Board 8 > Reality TV Discussion Topic: Delayed by the Writers' Strike

(+) Yeah! (+)

Caught up to Survivor. The casting is insane this year lol. Psychos and incompetents everywhere. I don't think it's good necessarily, especially with this absolutely stupid day 1 quit (from a therapist no less???). But it is certainly a very different casting from the other S40+ pro gamebot casts. It feels like Cagayan almost.

The game design seems solid too. Tricky puzzles and idol requirements. Nothing as great as the bird cage idol but nothing bad either.

What's interesting is last season had a sword and shield theme and now we're back to simpler idols.

I'm disappointed Matt didn't get a zing about gaining weight

Holy shit, Zingbot RIPPED Cory to absolute shreds...

Man I gotta say, after seeing Cameron survive assassination attempt after assassination attempt all season, it's gonna be a frustrating and disappointing end to his story if he goes down here to a complete bumblefuck move.

Watching the episode from last night. That Cirie zing was AMAZING. Clever AND accurate.

Also, Ive gotten to the point where Blue is SO fake and cringe in the diary room that I kinda love it. Shes fake in a very genuine way, where shes just trying to be who she wants to be, and it feels more honest than like, Cory, America and Cameron, who always come across as scripted and trying to play up their BIG BROTHER persona.

Underleveled posted...

Man I gotta say, after seeing Cameron survive assassination attempt after assassination attempt all season, it's gonna be a frustrating and disappointing end to his story if he goes down here to a complete bumblefuck move.

I think the only reason it's frustrating is because he should've been gone three weeks ago. The guy has been a creeper and an arrogant douche all season, and yet because he's good at comps, he's been able to force his terrible reads and terrible understanding of the house dynamics on everyone else, while completely ignoring the social game and making any real friendships or bonds outside of Red (who he was apparently SO tenuous with that Jared was able to make up a lie and completely turn Red against Cameron with ease). Cameron being THE main character of this season has been unbearable, and unfortunately, it's almost too little too late at this point, but at least him going might FINALLY allow some other storylines to flourish.

I gotta say, Inviso and my opinions are typically pretty similar. There may be one or two significant differences per season but this is one of the first times that our opinions on a season have been so tremendously different.

Maybe it's because I'm so exposed to and so over that IG/Tik Tok type of personality but I absolutely cannot STAND Blue, not even ironically like you do. Meanwhile, I like Cory and am not nearly as put off by Cameron as you are.

Anyway, there's a good chance I won't watch TAR tonight. These 11pm end times are already killing me and tomorrow specifically I have to be up an hour earlier than usual so I'll probably just save it for Friday or Saturday when I don't have another show on.

Espeon posted...

Watching the episode from last night. That Cirie zing was AMAZING. Clever AND accurate.

Yeah that was probably my favorite one.

Wow, Brandon really WAS that tribe's Achilles heel

Red tribe is not going to tribal. It's either blue or yellow. My gut says blue.

Underleveled posted...

Red tribe is not going to tribal. It's either blue or yellow. My gut says blue.

Yeah, I'm thinking blue does too, with Katurah going home.

Well so much for that prediction

Wowowow. For an "always going to tribal" tribe, Yellow is producing the goods.

That was a pretty awesome outcome.

That was great.

Between Hisam and now Sabiyah, we're on a great streak of third boots being phenomenally-edited villains. Let's see what TAR does for us...

Blaziken posted...

That was a pretty awesome outcome.

It was. I'm still laughing!

After the Idol BBQ and having to make a decision real-time about whether to sacrifice her vote for an idol or be forced to play it right then and there... she gets blindsided. Ouch. Would've been good - but nowhere near AS good - if she'd kept her vote and played her idol, then gotten confused by what went down. This was glorious and just plain hilarious. This is a classic villain comeuppance and I am living for it.

these 90 minute episodes have been absolutely crushing it

This episode of TAR is MUCH better than last week's (largely because it feels more chaotic, rather than linear).

Blaziken posted...

This episode of TAR is MUCH better than last week's (largely because it feels more chaotic, rather than linear).

