[Macie Lightfoot]

A few episodes into the merge of UK1 and I'm still enjoying it quite a bit. The merge projects as a bit anticlimactic since Ular goes in with a 6-4 advantage over Helang, and these last few episodes have been predictable, but it's still not boring. The merge episode was saved by an epic endurance challenge that went on for nearly 23 hours (!!!) and even though it wasn't super exciting all the time, the novelty definitely made it worthwhile viewing. The Andy boot was a bit of a boring episode but there were still two good things going for it: 1) Charlotte and Eve's feud over petty **** like food rations and how the rice is cooked , and 2) Pete breaking out of his UTR edit and turning into the guy with morals who loves Jesus and can't handle having to vote people out who Deserve to still be in. He's not really telegenic enough to make the role work in a way that's really dynamic, but it is a much needed development to Ular's Pagonging of Helang. He's befriending Helang as they're on their way out the door and having a hard time getting rid of people like Simon and Andy because of how deserving they are of the win, and of course Ular is taking it as well as you would expect.

My real reason for writing an update though was the auction episode there was an interesting twist where they had to do an archery contest to see how much money they would have to spend. I'm not sure if I would want this to take place every single time, but it was an interesting twist that I appreciated this one time. The actual events of the auction though... here we go:

-everyone apparently agreed after the archery contest that they would NOT outbid each other and then just share all the food with each other
-however, everyone's understanding of this was different: it seems that Charlotte and James assumed that people would hold onto the food and then divide it into equal eighths afterwards while people like Richard and other members of Ular assumed that they would enjoy some of the food for themselves before sharing the rest
-Richard wins a pizza and immediately eats a good size portion to himself before sharing it with the rest of the tribe (but apparently not everyone else?)
-Eve wins a burger, fries, and a bottle of tomato ketchup that I understand becomes VERY plot relevant in ~3 episodes
-Zoe wins two bars of chocolate and according to Charlotte, who LOVES chocolate and has not shut up about it all season, she did not split the chocolate evenly
-James is NOT happy with Ular's behavior in the auction and decides to outbid them on another burger and fries
-Since James's burger and fries does NOT come with tomato ketchup, the host encourages him to find the bottle. Apparently this leads to him using a third of Eve's bottle without asking her, and then she had to tell him to stop because they need the tomato ketchup to last them two more weeks (?!)
-the auction ends and they go back to camp, segregate as Ular and Helang, and just start bitching about each other nonstop they eventually reunite as one tribe and Charlotte and James decide to instigate a small fight with the rest of Ular and then taunts them by reminding them that they WILL be deciding the winner of the season

For a season that was filmed in 2001 I was very impressed! This season basically tries to be a carbon copy of Borneo 65% of the time and even copies exact challenges from the original season, but Borneo didn't even do an auction so the forward thinking is appreciated. Additionally, I love me a season where a bunch of petty people have pointless feuds with each other over stupid **** (one of the reasons why I'm one of the forum's biggest supports of SA: Malaysia) so this was right up my alley. I get the complaints about this season being OLD and in poor video quality, but this cast bounces well off of each other and the strategy actually is very progressive for a season that aired in 2001. Someone once said this is basically an old school BBUK season on an island and that's probably the best compliment this season could receive.

[Macie Lightfoot]

Nearing the end of UK1 and it's picking up steam again! We left off with Charlotte being the lone Helang left against six Ular and by all means she should be the next boot. However, everyone is getting sick to death of Pete. They're annoyed that he buddied up with Andy and James as they were on their way out, that he complains nonstop about being hungry and starving, and that he's too hungry and lazy to even go out on the raft and fish or serve himself food. He wins a feast for reward and somehow connects it to his prayers being answered and a Bible verse on the shirt Andy wore to Tribal as a juror and he breaks down crying. It was a bizarre moment. But then as soon as he loses the Immunity Challenge everyone more or less agrees to spare Charlotte and vote out Pete because he's grating on them and they're afraid he might go on an Immunity spree! Richard feels some remorse since he promised Pete he would warn him if he was getting voted out, and then he does. Pete is upset but tells Charlotte that she's staying but warns her to not ruin it by speaking up. Pete gets voted out and tosses his Bible at Ricard in what I think was an attempt at acting? I don't know, it was kind of a boring episode but the events were interesting because Charlotte got spared.

Then we get to the F6 episode and everyone is just DOGPILING on Jackie for being a moron who doesn't know how to play the game and being someone they can barely tolerate. Meanwhile Jackie has these hilarious confessionals that are like "yeah I'm getting on with Charlotte right now because no one else is even talking to me I guess I'm being too devious for them" and she's so aware but soooo unaware at the same time. Everyone seems resigned to targeting Charlotte and Jackie next, but Richard, Jackie, and Charlotte all realize how arrogant Zoe is being and Richard talks about how people are dumb for dismissing Jackie and Charlotte. Richard then wins Reward but gives it to Charlotte, and then strikes an alliance with her and Jackie. People think it's going to be a 4-2 or a 5-1 vote but it ends up being a 3-3 tie between Zoe and Charlotte and Zoe goes home on vote countback. Charlotte survives again!

