Hi friends, thought i'd pop on real quick just to share my first impressions with the new cast and see how you guys are feeling towards them. Overall i'm a fan of this cast, there aren't a ton of SUPER interesting people like Kaoh Rong but moreso a lot of fairly interesting, more middle ground-positive people like MvGX. Here's my current ranking, according to pre-season first impressions:
18. Lauren Rimmer.
Lauren is boring. She talks slowly and straight to the point. She talks about how stubborn and take-charge she can be, which is of course huge red flags when it comes to playing Survivor. I don't often use this term, because I often like the Southerners, but Lauren does just strike me as a boring redneck. My pick for first boot.
17. Simone Nguyen.
I haven't checked the blogs for the general consensus yet but I predict Simone is who Tengaged has chosen to worship right off the bat for no good reason. She's very dull to me. We've seen this a thousand times already- some young, attractive female who talks about how she's going to manipulate everyone and slit their throats and use their insecurities against them and blah blah blah, then they get out pre-merge because lol what's a social bond amirite?I predict she's just going to be another Liz Markham or Anna Khait or So Kim or Mari Takahashi or so forth.
16. Desi Williams.
I mean, she's alright. I don't see her doing very well, she strikes me as a bit of a know it all and really outside of her element in a physical game like this. I don't see her bonding well with people. Kinda getting Tasha Fox vibes. Pass.
15. John-Paul Hilsabeck.
He's a likable guy, but likable only goes so far. Doesn't seem to be too much to him. Like I said, he's pretty likable, very nice, but that seems to be about as far as his character goes as of right now. I probably won't root against him but not for him either. I don't really see a winner in him, but he has potential to do well. Reminds me of Hunter Ellis.
14. Katrina Radke.
Katrina's kinda cool. She seems to bring a lot of energy to the table, which is something this cast kinda needs as it would seem, so that's great, however I don't see her lasting long either. I get very strong Wendy Jo vibes. She may be a bit of a physical liability and a bit of a talker early on, and she's actually my next bet for first boot outside Lauren. I don't think she's dumb though, I think she does potentially have the capacity to surprise me, maybe get the coveted "older mom character that makes finals but doesn't garner any respect from the jury" slot.
13. Chrissy Hofbeck.
She's more fun than I thought she'd be. Like Katrina, seems to bring a bit of energy to the table, which is good. I don't really understand why she's a hero? As she put it herself, her job is kinda like assessing situations and forming a plan for the future? I dont know, I dont really get it/care enough to research the subject. She's ok
12. Ben Driebergen.
My initial impression of Ben was: easy pre merge fodder. Going to come in, take charge, get booted for it. But after watching his videos, and listening to him speak, he has much more potential than that, both for entertainment and gameplay. He's actually a much bigger softie than he appeared to be. I like that. I'll admit I kinda bought into the "wow looks kinda like a dumb hick" prejudice at first, and I regret it. I like Ben. Also he looks, sounds, and acts exactly like my boss's husband, so there's that. Getting Chris Hammons vibes, which is a good thing in my book.
11. Jessica Johnston.
She's cool, I think she has potential to do fairly well. She strikes me as a very driven person, someone who would put up a big fight if she thought she was in trouble. She started getting all religious near the end of her cast vid, which was a little groan-y, but I think she's pretty likable.
10. Patrick Bolton.
Patrick is a big question mark to me. I really can't get a read on his character at all. He seems kinda preppy but not really snobby? He seems kinda smart but not like a schemer or anything. The last person that was a huge question mark to me was Will Wahl, and as the season progressed, it was deduced that the reason I couldn't get a read on his personality was because he didn't really have one, and I hope that's not the case here. Pat seems more likable than Will, although he appeared to be really low energy when he spoke in his cast video, but im willing to chalk that up to the dull format the videos are set in ("my name is ____, I do _______, im from ______, heres why im unique". Them talking to the camera like this is not exciting, its not fun)
9. Devon Pinto.
Another question mark for me. I like the surfer dude characters, I identify with them, Jay, Fabio, Joe, they're pretty much how I am in my day to day life. But he seems like a much more mellow version of the archetype. He seems to live the lifestyle, but doesn't seem like he'll give us any fun confessionals or goofy moments,he seems much more chill. That's probably better for his game but worse for his character. I don't know, we'll see.
