(The opinions expressed in the following are mine and not necessarily those of anyone else, although in some cases they should be and probably are)
I haven't written on the blog in almost a year, which is rather sad. My apologies for the literally 2 of you who read this.
Its no secret to those who know me that I don't have much of a life. If I'm not at work i'm either hanging out with a the same group of friends (you know who you are), at a Yu-Gi-Oh Tournament with the same group or I'm at home bored out of my mind watching something I've already watched. After getting sick of watching Prison Break and Flashpoint over and over again I decided to watch Survivor. All of it. From the beginning. From Borneo to now. Now I love Survivor, but some of it i have never gone back to rewatch. Some of it I have little interest in rewatching, but I will not be biased here. I'm going to watch it all, no matter how much I like or dislike those involved or what is happening. I think it will be interesting to see it all from the beginning, especially when it comes to those who play on multiple occasions, seeing how they grow and progress as players and characters. I will document my thoughts on this here blog.
Bornero. Where it all began. I did not watch this season when it first aired. I was 8. I was completely ignorant to pop culture. I did not see this season until it was released on DVD in 2004. I watched it with my mom. Watching Survivor with my mom is one of the few things she and I do together. its always fun. Although I find it rather whacky that after 10 years of watching Survivor she still cannot name everyone who is left on the current season at any point in time. Also, she's a huge mark (wrestling term for a fan someone who always has the reaction the producers tell them to have).
Anyways, back to Borneo. For this season I will post thoughts after every 4 episodes until the finale because that's how many episodes are on each disc. Disc one is awful. This is very boring Survivor. Its more like a documentary about people living on an island in the South China Sea who just happen to occasionally participate in challenges and vote people off.
Richard Hatch claimed to be the winner in his FIRST confessional. Epic. Simply epic. I love this man.
Other people I like thus far: ... I kind of like Joel. Sean is funny in a 'look at how stupid this book smart guy is' kind of way and that's about it. Colleen is really on my nerves. This dimwitted moron who is neither charming nor humorous at any point in the first four episodes became 'America's Sweetheart'? Also, Greg has yet to wow me. People say he's awesome, but so far the only moderately entertaining thing he did was break out into a musical number.
The lack of challenge commentary is... different. Its hard to decide which is better. I think it depends on the challenge, when its a race, the commentary can add drama. When a challenge is more concentration based, the commentary is often stupid an annoying. So far the challenges have been a nice mix.
One thing I've noticed is the terrible editing. Often times we get a clearly dubbed in voice over by Probst. its very jarring and poorly done. In addition, we hardly ever get context as to why a certain purpose is voted out. Why did Ramona get voted off? The established Jenna as her friend and then she votes for her. Why did Stacey? I know, they fudge the Stacey vote and told Dirk and Sean to, but I mean in the context of the story they are telling through the editing we are given no reason for either of those boots.
That's all for now. Yes the seeds of the alliance were planted in episode 4, but that's better saved for next time when they actually go to tribal council.