And then we get to the F5 episode and Eve responds to being blindsided as graciously as you would expect her to, meaning that she apparently gets in a nasty fight with Jackie off-camera. I could go on and on about how incredible the following series of events are but I'm just going to just list off everything that happened:

-Mick lets everyone know that Eve is hiding the bottle of tomato ketchup that she won at the auction like 10 days earlier
-The Immunity Challenge is Hands on Hard Idol and Eve immediately starts by asking Charlotte pointed questions like why she talks so loudly and why she wears two bras
-Charlotte gets her period and Richard and Jackie want to let her step down for a minute or two to sort herself out. Eve proudly says that she does NOT agree with this because it wouldn't be fair, since nobody would let her step down if she had to take a ****
-Eve ultimately loses to Richard after 14 hours
-The next day Eve knows that she's going home and decides to pack her bag with things she wants to bring home
-Everyone else quickly realizes that the things she want to bring home include all of the tampons and one of the four ponchos they have. They also find the bottle of tomato ketchup underneath the floorboard of the shelter near her bag. Richard proceeds to cut up the poncho with a knife
-Eve returns to camp, thanks Jackie for searching through her bag AGAIN, sneaks off into the jungle and chugs the entire bottle of tomato ketchup
-After spending the day sitting around and bitching about Eve being inhumane, cruel, nasty, and calling her names such as Nasty Eve and Madam Mim, everyone gives TCQ answers about how they can't believe she was so horrible during the Immunity Challenge. Eve naturally responds by defending her words and choices and proudly states that she has no regrets before being voted out unanimously <3

I'll just let it speak for itself. An incredible sequence of events that feels straight from a fan fiction. Eve's boot episode performance is all time and Charlotte's cockroach journey just gets better and better. I'll give a final update when I finish the last two episodes!

[Macie Lightfoot]

Finished UK1 this morning and enjoyed it! It was a bit slow and dated at times but I'm sad it's over and I thought the ending was really strong. Picking up where I last left off, the F4 round wasn't anything special since it was a generic Mick boot, but the F3 round was actually really interesting with how easily Charlotte was able to dismantle the Richard/Jackie alliance. For the record, Richard and Jackie were tight allies since the first episode and surely had a F2 agreement, and they picked up Charlotte was their #3 around the F6. Once it was down to the three of them, Charlotte realized that Richard was a shoe-in for the win so she told Jackie that she knew about Pete's blindside ahead of time because he told her that Richard broke the news to him. This pissed Jackie off and she agreed to take Charlotte to the final two, and we had a bunch of ominous scenes of them comparing notes and solidifying Richard was third place all while he was blissfully unaware. He came back to camp and Jackie continued to ask him questions about Pete and Richard continued to pretend that Pete was mad at him for blindsiding him, unaware that Jackie knew what was up. I found Charlotte's move really impressive and way ahead of its time for 2001. It ultimately didn't end up mattering since Charlotte won the final IC, but it was still impressive that she covered her bases.

The finale was REALLY drawn out but I still really enjoyed the narrative of the Charlotte vs. Jackie showdown. Charlotte's unanimous (!) victory is legitimately incredible considering how much of an underdog she was, and she really has a lovable charm to her despite being a gobby cow Jackie on the other hand...... alol what a disastrous FTC performance some of the highlights include:

-James asking her what she learned from the other players and Jackie saying she learned nothing because everyone was playing a game so she doesn't actually really know anyone
-Pete asking what moves they made to compromise their morals and if it was worth it and Jackie simply responding "I backstabbed you and yeah it was worth a million pounds "
-Eve asking Jackie why she thinks she hates her so much and Jackie being like "umm because the host asked me if I was surprised by your aggression." Then Eve asked if Jackie thought that's who she really was or if she was playing a role for the game and Jackie was like "I think that's possibly just how you are Eve "
-Mick pointing out that everyone thought Jackie sucked at challenges and Jackie responding that Mick brags about his orienteering skills but she kicked his ass in the orienteering IC despite having never read a compass before
-Richard asking both Jackie and Charlotte if they think they can still get his vote after they stigmatized people with mental illness and Jackie responding "I think you would probably overlook anything I said because you've said things about people as well so surely you can't condemn others "
-Jackie using her closing statement be like "oh James I think I understand your question now, I just want to say that Charlotte taught me how to be resilient " and getting mad at Richard for calling her a sparrow who flew under the wing of the eagle

I don't know, Jackie's whole character really came together for me with how hapless and poor her FTC performance was, especially after she was dogpiled against for basically the entire merge phase of the game. But even so, Charlotte is absolutely the correct winner from a narrative standpoint. She's funny, charming, endearing, surprisingly witty, and as James said in his voting confessional this really was HER journey. I still can't believe that a winner like her who played the game like her exists, but I'm not mad about it at all. One of my favorite winners from any franchise.

Other random highlights from the finale and other stuff include JJ saying that this was really survival of the weakest and we should look in reverse boot order if we want to find the TRUE Survivor, the reunion host explicitly bringing up Charlotte the Harlot and asking her about it and Charlotte just being like "yeah it will probably be Scarlet Charlotte after this ," and the post-show news I recently learned that apparently at the wrap party Adrian hooked up with Charlotte's younger sister (!) in a handicapped toilet stall (!!!) I have no words.

So yeah, I would definitely recommend this season to most people! If you are able to handle an old school Survivor season or an old school Big Brother UK season then you will definitely enjoy this. Yes the production value is low and the video quality is terrible and the pacing is a bit slow and boring at times, but the cast meshes together really well and the conflict is entirely from a human level while the strategy manages to be somewhat ahead of its time for 2001. Definitely a season that is WAY better than its reputation.

