Survivor: Gabon - Season 17 (1 Viewer)

[MikeyWeitz]

Quite possibly the dumbest collective group of survivors ever compiled for the show.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Thanks, Thomas! Gotta pay better attention. Might've been snack time!

And, thanks to Martino for the link.

On the one hand, she was right on a lot of her points. But she sure didn't play a good game.

 

[Hanson]

The gay guy totally reminded me of Ross the Intern. Maybe not so much looks wise, but if you close your eyes and listen to him talk, you may think, "did Jay send Ross to participate in Survivor?"

 

[Martino]

For those who want a direct link to the voting results:

First Eposode voting:

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivo...lay=true&cc=85

I was a little surprized - found this in the recap:

"With eight of the nine votes cast against her, Michelle becomes the first person voted out of SURVIVOR: GABON -- EARTH'S LAST EDEN."

Look at the video, and you can hear each persons reason for their vote...

 

[Chris Lockwood]

It wasn't too nice in standard def, either.

Good thing she's gone. She was too thin to play this game.

 

[Mike Frezon]

This is a tough room.




Here's Michelle: The Day After. Boy, her strategy sucked...obviously.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Michelle was a socially inept player who relied of the members of her tribe to be as "smart" as she thought she was, and wasn't able to see how her interaction or lack of interaction with the "idiots" gave off a whiney/aloof vibe that others found socially unworthy to stay in the game.

Physicality only takes you so far in the game. Michelle relied on her own physical prowess to do her talking among the tribe, but she neglected the social performance needed to put people at ease with her presence in the tribe. She neglected to become a person who could build consensus to vote out anyone but herself. Instead, she allowed the shortcomings of the others to affect how she presented herself to others, and her disdain for her tribemates was all too apparent. This is not a winning strategy to win friends and influence people.

Only a few truly physical players have been able to garner enough votes at the end to be voted the winner of the game. Fireman Tom was probably the last physically dominant player to win the game (season 10). Aras (season 12) was good physically, but I didn't find him as dominant in that aspect of the game and had a better alliance (as Terry was the bigger physical force, but just came up short on the lillypads). Brian (season 5) was a physical presence, but only later in the game after he was able to use other players to eliminate the stronger players in his season, and he took a universally hated player to the finals. Ethan (season 3) was an agile and physically strong competitor, and another strong player who made fewer enemies on the jury (having Lex as a lightning rod helped Ethan). Colby (season 2) should have won in spite of being a physical player, but his "momma" complex kicked in at the wrong time.

 

[Brent M]

She definitely looks a lot better in that "day after" video and she was probably the 2nd best looking girl out there. Too bad she got booted off first.

 

[James Lee]

As others have commented, the show sure looks great in HD, although they went overboard with all the money shots of elephants. Okay, I get it. Elephants live in Africa. One nice thing I noticed in HD, was the aerial shot of the course where the teams had to roll the big balls. I was surprised at how long the course was. You get a good idea of the course length in widescreen.

For once, I'd like to see a season of Survivor where the two teams enter the merge with no clear dominant team. Yet again, we seem to be going down the path where one team clearly sucks and will disintegrate all the way to the merge and the dominant tribe will pick off the other side one by one until they have to cannibalize their own. It all becomes so predictable. Hopefully there will be shuffling of the teams before it gets too predictable.

Too bad Michelle got the boot first. I was looking forward to how she was going to manipulate the gamer guy and his puppy dog crush.

 

[Radioman970]

Man, that was good! Reminded me of the understated way the first season went. I'm very excited about this season.

I mean, you got...

BOB who seemed to be an unstopable senor. Perhaps, some clever editing? He's one to watch...if he somehow has the stamina in that skinny, wrinkled old body of his.

CHARLIE and MARCUS sittin in a tree! K-I-S-S-ING! HAHAHA!! Naaaw. Both are outstanding people persons. MARCUS looks like a cross between Paul Newman and Michael J. Nelson from MST3K, so it's no wonder CHARLIE is bowled over by him. MARCUS is the most like me...well, I don't look like either guy, but I beleive I'd play the game the same. Way. If these 2 were the final 2 I'd be happy about it.

CRYSTAL could be awesome later on if she lasts. Those nice shoes and she couldn't get up the hill? WTF! But she has a lot of smarts. I love it when she said "He's a lawyer!!"

