Survivor v32 - Brains, Brawn, Beauty v2

I always wonder about the environment causing a breakdown. I didn't see it with the man (men) you speak of but with everything the show throws at you, along with hunger/hydration issues, I could see having some sort of mental break. I don't put Scot/Jason in that category. But Brandon maybe?
 
I think it's pretty much a consensus among fans that Brandon had issues before he went on the show. There was a great deal of disgust direct at Survivor for allowing him on the show the first time, and people were pretty angry when he was brought back, especially with the way it unfolded.

I do think it made the producers pull back a little from the idea that what Survivor fans want to see is DRAMA rather than game play. They were definitely heading in that direction with the casting, I think.
 
Russell knew he was the villain of the season. He was self aware, and I enjoyed his scheming.

Scott seemed a bit pissed off that he and his crony were edited as bad guys. His clueless domineering behavior was so creepy, but even after watching it on TV I don't think he realises it.
 
Yeah, I think Brandon was unstable before the show to begin with and the environment just didn't help. There are other people where it clearly seems to be the environment that does things to them, like Kathy on the first Fans vs. Favorites season and maybe Lindsey on the first Brain vs. Brawn vs. Beauty. But Brandon clearly has tons of issues that go beyond the show.
 
I still think Russell Hantz was a great player, but TPTB really screwed up when they thought they would stretch the Hantz goldmine as far as it could go. Bringing him back for HvV when none of the other players had any idea about his gameplay was brill (and that is one of my very favorite seasons), but the less said about the boneheaded Russell vs BostonRob season (which was basically a victory lap for BostonRob, who could never win otherwise), the better. And Brandon should never have been considered to play, let alone put into that pressure cooker situation.

I have wondered if Brandon would have been called up if he didn't physically resemble his uncle so closely.

Anyway, I would put that as Worst Casting Agent Ever, rather than Worst Player. To me, Worst Player is someone like Purple Kelly, who did nothing, and then quit the game for no reason - NoOnka quit at the same time, but she was a nightmare player all along who made the decision to leave. Purple Kelly just kind of...went along.
 
genevieve said:
I still think Russell Hantz was a great player, but TPTB really screwed up when they thought they would stretch the Hantz goldmine as far as it could go. Bringing him back for HvV when none of the other players had any idea about his gameplay was brill (and that is one of my very favorite seasons), but the less said about the boneheaded Russell vs BostonRob season (which was basically a victory lap for BostonRob, who could never win otherwise), the better.
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Agreed that while Russell is a despicable person, he was one of the best players of the game. I was speaking more in terms of some of their non-game play actions in terms of whether Russell was worse than Jason or Scot, who I would also consider to be good players even if I don't personally like them.
 
I see it as Russell's antics were all gameplay. He hid the tools and people's possessions just to mess with their heads and he did it from the very start. He felt that he could control them better when their minds were being toyed with. Whereas Scot & Jason's antics were purely a massive immature temper tantrum because they got outplayed. Add on top of that the way they treated Alecia in the first part of the game, and I see them as a nothing better than mean, butthurt morons.
 
Russell has been tweeting (of course), saying that his sabotage was all strategy and he was doing it from the beginning, while Scot and Jason (and subsequently Tai) only did it as a personal reaction to being outplayed. I think he may have also tweeted about the way they treated Alecia being pretty shitty. He's pissed that Scot and/or Jason claimed to be taking a page from his book of gameplay.
 
genevieve said:
Russell has been tweeting (of course), saying that his sabotage was all strategy and he was doing it from the beginning, while Scot and Jason (and subsequently Tai) only did it as a personal reaction to being outplayed. I think he may have also tweeted about the way they treated Alecia being pretty shitty. He's pissed that Scot and/or Jason claimed to be taking a page from his book of gameplay.
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because Russell says he's THE GREATEST PLAYER OF AAALL TIIIME! :p
 
Jason kept talking about how he had to do this for his family, and that for his family. Then he just sulked! :lol: I don't know why he thinks he's a good player when he should have ate a big serving of humble pie when Tai came to talk to him and try to make amends and re-build their alliance with Julie and bring in Michelle. Instead, he let his anger control him...into doing nothing. Jason did try later in the episode to build a new alliance, but he (and Julia) were delusional to think anybody would think they would be a good twosome to team up with.
 
I missed it last night. Did Jason win immunity? I thought for sure he would be next out.
 
Sparks said:
Michele won immunity. Looks like she may be getting the winner's edit.
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What does that mean? Everybody says that, but really... how do they edit a winner? I've watched every episode, and have never seen anything that indicate that there is a winner's edit.
 
There is a lot of talk about it on Survivor fan sites.
There is even a group of fans who call themselves, "MicheleTruthers" :rofl:
Now that I think back, she has received a relatively positive edit, including her confessionals. I'm just thinking out loud here.
 
Jayar said:
What does that mean? Everybody says that, but really... how do they edit a winner? I've watched every episode, and have never seen anything that indicate that there is a winner's edit.
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My guess is a "winner's edit" means that that person gets a bit more air time than others and is seen in a more positive light. But if that's the case, I'd say Aubry has gotten a much better edit than Michelle.
 
Well a least that means Jason won't win so I'm good with that definition! :P Wish they woulda booted Jason over Julia though.

