Survivor Seasons Past: Cook Island Ep. 2
by Jeff on Mar.20, 2010, under General
I know my recap of Survivor seasons past are years passed due – but I can’t resist. I have to discuss this game with someone – even if it is an empty blogosphere.
I am watching episodes two’s tribal council as I write this. I’m already screaming at the television. The Latino tribe deliberately through a challenge in order to get rid of a member, Billy. I think that was the right move. I can’t believe that the police officer, Christina, doesn’t see that getting rid of Billy is the correct move.
I also can’t believe that Billy feels he is in love with Candace from the Caucasian tribe. During tribal council, Billy professes his love for Candace, swearing it’s love at first sight for both of them. During the last immunity challenge, she had whispered, “Awe – WE love you.” She didn’t say I, she said we, and she said it out of sympathy. She said this AFTER stating she felt bad for the Latino tribe due to their loss and AFTER hearing Billy whimper, “I’m next.” Billy knew he was a marked man.
I was very happy to see that the tribe, as a whole, was sensible enough to vote Billy off. The vote to eject Billy from the game was unanimous, excluding the vote cast by Billy. I don’t know if I could have watched the rest of the season knowing that fat, lazy piece of shit had manipulated a cop into thinking he was worth saving. Outrageous!
Survivor Seasons Past: Cook Island
by Jeff on Mar.20, 2010, under Television
So I finished with Survivor: Panama and I’m on to Survivor: Cook Island. First, I was disappointed OK with Aras winning Survivor: Panama. I was glad “Old Navy Boy” Terri didn’t win, and even though I knew Cirie didn’t win, I still found myself rooting for her.
Now, on to Cook Island. I forgot that this is the season that when it first aired was very controversial because the four tribes that start were divided by ethnicity or race. There is a white tribe, an African American tribe, an Asian tribe, and a Latino tribe. it’s funny to see who within their tribe plays into the stereotypes their tribe’s ethnicity carries with it. It will be interesting to see how the season plays out.
And, I was excited to see that this is the season that JP was in. JP is also famous for being a model on featured in the reality show Janice Dickinson’s Modeling Agency. JP is extremely good looking; let’s see if I think he has the brains to match the looks.
JP Calderone of Survivor: Cook Island & Janice Dickinson's Modeling Agency
Survivor – Seasons Past
by Jeff on Mar.19, 2010, under Television
With this season’s edition of Survivor focusing on Heroes and Villains, I realized how many seasons of Survivor I have missed for one reason or another. I can remember watching most of the first season of Survivor. Richard Hatch made great TV. I then remember watching the premiere of Season 2 of Survivor after the Superbowl. I was instantly enamored with Colby. He was physically attractive and seemed quite friendly in that first episode, the only episode I ever watched of Season 2. After that, Survivor fell of my TV map for many years; the next season I remember had Sugar on it or when JT won, or are those the same season – I don’t remember.
Curious to learn more about this season’s players and with an abundance of television time available to me, I thought it might be fun to revisit previous seasons of survivor. To date, you can purchase previous versions of Survivor from iTunes for as little as $8.99. They have seasons dating all the way back to Season 9 – Vanuatu. For me, that was as good a place as any to start.
While I won’t bore you with a play by play of each season, but I’m sure my I’ll have some entries over the next couple of weeks about the different strategies or specific things I liked or disliked about these older versions of Survivor. I’ve made it through Season 9 – Vanuatul; Season 10 – Palau; Season 11 – Guatemala; and I’m currently on episode 3 of Season 12 – Panama. I’ll get back to Season 12 – Panama in a moment. Let me just make a few comments about seasons 9 – 11, even if they are 4 or 5 years too late.
Season 9 – Vanuatul had great challenges. This was a fun season to watch.
Season 10 – Palau had some interesting characters on it. I fell in love with Stephanie. I thought she was a hard worker, a competitive person, and she should have gone much further than she did. I can see why she was, at the time, one of the most popular players of the game. I was very disappointed that Tom won the million dollar prize in this season.
Season 11 – I can’t tell you how excited I was to see Stephanie return to this season. I was very happy she made it to the final two. This season played out quite well. I do think that Cindy should have given up her 1 car so the other 4 could have had cars. I don’t know that this would have escalated her to the final two, but I think it would have been a smart move and good for life long karma. I also wish I would have seen this season as it aired - Cindy was from Naples, FL where I grew up. I found this out only yesterday. It just would have been nice to route for somebody from your own hometown.
Now, the main catalyst for this entry has been some of the changes to the game made in Season 12 – Panama. I like how the season started off separated into four tribes – older men; older women; young men; young women. I also like the concept of Exile Island and a hidden immunity idol, a feature I definitely remember in seasons to come.
My all-time favorite change to the game so far is that in this season of Survivor, the hidden immunity idol can be used AFTER the votes have been read. This is definitely a mind blowing change to the game. Personally, ever since I’ve known of hidden immunity idols in the future seasons, I always thought that this is how immunity idols SHOULD be played. Let the players cast their votes and then play any idols! The next highest voted person is then eliminated. I love this concept. I am only on episode 3 of season 12, so will see how it actually plays out.
One other thing that has impressed me about season 12 so far one of the four person alliances that has formed during episode 2. Of the Casaya tribe, Shane, Courtney, Daniel and Aras formed an alliance of four. Aras made the alliance very public and started informing the other players about the alliance and of the supposed order in which the others would be forced to leave. I personally think this is a pretty good strategy – provided everyone is on board with the alliance being public. The mistake that Aras made was that he blabbed his mouth without first telling anyone he was doing so. It made a lot of other people uncomfortable, and I feel that alone with be the demise of this alliance. We’ll have to wait and see.
What I hate about the the entry I just wrote is that I was trying to provide hyperlinks to some of the players from season 12 and I’ve stumbled on a spoiler indicating who won already. It sucks, because I didn’t know who won this season until now – but it will still be fun to see how it plays out. I suppose for my future Survivor – Seasons Past entries, I’ll have to take good viewing notes and make hyperlinks later.