DAN. Another intelligent player. But he better win some immunities for himself.

RANDY. Awesome player. He's like this season's Jonathan maybe? I hope to hell he can stay in it a while because he's the kind that will stir things up and keep it fun to watch.

KEN isn't going to last long. My prediction: gone next week or the next.

ACE will annoy too many people. He won't be there long.

GC might be worth some laughs. "Welll...I...I'll be the...I'll be the leader....but...I don't wanna be the leader...but I'll...I'll..." Hahaha!! As a leader he stank. He needs to stay in the background for now. Be careful and let people forget what happened this episode.

MICHELLE and GILLIAN deserved to be voted off because they played it all wrong.

Biitch biitch biitch biitch biitch!!!

Goodbye ladies!

 

[Radioman970]

Oh, wanted to add that I didn't see where I could watch it in HD online. :frowning: The standard version looked better than my snowy rabbit ears but still nothing to write home about. CBS should ask ABC how they stream because ABC is like BOB the school teacher and CBS is like Michelle the bitcher!

I had problems when I paused the thing to go get a glass of walmart COLA. It didn't want to unpause. Same prob in Firefox3 AND IE7. I had to close my browser then restart the thing over and over. Finally figured out I could let it roll and when I got back just click on the line to take it back. Worked perfectly.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Seriously, how does the Olympian justify picking Susie over the remaining contestants during the tribe pick-off?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Um..."because us mothers got to stick together?!" :rolleyes

 

[MikeyWeitz]

See my original post in this thread.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Sometimes Jeff annoys me, because he can be really blatant when he really like a particular contestant and favours them beyond what is justified or (think his treatment of Ozzy over Yul, or just his constant praise of the underperforming James).

But in the opening episodes, we got the other, more entertaining part of Jeff's inability to hide his opinion. He was positively mocking of Fang, expressing nothing of contempt for them in the first half, and then openly surprised when they managed to pull out a close second place in the second episode.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I think Probst has gotten more bold as the seasons have gone by in offering his opinions of what's going on...especially during tribal councils. I find that a very interesting part of the program. It is certainly not something he needs to do. I could see where he could be criticized for it.

I actually thought his remark to Fang after they came close in that last immunity challenge was his way of being fair and sort of supportive. In other words, "If I'm gonna tell you when you suck, I've got to tell you when you done good."

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I perhaps worded my comment badly, making him seem like he was still mocking them after the boulder race. I agree, he was trying to be praise them for doing so well. But I did think there was an element in his voice of "I was expecting you guys to suck, so I'm surprised you made it so close, but well done on your effort."

 

[Ronald Epstein]

WoW! All my favorite people are here (including Hanson Yoo)

Well, I a newbie to this series. Never really considered watching
it as I tend to stray away from reality shows, but you can thank
RAF for talking me into giving this show a try. For some reason my
Tivo did not tape this past week's show so I just watched the 2-hour
premiere online.

For the most part, I am hooked! I really love the premise of this
show. I love the undercutting dirty politics. Reminds me of my day job.

It was sort of easy to see who the first two people to be voted
off would be. Jillian was just too old, resulting in her
pulling back the younger group. Michelle just didn't want
to be there, something which was obvious from the start.

The Fang tribe is pretty awful all around. I think they will continue
to fall behind. They really put anyone on this show, don't they.

I really don't know what to expect from this show nor how really
tough it is for these participants knowing there are cameras and
emergency crews at hand should anyone need it. I would like to
think that these people are really on their own out in the wild and
that survival instincts really come into play here.

As I mentioned, I really like this show. I can see early on that this
could be one of my favorite shows this season. It's certainly has me
on the edge of my seat more than the traditional fare (like FRINGE)
that I have been watching as of late.

 

[AnthonyC]

Glad you like it, Ron--I know a lot of people automatically turn away because of that "reality TV" umbrella, but all it really comes down to is whether it's good or not, and even the few dud seasons of Survivor have been worth watching.

I enjoyed the premiere although I felt the opening pick'em really caused the first hour to drag. The second half was pretty strong though, so I'm glad they opted to do the first two episodes back-to-back; otherwise I wouldn't have been as satisfied with the premiere.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I don't know too many people who have given Survivor a try and come away disappointed. It seems to me most of the people I know who don't watch/like the show have never given it a try.