REVIEW: ‘Survivor’ More than Surviving In Its 20th Season
by John P. HanlonIn the 20th season premiere,“Survivor”nice guy Colby Donaldson is literally dragged through the sand by a member of the opposing team. Colby’s face is covered in sand as his opponent drags his body to help his own team win the challenge. After the challenge, Colby looks embarrassed and defeated. Thus, the battle between heroes and villains began on the fun and entertaining new season of the long-running CBS program.
When “Survivor” premiered a decade ago it was a hugely popular show celebrated on magazine covers across the country. EW.com even noted that the first season finale of the program was the second highest-rated show of the last decade. Since that time the series has continued to do well in the ratings for CBS and has helped spawn numerous other reality shows. Although I watched the earliest seasons of the program and the “All Stars” season, I have not been a devout fan.
Because the 20th season includes some of the most high-profile players from past seasons, I decided to watch again to see if the show was still as entertaining as I remembered. This season the contestants have been divided into two groups: heroes and villains.
Because this season includes some of the most popular past contestants, it’s a strong group. On the hero side, you have people like the likable Colby whose personal claim to fame, according to his CBS profile, is that he “can make a mean potato salad.” On the villains side, there are contestants like Boston Rob, who’s cocky, competitive and charismatic. Even though he’s a “villain,” he seems to have fun embodying that role. Some people may hate him but he has a larger-than-life personality that shouldn’t be underestimated.
In addition to the eclectic cast, the game itself is still interesting to watch, such as fun little side story-lines about possible romantic relationships between contestants where the audience watches them bond and flirt. There are also interesting side competitions between those who dislike each other, partly from their shared experiences on past seasons. It’s always interesting to watch the dynamics change between contestants as alliances are formed, alliances are broken and people are voted out.
There are some negative aspects, though. I was a bit disappointed in the first challenge, which was very physical, causing a number of contestants to get injured. The other competitions that focus more on strategy, endurance and intelligence are far better than a challenge where people wrestle with each other and get hurt in the process. Embarrassing a player in a competition is one thing, but when a challenge becomes so physical that multiple people need medical help, that stops being entertaining.
However, watching this new season, I realized how much I missed “Survivor,” which is both light-hearted and fun to watch – no wonder it’s survived twenty years seasons.
After contestants are each voted off, their torch is put out by the “Survivor” host. With the show continuing to be this addictive and entertaining, the torch of the show shows no sign of being extinguished in the near future.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
48 Comments
Survivor?
Is there any reason to wonder why we are witnessing the Fall of Western Civilization? We have entered the Colisieum. The Dumbing Down of America has been completed.
Mission Accomplished!
Personally, I find it very depressing that rubbish like this is still on the air.
I must be the only person in the country who has never watched one episode of this mindless drivel.
Really loved the idea of it when it first came on. The thought of outlasting others in a brutal and rugged terrain really appealed to me. So did the outreach from the show, asking for your average Amercian viewers to submit audition tapes so they could find a cross section of U.S. players. I got so excited I even submitted a tape a few times. Later, I discovered that after the first couple seasons, the entire thing was a sham. Almost all their players were not really from around the country but mactors (model/actors) from the L.A. area that never sent in a tape but were recruited by reps from the show. I loved the original where you had real guys like Rudy, Big Tom, and Rupert. Leave it to Hollywood to make something "better" by filling it with hooter girls and metrosexuals. Haven't watched the show in years.
When the show first aired, I thought it sucked because no one was really having to survive in the sense of living off the land away from civilization. It struck me as phoney.
In the last couple years, I've become a fan. Survival is a combo of physicality, cleverness with puzzles and interpersonal politics. The characters aren't stars or necessarily the brightest of bulbs. Without a script, they compete for real money. I like the fact that because they are in a game they have all agreed to lie to each other, all the while pretending to be the most sincerely honest.
If you take it seriously, you are probably in trouble. It makes me laugh.
It's certainly more real than Burn Notice, White Collar, 24 and Human Target, which except for 24 are all designed to make us laugh.
Please explain to me how you can say it is mindless drivel when, by your own admission, you've never watched a single episode?
I still love Survivor today as I did the first season. It's fun to watch people complain about elements that have been on display for 10 years.. And for those that insistently call this drivel, I say there's nothing wrong with a little mindless entertainment.