8. Mike Zahalsky.
I first saw Mike, I thought to myself "David Samson". I thought he'd be easy pre-merge overly strategic fodder. But the more I heard from him the more I started liking him. I still think it's very much possible my intial impression will still be accurate, but he seems much more likable, much more self-aware and less pretentious than I initially thought he'd be. The whole obsession with Ethan Zohn is kinda weird tho, did anyone else catch that? Talked about him for like a solid minute. You do you, Mike. I hope he makes urine/dick jokes
7. Cole Medders.
Hugely likable guy. I very much relate to the way he views the world and his beliefs and lifestyle and such. However, relatability to me only does so far. I relate a good amount to Woo Hwang too, doesn't mean I find his character fun to watch. Actually if we're being accurate I feel Cole should be moved down a few spaces on this ranking, but, ya know, I already done typed all this shit out so here he's staying. Anyway, really likable guy, doesn't seem to have a huge clue strategically, a lot of people have him as winner picks, im not sure i buy into that, but I like him. Weirdly I have Jay Byars vibes
6. Joe Mena.
Seems like we found our potential season villain. Kinda seems like the Walmart Knockoff Brand of Tony Vlachos. Like they have similar jobs, same hair/facial hair, same body type with tattoos, same cutthroat philsosophy. I definitely think he was cast to try and become the next Tony. Will he be? No. There's only one Big Tone Vlachos. But I see us getting some good drama with him. Also he got into a Twitter fight with Scot Pollard lel
5. Roark Luskin.
Roark is another big question mark to me, but im leaning towards the positive here. Some stuff she's said in her interviews make me laugh (like saying her hero is Blue Ivy, Beyonce's daughter), so I like her. She seems like someone i'd enjoy as a person but not enjoy watching as much, as I get HEAVY Spencebot 9000 vibes from her. Plus she's good friends with Corinne Kaplan, which is a huge negative. Gross. But I like Roark, I hope she isn't a gamebot. I don't think she's going to win at all but as of now im a fan.
4. Ashley Nolan.
Im not sure why I like Ashley so much, but I do. She's fun to me. She has this determination to her, shes interesting. I think she has fair winner potential, but I also see her as a potential wreck that clashes with people. I think she could go either way, but, either course im eager to see play out.
3. Ali Elliott.
Ali seems to me what Desi/Simone think they are. Ali strikes me as a smart, resourceful girl who could play under the radar very well while still pulling some strings. I know loosely who Glozell Green is, I don't really care, Youtube is cringey as fuck in general, so that angle I couldn't care less about, but I definitely like Ali and I want to see her go far.
2. Alan Ball.
I think Alan is very likable. He's not really a big fan of the show and he owns that. I think he's very charismatic and he was my pre-interviews/videos winner pick. Now that i;ve heard from him some more, I think his winnability has gone down some, but I think he's still up there with a good shot.
1. Ryan Ulrich.
This is probably biased because I feel such heavy David Wright vibes from him, and i'm a huge Big Dick Dave fan. He seems like he's going to get the Aubry/David growth storyline, and at first I was kinda pissy about this- Aubry and David are two of my favorite modern characters, I dont want their genuinely interesting story arcs to turn into some gimmick that happens every season. But after hearing Ryan out a bit, I think he's very likable aswell. If you know me, you know I like very well-spoken people, I love the narrators of Survivor, and I think there's a lot of potential there for him. Turtleneck's dumb tho
hi every1 im new!!!!!!! holds up idol my name is Amanda but u can call me The Amanda Kimmel of Survivor: China, Survivor: Micronesia, and Survivor: Heroes vs Villains!!!!!!!! lol…as u can see im very strategic!!!! thats why i came here, 2 meet strategic ppl like me _… im 33 years old (im mature 4 my age tho!!) i like 2 watch Survivor w/ my hispanic ex-boyfriend (im a hero if u dont like it deal w/it) its our favorite tv show!!! bcuz its SOOOO strategic!!!! hes strategic 2 of course but i want 2 meet more strategic ppl =) like they say the more the merrier!!!! lol…neways i hope 2 make alot of freinds here so give me lots of commentses!!!! VOTING BLOCS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! --- me bein strategic again _^ hehe…toodles!!!!!
