Board 8 > Reality TV Discussion Topic: Survivor, Amazing Race, Big Brother, etc.

(+) Yeah! (+)

They replaced Lingo with reruns of stuff that's still airing on other nights so they'll probably slot in reruns of Young Sheldon because God knows there's not enough of that show as it is.

Either that or they'll deathslot one of the other sitcoms that's on its way out.

Finished The Traitors

wow everyone except cirie was actually completely garbage at the game

Is the nerd alliance actually happening?

Dear God I hate this. WHY does every episode need a twist?

So is it 6 V 5 or is someone getting screwed?

Underleveled posted...

Dear God I hate this. WHY does every episode need a twist?

I didn't follow all of what he said. It was WAY too much.

They need fewer twists, not more. Twists make the cast play more conservatively, create randomness that punishes strategic gameplay, are hard to follow, and distract from what truly matters on this show: Relationships.

I'm not even really watching at this point.

I was ACTUALLY rooting for Brandon there because the Danny blindside would have been fun.

Frannie may have just sent her boyfriend home

And they don't even have their idols and possessions unless they brought them to the challenge? WTF is this show even anymore

So SEVEN people out of ELEVEN are safe? And it's like a tribe challenge? And Jeff, you said "this has never happened before" when it's been done multiple times.

Seriously, what the flying fuck is this? It's not Survivor.

It could've been 10/11 if the teams ended up the right way and idols were played.

I'm watching the ads more intently than I was watching Survivor.

Seriously, this is certainly a low-tier season because it's not fun to watch production control the game. The cast is supposed to set the rules. That no longer happens.

Mewtwo59 posted...

It could've been 10/11 if the teams ended up the right way and idols were played.

Probst would've wet himself. And numerous fans would quit watching, and he wouldn't care. He only makes Survivor for himself.

Out of the four that are vulnerable I'd honestly most want Lauren to go which is horseshit. What a terrible shake up

And they least-relevent person left gets it.

And this advantage sucks but at least it expires tonight

Just what I watch Survivor for: People running in circles in the jungle to get some kind of advantage.

This is boring.

Does the least relevant person on the winning team send home the least relevant person on the losing team?

So it's basically a Vote Steal under cross-tribe circumstances?

This is so fucking stupid.

Instead of a tribe of eleven organically coming up with a vote (that could have been between Lauren and Danny, with an organic blindside), we split into two tribes of 5 (6), essentially having a new tribal immunity challenge...and then instead of a Yam Yam vs. Matt vote (which would suck, but again, it would be SOMEWHAT organic), Heidi's going to directly swing the vote.

Blaziken posted...

Heidi's going to directly swing the vote.

Yeah, the thing is that Yam-Yam and Matt are saying they won't vote for each other, but when Heidi plays that thing, everyone has to call an audible, so they WILL vote for each other.

They haven't had a pure merge vote yet! They've had half the tribe immune for both votes FOR NO REASON. I am sick of this.

I'll definitely give S45 a gander if the 90-minute episode rumors are true, but if it's just a longer version of this nightmare without balancing it out with relationship scenes, I will stop watching. And I mean it this time.

This season sucks and it really shouldn't, because this is a decent cast, and that's solely due to production trying to control the game.

This was the single worst episode since at least pre-merge Winners at War. Dear God.

What was Heidi thinking?

Yet another predictable result. Matt's "I finally get a vote! I finally get to play Survivor!" confessional early in the episode made me watch the entire thing knowing he was a goner. Carson also had something like that but it was paid off immediately with him drawing the ad rock at the challenge.

What a stupid episode this was. Too many convoluted twists and turns that made it very uninteresting. Over half this cast doesn't feel like people because they're not being edited as such. They're being edited as cogs in a machine that none of them are in control of.

Mewtwo59 posted...

What was Heidi thinking?

fucking HATE her. Last week I couldn't remember her existing in the game, and this week I wish she didn't.