Thats two……..
I have seen advertisements for it. I do not know if it is hour show, or a half hour. I do know that I can watch 30 seconds of an ad, and make up my mind right quick if I want to waste my time on idocy and drivel. Didn't mean to touch a nerve with you, maybe you have had family members on the show, or fantasized about being on it yourself. That is neither here, nor there. To each his own.
I'd be willing to bet you are an American Idol fan as well.
Perhaps you are right about the mindless drivel. I;m off to watch Keith Olberman…………
Don't ask me why ( and if you find it in your hearts, even forgive me), but I videotaped "Survivor – Season 2 (Australia)."
I was addicted…until the latter half of the season, when I realized that film is forever. And so are the very mean and bitter comments made when the cameras are rolling. Celebrity-hood reveals so much about people's personalities and manners.
I haven't watched "Survivor" since Season Two's finale.
"If you take it seriously, you are probably in trouble."
Oh. I get it now. It is like the WWF Wrestling shows.
They have used the Vince McMahon biddness model.
If the show "premiered a decade ago," how can it have "survived twenty years"?
Doesn't Hanlon have enough fingers and toes to keep track of the seasons?
Give me smart scripted shows like Dexter/Lost etc over this dumb crap….
I haven't either. I got sick of it hearing other people talk about it. And it was the first reality show where the biggest jerk finishes first.
20 YEARS? NO. 20 seasons, 10 years. First show was in May of 2000 (I had to check IMDB for that)
I feel old enough already, don't make me any older than necessary dude!
he does state in the first sentences that it is the 20th season and later it has been on a decade. At the very end he has 20 years, but every other reference to time does seem to indicate either season or decade….sheesh
If I give you a thumbs up, it to say that you're not the only one.
Survivior is a celebration of dishonesty, manipulation, marginalization and diversion. In other words, a liberal's wet dream.
It is abhorrent, and so utterly annoying I'm almost convinced that "Mark Burnett" is actually an actor, and that James Carville is the real mastermind behind this crap.
Funny!
There must be alot of mindless drivel fans on this site.
Oh, thats right, I forgot where I was, in the belly of the beast.
Evidently alot of writers, producers, and Oprah watchers here.
McMahon is non-stop bitch slapping rhoid-rage, tempered with pretty amazing acrobatics. I'd say that Survivor is closer in tone to Jerry Springer's heart felt sordid revelations.
Today, the whole country has allowed itself to succumed to the Daley/Farrakhan machines biz model – mostly because we've allowed the equivelent of McMahon to control the freedoms of our press and entertainment.
Possibly if everyone in this country was forced to spend two months out on Survivor Island, Soros, in real the real world, would be less likely to get away with his bullshit.
Do you also only read 30 pages of a 500 page book and know exactly what it's about? I personally don't care a bit if you like the show or don't like the show. My issue with you is that you pop off about something you don't know anything about, and when confronted about it, make snarky comments to cover your own ignorance. Unfortunately for you, it didn't work.
Lady, with all due respect, go in peace. Please, by all means watch your Survivor Show. If you think drivel like that is entertainment, is art, is even worthy of having an argument about, then I'm not the one to debate you.
YOU, missed my original point altogether. It went completely past you. That show, and others like it, are symptomatic of the demise of our great society. Years ago, people were educated. They studied science and art. They studied math. They studied the languages; Greek and Latin. They studied philosophy.
Today, you people who sit on your asses watching Survivor, watching American Idool, eating bon-bons and watching Orah, are representative examples of the demise of our society. Furthermore, you are the reason why.
I sure hope you don't vote.
Hey raging liberal, just because you don't like my answer I should "go in peace." Typical.
You are clearly a pseudo-intellectual self-hater who CANNOT SPELL! "It went completely PAST you". "AdvertiZements". Before you start attacking the intellect of others, please consult your spell and grammar check. You are entertaining me, though.
Being in LA, you get to run across some of these folks who have appeared on reality shows. The self-importance is unbelievable. I never know who they are until they tell me. I don't watch good TV, much less reality TV.
NO YOU AREN'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ditto American Idol, Bachelor, The Office (the orifice??) etc etc etc.
TCM for me
Yes, I really want more ballet, symphonyies and slow moving Masterpiece Theaters, as well as emotionally driven European style motion pics on the tube.
