So that was pretty hardcore episode, really revealling once again just how real it is out there, with the proverbial curtain drawn to see the production team in full effect at that challenge.
The question us, why was it necessary?
Yes, challenges are tested prior to them being attempted by the players but by people that are not already relatively dehydrated, as the players were. And surely the duty of care should have asked, was it prudent to run such a challenge in that heat? Could it not have been done earlier early in ther morning or later in the afternoon?
Brian Corridan
wrote of similiar incidents that happened during his time playing in Guatemala, another notoriously harsh seasons, of players being wiped out by the conidtions and similiar scenes occuring, and even though we saw footage of the effects of the 12 mile hike on a number of the guys being wiped out, but there were quite a number of other instances that season also.
So it is not as is, after 30-odd seasons that the production team were dealing with unchartered waters as they were back in 2001, when Skupin fell in the fire hands first.
There is a reason why the locals that lives in these climes and conditions do things at the time of the day when things were not at their hottest. Ther producers of the show have to have some duty of care towards the players. So either they didn't consider what eventuated was likely to happen, or that they just didn't bother to even consider it a possibility.
And it raises a question that, with the medical team on hand there to look after the players that there was only 1 doctor amongst them. Now it is possible that there are 2 medical officers in the production team, but that th other was treating Liz at Loser's Lodge for the staph infection (or was with her when she had to be medivac'd from LL because of that), but there was another dr on the scene. Surely Peter, who has reminded so often during his confessionals that 'as an ER doctor' would have been a handy man to have on the scene, yet we saw none of this either.
Meanwhile, Probst is gushing over Jason helping take care of Cydney. The same guy who has been all too often protrayed as a bully, yet is getting these curious edits and coments of priase from Probst... Well, no real surprise there, as Probst definitely has his type that he likes.
Speaking of the Scot &Jason attitudes toward Alecia, is is pretty disgusting to see how that was portrayed and in no way condoning their attitude or actions, because they are indefensible. However, Alecia is far from being worthy of all the priase that has been lavished on her also. More on that in a moment, but a couple of thoughts on the edit that Caleb got this season compared to the way he was presented in BB.
In BB, we saw 2 distinct sides of Caleb; the one that gave off some creepy unsettling vibes as the lvelorn puppydog set on Amber, and the one that we saw after her departure from the game. This last one seems more in kkeping with the Caleb we saw in this season, but I can't help but think that the producers were probably hoping for the one that creeped Amber out when they were doing the casting. Anyhow, he genuinely got a bit of a heroes edit, and although he is obviously doing well and survived, but it goes to show the engths that he would go to when doing 'beast mode cowboy'.
Am sure other players, especially when they knew they were only doing all this for some salt and pepper probabaly thought, is this worth the effort? In a word, no. But some competitiors just can't think that way. They have to go all out. Like what Brian described about Stephenie in that link above, and just like Caleb here.
Calbe won the battle and ultimately lost the war because of it. But given the titlecard in mid-ep (something unprecedented, not even last year when Terry went home), as well as yhe comment during final words, that Alecia didnt get to give, seems pretty indicative that Beast Mode Cowboy almost certainly will be back on Survivor.
The Tai edit continues to remind of the one Yau-Man got in Fiji, where Probst is angling every question his way for impromptu sound bytes. There are obviously other examples of this, but Yau is the most immediate coming to mind, given just rewatched Fiji as inspired byt the most recent series of Historians podcasts, lol.
But putting all that to the side.
Have bit my lip for the most part these past few weeks, in order to give the benefit of the doubt based on the number of Alecia fans here and elsewhere, to try and percieve what it was that they admired so much about her. But it completely aludes me. Really cannot work out why there seems to be such a strong core of support for her.
The gameplay was atrocious, the social play was poor, the self awareness non-existant. Over the course of the 4 episodes that she has been in it was a curious edit, one largely omitting how she was so annoying to Scot & Jason (in particular), yet highlighting her perseverence in starting the fire. Done obviously with the desire to skew public opinion. Then not only in confessional but openly admitting that she was intending to flip come a swap. TBH, I do get the feeling that Brawn may not have tried super dooper hard as they may have at the challenge (esp the guys) after that, in order to vote her out, as they had the numbers, the HII and with her openly declaring her intention to flip not only made her nothing but an expendible liability.
Ok, so I can see how the others saw the benefit of keeping an easy boot around the first time that this tribe went to TC, and Jenny pretty much single-handedly blew up her own game the next time, but there was no getting out of it this time.
But I digress...
So why did we get to see such a curious edit? At TC Probst said it himself, he was wanting to root for her, and with the level of influence that Probst has over the show then there is that spin on the edit of what we saw from her.
Does Alecia deserve the amount of support or hate? No, to both of these. So, I really don't get why so many are so empassioned by her, because, in the grand scheme of things, she is just kinda meh. Am sure had the events been different and Brawn had of gone through the first few challenges largely undefeated, then others in this game would easily have been given that amount of screen time. But clearly given what the editors felt best added to the story of the season, especially with Brawn going to TC so often was someone to root for; an underdog. And thats how she was presented. Which again comes back to what Probst was saying at TC. The fact that this particular Probst comment was deemed worthy of inclusion in the episode cannot understate the intention of having given Alecia such a prominant edit - good, bad or indifferent.
There has been comparisons made between J'Tia, Shirin, Abi etc. A case can be made for each, but why give this girl, and these others such prominant edits? Shirin was not a particularly good player the first, and only recency bias explains why she got a second chance. Abi the same even though over her 2 seasons her ability to really get under people's skins . J'Tia comparisons are probabaly the most accurate in terms of recency bias, as there are so many reasons these 2 are cut from the same clth, so to speak.
But there are a core that like the law of uinintended consequences. Put a trainwreck of a person in the game and see what chaos they can cause. Some people fixate on this and call it entertainment, and it can be. It can be very entertaining. Sugar in Gabon was entertaining. For better or worse, Dreamz in Fiji caused situations that led to entertaining outcomes and controversy. Hell, even Lil in PI had elements of this latter course, even though she was far from being entertaining.
Does Alecia deserve such a prominant edit? Participation on 1 small tribe for 4 episodes, erven on such a trainwreck crew as this Brawn incarnation would suggest no.
A real benchmark for a positive pre-merge edit was set wayyyy back in 2001. Compare Alecia with, say Gina from Marquesas. Gina was a pre-merge boot that had an incredibly positive and prominant edit, showed great spirit, had the ability to be socially adaptable, had perseverence and never gave up either. All of this lead the the sense there was a genuine sadness when she was voted out of the game.
How many of these boxes did Alecia tick? One. Maybe.
But what was it that people admire so about Alecia? The perseverence to not give up and that is about it. On every other level Alecia was a fail.
Way to celebrate true mediocrity. So, yay Alecia, I guess?
14-03-2016, 06:51 AM
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