here are very few TV show reviews in this section since I hardly ever watch TV, and when I do I don't care enough about it to blog on the topic. I do write about sports sometimes, and those are, by necessity and choice, primarily based on TV viewing, but write about other TV shows? Nope.

This discussion of Survivor: Pearl Islands isn't exactly a review, but after watching most of the season (since Malaya enjoys the show) I had some thoughts and comments on the whole thing. And here they are. 

December 15, 2003

We watched every episode of Survivor: Pearl Islands this year, and saw all three hours of the finale Sunday night, with mixed feelings.  I'm not going to go into a whole long Survivor essay, since 1) the show is over, 2) if you didn't watch it you don't care, and 3) you might hate the whole topic reflexively, as I did until this year when I finally actually watched the show since Malaya was a fan, and found it pretty entertaining.

I also don't have the desire to comment on/analyze the whole sociological aspect of things, the alliances, how the show works, why it's fun to watch, etc. You've either seen it and like it, or you don't and don't care.  I'd recommend it, but only if you're going to watch them regularly; just catching one now and then won't let you get deeply enough into the characters and their personalities and the group dynamic to derive much pleasure from it.

One thing I do like about the show is how well they produce it.  I don't know if it would be better or worse if they put in more of X or less of Y; I'm sure they could entirely change the dynamic of things by re-editing it to make various characters look more or less friendly, scheming, stupid, lazy, etc. Osten couldn't really have been as big of a tool and dead weight as it looked, could he?  And there had to be times when Rupert was sleeping late or catching a nap or rest while other people were doing more than their share of work.

And no, that doesn't mean anything to you if you didn't see the show this year.

My quick comments, only of use to people who watched the show.

1) Who would win a "worst voice on the island" contest between Christa (the Heidi-haired chick) and Darrah (the petite brunette who came in 4th)?  I'd have trouble placing a vote on that one, as Malaya said, "Darrah could probably lose that accent, but there's no hope for Christa short of nasal surgery."

2) How did the fact that Darrah is a mortuary assistant/funereal director never come up or into play in any way, on a desert island with rotting food and dead animals and on a show with an overall pirate theme?

3) I found it very interesting how my feelings for Jon swung.  The first month Malaya and I both loathed him with a passion, but as he lasted and lasted and constantly outmaneuvered the rest of them, we started to like him, and once he pulled the "my poor dead grandmother" scam, we had to almost start rooting for him.  We never liked him, but he made such consistent fools of the others, doing so much to lower our opinions of their intelligence (especially Darrah and Lil) that we got to a point of wanting the others to lose more than we wanted him to lose.

4) I've not seen other seasons of the show, but the whole "weak band together to eat the strong" theme was annoying. Mostly since it seems inevitable on that show (but evidentially doesn't always happen), but also since pretty much everyone interesting (except Jon) was voted out just after the merge.  I suppose they can't help it if most of the contestants are boring, but damn there were a lot of females who never did anything of importance on the show.  Malaya and I needed 8 or 10 weeks to put a name on half of the women, and lots of them were voted out before we even knew who they were.  Every strong man was gone by the 5th to last show, and Burton only lasted that long by being voted off once and returning by the new mercy rule.  They even kicked off Darrah 4th to last since she'd won the last four challenges and was looking physically stronger, or at least less inept, than the other three.  So by the last show we've got two weak women, one of whom (Lill) is amazingly annoying and naive, and Jon, who lasted that long largely since he was too puny to ever win an immunity challenge, and thus seen as no threat.

5) Likeability is a drawback past the early stages.  All of the charismatic and interesting people were voted off by jackal packs of the weak, since the weak and unliked and anonymous consistently banded together to vote out the people who had friends, out of fear of their potential alliances.  It was actually an advantage to do nothing memorable and be to weak, since so long as you weren't so pathetic that you dragged your tribe down (Skinny Ryan) you got a pass, and then could get into voting blocs with the others like yourself to pick off the popular and strong one by one.

That's a sound survival strategy, but it doesn't make for an especially enjoyable TV viewing experience when every week brings the ouster of another interesting personality, leaving nothing but FUTR (flying under the radar) people you've never noticed in the shadows of the real stars of the show.

The ending was relatively satisfying.  I grew to despise Lil for her constant holier than thou Boy Scout crap, and for being such an incredible tool; constantly used by various scheming parties for their own gain.  Jon played the game damn well and earned my eventual respect, but I still didn't want him to win any money since he was just an asshole, so I was glad that he went off 3rd.  I didn't dislike Sandra, and her throwing away the fish after Rupert went out and planning sabotage when she thought they were going to kick her off next was damn gutsy, but she never did anything much to endear herself to me, aside from her whirlwind village trading in the first show of the season.

I was mostly amazed at how gullible and naive most of them were, even after weeks of the show, and after having theoretically watched past Survivors.  I'm not sure Lil ever really caught on to the fact that she was being lied to and led around by the nose for the entire show, and when Christa suddenly realized, the show she was going to be voted out 6th, that there might actually be people there lying to her and scheming against her, Malaya and I cried out in pain.

Even after her month of cluelessness, Lil shocked us all with her flexibility and endurance in winning the final immunity challenge, and seemed sure to win, since all she had to do was vote out Sandra, and she was almost sure to beat Jon in the final jury vote. Of course she agonized and agonized and eventually made the wrong decision by voting out Jon, and then compounded it by giving one bad answer after another and growing belligerent when her behavior was questioned during the jury questioning before the final vote.  That was the moment when you could almost see everyone's opinion of her changing from "naive and foolish, but innocent" to "too stupid and oblivious to deserve to win."

And the 6-1 final vote reflected that.

There's no telling quite how it would have gone with Jon vs. Lil in the final vote.  The show of hands at the final show looked like it would have been 4-3 for Lil, but that's months after the fact, and by people who had watched the whole show.  At the time the vote might have gone very differently, and who can say if the dislike and hard feelings towards Jon's behavior would have turned into grudging respect, as everyone realized what a dopey tool Lil really was.

It's pretty ironic really; Lil kept being schemed against (but never voted out) since everyone thought she was too sympathetic and likeable to beat in the final vote, and Jon kept getting through since everyone thought he was so hated that he'd be great to make final two with, since he'd be so beatable there.  And as it turned out, Lil lost the final vote 6-1, and it's entirely possible that even Jon might have beaten her there.

The ultimate moral I get from Survivor is a reminder of how weak and foolish and easily-led most people are. Just tell them what they want to hear and appear friendly, or at least non-threatening, and they'll eat out of your hand.

As if the current state of politics in the US wasn't a clear enough example of that truism.

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