Next week is the last Tribal that Tai is able to use his Idol, because you cannot use it any further than getting into the Top 5, is that correct? Is he required to use his 'extra vote' prior to a certain point in the game? I wouldn't mind Tai winning. This must be a hard game for him because of all the kinda evil ways you need to act in this game. He seems like such a truly kindhearted person, and really remorseful about some of the things he has had to do.
 
PeterG said:
My guess is a "winner's edit" means that that person gets a bit more air time than others and is seen in a more positive light. But if that's the case, I'd say Aubry has gotten a much better edit than Michelle.
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No - it's more about making a good story than just showing the eventual winner in a positive light. A winner's edit is an elusive mix of just how much airtime the person gets, which can change each season according to how things unfold, with little potential clues along the way. It could be someone who got almost zero airtime in the beginning, until they make a move (or that could mean they were totally boring and they go home the first episode they speak more than 2 sentences). It could be showing all of their strategy discussions and confessionals, while holding back other footage that would either contradict the winner's POV or show that other people were key in shaping that strategy (which is also just about editing a story out of raw footage).

Fans have been analyzing every frame of this show since the beginning, and theorizing on the best way to second-guess the ending. I don't give it too much credence, although it's hard not to play along, because sometimes it's so very obvious (Boston Rob/Tony V) who is going to win.

It made sense for them to vote off Julia. And I'd say that showing just how hard it was for Michele to come to that vote (even though there was no way that her and Cydney siding with Jason/Julia would have been a good plan) could be part of a winner's edit. She hasn't really been the driver of much of the action so far, so anything that would point to strategy or a move by her would be highlighted at this point, if she's the eventual winner.

I love that no one contested Jason's assertion that Joe is being carried to the final. Not even Joe! But maybe he didn't hear the comment, being without his hearing aid and all.

Kidding aside, Joe did almost win the ring-toss reward.


ETA: I like to read the What the Survivors Are Saying thread on Sucks, and Rupert keeps posting about how "Thai" is doing :rolleyes:
 
The "winner's edit" is always hotly debated and never clear until after the show is over IME, which to me means it doesn't really exist except in most people's minds.

Survivor is mostly about storytelling, something Jeff says all the time; they edit the show so that the winner makes sense most of them time, but they will discard that in a heartbeat if they think they have a better story to tell. Russell's first season is a case in point; they were more interested in telling Russell's story than they were in making Natalie's win make sense.
 
genevieve said:
Natalie's win will never make sense :drama:
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People liked her more than they liked Russell; she talked to them all, treated them kindly, knew all the names of their kids and spouses and friends, etc., etc. Russell only talked to people if he needed to use them to advance his game and he only talked to people about the game. People on that season were surprised that anyone thought Russell should win, given that no one liked him or respected him.

As they are always saying, Survivor is a social game.
 
Prancer said:
Survivor is mostly about storytelling, something Jeff says all the time; they edit the show so that the winner makes sense most of them time, but they will discard that in a heartbeat if they think they have a better story to tell. Russell's first season is a case in point; they were more interested in telling Russell's story than they were in making Natalie's win make sense.
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That's true, although there is a guy who blogs on Rob Cesternino's website who is pretty good at analyzing the edits and IIRC did end up picking Natalie as a winner that season, and relatively early on too. And even when he's wrong on his winner picks, he's good at figuring out who has longevity in the game and I find his take interesting to read.
 
I agree about Aubry. She looks like a winner, especially since she's doing a lot to gain a high position in the game.
I would be fine with seeing her win. However, I can see a couple of ways she could be eliminated.
I fear another medevac. I hope I'm wrong.
 
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Yeah is he ever...but he is still around, so I guess he is doing something right.

Kudos to the editors for managing to make the obvious boot actually really suspenseful. I was super happy it was the obvious vote though. I'm so sick of Jason and glad I don't have to watch him aside from some mugging on the jury.
 
I won't miss Jason. And I sure don't understand why, after hearing all that at Tribal Council, he still voted for Joe. I would have voted for Michelle because Tai obviously was going to and who knows who might have voted with him?

Tai has got to be one of the worst players ever--except that everyone seems to like him in spite of his play, so maybe he's on to something.
 
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Ugh! I want to be thrilled that the troll doll is gone, but that was really frustrating. WHYYYYYYYY did Aubry not say, hey, 1) I know what Tai's sekret super power is, and 2) he's not planning to use his idol this TC, so let's all just say we're going with his plan and vote him out??????? I mean, clearly Aubry ended up crossing Tai anyway, why on earth leave him in the game with an idol afterwards???

Nice job by Cydney on the IC. I was expecting Jason and Michelle to be great at that, didn't even occur to me that Cydney would do well.
 
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genevieve said:
Ugh! I want to be thrilled that the troll doll is gone, but that was really frustrating. WHYYYYYYYY did Aubry not say, hey, 1) I know what Tai's sekret super power is, and 2) he's not planning to use his idol this TC, so let's all just say we're going with his plan and vote him out??????? I mean, clearly Aubry ended up crossing Tai anyway, why on earth leave him in the game with an idol afterwards???
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Perhaps a combination of building a case against Tai's game play plus a fear that Jason might go on an immunity run? Now Jason is out (and with him the tale of the lone wolf who managed to survive) and Tai has wasted his advantage, making him appear to be an inept player.

At this point, Aubry and Cydney have the best resumes. I wonder if they will turn on each other next week.
 
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