Survivor

[Eddie]

Nothing written about last week.

Looks like after the shakeup the tribe that ended up with the older crowd sealed their fate by promptly ditching the strongest guy on their team. Hopefully they won't let them just go on a run of loses before doing something to switch it up again.

And I am SO tired of hearing about "pretty" people groups. Especially from a dude. Really?

It was interesting that in a totally random mix, each tribe ended up with 3 fans and 4 favorites. It will be more interesting to see if the favorites stick together long enough to oust the fans, or if the fans will get someone to cross.

And Phillip is still high entertainment. Sure, he and Brandon could not co-exist. One of them had to go before someone ended up dead. But Phillip is certainly not any less crazy than Brandon is.

[BenFigueroa]

Brandon is an idiot in the game, but I actually believe that he believes what he's saying. I think he's sincere, and that makes him deeply deeply disturbing to watch, not because some find it incredulous, but that someone so unstable could claim to speak for God. When he got upset about the cheap lingeries model girl in the camp, it was painfully obvious that he wanted her. So, he brings religion into the relationship to try to salve his panting lust with some other kind of approbation via spiritual better-than-you-ness, which makes him attack her for her putative "sins" when it's him who feels terrible for lusting after her when he's married. He's a very conflicted guy, and I would definitely not want to be around him if he got pissed off.

Surely not an ideal person in the game. He is fortunate to reach those heights but I am not huge fan of Brandon

[clackamascoug]

On Wednesday's I have a "date night" with my daughters. We watch Survivor, and then American Idol, and then Modern Family. We've done this for years, and we've pretty much seen every season of Survivor. I have to admit I can't tell you who won two years ago, but the individual episodes hold up enough on their own. That said, Malcolm and his triple idol play at tribal council was one for the ages.

[Eddie]

On Wednesday's I have a "date night" with my daughters. We watch Survivor, and then American Idol, and then Modern Family. We've done this for years, and we've pretty much seen every season of Survivor. I have to admit I can't tell you who won two years ago, but the individual episodes hold up enough on their own. That said, Malcolm and his triple idol play at tribal council was one for the ages.

I agree. Absolutely entertaining to watch.

I've been told that tribal council itself sometimes runs 2 or even 3 hours - but of course they just hit the highlights and the votes. I'm not sure what else happened at that council, but as entertaining as it was to watch them try to scramble last minute and whisper plans of who to vote for - I think that one would've been worth watching for a little longer.

[dabrockster]

Am I the only one who finds Dawn (From Utah) to be absolutely annoying.. I can't stand her at all..

[Shaka]

Am I the only one who finds Dawn (From Utah) to be absolutely annoying.. I can't stand her at all..

I can't stand all her blubbering. If she can't be away from her husband for a month without melting down at the mere mention of his name....then she shouldn't have gone in the first place. Seriously, watching her break down is like watching a three year old that dropped his sucker.

[dabrockster]

I can't stand all her blubbering. If she can't be away from her husband for a month without melting down at the mere mention of his name....then she shouldn't have gone in the first place. Seriously, watching her break down is like watching a three year old that dropped his sucker.

When she was watching the others from the shore and crying worse then my 8 year old and Brenda was consoling her it bugged me how angry she acted and how she was placing blame on Brenda.

Even after Brenda dove in the water to find her dentures (Seriously.. Was she not able to do that on her own? Nope, instead she mentally breaks in a heaving blubbery-mess in one of the most vain ways possible) and having Dawn cry/whine on her shoulder making the promise to never vote for her for saving her dentures..


Annoying..

[DrumNFeather]

Survivor crowns another deserving winner. Once Eric was out of the competition, the decision was pretty clear I thought. I did think Dawn was treated somewhat unfairly by the jury for being such a mess, especially given all the "characters" there were around camp, but still, there was no way she was winning and no way Sheri was winning. I don't really like the concept of a final three when there are only 8 jurors, it just doesn't make much sense to me.

The one thing that I thought was pretty harsh was Brenda asking Dawn to remove her teeth, and pretending like that was a move to gain favor with the jury. It was a move that was strictly meant to embarrass and Brenda should've been called out for it. But I digress.

The reunion show was interesting as well...they kept all the voted off non-jury people off the main stage, and they didn't address the Brandon/Phillip issue, which I thought they might. No Russell at this reunion either.

Season 27 was teased and after reading a bit about it...it sounds like there will be at least some returning players playing against family members in Survivor: blood vs. water.

[dabrockster]

I did not like this season at all. Largest group of weak players who took out any strong players. Once Eric was gone I almost turned the TV off because I really didn't care for the final 3 or who won. Cochran was the most deserving of the 3 but the other 2 had no chance whatsoever to win.

Dawn. UGH. What a weepy-whiny mess. By the end I could not stand her at all. She is very phony (As Reynolds has pointed out). Everything she did was exaggerated to the Nth degree. Congratulating Cochran for his win, Crying over it. All of it was fake and had a purpose. She is not sincere at all. I was a little embarrassed for her at times. It was like watching a person being peer-pressured and she just gave in. When Malcolm and Reynolds told her to own her actions as a liar deceitful, and she proceeded to do that and even yelled "I kicked your Ass", and then for them to sit back and smile and feel "proud" for getting the "Mormon-Mom" to look bad was disappointing.

Brenda: I actually think the actions you took to have Dawn remove her teeth were somewhat vindictive, but also was wanting to show how "vain" Dawn really is. That she may portray herself as a sincere, loving, kind person, but this is what she did to me. It also showed the rest of the group Dawn's true colors and pretty much ensured she would not have any votes. I think Brenda was truly hurt by what Dawn did to her. After all the emotional connections she had with Dawn and support she gave her, Dawn just stabbed her in the back. Brenda could of left her to cry alone and never helped her but she helped her and even carried her in the game at times.


