This season is awful and I'm hoping it's not going to continue this way with the new casting director. I haven't seen every season (started like 6 years ago with a Joe season, I forget which), but this is EASILY the worst cast I've seen.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Survivor 39: Island of the Idols |OT| tHe iDOlz aRe fORmEr WiNNerZ
- Thread starter SoleSurvivor
- Start date
People from this season who'd be good picks to come back: Dean, Janet, Noura, Lauren, Jamal, Kellee. A lot of the premergers were great but kinda forgettable.
Wait what? This is a really good cast w/ a really bad casting call (Dan) having completely derailed the postmerge.
Yeah this is like Worlds Apart where the cast would have worked if you took out the Dan and events played out differently.
This season was a decent cast and two good episodes in a row. Other than that basically nothing but anger.
I'm not as high as a lot of you guys are on this cast. Perhaps I've been spoiled by recent Australian seasons, but there isn't much in the way of high-level gameplay going on here.
I consider Kellee to be a quality player that was done-in by being overly analytical and some bad calls by Production in how they handled Dan (their post-production editing saving throws weren't enough to salvage their poor judgment calls on that front).
I like Jamal for his social gameplay observations although I didn't exactly see him translate that skill set into helping him further his game position.
I find Noura to be hilarious... bad Survivor player but good reality TV casting. I would never want to play the game with her but I find her to be a less abrasive version of Abi-Maria whom many people love (I did not... but they share similar qualities).
I have Janet in my "good human being but I never need to see them play Survivor again" bucket. I think she's awesome. I just don't feel she offers much in the way of good strategy, good TV or good Survivor game ability outside of some inherent self-preservation ability. Karishma is better TV than her. Karishma is also a terrible Survivor player. But I still adore her. And she pulled off a masterful idol play.
Lauren is fine. I appreciate her enthusiasm for the game. This season hasn't been conducive to getting overly creative with one's gameplay so I can't fault her approach to have one solid alliance buddy and going into target deflection mode because there have been so many viable targets to steer attention towards.
The one person who I think got a raw deal and would like to see get another opportunity from the pre-merge is Jason. I appreciate his narration and he effectively got jobbed out of the game by an Island of the Idols advantage after working himself into favorable social standing and a numbers advantage after regaining his footing from his early game blunder.
And that leads to the only person from this season whom I consider to be a surefire, 100% bring back on to the show and they'll deliver casting choice... and that's Elaine. She's a bonafide dynamo of good casting, good TV, good person and good gameplay and she's even got this lot of dummies convinced that she's not capable of scheming. I will always appreciate a savvy player who is so easily able to convince others they don't know what they're doing when they clearly do.
So I'm not so high on the individuals within this cast... but I agree with the consensus that as a whole it provides a solid template to follow in terms of age/demographic/diversity to pattern off of.
I consider Kellee to be a quality player that was done-in by being overly analytical and some bad calls by Production in how they handled Dan (their post-production editing saving throws weren't enough to salvage their poor judgment calls on that front).
I like Jamal for his social gameplay observations although I didn't exactly see him translate that skill set into helping him further his game position.
I find Noura to be hilarious... bad Survivor player but good reality TV casting. I would never want to play the game with her but I find her to be a less abrasive version of Abi-Maria whom many people love (I did not... but they share similar qualities).
I have Janet in my "good human being but I never need to see them play Survivor again" bucket. I think she's awesome. I just don't feel she offers much in the way of good strategy, good TV or good Survivor game ability outside of some inherent self-preservation ability. Karishma is better TV than her. Karishma is also a terrible Survivor player. But I still adore her. And she pulled off a masterful idol play.
Lauren is fine. I appreciate her enthusiasm for the game. This season hasn't been conducive to getting overly creative with one's gameplay so I can't fault her approach to have one solid alliance buddy and going into target deflection mode because there have been so many viable targets to steer attention towards.
The one person who I think got a raw deal and would like to see get another opportunity from the pre-merge is Jason. I appreciate his narration and he effectively got jobbed out of the game by an Island of the Idols advantage after working himself into favorable social standing and a numbers advantage after regaining his footing from his early game blunder.
And that leads to the only person from this season whom I consider to be a surefire, 100% bring back on to the show and they'll deliver casting choice... and that's Elaine. She's a bonafide dynamo of good casting, good TV, good person and good gameplay and she's even got this lot of dummies convinced that she's not capable of scheming. I will always appreciate a savvy player who is so easily able to convince others they don't know what they're doing when they clearly do.
So I'm not so high on the individuals within this cast... but I agree with the consensus that as a whole it provides a solid template to follow in terms of age/demographic/diversity to pattern off of.
This whole cast is full of such morons. This is one of the worst seasons from a gameplay perspective in years
Yea, I can't stand the loved ones episode, so cringey, they've been away a month =/
Very excited since Noura was the only to get out of that episode with a strong enough edit to win
I was about to get into this season until I saw this post :'(. Last season I saw was fairly memorable with some cool idol plays though I can't remember which one it was? I haven't seen Ghost Island onward. Any of those interesting?
I don't mind the loved one episodes, but I'm a pretty easy target for shit like that. I'll tear up during an airline commercial haha.
Speaking of, I'm rewatching some early seasons, currently on All-Stars, and it's so interesting to see how the show has changed.