I'll do a cast ranking either today or tomorrow, we'll see. I also think that my next season I'll watch might be NZ1

[Macie Lightfoot]

WHOOPS I never did my UK1 cast ranking so I'll do that to end 2021

1. Charlotte (absolutely one of my favorite winners of anything. She's loud, gobby, annoying, selfish, and an adulterer, but she's also surprisingly witty, charismatic, personable, rootable, and the ultimate underdog. James said it best in his jury vote that this season was HER journey and her entire narrative is so satisfying. She's in the minority on Helang, she's primed to be picked off at the merge in a 6-4 Pagonging, but then she goes from being the only Helang left against six Ular to cockroaching her way to the end and winning UNANIMOUSLY?! It's complete fan fiction but one of the best narratives in any Survivor season honestly. It's an absolute shame she doesn't get more credit since nobody's really seen her season, but she's an all-time character and actually not a half bad player either?)
2. Eve (lmaooooo one of the most self-righteous and awful cows ever but in the best way possible <3 She found herself in the power seat on Ular and was SO SMUG about kicking Jackie out of the alliance, but then when Jackie blindsided her by taking out Eve's top ally Sarah, Eve lashed the **** out at how Jackie and Ricard are AWFUL PEOPLE and she's okay with losing the game now because at least she'll have her morals and will still be a good person! Eve then entered the merge with the numbers and was awful to the people she viewed as beneath her like Charlotte (for not being on Ular) and Jackie (for being the island's punching bag <3), and then when Charlotte and Jackie teamed up with Ricard to blindside Eve's then top ally Zoe, Eve took her revenge tour to the next level by REFUSING to let Charlotte take care of her period during an endurance challenge, trying to smuggle all of the tribe's tampons and ponchos with her before her inevitable boot, and then running into the jungle and chugging a bottle of tomato ketchup hilariously evil with absolutely no self-awareness in the best way possible)
3. Richard (not sure if this controversial but I really liked him? He was very forward-thinking about Playing The Game and was absolutely ahead of his time in terms of viewing Survivor as a strategic competition. This sounds like it could be awful, but it really wasn't. The show needed a presence like Richard in order to be successful and he was up to the task. He was able to articulate his strategy well in confessionals and his strategy always resulted in good TV? He helped flip the vote on Nick in the premiere, was key in flipping the vote on Sarah in episode 4, was instrumental in the Pete blindside in episode 10, completely spearheaded the Zoe blindside in episode 11, and all of his scheming came back to bite him when Charlotte iced him out in the finale. Four of the F5 are in the top four of my cast ranking, and Ricard deserves all the credit for getting them to the endgame)
4. Jackie (lmaoooooo such a MORN punching bag for everyone around her but she played her role well! She was almost the first boot until Richard came and saved her ass, and then Eve and Sarah tried to KICK HER OUT OF THE ALLIANCE in episode 4 and Richard came and saved her ass once again. This led to Eve lashing out at Jackie after the Sarah boot and Jackie just kinda smirking and laughing in her face <3 Jackie then kinda went UTR in the early merge until like F7 or F6 when everyone just decided to dogpile on Jackie and bitched about her being worthless and dumb and even having NO SELF-WORTH for being friends with Charlotte this was coupled with Jackie having oblivious confessionals about how she's friends with Charlotte since she's the only person who will talk to her lmaooooo this somehow led to Charlotte and Jackie bumbling their way into the final two and Jackie giving one of the worst FTC performances of all time as people kept making digs at her in their questions and she handled them all terribly naturally this led to Jackie losing unanimously to someone who was about to be Pagonged as;ldfkjasskl;dfajs her patheticness really didn't click for me much until the endgame but then it all came together sooooo well)
5. Andy (he was good! He ended up being the true tribe leader of Helang and he played the hero role well. He didn't really have a lot of specific moments, but he was definitely the best fit for being the tribe leader of Helang and he was a rootable underdog. They kept losing tribal ICs no matter what he tried to do, and then he won the first individual IC by standing on the plank for 23 hours and it was undeniably epic. This naturally led to get him getting taken out in the next episode, but he was a good first Juror and his Bible verse shirts were a fun motif to look out for. I don't really have a lot to say about him but he was definitely an important character and probably The Fan Favorite and honestly he kinda deserved it? His speedos were also A Look tbh)