I didn't watch because last week's was such a bore. I'm looking over the list of teams and I don't remember practically any of them... only Robbin & Chelsea (who quickly turned from enemies to friends), Todd & Ashlie (it was her hat, because me), and Jocelyn & Victor (who run an Asian grocery store) ring a bell. I remember there being a deaf guy but don't recall his name.

Glad they brought airports back, at least! That's a huge contributor of fun to TAR.

I love that the daughter in the father/daughter team had the foresight to dig in the 6:15 pile and found a hidden 5:45 there. Like something so simple that all those teams who took from the 6:00 pile didn't think of. And they finished 1st too, very satisfying.

I also love the sisters wasting their Express Pass on a generic task and getting immediately punished for it, very satisfying.

So yeah, definitely a better Amazing Race episode than last week for sure, not a fan of "still racing" legs but they'll always be better than non-elimination legs at least.

Survivor was also excellent, very satisfying elim, and they really are making great work of the extra 30 minutes every time. Love it.

Underleveled posted...

That was great.

Between Hisam and now Sabiyah, we're on a great streak of third boots being phenomenally-edited villains. Let's see what TAR does for us...

Well, good thing Liam & Yeremi got non-eliminated, because they couldn't be anything further from phenomenally-edited villains.

I cant believe Kalebs ep1 edit was so bad given his importance in 3 straight tribals

amazing ep though, all that wax melting for naught

Great episode for sure. It feels like endgame gameplay, mostly because it's been entirely focused on 1 tribe of 6 people, but the longer episodes do seem to greatly improve the pacing. The storylines seem more complex at least.

The beware idol challenges are really good too. Both required heavy trust and coordination since they were so hard to do solo. It really affected the alliance dynamics. The sacrifice idol is an awesome mechanic too, combined with the goodwill. Complicated but it seems worth it so far. Good pro-social game design.

I do wonder how the idol works if Austin never goes to Tribal premerge. Does he only have to sacrifice one vote at that point to get it to the final five, or does he still have to do it twice even though it'd still be powerless after one?

Fucking FINALLY, Cameron is gone. Just need to somehow take out Jatt and Americory now.

I'm feeling like one of those pairs will be the final two. Most likely Matt and Jag.

Underleveled posted...

I'm feeling like one of those pairs will be the final two. Most likely Matt and Jag.

I doubt it. Both of them are comp beasts. Someone will realize that one of them will need to be taken out before then. I hope, anyway. I don't want boring TV.

Could easily see someone who isn't gonna get any votes like Blue or Bowie Jane sitting next to Matt, Jag, or America. Or maybe Cirie if she suddenly reinvigorates her interest in playing. Cory ain't making endgame, and if he gets evicted soon, America could make it deep. The reverse is not true: If Cory wins Veto and saves himself, he'll just be put on the block again and will get to join his girlfriend for a good fucking time at Ponderosa a week later. No idea what to make of Felicia right now, but I'm hardly following (and probably wouldn't be following at all if not for Cirie).

I expect two of Cory, Matt, and Jag to be among the next three boots, the fact that the new HOH is ...Jag..... notwithstanding. These people have to realize that those three are the biggest threats, yes?

From what I understand, the order people would win at present is something like...
Matt > Cory > Jag > Cirie > Felicia >= America > Bowie Jane > Blue

(Jag is third only because he was unanimously evicted earlier and that can count against people. Bowie Jane made a mistake making Cameron Mayor of Ponderosa - that betrayal is going to set the tone for the jury, but she still beats Blue.)

swap Cirie and Matt on that list and it seems about right. there's absolutely no way Cirie loses if she makes the final.

Since I didn't mention it last night, I love anonymous HoH as a twist, conceptually. It allows someone to take a shot that's good for their game but they'd be hesitant to take publicly.

Xuxon posted...

swap Cirie and Matt on that list and it seems about right. there's absolutely no way Cirie loses if she makes the final.

Would've agreed with you a week or two ago, but now I'm under the impression that her jury equity is evaporating due to her disinterest.

