More thoughts tomorrow. I'm ok with how everything played out. Was a great season and I do think Maryanne sold her game to the jury the best which is what swayed the votes to her favor.
Survivor 42
- Thread starter CYdTracked
- Start date
I still watch this show but it's not as great as it used to be. They really need to shake things up somehow and not some stupid idea like being banished to an island and can work back into the game. Make the challenges DIFFERENT. I hate that players now have seen so many of these challenges from past seasons. I still think some season that is 16 players that are all family would be crazy dramatic television. Aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings all stabbing each other in the back and lying. Woo doggie. 
I still watch this show but it's not as great as it used to be. They really need to shake things up somehow and not some stupid idea like being banished to an island and can work back into the game. Make the challenges DIFFERENT. I hate that players now have seen so many of these challenges from past seasons. I still think some season that is 16 players that are all family would be crazy dramatic television. Aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings all stabbing each other in the back and lying. Woo doggie.
That would lead to some family rifts that would never be repaired.
I still watch this show but it's not as great as it used to be. They really need to shake things up somehow and not some stupid idea like being banished to an island and can work back into the game. Make the challenges DIFFERENT. I hate that players now have seen so many of these challenges from past seasons. I still think some season that is 16 players that are all family would be crazy dramatic television. Aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings all stabbing each other in the back and lying. Woo doggie.
I think they need to rein it in with all of the idols and advantages. There's too much to keep track of and too many to make them as valuable an advantage as they used to be. Kind of stupid seeing three people with 4 immunity idols between them at a single tribal council.
I guess I already had it figured out. Although, Maryanne continued to annoy me the entire time and I thought Tori would be drug along instead of Romeo.
I’m still not sure what Maryanne did the entire game though.
I guess to me she played a really smart game. You can say she didn't win any challenges, ok, to me that's keeping the bullseye off her back. She did enough in the social game and turned her strategic game on later. I'm happy she won. All that said, I do think this was a pretty weak season in terms of the overall quality of individual players. Most other seasons she probably doesn't stand much of a chance.
I definitely get what you are saying. I guess it is just hard to tell if she just decided to intentionally be the 6th best player in the game or if she just happened to be the 6th best player in the game.
I do think the top strategic players tried too hard too soon which left the end of the game pretty wide open.
The final 4 with the last immunity winner picking who goes with and who makes fire is what they need to change up. It's a good formula but like you said, everyone knows it, so come up with some other way to get there.I still watch this show but it's not as great as it used to be. They really need to shake things up somehow and not some stupid idea like being banished to an island and can work back into the game. Make the challenges DIFFERENT. I hate that players now have seen so many of these challenges fm past seasons. I still think some season that is 16 players that are all family would be crazy dramatic television. Aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings all stabbing each other in the back and lying. Woo doggie.
Maybe work it down to a final two for the jury to decide instead of 3. There seems to always be one of the 3 that everyone pretty much knows is not going to win anyway.
Some thoughts based on some of the posts above and some I have thought about since last night.
- "All that said, I do think this was a pretty weak season in terms of the overall quality of individual players." I disagree, I think the players this season were far superior to those last season and probably even season 39 (season 40 was all previous winners) If they were to bring back any of these players for another season later I think Johnathan, Mike, and Lindsay all were strong players that could have won if they played a bit differently, even Omar and Drea were very strong players that probably played the strategy game a bit too hard too soon. I look back at who made it the furthest in 39 and 41 and I don't think any of them were nearly as good of players as this group was.
- "I think they need to rein it in with all of the idols and advantages. There's too much to keep track of and too many to make them as valuable an advantage as they used to be. Kind of stupid seeing three people with 4 immunity idols between them at a single tribal council." I completely agree, when 2 of the top 5 people still have idols that late in the game it kind of ruins the gameplay a bit. I like how they tried to put risks with the advantages now but they aren't big enough negatives to really hurt the people that find them because those people seem to unlock or keep those advantages for several votes without it hurting them. I though of an idea where they maybe have a 2 piece idol and until you find both pieces you are without a vote at tribal. The kicker with that would be what if 2 people each found a half but they didn't know the other half was found or who had it. Then it becomes another twist of figuring out who has it and negotiating who gets both pieces so they can both get their votes back. If they are going to keep making these idols and advantages easier to obtain they need to put bigger risks with them so they are tougher to activate or play with.
- "Make the challenges DIFFERENT." Agree here too, I'd have to go back to some of the earlier seasons to see which ones they have not used in awhile that could be re-used again but creating some new ones they have not used yet would be welcomed.
Overall I think they are doing what they can to keep the show fresh and entertaining. This season gave me some hope they can keep it going as I thought things were headed the wrong way with as bad as last season was. I like the idea of doing some kind of family/relative season where maybe you find 8 couples or something and see how that plays out when they get split up and have to work against each other.
I know one thing is Jeff Probst has become a little too "woke" lately and this season was not nearly as bad as last season was with that crap but he has to be happy they have now had 2 back to back winners that were diverse women. Even the final 3 this season were all diverse and last season 2 of the 3 were non-white. Just by casual observation I have always felt the show has played out where people are not getting voted out by skin color or sex, it's been mostly because the players were too big of a threat, didn't get along with others or were just annoying. In 42 seasons there has now been 16 female winners, 15 if you count that Sandra has won twice so almost 40% and if you want to break it down more go look at how many diverse people have either won or made final 3 in the history of the show and you'll find that things have played out where it's not been a completely white male dominated show like some people have tried to claim it is.
To wrap up this season, given the final 3 Maryanne deserved to win. She sold her game to the jury better than Mike did and that is what swung it in her favor. She let the stronger players do the dirty work then made her big moves late in the game and then owned it. Had Johnathan been there instead of Mike I think she still probably would have won but had it been Romeo Mike and Johnathan I am not really sure who would have won between Mike and Johnathan and probably would have come down to who sold their game to the jury better.