love and waffles,
The Amanda Kimmel of Survivor: China, Survivor: Micronesia, and Survivor: Heroes vs Villains
im looking for that Australian Survivor preview and I can't seem to find it weirdly enough. Ive found some but not the specific one im looking for. The preview im thinking of seems to focus on showing off the cast. Anyone help me out before I peace out again?
and I will try to disagree with it. Even if I actually agree with what you say, ill play Devil's Advocate and find a way to disagree with you. Probably my last blog of the summer so enjoy
JetsRock12 Amber DID deserve to win All Stars, anyone who makes finals and receives enough votes from the jury deserves to win and there's really no way to counter that. One could easily view her as Rob's lapdog, but in the end it got her $1,000,000 so how bad of a strategy was it really?
Darbe BIG MOOV gameplay makes the show more interesting because with people more willing to shake the game up and connections are much looser, the elimination process becomes much more fluid and dynamic. You never know who could go next and makes for an exciting experience to watch live.
BritishRomeo17 Alecia Holden is not overrated because she sets in motion one of the best villain story arcs in recent years. Without her, Jason and Scot aren't nearly as big assholes, and therefore when they are inevitably voted out, we hate them less and their exit is much less satisfiying. Kinda like Harry Potter's parents, they are the beginning, the introduction to this super villain so that our dislike of them can build up over time.
Novamax243 Thailand is the best season ever because of the cutthroat and clockwork gameplay of it's winner. Early on in Survivor we see many people play with emotion, who vote according to social bonds or lack thereof, but Brian didnt play by those rules. He was like an assassin just there to pop some folks and be on with his day. This change of pace was unanticipated at the time and forms a bit of a milestone in Survivor history. Combine that with small enjoyable moments like ATTACK ZONE, "no shit, sherlock", Jan Gentry's bat fetus funeral, and BYE BYE DENVER DIVA, you have yourself a top tier season
Funnehliner Dan Foley is not the best Survivor contestant ever because he sucks at Survivor despite proclaiming himself as a "super fan" , and has an insufferable way of talking down to every woman he encounters as if his troll-like ass is above them. He is in really no regard likable as a person and probably sweats gravy.
you little cunts going out of your way to comment shit you know I strongly agree with
EDIT: oh hi um im leaving for the summer in like a few hours so im not going to be able to get all these done, this wasnt supposed to be a top blog or anything, dont be mad if the majority of you dont get answers
about why I prefer the "show" aspect of Survivor over the "game" aspect of it, is that often, good gameplay is not entertaining.
Kim Spradlin, played an amazing game. Made some alliances, brought 'em to the end, very likable person, boom a top 10 game is born. But there's nothing fun about that, it's painfully dull. Forming a solid alliance and being the most likable in the eyes of the jury, that is amazing gameplay, there is zero flaw in that. You will win if you can put yourself in that scenario. Pagonging is almost always your best course of action. And that's not fun. It's when different and dynamic personalities enter the mix that things get interesting.
And I get that enjoying Survivor for the game is about more than "good" gameplay, it's moreso about "intense" gameplay, where things are dynamic and you don't know who's going next. I get that. But at the end of the day, all the strategy in the world does not make up for lack of character. If you care solely about strategy, then you could just as easily go watch a chess championship, yeah?
Im not trying to say anyone's way of enjoying a tv show in incorrect or anything, that's just blatantly wrong to think, but I will adamantly argue that storylines, characters, the SHOW aspect of Survivor is fundamentally what matters more when valuing the show as a whole, it's what makes Survivor Survivor, otherwise we wouldn't have more than like MAYBE 5 seasons.
