Survivor: Tocantins

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As a long time Survivor watcher I was just about ready to bail on this show (the HD aspect was far more interesting than the contestants) until this twist of fate that occurred last night.



Never have I cared less about a group of survivors than the bunch that paraded out each week in this edition. Not only were they either not interesting or so over the top like coach to be irritating, but the interactions and other little things about Survivor were growing old for me. While I can't say I'm a Sierra fan I was practically on my feet when Tyson was blindsided. Coach is a moron but I think that he actually believes all that stuff that he spouts with a bloated air of authority. Tyson, on the other hand, is an arrogant S.O.B. who was not as great as he thinks he is. He was just surrounded by relative mediocrity. And how stupid can these people be when they tape their parting remarks calling other contestants "idiots" and such?!? Don't they understand that the person or persons that they are referring to will eventually see these comments? Or maybe they are so stupid or cold that they don't give a damn. If that's the case I think even less of people like Tyson.

In any event, I now have a renewed interest in Survivor based on recent events. While I'm actively rooting against Coach I find it enjoyable to watch his "I didn't have to solve puzzles in the Amazon" attitude play out. That's one contestant whose inflated perception of himself doesn't translate into performance in the challenges. The only person he's really fooling is himself. Eventually the others will realize the fool that he is and he just doesn't have the skills - physically or mentally - to run the table with immunity wins, unless the producers specifically tailor them to his talents, whatever that might be.

But I'm watching again with my hand off of the "erase" button on my DVR.

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Just quoting myself since Tyson got the boot. Let's hope Stephen can keep the spotlight on JT, while also going after Coach with the uneasy alliance that booted off Tyson.

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This episode was classic Survivor - . I have to agree with the many observations regarding the cast - they are difficult to enjoy. Tyson would have been easier to support if he hadn't turned his asshole knob up to 11. Coach is truly delusional - love the continual poking that Probst is giving him.

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I tell ya. I am wrong many, many weeks about who's getting voted off.

This week, I turned to my wife and was sure Sierra was going to go home. I figured the editors simply allaowed us to see some conversation on the power play to send home Tyson in order to throw out a red herring and keep some suspense in this week's episode.

I turned to my wife and said I know I'm wrong most weeks but I'm sure Sierra will be the next member of the jury. Wrong!

Like Patrick S noted, it's interesting to see the group fully realize the power of being able to take out one of the strongest players at this stage of the game. That may upset the paradigm for future seasons/strategies.

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Well I liked Tyson and I hated to see him go.

A big compliant that I have had over the last 6 or 7 seasons is the "Lets all be honest and feel good about each other". If one of my family members went on the show and decided they would rather me nice to a person they have known for 14 days over winning 1 million dollars for my family I would be upset. This is a game show - Nothing More!!!! This does not represent how you are for the rest of your life. Your job on the show is to win 1 million dollars not to show the world that you are a Friend.

Sierra went with the wrong group and no one needs to make her feel happy because she is on the chopping block. Every season people get blind sided and that is just how it is. Tyson had no reason to make her feel good and if that is how he feels about her that that is his Opinion. Who are we to tell him to act NICE.

I really like Stephen and JT and Taj is following them to the end.

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Matt: I think that's what makes Survivor continually "must-see TV."

It is that entire dynamic of societal pressure to be nice and to tell the truth (golden rule issues) vs. doing what one has to do to win the big prize.

In Tyson's case, he was--without doubt--a charismatic character. What turned a lot of people off, though, was his unnecessary rudeness and callousness. It's one thing to promote yourself as superior in a funny (maybe even self deprecating) manner...but it's another to just tear down other people, call them names and make them cry--regardless of the other person's station in life.

But in every reunion show, Jeff Probst always returns to that central theme of this being a "social game" and that people need to (or, maybe, don't need to) adapt their customary behaviors in order to advance...and the constant dynamic of whether they should/shouldn't take that action. That's what makes the show compelling for the most part. It really seems that the producers have steered away from the "physical survival" nature of the competition and have been primarily focusing on the "social survival" nature of the contest.

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I think it's still in your best interest to act humanely on a perceived weaker player after the merge because at worse, they will be on the jury, and why piss them off unnessarily, unless it's just in your character to be a d-bag to anyone you find contemptable. Tyson totally failed in the social aspect of the game.

Survivor has predominantly been a social survivor type of game, with a handful of physically dominant contestants sniffing at the $1 million check at the end of the game throughout its history.

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My point about the physical aspect, Patrick, is that in the earlier seasons the producers used to hype the fact that the contestants were given no food, no water, no shelter, etc. Now it seems as if things are usually slightly easier for the groups in terms of food, etc...and, especially, that those aspects of the game (hunger, sleep deprivation, dehydration, sheer tiredness, boredom) are not as played up in the editing for the audience.

