Survivor is an American reality TV show on CBS, which has been airing for 17 years now. In 2000, when it first episode of a first season aired, it quickly became one of the best reality shows ever. I think what intrigued a lot of viewers about this game was its social dynamics and people's ability to maneuver through different situations. It was really interesting and addictive. The show maroons a group of strangers in an isolated location, where they must provide food, water, fire, and shelter for themselves. The contestants compete in challenges for rewards and immunity from elimination. The contestants are progressively eliminated from the game as they are voted out by their fellow contestants, until only one remains and is given the title of "Sole Survivor" and million dollar grand prize that goes with it. The United States version is produced by Mark Burnett and hosted by Jeff Probst. Each competition is called a season, has a unique name, and lasts from 13 to 16 episodes. The first season was broadcast as a summer replacement show in 2000. Starting with Survivor: Africa, there have been two seasons aired during each U.S. television season. In the first season, there was a 75-person crew. By season 22, the crew had grown to 325 people. There have been a total of 498 contestants that have competed on Survivor's 34 seasons. This year, Survivor has reached for its 34th season and It was called Survivor Game Changers. And I want to talk about that season alone.
It's been long time since Survivor Game Changers finale aired, but I really wanted to write my thoughts about it.
When I first heard that a hit show of CBS, Survivor was going to have its 34 season which Theme was going to be Survivor Game Changers, I got very excited, because I thought it was going to be a cast full of legendary and memorable players, but I quickly discovered that it wasn't going to be the case.
Of course I was happy to hear that Tony, Aubry, Sandra, Cirie, Malcolm, Andrea and Ciera were going to come back but I was not sure about the rest. There were people like Sarah, Varner, Brad *uck You Culppepper, Hali who Ford and Sierra Dawn Thomas and I remember thinking why on earth they are named as Game Changers. But I told to myself that it still was going to be a good returnee season. In its history, Survivor had only 4 full returning players season and this season of Game Changers was really the worst out of all four.
There were some crazy things happening, some crazy twists thrown towards contestants, but it still was boring and dry. And the ultimate reason of it was really bad editing. Storylines of this season were all over the place. The only storylines we really got was Sarah the criminal, Cirie the Hero, Michaela the bitch and those storylines were not enough. We wanted to see more Cirie pre merge and more Aubry throughout the whole season. I think even Hali, who was once again voted out first after Merge got better edit than Aubry did. Even Aubry's buff got better edit than she did. Because of choosing such unequal cast, amazing players like Aubry, Tony, Malcolm, Sandra and Cirie had disadvantage and were targeted early and players like Sarah, Hali, Sierra, Brad and others, they had advantage because no one was going to target them. The result ofthis awful casting was that all amazing players, who really deserved to be called game changers, they all were voted out early and only Aubry and Cirie made it to Merge, but they both had awful pre merge edit. Things didn't change for poor Aubry, this season was so unfair towards her in so many ways, but we finally saw some another great and memorable moments from Cirie and because of so many idols and twists we lost Cirie at final six. (The worst thing that has ever happened on Survivor).
Hands down, it was still impressive how Aubry managed to get Tai to play an idol for her, when she previously voted for him.
I also want to talk about Sarah, who really played a great, phenomenal game. She promised us she was going to play like criminal and she did. But I think the part of Sarah's success was that she played very bad game last time she was on the show and nobody really saw her as a strategic threat.
Another thing I want to talk about is, what we didn't see on the show. There was a very intense feud going on between Sandra and Aubry pre merge. Aubry said in some interviews that Sandra was gunning for her from the moment they hit the beach in Fiji. Also we didn't see the relationship between Andrea and Aubry, they were very close. We didn't see Sarah swearing on her little baby and then breaking promises and other very good material they could have used.
I also want to talk about Andrea, who got horrible pre merge edit but then she picked it up after Merge. Andrea is a very impressive player. She is physical, strategic and social, she is a full package. It is no surprise that after playing three times, she has the biggest amount of votes received against her with 36. She is also first woman to come back from redemption island and first castaway to debut after Heroes Vs Villains(20th season of Survivor) to accumulate 100 days their Survivor Career and seventh overall after Amanda Kimmel, Parvati Shallow, Rupert Boneham, Rob Mariano, Ozzy Lusth and Cirie Fields. She is pretty impressive.
Tai and Debbie were pretty good this season too. I want to cry about Ciera, Malcom, Tony and Sandra who were victims of their past gameplay and didn't make the merge. Also good job Cirie and Aubry for being such a massive targets and still making it to finale episode and taking 6th and 5th place. JT once again proved that Stephen should have won Tocantins. Varner proved that he is a rat and disgusting human being by outing Zeke as transgender just because things were not going his way.
And at last I want to talk about final three. We had probably the most boring final three ever, not talking about Sarah mostly, but she is pretty boring and dry too. So final three were Troyzan, Brad and Sarah. At the Final Tribal Council, Sarah was respected for her strategic control throughout the merge and ability to manage her social relationships, but criticized for her numerous betrayals and manipulations, Brad was commended for dominating in immunity challenges but castigated for being condescending and not socializing with people on the bottom, and Troyzan was virtually ignored for his perceived coattail riding. Sarah's strong strategic control beat out Brad's dominance in challenges, and Troyzan's lack of gameplay, and she was awarded the title of sole Survivor with seven votes to win while Brad received three.
Above All, I think this season ranks 20th place out of 34 and I Only decided to give it this high because Aubry won immunity and that was amazing moment Lol.
I hope you liked it. Also I hope season 35 will be much better. See you in another post. <3