Underleveled posted...

Since I didn't mention it last night, I love anonymous HoH as a twist, conceptually. It allows someone to take a shot that's good for their game but they'd be hesitant to take publicly.

Always a good twist, even if the entertainment value depends on who wins it. It's much more interesting when nobody can figure out who did it, as opposed to the whole house finding out by Saturday because people can't keep a fucking secret.

Also this year's BB Comics covers dropped. A few good ones but they're mostly lame, and some of them don't make much sense to me given who I thought was liked vs. disliked.

Well, that's disappointing to hear that Cirie's given up. What made her lose interest in playing? Losing Jared?

Holy shit that tribal this week. That was crazy

Mewtwo59 posted...

Well, that's disappointing to hear that Cirie's given up. What made her lose interest in playing? Losing Jared?

I don't know what's going on on the live feeds, but from the edit it seems she's feigning disinterest as a means of playing UTR.

Am I the only one that saw that Sabiyah blindside coming from a mile away?

Pretty clearly Kaleb and Emily were in cahoots with each other and Sabiyah didn't have her vote.

This season is fairly intriguing though. I wonder how long I'll keep thinking this.

As soon as Lulu lost immunity I knew Sabiyah's time was up. It felt like the logical conclusion to that episode's narrative.

Even in the last episode it was kinda obvious because they focused on Kaleb+Emily so hard. It's an interesting edit they did, where the audience was fully brought along with the blindside narrative, and the drama was mostly about watching Sabiyah's excellent position crumble due to her mistakes. It's appealing to the "I could totally do better than them" feeling of the viewer.

I liked it better than recent seasons where they try to shock the viewer every time (and often fail). But I'm sure we'll get those post merge. They're also great when done well.

It also occurs to me that Brandon straight up mind controlled Hannah to quit. The dude clearly is experienced with therapists in his life, and he used those skills to crush her spirit and allow him to survive another day. If Lulu didn't keep losing, that move might have gotten him to merge.

I figured it was most likely to be Sabiyah going as well. Doesn't change that it was absolutely hilarious to watch. I haven't loved an episode like this in forever, even if I wasn't surprised by the outcome.

Decided to try updating my TAR season ranking. Borrowed a bit from Inviso's Survivor ranking tiers.

Truly "Amazing": 30, 5, 27, 29, 25, 2

Excellent seasons with some minor flaws: 17, 3, 22, 1, 12, 9

Good seasons with some major flaws: 13, 18, 33, 21

Have some distinctly negative aspects but enough fun and/or interesting content to not hate: 31, 6, 26, 34

Mostly bland and forgettable: 19, 14, 15

Bad seasons that are stomachable: 10, 32, 28, 7, 16, 23

Abysmal seasons: 4, 8, 24, 20, 11

Just because it's kinda become the fourth-wheel with three shows ongoing right now, but Challenge USA has been pretty okay. Granted, I thought the same thing last season until the penultimate round, but this season has been decent. Chris Underwood and Michaela Bradshaw have been absolute stars, and there are only one man and one woman I'm hoping lose in the finals at this point.

If any fans of The Genius havent checked it out yet, I would highly recommend watching The Devils Plan on Netflix. Its basically a spiritual successor.

Watching last nights episode. Its crazy to me that, in an endurance comp with eight people, six of the eight were out within 22 minutes, while the other two lasted over two hours. It says a lot about the competition prowess this season, and its why the meta of targeting anyone who won power was so important and accurate early on. Wish that stuck around.

Also, good on Blue for her win. I heard the comp was a crapshoot, but that was more mental than anything. The fact that she was only five seconds off (without going over, even) is impressive.

Emily just became the most valuable player in the game.

Julie, Kendra, Katurah

That's who I think would go from each tribe tonight

I'm guessing J. Maya goes home tonight somehow.

LOL

Lulu truly is the trainwreckiest tribe of all time, aren't they?

What why how Hannah was one thing but this came the fuck out of nowhere

While the story came kinda out of nowhere, I found it to be quite interesting and raw and real.