I also wondered what happened do Crazy kid Brandon, but they left that totally hanging and never wanted to address it. I wonder if there was a hanging threat from Brandon. Looks like the show decided not to have him or anyone from that family back for the reunion ased on twitter threats from Russel.. What a loony family.

http://www.examiner.com/article/surv...n-reunion-show

[wuapinmon]

She's not phony. She's thoroughly steeped in female Utah culture and norms. She doesn't realize that she's being phony because women in Utah do exactly what she does. They say "thanks so much" when "thank you" would clearly suffice, and everything they try or do is the "best ever." Utah is king of conversational hyperbolic adverbs--no one can touch them.

That said, Dawn is annoying as hell, and I'm glad her style of play didn't win. Brenda should've won, but Cochran deserved it too. His tweets are awesome, btw.

[Shaka]

I'm sure Dawn is a decent human being and a credit to her state and religion. This is why she doesn't pull off the villain role convincingly. I also think it was one of the reasons she was melting down so much. Being the villain is entirely against her nature.

[Eddie]

I don't know and have never met Dawn, but work with people who do. After last week - when Brenda was voted off - they were all hoping that Dawn would be the next to go so that she wouldn't have to face the jury and the vitriol that was sure to come with it. I have to admit - the multiple emotional breakdowns each week got to me too. To the point that even though I went in wanting her to do well due to my relationship with her friends - I was ready to have her voted off more than once.

All that aside - I am fairly certain from my conversations with them that Dawn is not a fake. I think she made it clear that the melting down started when she had to start making "game" decisions and vote off people she liked and had even made commitments to. I think she struggled with that. And I think her paranoia came from playing previously and knowing that a blindside can come at any moment.

I think it is unfortunate that Dawn took as much heat as she did. Frankly, no one makes it to the end without stabbing a friend or two in the back - or in the very least leaving them hanging out to dry. You don't get to the end with an alliance of 2. You just don't. Along with nearly everyone else - I was disappointed when she voted Brenda out. I think it needed to happen if she wanted a chance to win - but that she could've waited until the next vote/challenge.

I don't know why Cochran didn't take any heat for his role. Either he was the mastermind who was hitting people (even those in his alliance) left and right, or he had the right alliance and was enough of a non-threat until he won a couple of challenges and couldn't be voted out that he managed to ride along under the view of everyone. It is almost as if you gain favor by being aloof and less friendly with people so they hate you less if you have to vote them off.

It was refreshing to see Cochran mount an actual logical and well thought-out argument as to why he deserved to win. In all honesty, it seems like all too often people get to the final three and act as if they've never ever thought about what to say or do if they got to that stage.

And speaking of what to tell the jury at the end - Sherri, Sherri, Sherri... Could you be less self-aware? First - watch the people laugh at you when you say that you think you have a chance. Then, the one guy who actually has a question for you or wants to talk to you - you tell him to sit down and shut up? Really? I would think you would want to hear what he has to say - he is describing how you are perceived. This is your chance to hear what people see you as and then mount an argument to change those perceptions - and you blew it. And finally - you were a super long shot to win this thing in the first place - telling everyone how successful you are and how wealthy, how many businesses, how many employees you have...not a winning argument.

I know some folks see this differently than I do - but I thought this was an excellent season. Brandon goes freaky leading to a forfeit challenge and an impromptu tribal council while Jeff rubs the dude's shoulders to try and calm him while keeping his hands on him to slow him down if he must? Crazy.

Malcolm pulls out two hidden idols at tribal council leaving his alliance free from harm? Priceless. The only mistake was to publicly target Philip - you knew you were fine, don't make it easy for them! Tell them maybe you'll play it or maybe you won't - but they won't know until the votes are counted. Tell them each of the three are voting for someone different - get them wondering if it is them and who they need to throw votes to in order to survive. Tell them you aren't saying who you are voting for - so that the group remains in paranoia and scrambling. Any of the above would've given you a chance to splinter the larger alliance and gain some allies before the next challenge, but you let them off the hook by suggesting Phillip.

Anyway - I suppose I'll keep watching. I just enjoy seeing the human relationships and interactions way too much to quit.

[myboynoah]

She's not phony. She's thoroughly steeped in female Utah culture and norms. She doesn't realize that she's being phony because women in Utah do exactly what she does. They say "thanks so much" when "thank you" would clearly suffice, and everything they try or do is the "best ever." Utah is king of conversational hyperbolic adverbs--no one can touch them.

That said, Dawn is annoying as hell, and I'm glad her style of play didn't win. Brenda should've won, but Cochran deserved it too. His tweets are awesome, btw.

LOL

[Shaka]

I enjoyed this season quite a bit. It definitely got better with each episode.

Spoiler for Spoiler:

Tyson deserved to win it as he was the puppet master yet didn't turn himself into too much of a villian. He had the hilarious inside joke for Mormons when in one episode he was enjoying a gourmet meal while others were undergoing an immunity challenge. When Survivor host Jeff Probst asked Tyson how the food was he replied..." It is Delicious to the taste and very desirable".

Some of you are old enough to get the reference.

[wuapinmon]

I enjoyed this season quite a bit. It definitely got better with each episode.

Spoiler for Spoiler:

Tyson deserved to win it as he was the puppet master yet didn't turn himself into too much of a villian. He had the hilarious inside joke for Mormons when in one episode he was enjoying a gourmet meal while others were undergoing an immunity challenge. When Survivor host Jeff Probst asked Tyson how the food was he replied..." It is Delicious to the taste and very desirable".

Some of you are old enough to get the reference.

I agree. I enjoyed it a lot more once the tribes merged. The winner deserved to win.