I think those are still huge factors in the game...but that sometimes the audience needs to be reminded that a lot of the contestant's actions (emotional and physical) are made based upon those physical elements of playing the game.

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Here's hoping that the ass of the horse will soon be cut off! This guy, who touts honesty and integrity as part of his shtick, misled his employer Southwest Baptist University about taking time off and was summarily fired. Details here:

SBU soccer coach fired | News-Leader.com | Springfield News-Leader

Sorry to get in late on this discussion, but the more I read on this clown, the more fraudulent he appears . . . . Steven Seagal wannabe.

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HA! Liar.

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I think the producers learned from the early seasons that contestants health was affected greatly from the lack of fire (for drinking water), so these days, they get the flint, but it comes at the cost for the losing tribe on an early immunity challenge when they have to boot someone off their tribe. Due to the show being on for most of this decade, the contestants have more or less seen the conditions they will be living in, and adapt well enough to living in the wild, so to speak, so the producer focus more on the gameplay and the social politics of who gets the boot at tribal council. Otherwise, it'd be pretty boring. But not to say that the producers don't show such survival footage, remember Taj just going off because she was just sick of being out of her element, even at the possible cost of irritating enough people to vote her out of the game. Some players are just good poker players in the game of survivor where they don't let their physical and emotional discomfort overwhelm their actions, their verbal output, and their non-verbal body language.

Plus with blindside after blindside, the people in on the majority are playing the game, while those getting blindsided didn't quite align with the right people at the right time as eliminations come from situational gameplay/strategy and not from simply rolling over and following a script of numbers (the silly Coach script that he keeps blathering on about when in fact, the game will never be played like that to the end because it is invariably is a game of democracy - one person one vote - and a game of the politics of the weak after the merge when it's individual immunity at stake in each immunity challenge, and the most threatening contestant in terms of immunity wins gets expelled when the opportunity presents itself if it is in the best interest of the rest of the tribe to make that move).

It takes an extraordinary amount of social gameplay to be perceived as physically gifted (to be the favorite to always win immunity challeges), but still get far in the game and actually win (a la Brian the car salesman, and Tom the fireman) because it rarely happens that the most physically dominant contestant wins this game because of the fear of such "strong" people going on an immunity run that leaves the rest of the tribe in the dust and having to turn on one another at tribal council. And then you have to do it without pissing off the jury members more than other person(s) in the final tribal council, the same contestants you had a hand in voting out of the game.

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Yup. I don't disagree with anything you say.

But it IS Survivor, after all. That is, these people are forced to make their own community in-the-wild...or else it would just be Big Brother, for gosh sake.

Even this week...when the players gathered together for their shuffleboard tourney and the skies had opened-up, they were shivering cold in-the-elements and I thought it was, except for the obvious visual, ignored in the context of the game. Although in that particular instance that may have been one picture that stood on its own.

I think of Crystal from last season as someone who really had a problem with the physical nature of the game--something which seemed to definitely surprise most of the audience and especially her!

I'm not suggesting that the physical element is more important than the social element. Far from it. As I explained to Matt about Tyson's behavior, it is exactly the social elements of this game that make it so compelling. I just think the various physical discomfort (and emotional discomfort, to a certain extent) of the players should not be glossed over as old hat (or uninteresting) by the producers. Or, at least, I find it interesting!

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I'm going to bed tonight a happy man after witnessing the exit of this knuckle dragger.

And the previews for next week had me grinning from ear to ear see that a cosmic monkey wrench will possibly get thrown into Coach's mojo.

I agree with those that it sickens me to see Sierra get treated this way, as someone who did get picked on in school I always fall on the side of the little guy and I want to see her at least stick around long enough to witness the boot of that lyin' shit stain Coach.

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Tyson was a smartass but I don't really think anything beyond that. There was sarcasm behind just about everything he said--even if he meant to be cruel, there was a tongue-in-cheek tone. Compare that to the truly repulsive contestants like Corinne last season--Tyson may call Sierra stupid, but does anyone honestly think he would've made a comment like "The only thing I would vote to give you are some anti-depressants so it'll feel a little more sincere when you cry about your dead father all the time"? Certainly he was a jerk, but he was a playful one; he didn't make completely absurd and outlandishly rude comments just to get airtime.

As far as the boot being predictable--definitely there have been some where I got blindsided by the way the vote went down. But one of the golden rules of Survivor editing is that when an episode is entirely about how a certain contestant being dead in the water, they're never the one who actually goes (Elisabeth in S2 when Jerri was voted out; Shii Ann in S8 when she won immunity; Stephenie in S10 when Janu quit; etc.).

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For most of the show, I was having a good time watching Sierra
crying and moaning about her inevitable departure. Here is a girl
who should have been the very first voted off the show and for her
to be still in this group is, for me, quite startling.

