Survivor 41

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by Timewalker, Sep 24, 2021.

  1. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 26, 2007
    Location:
    In many different universes, simultaneously.
    The season was supposed to premiere in September 2020, but production was put on hold for an entire year due to the covid pandemic.

    Better late than never. I missed this show.

    Apparently Jeff Probst did, too. In the first few minutes of the premier episode on Wednesday, he seemed absolutely giddy when talking directly to the audience. It was a little odd to see him grinning in delight and gushing about how "I missed you" (the audience). But it made me smile, since he seems genuinely sincere.

    They're back in Fiji again, which makes me wonder if they'll ever film anywhere else. Part of the appeal of the show in earlier seasons was seeing various tropical and subtropical places around the world. I don't travel much anymore, so shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race have been one way to travel vicariously.

    This season will be considerably shorter - 26 days instead of 39. Two weeks of the production's time in Fiji was spent in quarantine, so this is why the season will be condensed. The players are divided into three tribes of 6 this time, so it appears that part of the condensed season will be achieved by eliminating 2 players per episode in the pre-merge portion, rather than only 1.

    This is an advantage for me, as unless people stand out in some way, I usually don't even bother learning the players' names for the first half-dozen episodes. Name recognition will happen faster this time, hopefully.

    As with Big Brother, this is a diverse cast of people with a decent range of ages.

    Early impressions: I like JD. His excitability seems to grate on some people there, and I see why they would be annoyed at his somewhat hammy version of what happened during the trek the three tribe representatives took. I don't like Ricard or Brad, and my personal jury is on the fence about Tiffany.

    As for the "Come on in, guys!" issue: I do like that Jeff addressed this on-air, because it's got to be something that has annoyed a lot of people over the years. Yes, I know that among younger generations (I get to say that because I'll be 60 in a couple of years), "guys" refers to both males and females in the same group, and some people insist to me that groups that are female-only may also be addressed as "guys".

    Sorry, I don't agree with the latter. I'm not a guy, don't ever call me "dude", don't call me "bro", or tell me it doesn't matter what I get called. Evidently I'm not alone in that, so it's good that the show finally addressed this and it's now gender-neutral.

    Wikipedia summarizes each episode here.
    Cast photos (to help match names and people) are here.

    Hm. One of them is Canadian. Have they started accepting Canadians on their show? :confused:

    Hopefully people play a reasonably non-hostile game, hopefully nobody gets injured, and hopefully my eventual favorite (whoever it turns out to be) wins.
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2021
  2. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Location:
    JirinPanthosa
    JD sounds like he's lying when he tells the truth. He's not long for the game.

    I think changing the phrase "Bring it in guys" would have been a stronger statement if they just did the conversation offscreen and didn't try to flaunt it. This way it feels like they did it to take moral credit for it instead of because it's the right thing to do.

    Like, just have a diverse cast and use respectful neutral terminology, no need to take a victory lap about it.

    Seems like a pretty good cast so far but nobody stands out as great.
     
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2021
  3. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 20, 2001
    Location:
    West Haven, UT, USA
    Going into the season, I'd pegged Nassir, Ricard, Brad, and Evvie as castaways I was most likely going to like and David (Voce) as a castaway I was most likely going to hate, and so I was rather surprised to find myself actually liking the latter.

    We'll see if my opinion on him changes, but for now, he's migrated from the Hate column to the Like column.
     
  4. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Location:
    JirinPanthosa
    I think this idol is more of a trap than the players realize.

    Because it's an idol that's impossible to have without other people knowing you have it. An idol known is an idol blown.
     
  5. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 20, 2001
    Location:
    West Haven, UT, USA
    And it figures that the second I start liking somebody, they're gone.

    I like Evvie, but they completely torpedoed the outreach they'd just spent hours engaged in by not sticking to their guns and persuading Liana to target Xander even if Tiffany threw her vote at Voce.

