years, with the occasional good season popping up now and then. We've had strings of bad seasons like this before (22-26 with 25 being good comes to mind), but those were just bad seasons, whether they were bad casts, bad decisions by the producers, poorly edited, or a combination. Those happen on a case-by-case basis, and we just happened to have a bunch of them in a row. The reason the most recent seasons have been bad is because the show itself has changed. For the worse, and as far as I can tell, permanently. Casting is no longer concerned with finding the best people for TV, they are looking for people who fill certain obligatory racial, sexual, social, economic, and geographic quotas AND will conform to the "script" of the show if you will, with one or two "characters" per season. The editors are no longer concerned with telling a coherent narrative for the season that explains why people won and lost, they just want to show off big flashy moves and dramatic moments.

Jeff and Mark believe they have found the perfect formula for the show and how every season from here on out ought to be presented, and in my opinion it is a bad formula. Yes, I want to see flashy moves, yes I want dramatic moments, but I also want to know the characters. I want to see the relationship between Wendell and Sebastian develop. I want to see how Angela struggles socially. I want to know who the fuck Chelsea is. I want funny little moments that we used to get. Just one-off conversations that had nothing to do with the game and just showed two humans bonding over something that the audience could either laugh or cry over.

You can tell how dedicated they are to sticking to this formula by how much they have changed about the show in just the past three years - Every season needing to have a "twist" or "theme" that it gets named after. The endless twists and turns that they throw at the contestants every Goddamn episode. The bullshit new F4 format. No more individual jury speeches and instead they have to follow all but a strict script. The reunion shows only actually talking to like 5 contestants. And these are all format changes to the show itself. Somebody who watched up through, I don't know, season 12, would come back today and find the show completely unrecognizable. And these changes are likely irreversible. This is the way the show is going to be presented for the foreseeable future, and in my opinion, the pattern of "one good season every few years" is going to be the standard from here on out.

CONTINUED
---

Last season we got a winner that, for the first time in 35 seasons, I genuinely felt was undeserving of winning the game. It's not because I disliked Ben (though that's true too), but because he was actually a very bad Survivor player who was given more outs than any other player in history. I firmly believe that the F4 change was implemented solely to ensure that the person the producers wanted to win had the highest chance possible of being in the F3, and the fact that they had to change the format to make that happen proves that they knew all along that he was actually a shitty Survivor player. This season was much different. I was content with the winner. Though I would have preferred Domenick, Wendell played a smart game, he fought hard to get to the end, he worked hard for the jury vote, and ultimately made just the right amount of right decisions with the right people to win the money. Even though he did come across some twists that worked in his favor, they weren't to an absurd degree and he seems like someone who could still win on a purist season. I am satisfied seeing Wendell on the pantheon of Survivor winners.

But here's the kicker - his win still came at the expense of other good players who got knocked out early by the producers forcing twist upon twist upon them, while shitty players either slipped through the cracks or outright benefited from these twists. And I think that's what we're going to see from here on out. From the beginning, the game was about 20-30% luck, and I think that's about a good amount. But over the past few years it's been inching closer and closer to 50%, and that's bad. It's becoming less about your ability to outwit your opponents and more about your ability to outwit the producers and your foresight of tomorrow's new twist. It takes away from the spirit of the game and that makes it less fun for the players AND the audience.

It's really sad that it has come to this. Survivor has been a huge part of my life for almost two decades now. I have shirts, video games, all the DVDs, mugs, anything I can find to celebrate this show. There have been times in my life where this show was the closest thing to happiness I had, and I'm not kidding or exaggerating when I say that it may have truly saved my life at one point. For the past few years I have found myself increasingly disinterested, not just during the season, but during episodes themselves (ie frequently checking my phone). I know this was a very long rant, and many of you disagree with parts or even all of it, but that feeling this morning felt like rock bottom as far as my fandom goes, and I just had to get this all off my chest.
---

I thought Seb was righteous as hell, drunk or not. Dom saying being a total dick is a performance is bad jury management, and really, I'm beyond surprised these people didn't think for a hot second that maybe Dom had no reason to act so defensive at F6 in the first place if he really had two idols. The age of big moves has fucked Survivor and apparently now we should all just forgive bad social moves because ~strategy~? Naw bro. I'm glad Domenick's idiotic move wasn't validated by the late jurors. The cognitive dissonance required for these people to spew buzzwords about social game while simultaneously applauding evident social faux pases is ridiculous; being a good social player doesn't mean and has never meant to just be nice to people. Jury management is at the heart of social gameplay and Dom blew it, hard.

