Survivor: Guatemala

[Ananas]

So, Survivor's 11th installment launched today and... ouch. Maybe it's just the brutal nature of the competitions, or the constraints of having to introduce 18 new people in 60 minutes, but there didn't seem to be any intensity in tonights presentation. The 11 mile trek reward challenge may have seemed a good idea on paper (it should have exposed the weaker Survivors, which is obviously beneficial in the long run), but it didn't play well at all on television. Watching half of the contestants lying around in pain wasn't exactly entertaining either. The second competition, which was very physical but much shorter in duration, just seemed to pale in comparison to the first, and from an early standpoint seemed Yaxha's to win. Then, when Nakum elder Jim pulled a muscle or something, he was voted off. Shock of the century. Terrible episode all in all.

Oh, and did I mention that the show features two contestants from Pulau? Yeah, Stephanie Lagrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard, the final two members of the worst Survivor tribe in history Ulong, were brought back and dropped one each into the tribes. Steph ended up being a decent leader to Yaxha, while Bobby Jon got dehydrated and ended up being useless the rest of the episode. Now I understand why bringing back any of the Koror contestants save Willard would probably just set them up for early elimination due to the threat that they pose, did we really have to bring these two back? They only really looked good because they were playing alongside some of the worst contestants in the show's history, and Stephanie ended up getting herself eliminated at the second vote after the merger. Seems to be an underwhelming "twist".

Now I know it's unfair to critique characters at this point, but it's important to note that at this point last season I was already pulling for Tom, Ian and Stephanie. I don't even remember the names of any of these new contestants. I know that there are a couple of overtly effeminate males, a couple of token elderly people, and most notably, 20 white people. There's already numerous reasons to be branding this show "Survivor: Whitewash".

Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be so long. I was hoping to foster some discussion, but rant mode clicked in, so forgive me for my rambling and near incoherent tone. So... discuss.

[Toe]

To me, the whole Survivor idea got boring after the second season, and it only lasted that long cause Colby was hawt. Really, there isn't too much they can do with the series after 10 seasons. I guess it's cheap to shoot though, and it's ratings are high enough to earn enough in advertisements to justify it staying on TV.

[Guest seattlebandfan9]

Those are the two people they brought back?

God. I am glad I went to work instead of staying to home to find out what two people they were going to bring back. I thought it was going to be some cool people or something.

[StevenRichardsRules]

I mis Rob Constantino and Johnny Fairplay......

[TOG]

I fucking adore Stephanie. Fuck all of you.

[Ananas]

Apparently this was the least watched premiere of Survivor since the first season, back before the show was a ratings titan. Now, figure in the fact that ABC, NBC, UPN and The WB have all yet to roll out their programming in that timeslot and this could be a rough year for the show, whether it turns around creatively or not. And with ABC now throwing out Alias, The WB throwing out Smallville and UPN throwing out one of the most anticipated shows of the new season, Everybody Hates Chris, the drop off is probably going to be bigger than usual as it seems all 6 networks are now throwing out high profile programming in the timeslot. Looks like MB and company are going to have to rely on the second half of the TV season to bail them out again.

[Guest Pulp]

This Survivor is FUCKING EXTREME.

[Ananas]

This Survivor is FUCKING EXTREME.

[Cole]

I watched last week, this was the first time I watched a survior since like 02, I didn't really care about it...nothing else is on during it's timeslot so I'm gonna keep watching.

Hopefully tonight will be better, if the good team (name escapes me) wouldn't have so many injuries then this game would be a cake walk...we'll see.

[Mick]

There are certian Survivor blunders that happen from time to time, and last night's challenge featured one of those with the tug of war.

Certainly, you would think that with Judd, who looks 200+, taking on Jayme, who weighs 150, they would've put someone else in to take on Judd, considering Jayme just lost to Blake right before.

The show does seem a little boring this time around though. Hopefully things will really begin to pick up.

[Cole]

I liked the tug of war, it was pretty cool the strategy that Judd used in the last one. I really like Nakum, they are who I'm gonna root for

[Guest Chaos Theory]

I'm currently boycotting Survivor until they do one in Alaska. or the Canadian wilderness.