20 random people get dropped off on a beach in fiji. they have to live together, in pretty shitty conditions, sleep next to one another every night, no bed, wake up and eat very little throughout the day, baking in the sun, freezing in the rain, and then compete in very physically strenuous challenges.
For 30 days with no break.
In parallel they're voting each other off the beach, one at a time, every other day. So on top of exhaustion physically -- and the unfriendly camping sitch -- everyone is lying and backstabbing each other constantly. Paranoia is rampant.
"I'M NOT OKAY"
The beauty in this type of environment is that people get stripped down of all the bullshit of their day to day. You get to see the raw essence of a human. And those conditions will bring out the real personality of a person.
And then you get to see how these raw, stripped down, super authentic humans interact. And you see every color of the rainbow.
A handful of really dumb, annoying, and shitty people. Pick 20 random people, that's just kinda how it goes. Some people aren't good. And you love to root against them. And some of the sentiments between tribe members can be ruthless -- and I love the juice.
A handful of really cool people. For as many dumb, annoying, and shitty people out there -- there's twice as many humans that have some really dope quality about them. They are fun, interesting, weird, kind, or hilarious. Their best qualities come out and you love to root for them for 30 days. You root for the cool people.
Beautiful stories of friendship. Many times between unlikely suitors. The random combos of homies can be a real treat. A beautiful display of humanity.
But the key to the whole thing -- you're playing for a million dollars.
That's a shit load of money for the vast majority of people.
Win at all costs is kinda the name of the game. Lying, cheating, stealing, backstabbing -- necessary to win that million dollars.
So at some point, every friendship is betrayed. And the relationships within the game evolve somewhat rapidly. Everyone is positioning to win, at all costs. If you're not ruthless -- you don't win that million dollars.
A good example of this in practice from last nights episode (S43E10, on Paramount+, an amazing episode)
-- A chick with an amputated leg wins a very challenging and emotional physical challenge
-- It's perceived as being extremely inspirational (it was) and she brought four players to a feast which involved letters from home -- always very emotional
-- Her winning the challenge and awarding that reward was seen as a threat, because she would be a challenge to beat at the end for the $1M
-- As a result, she's voted off the show
Fucking ruthless. But how the game goes.
You're incentivized to vote off the best player, because you can't beat the best player at the final tribal where that $1M is awarded. But "best player" can have so many different meanings. It's a bit of a shit show trying to figure it all out.
::
I've now watched 43 US seasons of Survivor, and 9 seasons of Australian Survivor. That roughly equates to 497 hours. For two years I was very obsessed. It's the only thing I would watch. I would regularly binge 13 hour seasons in a weekend. Could not get enough.
It has since cooled off, and I'm very much enjoyed the weekly episodes of Season 43. This season marks a significant shift in strategy.
-- The early phases of Survivor were very alliance heavy. If you're in the minority, you get picked off one by one. Kinda lame.
-- Then the game got more complex. People started to realize that if you coasted in the majority you wouldn't win. So more gameplay, which slowly evaporated the alliance structure. Big moves were necessary to win.
-- Now it's very chaotic, as everyone is trying to pull big moves and any given episode anything can happen.
I think the shift has slowly evolved, as more Survivor has been played. People pick up what's needed to win. And you've got tens of thousands (maybe millions) of nerds like me that are obsessed with the show. And they cast super fans who are going to play super hard. I personally think the complete lack of structure or unity is a bad direction, everyone can't be big dogging all the time. It's too much.
But Survivor is and will always be my favorite show regardless, and I don't really care, because the raw premise of the show is the best.
I'm eagerly awaiting Season 10 of Australian Survivor that's coming out right after. I have a preference for Australian Survivor because it's 24 episodes per season (versus 14), hour long episodes (versus 42), and 50 days (versus 30). Bigger, longer, gnarlier.
I think this is my favorite Survivor player of all time (Australian Survivor, Season 6). He's so fucking weird, interesting, smart, strategic, lovable.
It's fun watching a scrawny "loser" win everyone over and ruthlessly plow his way to victory.
He's returning for Season 10, Heroes vs. Villains (he's a villain, and I'm so excited)
::
Shout out to Jeff Probst.
Literally the best character in the universe.
::
Please cast me in the next season.
619-629-5017