Then the show started concentrating on Tyson's now familiar "I am
holier than thou" tirades that made me realize that it was more
important for the group to vote him off than Sierra.

I couldn't be happier that Tyson was the person voted off tonight.


As a person only in his second year of this show I learned something
new tonight.....

Everybody finds out who voted for whom? I was amazed that
Coach knew that Sierra had voted him out last week.

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Actually Ron, that was just a matter of deduction on their part that was confirmed by Sierra. They knew the distribution of the Sierra and Brendan votes, so of the two Coach votes, one was Brendan, and the other had to be Sierra.

There have been post tribal council freakouts in the past when someone got an unexpected vote and demanded to know who voted for them.

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I can't stand Tyson and was happy to see him go, but Sierra's pitiful begging and crying made her quite worthy to be voted off too. She simply doesn't deserve to be there at this point.

Looks like next week it's gonna get interesting again.

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I would estimate the next two off, in order, are going to be
Sierra and Coach.

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Or at least, that's what the editing would lead you to believe. Believe you me, I've been lead down that garden path many, many, times. As recently Thursday.

From Coach's mixed metaphor train:
"In war... in love and war, it's kill or be killed." Really? Is he a preying mantis or something? I suppose he got that quote out of Tzu Machiavelli's The Art of Princely Love, which includes important instructions like:

All love is based on deception.
The supreme art of love is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer
It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.
There is no avoiding love; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.

BTW, you can't Google this -- The Art of Princely Love was passed down verbally (there is rumored to be a collected volume that can only be bought at the Chong Ran monastery gift shop, and only with a member card. And don't bother using your Amex -- bitch, please).

Another SAB:

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Like them or hate them, it's impossible to dispute that Coach and Tyson are two of the most colorful contestants in the show's history. Without them this quite possibly would've been one of the worst seasons ever as everyone else on the show has been about as exciting as wallpaper. Honestly, at this point I really don't even care who wins as I don't have a favorite contestant, I'll just watch to see how it all plays out.

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Jeff does always return to that theme but I wish he would ask the questions -- "Why do you all act likes punks when someone votes you out" -- "Why should people that have known you for 20 days give up a million dollars to make you feel good"

I know the reunion show goes over a lot of this stuff but I feel like he never really puts people on the spot for it. If you acted like a butt head through out the show (Last Year - Randy) he will ask you all about it but he doesn't bust the jury's chops.

I would love for a season to open with Jeff telling the contestants what to expect and then with Jeff saying if you are going to act like a baby about anything please jump out of the vehicle now. Heck I like the 16 person season's the best but I could handle 20 if they did something like that.

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Maybe this week Sierra will tell Coach to fall on his sword.

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I agree, they have been the stars this season. Taj might be considered the 3rd featured star. She started out very clever with the 4-way alliance, but then faded. Perhaps she will return to prominence in the last 3rd of the season.

Coach is certainly is a unique character. I don't want to see him win, but someone like him is helpful to the series. You need some kind of antagonist. Tyson was a funny jerk. Glad to see him go.

Far from being my favorite season, I'm still enjoying this one. Rooting a bit for Taj.

What I'd really like to see CBS one season is not to cast it. Just pull 18 names out of the hat so to speak. I know they'll never do that, but it certainly would mix it up better.

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Wouldn't those questions shatter the illusion that these are real tribes of people, left to survive on an island and dependent on each other, and then themselves for survival? If you don't need someone to find you food and are only competing for votes socially, it's a lot less interesting. Don't get me wrong. I agree with you that the people offended that they are voted off are babies, but putting it out there in the open takes something away from the illusion of the game IMO. They've de-emphasized the survival aspect of the game in recent years as the contestants have been better prepared to find food and water. Taking away the "real" feelings behind the votes would weaken the impact.

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I'm with you Brent. If Coach gets the boot next, the rest of the season will lose a lot of entertainment value. In fact, without players such as Tyson, Coach, Boston Rob, Johny Fairplay, I don't think I'd be watching this show anymore.

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I don't watch Celebrity Apprentice and I am certainly not
a fan of Andrew Dice Clay, but there was a lot of criticism on the
talk show circuit that Dice was the first contestant booted off the show
because he was overly obnoxious.

Point being, you want someone like that to stay on the show because
it provides great entertainment.

I agree with Phil and Brent. As much as we hate Coach, he certainly
not only provides a lot of laughter each week but the opportunity to
be picked on by Hanson Yoo.

Also agree with you that this has been a lame season compared to
last. Nothing is happening. Nobody is fighting. Nobody is playing
the fake idol.

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Of course, that assumes that this "warrior" would be able to do this without missing!

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It would be a top 3 tribal council ever, if they blindsided Coach and let Sierra tell him to fall on his sword right before they voted.