6. JJ (alollllll she was absolutely primed to be A Main Character and if I was unspoiled probably would've been my winner pick after the premiere? She was awkwardly trying to find her place in the tribe as she watched them make terrible decisions with building the shelter, and then she finally mustered up the courage to speak up and became the tribe leader! JJ took this title to heart and screamed at everyone for making a mess around camp and not knowing where to put the knives and pots and other cooking utensils when they weren't being used this led to her being BLINDSIDED in a 4-4, 3-3, 3-3, 4-2 vote (yes, they had to do three different tiebreaker votes apparently) and then storming off the TC set while ominously stating that she knows EXACTLY who voted for her. As the show aired, she sold stories to the press about Charlotte giving Adrian a blowjob back at camp and being APPALLED by their behavior, and then proudly stated at the finale that The Real Winner should be chosen by looking at a reverse boot order since this show was really survival of the weakest)
7. Adrian (mainly remembered as the person Charlotte cheated on her husband with but he was pretty great in his own right? Was sooooooo lazy and the perfect MORN presence as he would just lay around the shelter and complain about how he doesn't want anything to do with eating rats and fish and anything living since it's gross and he just wants a burger from McDonald's <3 he would also infuriate Jayne and Andy and James by bragging about how he'll call his mother on his mobile from upstairs while laying in bed asking her to serve him breakfast since he's hungover, and he also did **** all in the distress signal challenge and just hung out in the shelter while everyone else did all the work <3)
8. James (not a primary character but a good MORM presence on Helang as they got Pagonged. Highlight was probably when he got their tribe DQed in one of the ICs and he completely lashed out at the host at TC and told him to stop asking him stupid questions it was bizarre and the host clearly had no clue how to react but James kinda owned him alol)
9. Uzma (alol random pathetic girl who got sick on like Day 4 and became immediately useless <3 she and Charlotte were fun BFFs but I think she was the only person who tolerated her? Even Adrian was like "yeah I'm actually glad Uzma's gone she was annoying xx" as soon as she left )
10. Jayne (older woman who apparently was VERY abrasive to people and was hated by most of the tribe for just saying rude **** to people out of nowhere a lot of it was told to us through confessionals rather than shown to us, so it didn't really stick the way it could have, but if she got a better edit I'm convinced she would've been a star)
11. Mick (UTRfun oldie who smuggled sausages in his asshole onto the island?! I feel like I could've given him a better writeup if I didn't wait a few months until I finished the season to do this, but unfortunately I don't remember much. I think he was randomly a threat to win if he made it to the end? Oh well)
12. Pete (plays a VERY important role this season as The Religious Guy With Morals who ends up befriending all of Helang as they get Pagonged throughout the merge. He also has a very hard time with the hunger and becomes a lazy lump around camp. These two things end up pissing off the entire Ular tribe and they immediately decide to blindside him as soon as he loses Immunity <3 he's not really telegenic enough to make it work since he's a monotone mumbler without much of a dynamic personality, BUT he really was the one who kickstarted Charlotte's winning journey so thank you!)
13. Simon (he was the middle person on Helang between the older people and the younger people, so he was the swing vote for the Jayne boot and the Adrian boot. I didn't really care about him though since he wasn't very telegenic. Props for lasting like 21 hours in the merge IC though!)
14. Zoe (I feel like most people who watch UK1 end up really liking Zoe but she did nothing for me, sorry! Her sense of humor was very much what you would expect from a comedian, and that is NOT a compliment. She was just kinda there as an Ular number and then got blindsided and spawned Eve's amazing boot episode <3)
15. Nick (he served his purpose! He was some military guy who talked about reading How to Win Friends and Influence People and absolutely would've been set up to be an endgame character on any other season of Survivor. However, on UK1 he became a slightly overbearing tribe leader who had people turn on him a blindside *in episode 1* so alol. I don't even think he was bad, but he only lasted one episode so yeah)
16. Sarah (I guess she's last? She was barely on the show and only served as Eve's right hand man who got blindsided in epic fashion. And she like spilled some of the food once or something? IDK)