I am just rooting for the Frannie revenge tour right now, so hard.

that was the worst episode of all seasons ever

Chaeix posted...

that was the worst episode of all seasons ever

No way. It's not even bottom 5, as without giving it much thought at all there's at least two episodes of All-Stars, at least two episodes of IotI, and the HvHvH finale that are all worse. If I deep dive, it may not even be bottom 10. But it was really bad, and just to summarize why:

-A stupid, convoluted tribal twist the very next episode after already doing the really stupid now-commonplace one.
-Poor Matt doesn't even get the dignity of playing his Shot in the Dark because of the stupid way it's activated and the fact that he didn't arbitrarily go "I'll take all my shit to a challenge for no reason."
-Instead of something like letters from home for the winners that would have been a nice character-building moment, we're treated to a long scene of people running around looking for keys.
-The least-relevant person left in the game gets a really shitty advantage designed to make an already inorganic vote even more unnatural, but in the end she plays it in the least-effective way possible and makes the entire time spent on it fucking pointless.
-The Ghost Island-esque cocktease that maybe Matt and Yam-Yam might both be spared that didn't pan out and was a waste of time.
-We lose one of the best characters of the season and the only real story thread ends abruptly halfway through the season. And the alternative wouldn't have even been much better.

It was awful and I'm sure the backlash will be vocal enough that Jeff will have to respond to it, and will do so in the most condescending way possible as always.

I still like this season as a whole better than last, but it's still solidly in my bottom half, and last night's episode was the worst of the post-COVID era.

I agree with Matt's take that it feels like the best player really doesn't necessarily win. I used to feel that was the case but somewhere in the 20s that started to change drastically.

I vehemently disagree with Brandon that there's always a way out. I suppose technically there is in the sense that you could get down on your knees and say "please don't vote me out," and there's a 0.01% chance they go, "you know what, he said please." But like, what the hell could Aaron have done to escape that mess in China? And that's in a season that I think had very reasonable twists, both in nature and in quantity, and we still saw one of the most screwed over players ever.

Thinking it over, that may be the episode that gets me to stop actively watching. It was really that bad. I wouldn't say it's the worst of all time (that dishonor probably goes to the merge of IotI), but it's the straw the broke the camel's back.

Next week, I'll probably be playing Pokemon with Survivor in the background. That's how mindless the show has become. It requires fewer brain cells than catching a Feebas. I don't like Survivor to be dumbed down.

And the best player doesn't always win and that's always been the case. Rob Cesternino was the best player in Amazon and he didn't win. Jenna just beat him at the Final IC and to some people, apparently that makes her a better overall player - just because the last domino fell in her direction. If it were a different challenge, Rob could've won it.

Underleveled posted...

I vehemently disagree with Brandon that there's always a way out. I suppose technically there is in the sense that you could get down on your knees and say "please don't vote me out," and there's a 0.01% chance they go, "you know what, he said please." But like, what the hell could Aaron have done to escape that mess in China? And that's in a season that I think had very reasonable twists, both in nature and in quantity, and we still saw one of the most screwed over players ever.

The twist that screwed Aaron was extremely unfair, but otherwise China was very reasonable with its twists. The version of "Warrior Swap" we saw this season was much better, aside from the fact that each of them got an idol. No, because each tribe swapped ONE warrior that was chosen by the tribe that won the challenge (without their knowledge that this is what they were doing), those three people should've been granted immunity up front for the Tribal Council in that episode. This should've been revealed at the challenge. "Because you three need time to acclimate to your new tribes, none of you are going home tonight. For the tribe that loses this challenge, their new addition will have immunity for tonight only." Thankfully it worked out like that anyway.

The biggest reason the China twist was unfair was that each tribe got to pick two people from the other tribe specifically to fuck over. Aaron was screwed because of Leslie's big, runny mouth painting him as the leader at a time earlier than Todd and Amanda had wanted. James had a way out with the kidnapping + idol in the next episode - which is one of my favorite episodes ever (because it goes from Zhan Hu wanting to throw the challenge to thinking Sherea had flipped and thus not caring if she was booted, which is hilarious to me). But they should've done the kidnapping in the prior episode as a way to grant a potential way out... if anyone cared to.

Underleveled posted...

I vehemently disagree with Brandon that there's always a way out. I suppose technically there is in the sense that you could get down on your knees and say "please don't vote me out," and there's a 0.01% chance they go, "you know what, he said please." But like, what the hell could Aaron have done to escape that mess in China? And that's in a season that I think had very reasonable twists, both in nature and in quantity, and we still saw one of the most screwed over players ever.

well maybe the edit hid this but quite frankly i think matt did a terrible job of convincing any of the ratu players that working with him was in their best interest

he had a pretty good pitch of 'save me and soka won't come after you, brandon. become one of us and cut jaime who really doesn't have very many super strong ties. the only person who you really risk upsetting is lauren and you're not super close with kane anyways. ratu strong seems like the right idea here but working with me gives you more flexibility in the long run'

I haven't seen the episode yet but I'm kinda hype for it after glancing at a few of these posts

Well shit. Keith Nale has passed away.

