Survivor Philippines Review
Finally after a long wait we have a new survivor season, this time we return to the beautiful beaches of the Philippines. I am a huge fan of the Survivor series. i have been following this show from the beginning when it initially aired and never missed a season. this is the only reality show i watch, and im happy to share my thoughts on survivor season 25.
Survivor Season 25 Trailer -
We start the show with 15 players that are already divided to three tribes and right there, you know that there is going to be a twist (15 players is not enough) and this season's twist is that we have three returning veterans that got injured in their previous run and couldn't finish what they started, this season they are given a chance to fulfill their dream and become the sole survivor.
The veterans are:
Michael from Australia - if you don't remember it's OK he was way back in the 2nd season - the guy fainted into a live fire and burned his hands/face and was forced to be evacuated.
Russell - and that's not the cool Russell I liked so much it's the guy that collapsed during one of the challenges a couple of seasons back.
Penner - the last time he played he got his leg infected in some weird thing and got evacuated short time after that.
I have to admit that I was expecting Colton to make his return this season but I guess that didn't work out well and that is OK because we have Penner this season. I really don't know why they decided to bring back Michael and Russell? To tell you the truth I don't remember them being so special. Out of all three veterans Penner is the most entertaining at least for me. Penner is different from most of the Survivor All stars. Most of the all stars are ... how can I put it delicately ... they are not regular / normal people ... most of them are nuts. Penner is not like that from the two times I remember him playing he was always rational , most of his moves were calculated and were contra response to events that happened before, what I liked the most in Penner's character is that he always describes his surrounding in a funny and easy outgoing way . It's fun to listen to him talk.
All veterans succeeded to become a real part of their tribes some more and some less. There was always a feeling that they do not fit completely but that couldn't be really tested because the blue tribe started the game with one of the worst tribe performance in history (I say one of the worst because nobody can compete with season 12). The blue tribe looses all its challenges and is decimated in the end. First it's the crazy tattoo dude that gets himself voted out in a really stupid way. the guy makes alliances with all members of his tribe tells about it to half of the tribe , botches the immunity challenge , implies to his tribe that he is to be blamed for the lose and after all that he tries to make them feel bad and vote Russell instead. This guys strategy was weird as hell for me I didn't understand where he was going with all of the events he created, if he had kept his mouth shot he might have stayed a bit longer in the game, and that's a pity because he was a crazy character that this season needed, he was a loose cannon of some kind. It felt like he could have done some damage this season and we could have fun witnessing it.
The next one to go was the religious chick after her it was the blond hot chick with a great rack. Both girls didn't show anything special (except the rack on the blond one) so I don't have much to say about them. The next one to go was Russell with a devastating blindside that completely ruined the guy. The last 2 members of the blue tribe were split between the Red and Yellow tribes and that was the end of the blue tribe. The blue tribe maybe was gone but its loosing curse moved on to the red tribe, the red tribe got rid of its two girls and we moved on to the merge.
Now when the tribes are merged I completely forgot to mention the three hidden immunity idols that were all found.
The first idol was found by Penner it was on the 2nd or the 3rd day - he was quick. The 2nd idol was found by the crazy Brazilian chick that pissed me of from the beginning of the game (I don't really know why but from some reason she is getting on my nerves). The 3rd idol was found by Malcolm in the last moment, just before the blue tribe was disassembled.
Now when the tribes are merged I struggle to understand Jeff's logic to double cross Penner. I know that Penner is a sharp player that won't think twice about switching sides when it fits him, but the key phrase is "when it fits him" and in this situation he doesn't gain anything by double crossing Jeff. Jeff is so terrified from Penner that he through his numbers advantage away (this is even more ridicules, the fact that the red tribe came with a numbers disadvantage to the merge 4 to 7 and Penner managed to gain two yellow member with a minimal effort) just to get into an alliance with the yellow tribe when Pete and the crazy Brazilian chick are on top. When all that drama is going on Penner's idol is flushed and Penner is with his back to the wall, he is the next one to go and suddenly out of nowhere Penner wins immunity for the 1st time EVER, but that's not all of it what followed Penner's immunity victory was one of the most crazy tribal council's i ever seen. Before the tribal Lisa has through Malcolm under the bus and told Pete that Malcolm has the immunity idol, Pete considered taking out Malcolm but decided to get rid of Jeff. In the meantime Jeff sensed the trap and gathered the red tribe to vote for Pete’s alliance, a complete mess but that’s not all. As the tribal starts and the Brazilian chick starts making a fool of herself with the alliances, suddenly Malcolm pulls out his idol shows it to everyone to get them of his back (at least for the current tribal) than Jeff asks (as a joke) the survivors if anyone else has an idol and the stupid Brazilian chick pulls out her idol for no clear reason (WTF?!?!?!?), and i see Jeff and Penner think to themselves what a stupid move. At the end Penner screws up the move to kick out Pete and Jeff goes home instead. i think that Jeff could have done more in this season but unfortunately he was voted out.