Great season! Would recommend etc.

[Macie Lightfoot]

This poor forum is so beyond dead that nobody even makes threads for the new seasons anymore </3 But have no fear, I'll still post my thoughts since I can easily find them here if I ever need to reference them!



Good season! I feel like it peaked a little early for my liking and it's not an all-time favorite of mine, but it's probably about as good as modern Survivor can be? Soooooooo much better than most seasons in the 30s, easily my favorite since DvG if not KR. This was a pretty good cast that bounced off of each other REALLY well and it led to a lot of good and fun moments. Of course we're still bogged down a bit by the machinations of modern Survivor but hey, it is what it is at this point I guess.

1. Lindsay (maybe recency bias but once she was finally featured she was just soooooo good and exactly what we needed. A foil to Jonathan and the patriarchy, a legitimate beast of a competitor who gave Jonathan a run for his money in many of the Challenges, an engaging narrator who gave good confessionals, and someone whose charisma was clearly shown in the episodes. I don't know, it's hard to describe the Lindsay thing because she's more of a vibe than someone with actual moments, but she's just a really cool chick who took me by surprise considering how underedited she was in the premerge. Easily the breakout star of the merge)
2. Tori (peaked a little early for me but omg her premiere performance was one of my favorites in a looooooong time. A strategic confessional about how she'll use her nerdiness to make connections and bonds with her tribemates immediately followed by her singing Ancient Voices and making a muggle alliance with Swati and Zach that lasted exactly one episode because she went looking for food/an Idol other highlights include flipping the script in Swati in the most hilarious fashion in Swati's boot episode and her standoff with Rocksroy trying to figure out what happens on the Journey. Sadly Tori fell a liiiiiittle flat once the merge hit and she became an MOR townsperson, and her views on the COVID vaccine are... problematic to say the least, but she's still an inspired casting choice who really had one of the best premerge performances in recent memory)
3. Maryanne (LOVE that she won and is one of the best winners in a loooooong time. A shrieking OTTP chatterbox who people largely tolerated for the entire premerge somehow cockroaching her way into the endgame, pulling THE move of the season, and then having a great FTC performance and winning nearly unanimously? sounds like a CTS fan fiction but somehow the reality of season 42 I do wish that her post-merge edit was a liiiiittle less sanitized tbh, it was a bit too safe for my liking)
4. Rocksroy (lmao the way he got a somewhat P-toned intro package as a stay-at-home dad only for him to be an old school OTTN grump who cared about **** like camp life more than the actual game I'd have him even higher up if he wasn't invisible in a third of his episodes but he really had some great content in the episodes he was featured in)
5. Mike (a little much but I liked him most of the time! Definitely A Good Human but kinda flawed as a player, as he was a bit self-righteous and you could tell that he genuinely thought he was a good guy who had reasons to break his word with like everyone lol. It was a liiiiittle grating at times but it was largely fascinating and he definitely is a great person with a big heart so I have more patience for him than I normally would)
6. Chanelle (random MORN presence who was never included in any alliances once the tribes merged she'd just walk up to groups of people strategizing on the beach and they'd change the subject and scatter like cockroaches sadly I think I like the idea of Chanelle more than the execution of her. I think it was really just the fake merge and the Jenny boot that I really cared about her, but those two episodes were fantastic showings. I can't believe I almost forgot to mention her performance in the Jenny boot where she outlined in a confessional exactly why she should protect her vote, only to risk it and expose herself and get one of her top allies booted for no ****ing reason )
7. Drea (really just a CP gamebot who hoarded a bunch of advantages BUT her monotone confessionals coupled with bizarre cackles were a fun motif. Had a few other fun moments like her red-handed advantage find and her performance at the Tori boot TC, but her own boot was really what sealed the deal for me. She had a lot of fun and it was infectious even to Probst, and it was a really touching end to her time on the show. After that sendoff I can definitely see her returning)
8. Daniel (lmaooooooo lol fail. I don't really like him too much but god what a hilarious arc. OTTP winner threat in the first two episodes who royally ****s it up and then is the tribe punching bag for the next three episodes I could see him rising upon rewatch with the knowledge of how it all ends, even just writing this out had me bump him up because I initially had him below Lydia and Jenny )
9. Romeo (served as a good foil to Hai but I really didn't care about him lol. His CP-->UTRN morph was a bizarre one that was funny on paper but like... sorry, it's just Romeo so I can only care so much. I'd be tempted to make some joke about his pageant coaching and all his talk about getting the Survivor sash and the tiara and wearing the prettiest dress, but I find Romeo to be pretty devoid of charisma so I'm done talking about him!)
10. Omar (a kinda generic CP gamebot who I'm relieved didn't win. He wasn't the most boring person in the world, but he wasn't super exciting either. He had some confessionals that were amusing and gave me a good laugh, but he also had other moments that kinda made me roll my eyes and get annoyed a little bit. I don't know, I'm sure Reddit has a lot more to say about him but he doesn't appeal to The Gay Viewer In Me so that's all I got)
11. Lydia (somewhat painfully UTR on the show and probably the most irrelevant person To Me but outside the show she's apparently really ****ing funny??? what a shame)
12. Jenny (I had my hopes after she handled the triangle puzzle in the premiere but sorry that was her peak easily forgotten once she was voted off but holy **** the circumstances of her boot are AWFUL and total bull**** lmao)
13. Zach (vaguely annoying but worked as an early boot? Certainly could've become awful if he lasted longer but his short-lived muggle alliance with Swati and Tori was a highlight of the premiere)
14. Swati (boring and not particularly likable considering that her idol is Elon Musk and she kiiinda served as propaganda for the US Army buuuuuuut her boot episode was a hilarious downfall with her copy/pasting ORG PMs to everyone in her tribe and getting owned by Tori of all people)
15. Marya (I guess her story about her brother is touching but she is largely forgettable sorry!)
16. Jackson (I don't even know what to say because his entire existence feels like a fever dream??? what an enigma)
17. Jonathan (could go in yellow but ehhhh he's here. If I did orange he'd be a prime candidate for it. Started off as good and fun and a tribe hero with challenge prowess that only Ozzy can parallel, but then once the merge hit he just became hangry and somewhat misogynistic and had a realllllllly bad showing at the Tori boot TC wrt implicit racial bias. His OTTP-->MORN morph is an interesting one on paper but I could totally do without seeing him again, especially as the casuals ate him up just because he was an exceptionally good swimmer. No thank you.)
18. Hai (smarmy annoying gay who insisted upon himself and the great game that he was playing except that he was playing a terrible one? Pathetically blindsided by a nearly unanimous vote too which like... lol. If he wasn't last already, his incorrect use of the word gaslighting would've dropped him to here automatically)

[Macie Lightfoot]

Only took me nine months but I finished NZ1 last night!



I know that its reputation is that its one of the worst seasons ever but I don't think it's THAT bad really? There is a passable season hidden deep down in there somewhere, but there are a lot of formatting and structural issues holding it back. Redemption Island is a lame inclusion, but the pacing is really SO bad. Each cycle consists of two episodes, one of which ends in a TC and the other ends in a RI Duel. However, the TC boot episodes are standard 42-43 minute length while the RI Duel episodes are 65-67 minute length?! It makes no sense and it makes the season move REALLY slow at times. And then I don't understand why they randomly switched from two-person Duels to three-person ~Battles~ halfway through the merge, and I *really* don't understand why they went down to a F3 and then brought two people back from RI. That being said, I think the cast wasn't terrible and the events that happened were actually moderately entertaining so I really didn't hate this season at all. I think it actually could be a goodish season if it was scaled down to traditional US length and runtime actually!