Hearts of Reality confirmed via a "family friend", and I don't think this is a Lill situation. RIP.

Inviso posted...

Well shit. Keith Nale has passed away.

NOOOOO ;_;

RIP legend. Like.... this one really STINGS.

Inviso posted...

Well shit. Keith Nale has passed away.

Oh my God, my brother and I literally just had a whole conversation about Keith today. This fucking sucks.

RIP to the GOAT. ;_;

It appears to have been cancer.

tbqh while i hated the stupid twist of last week's episode i did not find it particularly bad. the emotional stakes of the people involved were legitimately compelling, even if the overly-convoluted nature of the current game gets in the way of that happening much more organically. either way, it's a dumb twist but like...so was the bullshit they did back in season 14 fiji. i think there are a lot of legitimate complaints of the new era stuff and the way its handled but i also think the level of fearmongering online is just absurdly overblown

also rip keith, i saw his name in my trending pop up and i was hoping it wasn't for that reason. gone far too soon.

and also not to be such a downer but like
there have been MULTIPLE episodes of survivor with literal sexual misconduct. i can't fathom thinking of those incidents and looking at them next to a dumb twist and thinking "yeah this season is so much worse"

Well fuck. RIP Keith. Just, one of the most universally-liked Survivor contestants ever. Seemed like all factions of the fanbase just adored him.

Naye745 posted...

and also not to be such a downer but like
there have been MULTIPLE episodes of survivor with literal sexual misconduct. i can't fathom thinking of those incidents and looking at them next to a dumb twist and thinking "yeah this season is so much worse"

I did allude to this a bit in response to someone calling it the worst episode ever. Andy mentioned it as well.

Yeah, it was nowhere near as bad as the Kellee/Jamal double boot in IotI or anything like that, but it definitely felt like one of the worst episodes in terms of production completely removing all agency from the players.

Well, there's at least one thing Jeff hasn't lost his mind on - he was asked by Dalton Ross whether or not jury members should be sequestered individually (a topic that has been brought up a few times over the years) and the summary of his answer was "no, because it isn't feasible and most if not all of the time it probably wouldn't make a difference."

On a scale of 10 to 10 how fucked is Kane tonight?

That Carson/Carolyn dynamic was fucking hilarious. Carolyn shrieking like a frantic banshee, while a sickly Carson cheers her on quietly and monotone.

Okay, I'm not usually one for fart humor, but that was damn good. Perfect comedic timing.

Blaziken posted...

Okay, I'm not usually one for fart humor, but that was damn good. Perfect comedic timing.

That and Carolyn's "ITCHY!" were both great.

Who's this Lauren who won immunity, again?

One thing I'm going to say.

We had ten minutes of camplife and then twenty minutes of a single immunity challenge. This is why I'm not confident that 90-minute episodes will magically fix problems. I feel like production will just stuff more "events" into the episodes, since they're not going to magically show us more camplife.

Yeah while I'm not pleased with the extended immunity challenge, this episode was still WORLDS better than last week's. One of the best of the season, maybe even the best.

Underleveled posted...

Yeah while I'm not pleased with the extended immunity challenge, this episode was still WORLDS better than last week's. One of the best of the season, maybe even the best.

This. Could not have said it better. This one had the humor and sensible storytelling that last week was lacking. There was also no production interference - the cast could just play the game, and maybe that's why this was such a good episode. Take notes, Jeff.

Just watched last week's survivor. The immunity and advantages were terrible but the tribal itself was one of the best in a very long time. Specific questions and answers and not all cagey or cliche.

Also the zoom on the papaya when mentioning idols was amazing

foolm0, can you tell me exactly which seasons you've seen? It would really help me understand the discrepancy in our perception of quality.

All the Netflixes, 41+, and I think a couple others that were my wife's favs.

There's also no discrepancy, my season ranking would be super typical. I'm just rejecting all the circle jerky shrieking and backseat game designing.

You're really telling me you didn't enjoy the papaya zoom?

And I'm supposed to agree that you know what makes survivor good?