Season 38 starts Wednesday, February 20. Here is the cast list. It's a mix of new contestants and a few returning ones. I already know who I want to win!
New gimmick sounds like you get sent off to an Exile Island type of place once you're voted out and somehow get your place back in the game......didn't this happen already, with competitions between people to re-enter the game?
Here's an Entertainment Weekly article from the end of January where Jeff explains a little bit of what "Edge of Extinction" is and how it works: https://ew.com/tv/2019/01/31/survivor-edge-of-extinction-jeff-probst-season-38-twist/
Looks like you were right. I'm not a big fan of returning players to the game. Especially when they are as annoying as this one right out of the gate. not a big fan of past contestants coming back either, but at least I like these 4 and Joe managed to make fire the first night. It always amazes me how many people show up on survivor who have no idea how to make a fire. Glad Wendy survived. My son has tourettes and it's nice to see it portrayed as not a big deal. He picked it out as soon as she was on screen as well lol
I like it when either they are all veterans or all newbies, I don’t like when they mix them. It just creates an advantage for the veterans and a disproportionate share of camera time. I also don’t like bringing eliminated players back but if they’re going to make it a horrifying emotional endurance test it will work better than the silly duels.
So you like it as long as they torture them I have to say watching people suffer is a big part of the appeal of this show. We used to deliberately eat a bunch of junk food while we watched just cause it amused us
I don't mind it when they bring back the likable veterans. As soon as I saw that Joe would be coming back, I knew immediately who I wanted to win. Veterans don't always have an advantage. Granted, they know what social strategies won't work the next time, but they're usually targeted for elimination as soon as they either annoy people or are deemed to be a threat. As two of the new people said last night, they absolutely don't want a veteran to win. They should go back to when a reward was a single slice of pizza instead of a fancy restaurant spread at a luxury resort.
Veterans can be targeted immediately, but when they’re not, everybody is implicitly more trusting of them.
Seems like it's always the older moms that are the first people voted out Decent start, although WTF is with the one hour episode?! Premiers are usually one and half or two I like how they're slowly revealing the newest gimmick
My thoughts are all going to be in bullet-point form: * Of the four returnees, Aubry is the only one I actually genuinely care about; I am rooting for Joe because he's now a fellow Utahn, but Kelley is kind of 'meh' for me and I don't know who this David guy is * The concept of Edge of Extinction is intriguing on paper, but I'm not sure it's going to end up working in practice because if the point is to push people to and beyond their limits as was indicated by Jeff in his comments to Dalton Ross, putting it in play after every tribal is self-defeating because you end up lessening the toll that it takes with every person who shows up there * There wasn't really anybody who stood out to me in a positive way in the group of newbies, but it's early yet * Wendy, Wendy, Wendy; I want to like you, but chaining yourself to a "burning ship" (Reem) for no reason was a monumentally stupid idea * Speaking of Reem, she got on my nerves really quickly with her seemingly compulsive need to "help" people out when they neither needed or wanted her assistance, and she also didn't do herself any favors by pulling the "age" card when it was made clear that they were targeting her because they didn't like how she was behaving (which is what you should do in a game like this) * Keith not being able to swim bothered me because signing up for a game like this without being fully prepared for it is an automatic albatross around your neck * It was kind of "bad form" that Kelley hitting her head wasn't made a big deal of onscreen because head trauma is a really scary thing Despite my criticisms of Wendy, Keith, and Reem, my worry that EoE might not end up working in practice, and my disappointment that we didn't see or at least hear about any 'fallout' from Kelley getting hurt, I did enjoy this episode and will once again be making Survivor "appointment TV" on Wednesday nights.
I don’t remember Kelly. The other three I remember. In the past I’ve rooted against Joe because I always root against players whose main strategy is winning immunity but nothing against him as a person. Hard to get a sense of who I like yet. A few people seem like bros. I’m sure a few will stand out eventually.
I remember Kelley being on with her dad in Blood vs. Water (she was also on Second Chance/Cambodia), and that I generally liked her and thought she played well, but that's about it. It seems like if you're still sort of forgettable after two prior appearances, maybe you're just kind of forgettable. I still wish her well, though. This episode really needed to be the usual 90 minutes. According to the EW recap, we missed a lot of important stuff and background on the players, which is why some developments were seemingly out of the blue in the episode. It must have been difficult for The Amazing Joe to suppress his pirate facial hair instincts and not try and seize the ship when he boarded it. Not a fan of the Edge of Extinction twist which has been done before (though there are some significant changes here) and was not particularly well-received. It gives an undue advantage to the returning players since they will have been commiserating with all the other eliminated players who will be coming back to form the mega-jury. It's especially unfair if Jeff doesn't inform the players still in the game of what's going on so that they can adjust their gameplay accordingly. Of course, maybe that will be brought up in the next episode and they just didn't have time to tell the players in this rushed opening episode. It could still be interesting and I trust the Survivor producers to do something new with it, but I have my reservations with the concept, and with people who are out of the main game for so long getting to jump back and bypass a lot of the social strife. I do not understand people who come on this show without a) learning how to swim, b) learning and practicing some basic survival, fire-making, and shelter building skills, c) wearing layers of appropriate clothing for tropical extremes of weather like heat and storms (what's with the people who dress like they're going to an accounting seminar?). Also, enough with the boxer briefs instead of proper shorts, dudes. I can see your Hidden Immunity Idol swinging around. Given her total cluelessness about social interaction, it was no surprise the aptly named Reem got voted out first. When the kid reached out to her for comfort and an alliance, she shot him down by telling him not to make her a mother figure. When he tried again, she basically told him not to be so sensitive, so when he saw which way the wind was blowing, he smartly turned on her. She took everyone's clothes from the places where they were hanging up drying and put them on the beach without asking, like a mother figure. Then she was overly sensitive to any criticism herself. She was reflexively laughing at people's responses before they even got a chance to say them.
My biggest problem with the battle backs was how much of the episodes they took up. We'll see if this concept has that same problem.
I think they made the right move at tribal tonight. Being physically weaker in the next challenge would have likely been disastrous
Keith was definitely the right choice to be voted out; the only reason he didn't become a target last week is because of Reem and Wendy.
Him at the ending was ridiculous though. If he was that upset at leaving why on earth would it be that difficult for him to stay in the game. I suspect Aubrey isn't going to last long unless her team can continue to win. From the previews it looked like she was doomed.
Did Keith really say "good luck winning challenges now" when he got voted out? I rewinded it twice, and think that's what he said, wow Like others have said, how on earth can you not learn how to swim if you know you're going to be on Survivor. It's mind boggling. I feel it's unfair to people who know how to swim and apply for Survivor and don't get selected, like what a bloody waste Still don't know how to feel about the Extinction Island portion. On the one hand I feel that the game of Survivor used to be more like Extinction Island and much more hard for people to survive, and that was a part of the game that I loved and made it so much more compelling. It almost seems cushy now compared to how it used to be (relatively speaking). So I dig that part of EI. On the other hand it seems like it can get out of hand if you keep on adding people to EI and have them all together in the same place Maybe there are several Extinction Islands and everyone is seperated, hmmmmm
Keith seemed like he had some emotional issues. He isn’t sure he’s strong enough to want to keep going. Fear or stress. I liked Wardog reasoning that if he’s everyone’s goat, one less slot for everyone else.