Sunday, February 19, 2012

Survivor Recap: Battle of the Sexes


Survivor is back with it's 905th season...or something along those lines.  I don't care how old the show gets I still love it.  Something about how basic the premise is and also that it is like the founding reality show.  Now, recent seasons have been testing my patience, what with all the old players coming back.  It made for a really boring season once the merge hit.  Thankfully this season they have scrapped a lot that was dragging Survivor down.  First and foremost, the cast is all brand new people.  This has been what has hurt the show most lately.  I hate watching when people are just fawning over the past contestants brought back to play for their third or fourth time.  Also, they got rid of redemption island.  The idea wasn't awful, but it just didn't work.  For example, once Jesus Matt got back into the game, he was voted right back out.  Of course, it didn't help he was an idiot, but there is also no method to prevent that from happening.

So, we start this season with a fresh crop of contestants and one new, but very interesting twist.  The tribes are sharing one camp.  This is brilliant!  One of the things I hate is how it's just a numbers game after merge with the tribes sticking together.  This eliminates that by allowing people to make friendships and alliances with the other tribe early in the game.

Speaking of the tribes, they are separated by sexes, another interesting twist.  I think this is gonna make for a dramatic season because there is such a difference in thinking that there is bound to be some clashing. And there was, especially judging based on the first episode. Now let's get into this recap...



Let me say, first, that I missed the first 15ish minutes of the show.  So I don't know any name or anything about them yet, but I hardly ever do when the season starts.  I started the episode when they were chasing the chicken. I mean that literally. It's not a metaphor for anything else.  Anyway, both tribes were chasing two chickens then the token "country girl" caught both of them.  The guys then asked for one of them because of the deal they made that whoever caught them would give one to the other tribe. The girls decided not to give the boys the chicken because they had stolen some of the girls stuff when they first arrived to the island.  Now I didn't see any of this happen, as I mentioned, but shame on both of them.  The boys shouldn't have stolen the girls stuff and the girls shouldn't have gone back on their deal.

Both tribes really started in on the distrust quick.  The girls then had to backtrack a bit once they realized the boys could be useful in building a shelter and starting a fire.  The girls needed fire so badly they were almost willing to get naked for it.  That's a low point for the girls.  If they had just given up the chicken they wouldn't be in this mess.  The girls tried to steal fire while the boys slept, but, you know, stealing fire just isn't practical.  They finally settled on an agreement where the girls would make some roofing for the boys in exchange for fire.

This deal ruffled some feathers as a few girls didn't want to make any deal with the boys and wanted to be entirely self reliant.  Sorry, but that ship sailed when you offered to get naked.  So, less than 24 hours into the game and the girls are already crumbling.


Then we get to the first challenge of the season, which lasts roughly 45 seconds.  It was convoluted as usually, but just basically all you need to know was that they had to jump onto a net and then roll out of it.  Not difficult in theory.  Well, leave it to one of the girls to break her wrist during her fall.  Since she had to be taken away to the hospital, the boys were left with two options.  They could take the win and send the girls to tribal council, or they could replay the challenge again from the beginning.  The made the smart decision and took the win, sending the girls to tribal.  The then proceeded to get their panties in a bunch, saying that wasn't very manly of them.  It was kind of sad and hilarious.  The girls were grasping at straws and trying to emasculate them into playing again.  If the girls had the choice they would've sent the boys to tribal, it gives you an early numbers advantage.

At tribal the girls continued to break down, fighting it out in the efforts to make someone look worse than the other.  It didn't matter anyway since broken wrist girl wasn't coming back, so she was their elimination for the episode.

I really want to root for the girls, but they make it so hard.  They have no idea how they want to act: strong, sexy, etc.  They need to pick one and stick with it.  I'm not counting them out yet for two reasons. One: they have Colbie, the gay republican on the boys team.  He doesn't fit in great with the boys, so he ran to the girls,  This can be good for them and him at the merge.  Plus they have his trust since they gave him their immunity idol.  Second: the boys are going to face a power struggle in the coming weeks.  It won't be obvious until about week 3, but soon the boys are all going to be fighting to be the alpha male, which could be the chance for the girls to steal the power.

I'm excited to see how things play out.  This season looks like it will be crazy so I am looking forward to it.  Did you watch the premiere?  What team are you rooting for?

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