After the crazy tribal council the next episode was a bit weak and Artis went home because the Brazilian chick couldn't have shut her mouth and couldn't stop thinking out loud. In the next episode the crazy Brazilian used her idol and Pete went home and the Brazilian chick got trashed by the remaining survivors in the process, not before the audience was implied that there might be a chance that Malcolm would be sent home (the entire angle was not really believable and it felt like it was forced to be seen as close as it was in tribal but not more than that) the older survivor fans that have been following the show a while should have seen through this attempt to create an artificial suspense. After Abi ... yes I remembered her name (besides "Abi" is a lot shorter than "The crazy Brazilian chick") was on her own it got to be more interesting. At the food challenge Abi bought an advantage for the immunity challenge and it worked for her or was it ? This challenge was ridicules. it was constructed as it was just to save Abi. The challenge consisted of 3 minor sub challenges where in the first two sub challenges the contestants had to make way through an obstacle course when they are tied to a rope something Abi sucked in, like Denise mentioned during the challenge but in the third sub challenge (where Abi started her performance in the challenge because she bought the right to do so) the contestants had to open knots and to everybody’s surprise Abi won. I think that this was one of the most artificial / unnatural victories ever done in survivor's history, the girl can’t perform at challenges and they gave her a challenge where the guys didn't have no advantage over her (opening knots) it surprised me that she won but I’m sure that something fishy was going on there.
At the end Penner went home and that was a total bummer for me, I liked Penner he was so fun to watch that brings me to Lisa's performance throughout the season. She plays a ridicules game, on one side she makes moves she doesn't want to make she knows that those moves are wrong and she will not gain nothing from them. Lisa been doing those bad moves the entire game and from what she shared about her personnel life she made those same bad decision in her personnel life when she knew that those decisions are bad for her only is reunited with her brother at the reward challenge her brother puts her head into the game but that’s to late because Malcolm wins the immunity and he is sitting safe for the final 4.at tribal our happy bunch sends Carter home and Abi survives another day. for the next couple of days Michael Skupin and Lisa finally start thinking for themselves how to win the game (too late) and entertain the option of keeping Abi and sending home Denise (Malcolm wins immunity at the challenge and he has the idol so he is untouchable) but at the end they backed off and sent Abi home. Towards the end of Abi's run I enjoyed watching her make a fool out of herself. She made up an idol and even played of Jeff Probst. Who can forget the catchy phrase "if you keep telling the same lie long enough you start to believe it. Hell I even believe that i have an idol now". Now after we got rid of Abi we have the final 4 and surprisingly enough Malcolm is the guy that is voted out and we are left with the most boring and undeserving trio we ever had in a final 3- Lisa, Michael and Denise. I have to state that it was Malcolm’s fault for getting voted out, if he had lied to Denis than we would have a draw and anything could have happened there, but he was to sure of himself and he paid the price for it. Only after Malcolm was voted out, it hit me that after Penner was voted out he was my favorite player to win and in a way I was rooting for him without even noticing (while he was still in the game). But now when we are left with that lame trio, I don’t know who played the better game out of the 3 of them, they all sucked and none of them deserves to win. But if I have to choose:
Michael Skupin – when Abi exploded on Skupin in one of the tribal’s, calling him stupid … I thought that she was nuts, but in the last episode even other players who were Skupin’s partners said that he doesn't think strait. The dude got to this spot this season due to pure luck most of all. The things worked out for the dude.
Denise – she just took a long ride on Malcolm’s back. Sure she had a great story, but she didn’t do anything special.
Lisa – she tried to make moves but most of them failed, majority of the game she didn't play she just fallowed the crazy yellow people alliance, when she got her head back to the game it was too late.
Like I said before none of the 3 players deserved the spot they got. Malcolm should have won the game. But if I had to choose i would choose Lisa. Unfortunately the jury didn't think like I do and chose Denise I understand why but I don’t agree with it. Denise had a very weak game, she was never in control of the game, she didn't make any significant moves, and the jury voted for her just because they hated the other two more.
I enjoyed this season of survivor the final was a bit weak and i was disappointed from the chosen winner but the next season as we were allowed to take a small glimpse in the reunion show of survivor's season 25 is going to be fans Vs. Favorites again and that season cant be bad. so we have a good thing to be waiting for.
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