And I'll end with my pet peeve.......the reunion show didn't have enough questions to the rest of the players. I like when Jeff asks questions to everyone. Tonight it was very quiet.
This is a pet peeve of mine, too. As the main show goes longer and longer the reunion show gets shorter and shorter. I really liked when it was a full hour for the reunion show, instead of "whatever is leftover after the finale runs over"
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And next season looks good! Thanks again to WhiteTiger for setting this up!
Thanks for playing!
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Ok...that "Reunion" show was even worse than they usually are. There was almost no point to having anyone other than Ben and Chrissy there. We don't "All the moves Ben made" or "All the unkept secrets" recap after recap after recap. I want to hear from the players who played the game.
Though, I did appreciate sitting them in the order that they were voted out. Helped me recognize some of them.
Awesome for Ben! So happy for him.As soon as I saw him react to exploding bamboo I knew what he suffering from and in that instant I was rooting for him. (Got my wife on board pretty quickly as well).
Both of us were literally screaming about the upside down U!
And seriously, this season was pretty blah until Ben got into it.
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I like Ben, but production definitely put that twist to save him. He deserved to win but not in this way. He lost fair and square and should've gone out at 4. I'm glad he won for his family, but there will always be some controversy about this win. I hope they don't do this stuff in the future - Survivor feels less like a competition and more like Big Brother with this kind of stuff.
After last week I didn't think Chrissy would've been able to win the jury over, but I thought her final tribal performance was great and after her immunity run she would've had my vote. Those challenges were fantastic and really tough, I definitely respected her after she won them.
Devon made a really great move at final 5, that was the true big move of the season. I wonder if he would've been able to beat Chrissy had he made the final 3, because that was such great gameplay and intuition - he only had 1 person vote for him the entire game and was never voted out. If there was no twist and he won because of this move, I feel like that would've been a better ending for this season.
I thought it was a great season overall but the finale knocks it down from being near the top for me. I get that Ben found a lot of idols and really fits the "big moves" narrative that Jeff has been pushing lately, but this felt wrong.
Interesting. I don't think it was a throw in for Ben.
The final 3 twist to me makes it way more interesting as it adds an element for a deserving player to win their way in.
Imagine if Devon goes at 5 and that Christy wins at 4. She takes out Ben leaving a really boring finale because she wins in a sweep. This way you don't end up with a guarantee of the 2 weakest of the finale 4 always hitting the jury.
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"OOOOOOHHHHHHH those Russians" - Boney M
I’d prefer if they have to win their way in they do a series of immunity challenges rather than fire. First challenge all 4...winner goes through. Next challenge the remaining three...winner goes through etc.
I understand the theory but I think the execution was brutal.
Maybe I'm being a bit cynical here, but the Ben win seemed like it was orchestrated. The reason being the military angle, and its a huge viewership. I've never seen a season where idols were so easy to come by. Ben didn't have to play a social game because he just stumbled into the things. Then the magical rule change that saves him for the final 3? Maybe it's all just luck, but I'm suspicous.
I think a good rule going forward would be "you can not play an idol for yourself at back to back tribal councils." The idols are kind of a cheat code to the game, which is fine, but I don't think they should be god mode. Once their are to many gimmicks in a game, it starts to lose its luster.
FWIW I thought Chrissy played a much better game and deserved the win far more than Ben. I also don't see how that last thing was a "secret advantage". They took away her ability to choose who she got to sit next to. Hardly advantageous.
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Maybe I'm being a bit cynical here, but the Ben win seemed like it was orchestrated. The reason being the military angle, and its a huge viewership. I've never seen a season where idols were so easy to come by. Ben didn't have to play a social game because he just stumbled into the things. Then the magical rule change that saves him for the final 3? Maybe it's all just luck, but I'm suspicous.
Well anyone could have found the idols, so I don't know how orchestrated that could be, and while the fire challenge was suspect, he still didn't have it in the bag.
I think you have to look at Survivor from the perspective that they know who won long ago, they have thousands worth of footage. It's easy to make a narrative, to play up the military angle, the outsider, the loner, the family man, when they know he is going to win or at least go far.
As for the secret advantage, to make it an actual advantage, it would have been better to give her the option to use it. In this case she wouldn't have, Ben would have gone home and she likely takes home a million.
My understanding is that the challenges and twists are all agreed upon before the game starts, they can't change as they go. It's classified as a gameshow and there are rules around the competition.
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My understanding is that the challenges and twists are all agreed upon before the game starts, they can't change as they go. It's classified as a gameshow and there are rules around the competition.
Yup someone tried to sue years ago and it was proven they have all the twists , etc pre-planned.
If not for Ben's idols and the twists the last few episodes would be boring. You want to give someone 1M who can't get up early and make sure the only person that can beat them doesn't find an idol? Ben was full marks and then some.
so is Ashley in love with Devon or what's going on in that Devon ponderosa film?
Also how strange was that reunion show? Let's invite all cast members to come on stage, sit in a chair and not talk to any of them? Meanwhile I think they asked an audience member who she thought would win but never saw that was revealed who she voted for (although I may have missed it?).
The reunion show should not be for video recaps of how awesome Ben was. Ben told us how awesome he was throughout the show. We got it. Ben's awesome. Can we move onto more interesting things like why Joe was an imbecile until he became normal(ish) in his Ponderosa and after-life or why JP didn't talk, ever, in the entire show?
They never speak to everyone which is painfully awkward. The audience interactions are forced and pointless, and last year (?) the musician Sia took over the mic and had an even more painfully awkward moment for some reason.