As long as you are entertained, Darlin'.
Satisfaction however is your responsibility.
To be sure.
As I'm sure is the case with most of the women you deal with. (Sorry – couldn't resist!)
And yep, I always have to have the last word. Peace be with you CL.
McMahon is a rhoid-rage bitch slap, with great acrobatics.
Survivor is closer in tone to Jerry Springer's awful, sordid truth revelations.
Having elected B. Hussein O. Jr., a Daley/Farrakhan machine commie rat (mostly because our free press does not believe in freedom) , the USA is already living in fantasyland. It would do most Americans some good if each was forced to live on Survivor Island for two months. I doubt that afterwards they would be as likely to fall for and comply to Soros's perversions.
Yes, I've watched Survivor and yes it is voyeuristic crap.
No, it is not reality T.V., it is edited, contrived and is ultimately misanthropic.
Somebody at a network was probably doing rails of coke off an escort's t**s and found a copy of Terry Southern's The Magic Christian and thought…..Hey I could make a show out of this crap!
Also, for those that have not seen the show yet instinctively know that it is garbage…..
you probably also instinctively know that taking a ball peen hammer to your knuckles is a bad idea without having to try it.
I have never watched so much as one second of any reality TV series ever. Was never even tempted to – not by the TV ads or by the inability to join in the "watercooler" conversations.
That being said, the fact that I find myself on the same side of this as "Cowboy" doesn't negate that fact that he's acting like an egotistical, supercillious arse about it.
I didn't watch the first season until the very last episode with that "famous" speech, let the snake eat the rat or whatever she said. Didn't really watch season 2, was on for a while, but did get burnt out; however, I still enjoy the show and like watching it.
The one show I've never watched is American Idol.
I'll call it garbage. I've never watched it either. I could give a crap about watching some losers flirt and bond. I'd have to change into panties before I could watch this anyways.
Real Housewives, Survivor, Big Brother and all the reality shows are not reality, just scripted crap and lots of editing. There was a show on last night of whose basement renovation provided the greatest return. WTF?
I hate cable. I'd like to just buy the three or four channels I actually watch.
I'm only sorry I missed the episode where they all got hurt.
TYou can read the back cover and know enough about a book to either buy it or toss it aside.
Only an idiot has to watch a whole show to see if it sucks. Bummer you seem to land in that category.
I love it when they resort to the "you can't even spell" argument.
Hard to attack intellect when it is not there to attack.
I hope her kids don't eat the same paint chips.
I'd rather mow the yard…twice.
or C-Span.
LOL!!!
seems to be a real intellectual would actually make an effort to see the whole picture before passing judment.
Give it your best. Conservativemom is just a veil for a liberal that doesn't seem to be able to hold an argument.
Go ahead and "attack" since that's all you got.
So I have to read the whole book to see if I'd like it?
Watch a whole Survivor to determine if my time was better spent walking the dog?
Glad I'm not a "real" intellectual.
I stopped watching the season they took everyone's clothes and made them run around China in their underwear.
Seriously. They did that. (Plus, too many of the contestants seem like exhibitionists. I wouldn't invite you into my house through the front door. Why would I let in you through the television screen?
I would agree nceeno, which is why I won't attack you. It's just not fair having a battle of the wits with someone is clearly unarmed.
i think they dog may be walking you. seems like intelligence might not be your strong suit. what a twit.
Survivor has also been a guilty pleasure of mine. I used to never miss an episode. My favorite part of the show was the high production value. Amazing locations, cool sets and great shots of pure nature from the most exotic places in the world. And the human drama was always entertaining. However, human drama has never been enough for me. I'd never watch a show like Big Brother for very long if at all. There has to be more to it than just people in their 20s interacting with each other. Putting a wide variety of people on a deserted island where they had to struggle to survive added a whole 'nother aspect to the show. You'd literally watch people transform over the weeks from city dwellers to primitive cave looking people. So it was was like Big Brother meets the travel channel meets Survivorman. I haven't watched it years though. Mostly because TiVo keeps me busy watching shows I like even more.
I guess you're right.
If a real intellectual has to sit in front of Survivor for a whole episode before passing judgement on it, then I am completely happy with being a dumbshit.
Twit? Asshole for sure. But a twit? Are you English or a homo?
You must be logged in to post a comment.