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I'm still woefully behind on reading Livejournal, and part of the reason is that I'm dealing with this current bout of crazy by watching endless seasons of Survivor, with the side effect of annoying the everliving crap out of anyone when I do talk to them by blathering on about it. But, I have an LJ! It probably makes more sense to blather here behind a cut tag where it can easily be avoided.
To catch you up on how this happened, BLAME![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jarrow!! Okay, not really. I was bored one day and had finished watching most of what I wanted to in the OnDemand selections on my teevee, when I noticed it had the current season of Survivor and I figured, what the hell. This is how I became utterly fascinated with the unpredictable and underestimated gameplay of a contestant named Sugar, which led me to actually pay attention to the entire game, which led me to a conversation with jarrow who had recently begun a Survivor obsession of his own, who then uploaded many, many more past seasons of Survivor for me, and here we are today.
1. Let's get this out of the way. In many aspects this is a mean spirited game that encourages the worst in people, both those playing and those watching. I'm not proud of the fact that I find it enjoyable to watch people make idiots out of themselves, faceplant in mud, and lie/scheme/decieve to get one over on each other. But there it is. It's not all there is, however I would be lying if I said that indulging the meaner parts of myself didn't factor in. I don't feel quite as guilty about that as I would otherwise when I think about the fact that, save for the first few seasons, anyone who signs up to go on this show knows exactly what they are in for. That million dollars isn't anywhere near enough money to entice me to touch an application form with a ten foot pole. Because I've watched it.
2. That being said, if you want a game where lying/scheming/deceiving may be rewarded, but bullying rarely is...if you want to see the little guy take down the big guy, and karmic payback of epic proportion, outcasts banding together to deliver satisfying smackdowns, oh boy are you gonna find it here. Not always, but often enough that it is delightful. There is something so delicious about things like a men vs. women tribe face-off where the dudes have just trash talked to the camera and amongst themselves about how blah-blah-blah-of course men will beat women, and they are going to dominate every challenge and blah-blah-blah, it's only a question of which one of them is going to take the million home...only to get SPANKED. Watching a group of underdogs engineer the humiliating ouster of an arrogant clique of asses? Priceless. Some pretty unpleasant people have made it to the finals, no question. But certain kinds of unpleasant people are pretty consistently bitchslapped by the people they'd least expect it from. What can I say, I was picked on in school, I take my revenge where I can get it.
3. Women. Lots of 'em. Some I love, some like, some I loathe, some I want to marry, and some I want to dump over the nearest cliff. But all of them competing in a game that is tough both physically and mentally, and using their individual strengths to compete hard, whether that be in a flat out wrestling challenge or the social wrangling part or both. And while the editing and endless excuses to get shots of women dressed in as little as possible and attempts to force sexist narratives certainly exist...there's only so much you can do when women aren't written, but just are. Especially in an environment like this one, where much of the game is hands off in terms of what can be controlled from the outside. These women fight. And they win. From individual and team challenges to forming alliances and working the room, right down to the handing over of a million dollar check, you can't count these women out at any stage of the game, from the dumpy middle-aged mom right down to the 90 pound beauty queen. That's sort of awesome. I don't have to like all of them to want to throw my arms up in the air and holler YES! to a show that demonstrates that given an equal chance to compete, women will rock that shit, oh yes they will. They aren't perfect, but there they are.
4. The social dynamics aspect of it is fascinating. It really is. How people behave in groups, what they'll do in their own self-interest and what they won't do, the ways in which frienships and team bonding can both be an advantage and disadvantage, how people deal with being denied what they think of as basic comfort, and the endless combinations of how all this shakes out to who walks home with a million dollars. There are many ways to navigate the social waters, and how different types of personalities and the different combinations of them go from here to there is a psychological bounty if you find that sort of thing interesting, which I do. The gap between what people think they will do, and what they will do is sometimes quite large.
5. Strategery. I am about the biggest backseat Survivor ever. It's like one big chess game with people, and there is a great amount of entertainment to be had in kibbitzing the moves being made. Facepalming when you have some information that a player doesn't have which lets you know how boneheaded they are about to be. Collapsing in giggles when a particularly crafty play knocks out a power player. From the brilliant blindside to the ironclad alliance, there is much to second guess or admire. It's a long game in terms of strategy that has to constantly shift and duck and weave and adapt to different stages of the game. When do you jump? When do you stay put? How soon is too soon, and how late is too late? Proving yourself in challenges early will keep you in, but paint a big target on your back later. Scooting under the radar might get you to the end, but cost you with the jury. Reveal your loyalties too early and risk the bottom of your alliance flipping, wait too long to flip and you're going home number four. And then you have the players who figure out they can't win and start lobbing monkey wrenches into the whole business, or are such chaotic players by nature that everything gets thrown into question. No one is safe, everything can turn on a dime, and that's just exciting.