- "All that said, I do think this was a pretty weak season in terms of the overall quality of individual players." I disagree, I think the players this season were far superior to those last season and probably even season 39 (season 40 was all previous winners) If they were to bring back any of these players for another season later I think Johnathan, Mike, and Lindsay all were strong players that could have won if they played a bit differently, even Omar and Drea were very strong players that probably played the strategy game a bit too hard too soon. I look back at who made it the furthest in 39 and 41 and I don't think any of them were nearly as good of players as this group was.
- "I think they need to rein it in with all of the idols and advantages. There's too much to keep track of and too many to make them as valuable an advantage as they used to be. Kind of stupid seeing three people with 4 immunity idols between them at a single tribal council." I completely agree, when 2 of the top 5 people still have idols that late in the game it kind of ruins the gameplay a bit. I like how they tried to put risks with the advantages now but they aren't big enough negatives to really hurt the people that find them because those people seem to unlock or keep those advantages for several votes without it hurting them. I though of an idea where they maybe have a 2 piece idol and until you find both pieces you are without a vote at tribal. The kicker with that would be what if 2 people each found a half but they didn't know the other half was found or who had it. Then it becomes another twist of figuring out who has it and negotiating who gets both pieces so they can both get their votes back. If they are going to keep making these idols and advantages easier to obtain they need to put bigger risks with them so they are tougher to activate or play with.
- "Make the challenges DIFFERENT." Agree here too, I'd have to go back to some of the earlier seasons to see which ones they have not used in awhile that could be re-used again but creating some new ones they have not used yet would be welcomed.
Overall I think they are doing what they can to keep the show fresh and entertaining. This season gave me some hope they can keep it going as I thought things were headed the wrong way with as bad as last season was. I like the idea of doing some kind of family/relative season where maybe you find 8 couples or something and see how that plays out when they get split up and have to work against each other.
I know one thing is Jeff Probst has become a little too "woke" lately and this season was not nearly as bad as last season was with that crap but he has to be happy they have now had 2 back to back winners that were diverse women. Even the final 3 this season were all diverse and last season 2 of the 3 were non-white. Just by casual observation I have always felt the show has played out where people are not getting voted out by skin color or sex, it's been mostly because the players were too big of a threat, didn't get along with others or were just annoying. In 42 seasons there has now been 16 female winners, 15 if you count that Sandra has won twice so almost 40% and if you want to break it down more go look at how many diverse people have either won or made final 3 in the history of the show and you'll find that things have played out where it's not been a completely white male dominated show like some people have tried to claim it is.
To wrap up this season, given the final 3 Maryanne deserved to win. She sold her game to the jury better than Mike did and that is what swung it in her favor. She let the stronger players do the dirty work then made her big moves late in the game and then owned it. Had Johnathan been there instead of Mike I think she still probably would have won but had it been Romeo Mike and Johnathan I am not really sure who would have won between Mike and Johnathan and probably would have come down to who sold their game to the jury better.
Finally got a chance to watch. I just had a feeling that several of the jury members weren't nearly as cool with getting blindsided as they pretended to be when the votes were read. I mean Omer, who played one of the more shady and duplicitous games in all of Survivor actually got on Mike for being dishonest?
Mike deserved to win, he was responsible for more vote outs, was on the right side of more votes, was seen as a threat for much of the post merge and still survived to the end.
Mary Anne played a good 5 days of Survivor in a 26 day game, but when you're dealing with a jury as salty as that one, not being relevant enough to ruffle feathers is a huge advantage.
And lol Romeo for being a complete waste on the show.
Mike deserved to win, he was responsible for more vote outs, was on the right side of more votes, was seen as a threat for much of the post merge and still survived to the end.
Mary Anne played a good 5 days of Survivor in a 26 day game, but when you're dealing with a jury as salty as that one, not being relevant enough to ruffle feathers is a huge advantage.
And lol Romeo for being a complete waste on the show.
I finally just watched the finale. I think it's garbage that many people voted against Mike.
To me, that seems personal. Whether it is pro-Maryanne or anti-Mike idk.
To me, that seems personal. Whether it is pro-Maryanne or anti-Mike idk.
Yeah I never circled back here but you couldn't have said it any better. The jury acted like Mike played like Russell or something.
It's hard to read the jury these days because some reward gameplay more than others do. Just depends on how bitter some are about being voted out I guess. To Maryanne's credit she did make some good moves late in the game that got her there but overall I liked Mike's game better because he was always one of the targets while Maryanne flew under the radar most votes.
They didn't release any Survivor Ponderosa videos this season for some reason which would have been interesting to see what the jury was talking about between votes. That usually provided a bit of insight about how those players felt going into the final vote. Could be they just felt jaded about how Mike played? I dunno, I do think Maryanne did a better job than Mike did owning her game and selling it to the jury did when they questioned them before the final vote and it obviously swung a few more votes her way as they asked in the post-show how many votes were in play and how many changed their vote based on the final tribal and there were quite a few hands that went up for both questions.
They didn't release any Survivor Ponderosa videos this season for some reason which would have been interesting to see what the jury was talking about between votes. That usually provided a bit of insight about how those players felt going into the final vote. Could be they just felt jaded about how Mike played? I dunno, I do think Maryanne did a better job than Mike did owning her game and selling it to the jury did when they questioned them before the final vote and it obviously swung a few more votes her way as they asked in the post-show how many votes were in play and how many changed their vote based on the final tribal and there were quite a few hands that went up for both questions.
No one made a thread for the new season. Really liking this season so far. Cody could be Iowa's second winner.