- The editing has gotten so much better. It's definitely more dramatic now in the edit, but also so much tighter and focused on making the episode entertaining. Does that come at the cost of some fake out editing? Sure, but it's more entertaining to watch imo.
-Jeff is so much more subdued in older seasons,he hasn't adopted some of the vocal inflections that he Has now, and he honestly looks and sounds kind of bored.
- At least in the first All-Stars, the gameplay is so poor and the players are so dumb. Rob and Amber pretty much set up camp and rule the game, and no one sees them as a threat and it's soooooo frustrating. The degree to which they blindly let Rob just rule the game is so fucking frustrating. Part of me doesn't love how in current seasons they'll openly talk about meta strategies like showmances and working the Jury, but it has lead to much more engaging gameplay overall. Just the high level gameplay has evolved so much.
- The biggest difference that stands out when watching season 8 Vs 39 is how physical the challenges used to be, and how boring they are now. At least five times while watching All-stars I would think to myself "man, this looks fucking brutal". And that's largely all gone now, it seems like 90% of the challenges are just them standing in a row balancing or something. I don't even think it's a budget thing, these old challenges don't seem very elaborate or expensive, they're just incredibly physical. I hope they bring some of that back, but it definitely won't happen in season 40 when it's an overall much older group.
-oh, and All-stars also had the moment when Sue quit because Hatch rubbed naked up against her in a challenge, and it's sooooo crazy to see just how ill-equipped they were to handle that. From how production handled it to how Jeff talked about it, it was a completely different time. Sue was the only one acting in a realistic way, and there was taking head after talking head of people like Rupert accusing her of playing it up as a strategy.Watching something like that makes it incredibly clear how far we've come
Speaking of, I'm rewatching some early seasons, currently on All-Stars, and it's so interesting to see how the show has changed.
- The editing has gotten so much better. It's definitely more dramatic now in the edit, but also so much tighter and focused on making the episode entertaining. Does that come at the cost of some fake out editing? Sure, but it's more entertaining to watch imo.
-Jeff is so much more subdued in older seasons,he hasn't adopted some of the vocal inflections that he Has now, and he honestly looks and sounds kind of bored.
- At least in the first All-Stars, the gameplay is so poor and the players are so dumb. Rob and Amber pretty much set up camp and rule the game, and no one sees them as a threat and it's soooooo frustrating. The degree to which they blindly let Rob just rule the game is so fucking frustrating. Part of me doesn't love how in current seasons they'll openly talk about meta strategies like showmances and working the Jury, but it has lead to much more engaging gameplay overall. Just the high level gameplay has evolved so much.
- The biggest difference that stands out when watching season 8 Vs 39 is how physical the challenges used to be, and how boring they are now. At least five times while watching All-stars I would think to myself "man, this looks fucking brutal". And that's largely all gone now, it seems like 90% of the challenges are just them standing in a row balancing or something. I don't even think it's a budget thing, these old challenges don't seem very elaborate or expensive, they're just incredibly physical. I hope they bring some of that back, but it definitely won't happen in season 40 when it's an overall much older group.
-oh, and All-stars also had the moment when Sue quit because Hatch rubbed naked up against her in a challenge, and it's sooooo crazy to see just how ill-equipped they were to handle that. From how production handled it to how Jeff talked about it, it was a completely different time. Sue was the only one acting in a realistic way, and there was taking head after talking head of people like Rupert accusing her of playing it up as a strategy.Watching something like that makes it incredibly clear how far we've come
Last edited:
Thanks for the recommendation! 5 episodes in and its great already! The blindsides and Natalie drama lol
OP
OP
I remember Rob C. podcasting with Josh Wigler during those first 5 episodes pointing out how Mike White talked. They loved pointing out how he pronounced Jeremy's name. "Jeeeremeeee" :P
Also, Natalie Cole is a treasure.
Yep, there's some consistently great moments throughout the season.
Lol.
Edit: Her in the reunion show too. So good.
Yes haha
I finished binging everything and a few notes:
The tribal where John goes home with the idols was great (though Dan's missplay was lol)
Carl getting drunk was amazing. Gabby was dumb for going after Christian when she did.
Davie was awesome though I liked Nick winning!
Now to pick another season....
Last edited:
OP
OP
OP
OP
Go in order. Start with season one (AU2016) through season four (AU2019). 2017 and 2019 are the standout seasons, but they're all great.
I'll PM you with how.
I just finished season one (2016) of Aus Survivor and it's a great season. Can't wait for finals week to end so i can watch season 2.
I still consider AU2017 to be one of the finest seasons in the entire Survivor franchise. Remains compelling the entire way through.
OP
OP
Absolutely. Completely killer cast, and I put AU2019 right up there with it. Really excited to see what the returning players from these two seasons specifically (and
Nick from S1
Gotcha!
You can use this thread to discuss Australia Survivor. Also tells you how to watch it. OP hasn't been updated but the ways to watch still work.
www.resetera.com
Non-US Survivor |OT| Even Maryland Has One
Discussion place for all non-US Survivor seasons. Please spoiler tag anything with extra care. People will often show up late to the party on these seasons and we wouldn't want to turn them away by spoiling the whole thing. The US Survivor thread does not usually spoiler. You should spoiler tag...
www.resetera.com
I'm in lol. With how fast I binged that last one I might as well haha
Episode 13 (12/11) Discussion Begins Here
what a complete fuck up on productions part. Someone else became a victim because of production.