The 18th edition of Survivor is off and running. First, let's talk about names and I don't mean the names of the cast members. As the series has aged names have become more obscure and more difficult to pronounce. Explain "Tocantins" to me? Much worse are the tribe names Jalapao & Timbira (I had to go to a recap site Reality News Online to get spelling). Tribe members should not have to take lessons to learn how to pronounce their tribe's name. What happened to names like Survivor Africa, or Survivor Pear Islands? I see next year's edition Survivor Baluchistan, that will make a great t-shirt.
On to the first episode. I am a fan of twists and trying to keep the show fresh, which after so many seasons is getting to be a big chore. Usually the twists don't work - I'm still not a fan of exile island. But I will give the producers props for the first twist right out of the start. What looked like a brutal and rather cruel vote-off eliminating one player from each tribe before the game even started-turned out to be a brilliant study in group prejudice.
I was sure that the oldest or weakest would get the cut and sure enough the one clearly older woman got picked as well as someone (a younger women) who looked sick. This was all done without anyone even knowing each other's names. I have big issues with casting only one or perhaps two players in the 50s. Just think back to season one, would Rudy even get a chance now?
I'm guessing that the current cast had not seen season 17 where Bob, the oldest survivor ever to win, proved that age isn't a disadvantage in the game.
But the twist proved much more interesting when Probst clarified the remark that the two voted-off tribe members would not be making the journey. What he meant (ha!) was that they would not be making the 4 hour trek to each tribe's location instead they would be helicoptered in to the site. Score one for the producers. Now each tribe had to deal with a member who clearly felt screwed.
A final study in psychology occurred when each of the voted-off survivors had an immediate choice when they landed at their new home: search for a hidden immunity idol or work on building shelter for their tribe who were hours away. Here I think the show got very lucky - one survivor opted to search (rather ineffectively I thought) for the idol while the other decided to work hard to build shelter to impress those that had already signed her death warrant.
The rest of episode one was pretty standard. An immunity challenge that had three parts - none of which I found interesting. Then the scheming starts in the losing tribe and someone gets voted off. No big surprises here.
Not a bad start for the season. But I find myself wanting to skip a lot of silly bitching and just letting them vote.
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