So there you have it. Some of the reasons I have become utterly captivated by this show, though I doubt anyone has read this far, but at least I'm not yammering away at some poor unsuspecting friend who simply asked "How are you?" :D
To catch you up on how this happened, BLAME
jarrow!! Okay, not really. I was bored one day and had finished watching most of what I wanted to in the OnDemand selections on my teevee, when I noticed it had the current season of Survivor and I figured, what the hell. This is how I became utterly fascinated with the unpredictable and underestimated gameplay of a contestant named Sugar, which led me to actually pay attention to the entire game, which led me to a conversation with jarrow who had recently begun a Survivor obsession of his own, who then uploaded many, many more past seasons of Survivor for me, and here we are today. 1. Let's get this out of the way. In many aspects this is a mean spirited game that encourages the worst in people, both those playing and those watching. I'm not proud of the fact that I find it enjoyable to watch people make idiots out of themselves, faceplant in mud, and lie/scheme/decieve to get one over on each other. But there it is. It's not all there is, however I would be lying if I said that indulging the meaner parts of myself didn't factor in. I don't feel quite as guilty about that as I would otherwise when I think about the fact that, save for the first few seasons, anyone who signs up to go on this show knows exactly what they are in for. That million dollars isn't anywhere near enough money to entice me to touch an application form with a ten foot pole. Because I've watched it.
2. That being said, if you want a game where lying/scheming/deceiving may be rewarded, but bullying rarely is...if you want to see the little guy take down the big guy, and karmic payback of epic proportion, outcasts banding together to deliver satisfying smackdowns, oh boy are you gonna find it here. Not always, but often enough that it is delightful. There is something so delicious about things like a men vs. women tribe face-off where the dudes have just trash talked to the camera and amongst themselves about how blah-blah-blah-of course men will beat women, and they are going to dominate every challenge and blah-blah-blah, it's only a question of which one of them is going to take the million home...only to get SPANKED. Watching a group of underdogs engineer the humiliating ouster of an arrogant clique of asses? Priceless. Some pretty unpleasant people have made it to the finals, no question. But certain kinds of unpleasant people are pretty consistently bitchslapped by the people they'd least expect it from. What can I say, I was picked on in school, I take my revenge where I can get it.
3. Women. Lots of 'em. Some I love, some like, some I loathe, some I want to marry, and some I want to dump over the nearest cliff. But all of them competing in a game that is tough both physically and mentally, and using their individual strengths to compete hard, whether that be in a flat out wrestling challenge or the social wrangling part or both. And while the editing and endless excuses to get shots of women dressed in as little as possible and attempts to force sexist narratives certainly exist...there's only so much you can do when women aren't written, but just are. Especially in an environment like this one, where much of the game is hands off in terms of what can be controlled from the outside. These women fight. And they win. From individual and team challenges to forming alliances and working the room, right down to the handing over of a million dollar check, you can't count these women out at any stage of the game, from the dumpy middle-aged mom right down to the 90 pound beauty queen. That's sort of awesome. I don't have to like all of them to want to throw my arms up in the air and holler YES! to a show that demonstrates that given an equal chance to compete, women will rock that shit, oh yes they will. They aren't perfect, but there they are.
4. The social dynamics aspect of it is fascinating. It really is. How people behave in groups, what they'll do in their own self-interest and what they won't do, the ways in which frienships and team bonding can both be an advantage and disadvantage, how people deal with being denied what they think of as basic comfort, and the endless combinations of how all this shakes out to who walks home with a million dollars. There are many ways to navigate the social waters, and how different types of personalities and the different combinations of them go from here to there is a psychological bounty if you find that sort of thing interesting, which I do. The gap between what people think they will do, and what they will do is sometimes quite large.
5. Strategery. I am about the biggest backseat Survivor ever. It's like one big chess game with people, and there is a great amount of entertainment to be had in kibbitzing the moves being made. Facepalming when you have some information that a player doesn't have which lets you know how boneheaded they are about to be. Collapsing in giggles when a particularly crafty play knocks out a power player. From the brilliant blindside to the ironclad alliance, there is much to second guess or admire. It's a long game in terms of strategy that has to constantly shift and duck and weave and adapt to different stages of the game. When do you jump? When do you stay put? How soon is too soon, and how late is too late? Proving yourself in challenges early will keep you in, but paint a big target on your back later. Scooting under the radar might get you to the end, but cost you with the jury. Reveal your loyalties too early and risk the bottom of your alliance flipping, wait too long to flip and you're going home number four. And then you have the players who figure out they can't win and start lobbing monkey wrenches into the whole business, or are such chaotic players by nature that everything gets thrown into question. No one is safe, everything can turn on a dime, and that's just exciting.
So there you have it. Some of the reasons I have become utterly captivated by this show, though I doubt anyone has read this far, but at least I'm not yammering away at some poor unsuspecting friend who simply asked "How are you?" :D