1. Barb (I said NZ1 really has a good season hidden deep down inside somewhere and Barb alone made it worth the price of admission for me. Her journey is A+ and one of the best ever for me, and she's probably one of my fave people all time now. She starts off on the outs of Hermosa and is just waiting to get picked off by the young pretty people and is giving confessionals about how the game isn't fun and she just wants to go home because it's lame, and then she finds herself in a great tribe swap and immediately takes back everything she said because now she's having fun playing Survivor lmaoooo once the merge hit Barb was just this bizarre paradox where everyone bashed her for doing nothing and being a waste of space and yet she was somehow in control and ruled the tribe with an iron first??? She was the permanent lynchpin swing vote and just reclined in the hammock like a mafia boss as everyone came up to her and she just held court about who they should vote out and why, and then everyone walked away in horror unable to comprehend how Barb of all people was running the show. The peak of Barb's power trip was where she randomly turned the tables on Sala just because she wanted to break up his trio with Avi and Shay and it basically led to the entire tribe melting down over how they can't stop her from having all the power and control lmaooooo eventually she decided that she was playing for Avi and Tom to make it to the end and for Avi to win, and whenever anyone tried to strategize with her she just laughed in their faces and told them she didn't care what they had to say. This led to Mike telling her that she'll end the game on an embarrassing note if she goes to the end with Avi and Tom because she hasn't done anything, and then Barb clapped back about how he's just as rude as he was at Hermosa and how she obviously had to do something right if she's been the swing vote like every round. Mike was so taken aback he timidly apologized to Barb for offending her <3 Ultimately this led to Barb making the FTC where she gave an opening statement about how she knows she played a great game and she's a role model to older women everywhere and she doesn't need the jury's approval or votes to win because she was playing FOR HERSELF and that mattes more than anything they have to say, and then each juror one by one ripped her apart for being incredibly hard to live with and play the game with as Barb just laughed in their faces. A truly glorious journey and one for the ages)
2. Jak (a class clown act that actually worked? I don't know, Jak seems like someone I shouldn't like but he was one of the only sources of comic relief and he was ACTUALLY funny so I couldn't help but stan. His humor was so stupid and childish but his delivery was always great. He was one of the only ones out there having fun and it made him one of the only fun ones to watch. Highlights are wearing a loincloth to his boot TC and throwing that one IC by spelling tight ass in the word scramble because he was so bored waiting for Barb and Shannon to finally figure out the correct phrase alol)
3. Tom (I feel like I'm the only Tom fan out there but he really worked for me? I just really dug his cockroach journey all throughout the first half of the game where he was the alt boot option like nearly every round because Shay randomly decided she hated his ****ing guts. I also liked his relationship with Avi tbh, where they were close allies at the start and then they grew apart and were on opposite sides for a while but then linked back together even though there was always a slight element of wariness and distrust there. I don't know, I probably sound like a Redditor saying that but it was much more compelling than the Adam/Jay **** from MvGX that they still gush over. Tom was just fun to me and I wish he beat Avi and won!)
4. Shay (I didn't like her that much at first but she's such an enigma that I can't help but like her a lot? Literally nothing about her makes sense. She screams CPN calculating villain but she's also a devout Mormon whose luxury item was her Bible scriptures with all the notes she's taken in them since she was like sixteen. Her biggest storyline was that she HATED Tom and was foaming at the mouth to get him out literally since Day 1, but then she instead backstabbed a bunch of her close allies like Hannah and Tony for no discernible reason <3 I think her peak Tom hate was when she saw Tom whispering with Nate about nothing in particular but she decided to go and tell Avi that Tom was plotting to backstab him when that was not the case whatsoever lmaooooooo after Avi confronted Tom and got the truth there was this really ominous scene where the camera just panned on a spider catching a bug in its web and eating it while we get the audio of Avi sternly lecturing Shay for like 90 seconds straight about how she needs to control her paranoia and stop making up lies for no reason. It was seriously A+ editing and one of the moments that really held up and demonstrated this show's potential)
5. Dee (alolllll what an experience. She answered a question at the marooning about how she could see herself being seen as the villain or whatever, and that kinda freaked out Hermosa along with her general manic energy so she was the first boot from their tribe. Then she lost the Duel against Hannah and went on some big speech about how nobody knows she's actually a SUPERFAN and Survivor is her LIFE because she's watched every season and listens to 40 hours of podcasts a week and follows all the blogs. And then there was just a ridiculously awkward silence while everyone was like "..." and then she left and apparently professed her hate of the show and the never showed up to the reunion. One of the best first boots in a while tbh)
6. Izzy (alollllllllllll who is this chick? She stole a bunch of supplies from the other tribe during the marooning Reward Challenge and was unapologetic about it, then she randomly became apologetic about it and tried to give them back a machete because she felt bad??? So naturally she pissed off like literally every other player within the opening minutes of the game <3 Then she got sick on like Day 2 right after Hannah was voted off and left the rest of Mogoton in deep regret that they didn't just vote Izzy out instead lmaoooooooo. It was one of the best opening episodes of all time! But that was kinda her peak sadly she cockroached for a little bit longer and I remember it was fun when Avi told her he was voting her out and she was like "but that doesn't make sense because you were weaker than me in today's Challenge xx" and that was funny too)