    With regards to the three-way Idol and the risks associated with it, I think it's a deviously delicious twist and really want to see how else it shakes up the game.

    Survivor 41 is off to a furious and crazy start, and I can't wait to see where else the game goes next.
     
  6. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 26, 2007
    Location:
    In many different universes, simultaneously.
    I'm going to have to rewatch it. I'd had a long day and fell asleep for about 20 minutes. I woke up in time for tribal council.

    So far, I find Xander likable. Tiffany has to go if that tribe ever wants to win anything. She's hopeless.
     
  7. Garak

    Garak Cruisin' Premium Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2004
    Seems like winning challenges is as important as ever, as you actually get comforts and necessities taken away from you if you lose in addition to the usual

    Which makes the decision to keep Tiffany around after two tribals that much more mind boggling. Even more screwed up is they kept the guy they know has an advantage over Voce

    I kinda like the new idol system but they should give them easier things to say, like usual conversation pieces, instead of having these guys make obvious and out of context comments which is just suspicious
     
  8. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Location:
    JirinPanthosa
    Deciding whether to vote out the person bad at challenges or the person not loyal to you is a tough choice. Cause you could always keep the strong person and lose anyway, and now you already voted out your protection.
     
  9. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 26, 2007
    Location:
    In many different universes, simultaneously.
    Okay, now what? One-third of the three-way immunity idol just got voted out. I guess they're going to have to do the whole thing again? :confused:

    And let this be a lesson to J.D.: Keep your pants done up.
     
  10. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 20, 2001
    Location:
    West Haven, UT, USA
    According to the hosts of the Sole Survivor Podcast, an eagle-eyed viewer of the show and listener of their podcast zoomed in on the parchment when Xander found Yase's Beware Advantage and revealed/discovered that said parchment included a clause/penalty that if a person from the other tribes was voted out after having found that tribe's part of the Idol, anyone else with one of the parts of the Idol would lose their vote until a Merge and the Idol itself would be rendered moot.
     
  11. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 26, 2007
    Location:
    In many different universes, simultaneously.
    Cripes, that's not fair.
     
  12. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Location:
    JirinPanthosa
    Brad made a huge blunder there showing off his advantages. That’s why this is one of the weakest idols in show history. Known idols are a liability.
     
  13. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 20, 2001
    Location:
    West Haven, UT, USA
    I think it's brilliant, personally.

    It sadly does mean that Luvu's phrase will go unsaid, but that's just the nature of what they were trying to do with the risk vs. reward elements of this new era of Survivor.
     
  14. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 20, 2001
    Location:
    West Haven, UT, USA
    The strength of this Idol is moot because the Idol is now moot.

    Brad getting voted out cancels the Idol out and removes it from the game completely.
     
  15. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Location:
    JirinPanthosa
    Suppose the third idol code phrase was said though. It would still be a bad idol cause everybody would know where it was.
     
  16. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 20, 2001
    Location:
    West Haven, UT, USA
    I disagree.

    The fun of the three-way Idol was the fact that people would know who had them.
     
  17. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Location:
    JirinPanthosa
    Oh, fun yes. I didn’t mean it’s bad TV. I meant it’s a strategic liability.
     
  18. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 20, 2001
    Location:
    West Haven, UT, USA
    For me, the fun of the three-way Idol would have been seeing the people who had them figuring out how to put them to use with everybody else knowing they had them
     
  19. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Location:
    JirinPanthosa
    I liked that episode. I think it was a mistake for them to try to throw it but hilarious that they failed to. Then I like Shan's power move but I think it's early enough it will come back to bite her.
     
  20. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 26, 2007
    Location:
    In many different universes, simultaneously.
    JD is so ridiculously naive. How could he trust anyone like that, not once, but twice?

    I don't like Shan. In fact, I hope everyone on that tribe loses.

    JFC, I am not enjoying this season much. There aren't enough people who are remotely likeable.