The new jury format is embarrassing and lent itself to four jurors being invisible at FTC so we could hear Michael jerk himself off for five minutes. Sad.

I won't even start with the reunion but this has solidified that reunions should be skipped and only watched for the next season's promo so you can cringe at the new theme.
---

I agree with your entire rant, Darkx. I've got one of my own brewing. I'll work on it a little bit soon.
---

I don't think I could disagree more but am not one who is blessed with the ability to persuade others with my others and I have to say that I understand what you're saying but I think you're blowing things way out of proportion.
---

I guess you might say

survivorsucks
---

God the negativity is palpable here. It's not that serious and yet we complain about every little thing. I said before that I understand but I'm not sure I really do. There is very little we can do to control what is happening here and while Survivor is my favorite show to watch I'm not going to get that bent out of shape out of the show's format. Any survivor is good. It's really not worth the intensity of the reactions it is getting. There are more important things.
---

eaedwards6400 posted...

God the negativity is palpable here. It's not that serious and yet we complain about every little thing. I said before that I understand but I'm not sure I really do. There is very little we can do to control what is happening here and while Survivor is my favorite show to watch I'm not going to get that bent out of shape out of the show's format. Any survivor is good. It's really not worth the intensity of the reactions it is getting. There are more important things.

If a show we love is going down a terrible path, why shouldn't we openly criticize it? You think the fans should've just sighed and accepted Redemption Island, and been HAPPY when South Pacific came out immediately afterward, with the same bad twists?
---

Inviso posted...

If a show we love is going down a terrible path, why shouldn't we openly criticize it?

Yeah this. People go on longer and more rage-filled rants about the current state of the NFL all the time. Look at it this way - there are people here passionate about Survivor enough to get this worked up.
---

Back to watching a decent season in Guatemala. This spooling spinning material challenge is...unique.
---

Inviso posted...

eaedwards6400 posted...

God the negativity is palpable here. It's not that serious and yet we complain about every little thing. I said before that I understand but I'm not sure I really do. There is very little we can do to control what is happening here and while Survivor is my favorite show to watch I'm not going to get that bent out of shape out of the show's format. Any survivor is good. It's really not worth the intensity of the reactions it is getting. There are more important things.

If a show we love is going down a terrible path, why shouldn't we openly criticize it? You think the fans should've just sighed and accepted Redemption Island, and been HAPPY when South Pacific came out immediately afterward, with the same bad twists?

But you see this paragraph is the exact same reason why I am not upset. This is survivor. The course will correct maybe not as drastically as after redemption islands seasons but I truly believe that it will rebound because you're right. You're not the only ones upset.
---

Inviso posted...

eaedwards6400 posted...

God the negativity is palpable here. It's not that serious and yet we complain about every little thing. I said before that I understand but I'm not sure I really do. There is very little we can do to control what is happening here and while Survivor is my favorite show to watch I'm not going to get that bent out of shape out of the show's format. Any survivor is good. It's really not worth the intensity of the reactions it is getting. There are more important things.

If a show we love is going down a terrible path, why shouldn't we openly criticize it? You think the fans should've just sighed and accepted Redemption Island, and been HAPPY when South Pacific came out immediately afterward, with the same bad twists?

You can only be upset about one thing at a time obviously.

Like people literally come to this board to discuss online popularity contests and rank waifus but you better act all grand when somebody takes 10 minutes to rant about the direction one of their favorite shows has been going in, lol.
---

Underleveled posted...

Man, I miss that. The jurors actually getting to speak their peace about the game instead of having to follow a game script.

I'm sure they're allowed to if they go "hold up jeff", jeff likes tv moments of him being interrupted
---

Ringworm posted...

it just means that whichever of the other two bonded better with the goat gets the win

If you knew that was a possibility, then you should've tried to win the jury 6-4 or something, or you know, bond better with the goat
---

Question: Was there anything different about this season that prevented a 10 person large jury from groupthinking into a 10-0-0 vote, and instead we got a split down the middle 5-5?
---

I thought the pre-merge this season was pretty good, as well as the finale. The post merge was awful though, really dragged the whole season down.

I think Probst just wants to consistently change the game without fully losing the plot. Im curious to know what S37 looks like. I dont foresee GI existing ever again at least.
---