7. Shannon (I think she's kind of boring as a human but she was thrust into a really good story from a narrative perspective so that was fun. She was the swing vote at Hermosa between the pretty people of the Tight Five and the oldies in Barb and Nate, she swapped tribes and was on the outs but hustled her way into getting good with the people from Mogoton, then the tribes merged and she flipped to Mogoton and voted out her old Tight Five alliance, then she randomly became part of the Sala blindside, everyone who was voted out HATED her and ripped her new ones at Redemption Island, Shannon hysterically sobbed about how the game is turning her into a bad person and she's afraid of letting everyone down, and then she decided she was DONE playing such a mercenary game and was immediately voted out </3 a tragic story that surely would've earned her a returning player spot if this show didn't get cancelled but alas)
8. Tony (crochety old ex-military grump <3 he was just so funny to me, like he came on so strong about trying to set up camp, he called people by their full names like SHAYNA and ISABEL, he cried real tears after he realized that they made a mistake voting out Hannah instead of Izzy, and then Shay backstabbed him and he waxed poetic at Redemption Island for three straight episodes about how she's a disloyal wench who backstabbed him and therefore she should NEVER be trusted by anyone ever again. Everything he said was quotably hilarious and his accent added even more humor to it, I wish he lasted longer)
9. Nate (kind of a boring human being and certainly got boring by the end but I actually liked him early on? He was a fun Barb buddy who was also on the outs of Hermosa until the tribe swap and then rose to power. Someone told me that apparently he was suuuuuper mean to the younger people at Hermosa but it didn't make the edit and that makes me like him more but I wish we could've seen it lmao)
10. Hannah (The Big Girl...... gets voted out immediately because everyone thought she was weak lmao poor thing. I felt bad for her because she was actually strong and a powerlifter but the rest of the tribe was terrible about her and was worried that she'd slow them down in Challenges. Then she shocked everyone by winning the first RI Duel and left Mogoton near tears about how they made the wrong decision and should've voted off Izzy instead lmaooooo but yeah Hannah really peaked in the first episode and then I didn't care about her sorry!)
11. Avi (I don't dislike him necessarily but eh. His whole shtick was being The Nice Guy and it was kinda boring because I don't know if he was really that "nice"? It was a lot of telling and not showing, and we actually saw a few moments of his mask slipping like when he acknowledged that Hannah was physically strong but he was worried she would slow them down in Challenges because she was a bigger girl, and the hilariously self-righteous temper tantrum he threw after the Sala boot where he mocked Shannon wanting to win so she can go on a vacation to Rarotonga while he wants to use the money to help his students!!!!!!!!! He objectively played a good game because everyone ****ing loved him and worshipped the ground he walked on, but ehhh he wasn't all that nice to me!)
12. Sala (I feel like I liked him at the time but in hindsight he kinda drops for me and I liked a lot of other people more? I guess he was kinda like the NZ equivalent of Rupert since he was this OTTP Nice Family Guy who was all about honor and integrity and loving his family and BEING KIND which really isn't riveting television. His boot, however, was ****ing hysterical because Barb randomly sniped him while lounging in the hammock and the fallout was easily the best episode of the season, with Barb being self-impressed with he reign of terror, Avi melting down over being left out of the vote, and Shannon melting THE **** down over becoming a hated force in the game. But by the FTC Sala's nice guy act ABSOLUTELY fell through as he eviscerated Barb in his question and called her extremely disrespectful. And then in the reunion it was revealed that the worst of Sala's question was edited out because he apparently told Barb that she was like a turd in the toilet that wouldn't flush? So much for Mister Nice Guy!)
13. Mike (he was the CPN leader of the Tight Five, which was basically the pretty people's alliance on Hermosa, but he excluded the two older people so they flipped on him once the merge hit. Mike then proceeded to spend like 17 days or something absurd on Redemption Island, Challenge beasted his way back into the game, and then was immediately booted alol. I didn't start to like him until the end when it was actually impressive that he won his way back into the game, AND at his hilarious campaigning. He tried to tell Barb that she wasn't gonna win if she went to the final three with and Tom and she was just like "yeah I know and I don't care xx," and then when Mike tried to bring it up again at TC she completely eviscerated his ass and made him timidly apologize for offending her lmaooooooooo)
14. Lou (she was an 18 year old farm girl and her entire presence was being a strong girl from a farm who was only 18! And then she cut her foot on a rock and got such a bad infection that she almost died and got medevaced, which shouldn't have been a funny scene but the poor host clearly had no precedent for this type of situation and he looked so panicked at the show deviating from its script for once lmao)
15. Georgia (eh she was a kinda lame right hand man to Mike in the Tight Five pretty people's alliance and then she got swap****ed but it was kinda funny and karma. And then she was eulogized as One Of The Strongest Players but I don't know if she really was?)
16. Lee (who? Boring and very much about Honor and Integrity although his OTTN episode was fun where he just randomly decided to rebuild the entire shelter out of boredom while Nate was sleeping in said shelter)

