Natalie! An Amazing Race Twinnie nearly single-handedly rescued Survivor San Juan Del Sur, creating a wonderfully symmetrical arc by winning after her sister was voted out first. For that reason and so many more, Natalie Anderson is a satisfying winner who, incredibly, got there via the path of most resistance, creating a thrilling finale for a so-so season. She easily convinced the… continue reading
Survivor San Juan Del Sur
Survivor alliance’s amazing final-three plan
Survivor San Juan Del Sur‘s alliance of five fell apart when Jon was blindsided, but at one point they had an incredible plan for the final three that involved two of the five sacrificing themselves. Jon, Jaclyn, Missy, Baylor, and Natalie decided on this scenario: Jon, Missy, and Natalie were to be the final three, with Jaclyn and Baylor… continue reading
The Survivor blindside we’ve been waiting for
Survivor San Juan Del Sur enters its two-hour finale next week minus its villain, the person who’d been consistently given credit for controlling the game. Jon Misch was blindsided first by a vote that resulted in a three-way tie, which gave Natalie and Baylor their chance to send him to the jury, and gave this season… continue reading
Dear Jeff Probst and CBS: free the Survivors from their Twitter prison
In August, Jeff Probst tweeted something ominous, using strong language: “we killed that for S29 and beyond.” “That” referred to tweeting by the cast of Survivor, and the end result is a cast social media blackout that has made an already weak season even weaker. Probst’s confirmation that Survivor San Juan Del Sur‘s cast would not be permitted to… continue reading
Double the Survivor, double the drama, double the dumb
The two full Survivor San Juan Del Sur episodes that aired Wednesday were both very satisfying, at least by the low bar this season has set. They basically came down to this: 1) Reed tries to take control of the game and blindside Jon, but fails so spectacularly every single person votes him out, and 2) Natalie tries to take… continue reading
At least Survivor’s Tribal Council chaos made more sense than Jon’s hero edit
I was left with many questions after Survivor San Juan Del Sur‘s second consecutive insane Tribal Council, about exactly what transpired that led to Jon and Keith playing their idols and Wes being voted out with just two votes. I watched the episode twice to try to make sense of what happened at Tribal Council, and I still have no idea…. continue reading
A Survivor surprise in the form of a baffling vote
Even 29 seasons in, Survivor continues to offer surprises. This time, they came in the form of baffling behavior: reward challenge trades, pointless lies, and a true blindside. It was also a throwback to earlier seasons when the vote came as a surprise to viewers because very little and/or misleading strategizing was shown. When Natalie turned to Missy… continue reading
Gross, piggish sexism on Survivor, this time with consequences
Survivor is no stranger to sexism from its host or players, but rarely has it been so blatant or gross as it was last night, and rarely does it result in such clear consequences–though, sadly, it was not for one of the people behaving badly, but the most threatening member of their alliance. The result was… continue reading
The merge makes this season of Survivor even more terrible
Sometimes the Survivor merge brings an increased intensity of game play and renewed vigor and life for the players and the show itself, as it did last fall during the first Blood vs. Water. Sometimes it means a slump as a dominant tribe picks off the smaller tribe before turning on itself. In the case of San Juan… continue reading
For a bag of rice, Jeff Probst bleeds a tribe, and Survivor, dry
This Survivor San Juan Del Sur episode was full of frustrating behavior, from Coyopa bungling the immunity challenge to Hunapu trading nearly every single thing in their camp to Jeff Probst for a bag of rice so they wouldn’t go hungry. On Survivor. Where people usually lose a lot of weight and forage for food. And have… continue reading
Solved: the mystery of Survivor’s four cutest guest stars
Besides the exceptional narrative arc of Drew’s blindside, the fourth episode of Survivor San Juan Del Sur is most notable for the brief but remarkable appearance of four animals, three of whom were riding on the fourth’s back. But what are they? Alert reality blurred reader Michael Corbett identified it in an e-mail to me… continue reading
After tribe shake-up, Survivor tribes shake poles
Despite a tribe shake-up and a somewhat surprising vote, I’m not sure I have all that much to say about Survivor San Juan Del Sur, or Survivor Blood vs. Water, as Jeff Probst called it last night, and perhaps before, perhaps to confuse us into thinking we were watching a season with actual strategy or better editing. I understand why tribes were… continue reading
Survivor tribe shuffle spoiler: start learning new tribes now
The preview for Wednesday’s episode of Survivor revealed that the tribes will switch this week. That’s disappointing in part because their dynamics were just becoming interesting, and also because now I have to re-learn tribe affiliations that I already didn’t know thanks to this season’s bizarre editing. However, we can start studying now, because the CBS preview below gives away… continue reading
Survivor kingpin brilliantly masterminds his own exit
What an immensely satisfying episode of Survivor. It was remarkable that the episode was almost entirely self-contained, and to appreciate what happened, you needed no context or history. It was simply the story of the rise of a self-appointed leader and how his hubris created his spectacular fall. Can stupidity be a tragic flaw? If Drew hadn’t clumsily thrown the challenge,… continue reading
Surprising things John Rocker and Jeff Probst said, with responses from cats
Survivor San Juan Del Sur‘s most recent cast-off and most controversial player, John Rocker, exited the show last night, so he’s been doing the rounds of interviews today, and host/executive producer/showrunner Jeff Probst also did his usual Q&A with EW. Both of said some rather unbelievable things, things which provoked responses that aren’t best expressed… continue reading