That ended up being a lot longer than I had anticipated and I doubt anyone's going to willingly read anything about NZ1 anyway but here it is!

[Mystic Mock]

I'm trying to get back into Survivor again after being away from it for awhile.

I've started watching Season 47 with my Brother yesterday, I don't know if he is really sharing similar thoughts to me on the contestants (I'll have to ask him later,) because tbf we've only watched the first two episodes.

I know that I have someone that I already strongly dislike, they're just not my type of person.

After 2 episodes rankings:
1. Rome
2. Andy
3. TK
4. Anika
5. Sam
6. Kyle
7. Jon
8. Rachel
9. Sierra
10. Teeny
11. Aysha
12. Kishan
13. Gabe
14. Sol
15. Genevieve
16. Caroline
17. Tiyanna
18. Sue

I think that I've got everyone down.

It's early days for everyone tbf, so this list could change a lot once I've finished the season.

I don't know where anyone finishes (except for the two people that have gone,) so I'm to try and stay away from any spoilers about the season until I've finished it.

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Mystic Mock

I'm trying to get back into Survivor again after being away from it for awhile.

I've started watching Season 47 with my Brother yesterday, I don't know if he is really sharing similar thoughts to me on the contestants (I'll have to ask him later,) because tbf we've only watched the first two episodes.

I know that I have someone that I already strongly dislike, they're just not my type of person.

After 2 episodes rankings:
1. Rome
2. Andy
3. TK
4. Anika
5. Sam
6. Kyle
7. Jon
8. Rachel
9. Sierra
10. Teeny
11. Aysha
12. Kishan
13. Gabe
14. Sol
15. Genevieve
16. Caroline
17. Tiyanna
18. Sue

I think that I've got everyone down.

It's early days for everyone tbf, so this list could change a lot once I've finished the season.

I don't know where anyone finishes (except for the two people that have gone,) so I'm to try and stay away from any spoilers about the season until I've finished it.

I really enjoyed this season of Survivor, I think that I can honestly say that I liked a lot of the contestants in this season, and I even liked the winner.

Here's my final rankings of the contestants.

Spoiler:

1. Sam (+4)
2. Genevieve (+13)
3. Andy (-1)
4. Rachel (+4)
5. Kyle (+1)
6. Gabe (+7)
7. Rome (-6)
8. Sol (+6)
9. Caroline (+7)
10. TK (-7)
11. Anika (-7)
12. Sierra (-3)
13. Kishan (-1)
14. Tiyanna (+3)
15. Sue (+3)
16. Jon (-9)
17. Aysha (-6)
18. Teeny (-8)

I honestly find it interesting to see how much your opinions change from your first impressions.

I honestly thought that Gabe was going to be annoying for example, but I ended up liking him.

And I thought that I would prefer Teeny over Sue at the beginning, but I couldn't be more wrong.

Jon and Aysha both had potential, but as they went really early in a really strong Season imo, I had no choice but to place them both low on my rankings.

[Macie Lightfoot]

Pretty bad season lol. The potential was definitely there with SO many weird F/F relationships that we really could've had Survivor: Girl, So Confusing but instead we had... another season of the New Era. The show is just stale at this point and I'm so tired of the same ****.

1. Sage (not anywhere close to an all-time Troy favo but she really was the crux of the season with her dynamic with Shannon, her and Jawan randomly becoming the power couple, a dynamic with Savannah that I wish got explored further, and her weird **** like being obsessed with bodily functions and secretly being in the Army for 10 years and having tattoos for her childhood friend who died from leukemia and the random crying after Immunity Challenges she lost and during the After Show and doing an RHAP interview just to be like "lol Survivor is boring as **** no offense " the pieces were there to be a really great character but she was about as good as one could be in this shitty New Era season)
2. Shannon (didn't really click for me until her boot episode but REALLY clicked with her remembering being in the womb and the kissyface scene. No surprise that her boot episode was the only Great episode of the season. Of all the Girl, So Confusing dynamics we had this season between Sage/Savannah and Kristina/Savannah, the Sage/Shannon one is the OG and easily my favorite)
3. Savannah (could've been GREAT with being an insensitive ice queen who is maybe one of the least empathetic players ever, but she just got a boring MOR winners edit)
4. Kristina (I don't even particularly like her but she needs to be studied in a lab with how weirdly pathetic she is with **** like projecting all her own insecurities onto Savannah from pre-Ponderosa and the breakdown over missing her mom as soon as she was blindsided for like the very first time rofl)
5. Sophie (had potential to be really good but being SO invisible in the beginning was weird)
6. Annie (off-putting weirdo who thought she was RUNNING THE GAME but was an embarrassing early boot rofl)
7. Nate (boring as **** but seems like a nice enough dude who had good taste in allies?)
8. Jake (had the potential to be annoying BUT he's hot and the circumstances of his medevac were at least engaging)
9. MC (she was fine I guess?)
10. Nicole (projectile vomiting queen)
11. Sophi (kinda goodish at times but also really ****ing annoying but not enough for me to care)
12. Rizo (****ing annoying BUT too boring for me to care and he could be just a little charming at times since he's at least in on the joke)
13. Jawan (kinda annoying and vaguely unsettling at times but I don't care)
14. Steven (annoying TC analogies is all I got)
15. Jeremiah (his cackle when he wanted to vote Annie out is iconic but it starts and ends there)
16. Matt (boring and ugly)
17. Alex (ANNOYING and way too much screen time in the beginning of the show)
18. Jason (just a snivelly annoying superfan)

If you couldn't tell, I don't care about any of these people