Out Play, Outwit, Outlast

[rabid1st]

At risk of losing your respect, I admit it...I'm a Survivor fan. For a little while, they lost me. The game became too inbred and the two person vote was a killer in many cases. But I feel that this show teaches us so much about human nature that I just can't help watching. Like P.G. I keep pulling for the lunch ladies to wake up and turn on their alliances when turning would do them some good. Yet, over and over again, I see good people place their sense of self...their personal loyalties...over their true self-interest. Survivor, at its core, is about how the human animal is a social animal.

And yet...on nights like tonight...I have some true hope for the species. To avoid spoiling you...under the cut we go

The weasel won. And YAY! WEASEL!

Todd was a weasel from day one of the game...but unlike former great weasels, say...Richard Hatch or Johnny Fairplay...Todd was an honest weasel. He never tried to pretend he was out on a camping trip with his buddies. Everyone knew that Todd was playing the game. Everyone expected he would turn on them...but still...they kept him close. And he played so well...he simply silenced the competition. He didn't try to say that he was an honest man at tribal council. He let Amanda try to explain how she "didn't mean to lie to people." And he let Courtney point out that she just followed his lead. He didn't try to weasel out of anything. He said he was a clever man and, by gum...he was. And beyond that...he readily admitted to using people. As Jeff said in the reunion show...all too often the people on the jury carry over their personal baggage to the vote. But in this case, Todd used that to his advantage by playing on John Robert in the one way that would secure his vote.

So...how could this possibly give me hope for our species. Well..I don't know if Denise is right about Todd's soul being tarnished. But whenever I hear something like that, I think...maybe the man who knows he's playing a game when he's playing a game...doesn't have to worry about his soul as much as you think. Maybe the ability to look beyond tribal ties and personality conflicts and petty hurts in order to secure the grand prize...is what will get us over our blind spots and allow the human race to survive. Somebody needs to remember the rules of the game.

Or...maybe it's because I was raised by badgers...either way...I'm happy for the little weasel tonight! YAY! TODD!



Rae

Comments

[kitmarlowescot2.livejournal.com]

The only reality tv show that I watch has meerkats. Or Mike Rowe on it. Anything else I really don't like it.

[rap541.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was pleased Todd won. He *was* honest - he was lying and using people and gameplay isn't life play.

And Denise was being an entitlement whore. Boo hoo she's a lunch lady.... oh now she's lost her job (which fyi happens to a LOT of Survivors so her pity party? She gets an additional 50k - on top of the 50-60k she made as a final four - because she loses at life.

So, you were with Courtney, hey?

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Just because you suck at life doesn't mean you deserve to have someone else give you THEIR million dollars.

I think that's the thing with me...because it would have been like AMANDA giving her a million dollars. And Denise was gambling on shaming Amanda into that position. That's an awful lot to ask of someone. Though, of course, the whole point of Survivor is asking people to give you THEIR million dollars...after you stab them in the back. And that's why I was happy about Todd...because he went into this with his knife in hand...everyone expected him to stab them in the back. The amazing thing was nobody saw it coming when they were in a position to stop it.

Rae

Re: So, you were with Courtney, hey?

[rap541.livejournal.com]

I was with Courtney, to be quite honest. If Denise is unhappy being a "lunch lady" - that is Denise's issue. It's not fair to look at a group of well, hardly super successful people, and say to the flight attendent and the bartender that you deserve the money more because you're older and have kids (and thats about what it amounted to - Todd's job sounds more glamorous but deep down he's refreshing drinks on a plane for maybe 20k a year.)

Denise didn't make any moves in the game and got a pity 50k on top of her actual fourth place prize money. If you don't want people thinking you lose at life and have a sucky life, then you can't whine about it.

[auntiesuze.livejournal.com]

I watched Survivor for the first couple of years, but I got tired of it (as I usually do with reality TV). The only one that I still love is "Project Runway", but that's about being creative and doing your personal best rather than trying to screw over everyone else (although that does happen occasionally! lol).

Actually, I have no excuse for Survivor

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

My feeling about reality TV is...1) yes, boring and 2) I don't really enjoy watching people screw each other over either. Survivor, for me, is the original and while I left it behind for the boring...and I will certainly not argue with it bringing the worst out in people...it is different in that they DO change the game. It seems to me that Mark Burnett always watches the show and sees what makes it boring and changes that.

Like now...instead of a final two there is a final three...which means it is less of a personality contest and more of a skills contest. Also, it is consistently amazing to see how good people will constantly place personal loyalties to virtual strangers above their own goals and life interests. Some of his rule changes do work against players though...like his efforts to break alliances...seldom seem to work. This time a very good player, Aaron, was simply stranded outside his alliance and cut off at the knees.

I still watch The Amazing Race because it has a lot of heart...they try there best to show people cooperating world wide. Two seasons they sank to average reality show measures of having the bad guy team and hurtful people...but when their ratings dropped they went back to the winning formula of couples supporting one another. Also, I like that they make these people immersed in their own greed...deal with the reality of poverty around the world. Nothing says, "What is a Million dollars? like sleeping in the streets of Calcutta with the homeless children."

Beauty and the Geek has that same heart...it strives to make the players better people. Project Runaway...is creative...but maybe not so noble. Still, this last week...when Ricky cried over making the woman who had lost so much weight feel beautiful...when he said, "That's why I do what I do." He gave me an insight into fashion designers that I'd never had...made me see that he really felt passionate about giving his art to the needy. He wanted people to feel better about themselves. And that's pretty darned noble.

Rae

[xlostangelx.livejournal.com]

I'm always disappointed in who wins Survivor because inevitably the person who wins does not win because they are oh so clever, but rather because everyone else is just that frickin dumb. Todd didn't play a great game in my opinion, the other players were just too damn stupid to vote him off the times they had the chance. Then again I didn't watch the tribal council so he may have won the game on his answers there, in which case good game Todd, but getting to the final three was on the coattails of everyone else's incredibly stupidity.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Usually, I agree with you...but not this time. Todd pretty much did exactly what he said he would do in the first episode. And yes, the final tribal council made that abundantly clear. It made it clear that Courtney...and to a certain degree Amanda rode along with Todd. And frankly, I don't think too many people outside of John Robert played stupidly. Unless, you count trusting Todd as stupid.

James didn't play his immunity idols...and that was stupid but he felt sure of his alliance. And why wouldn't he feel sure of them? Todd was who he was looking at...but Amanda was the one who blindsided him. It was Amanda's one strategic ploy of the game...but instead of owning it in front of the jury she tried to pretend that she "didn't want to vote for James but everyone convinced her." Then, later she tried to play the "I wanted James out" card to show how strategic she was. THAT was stupid. Because Todd he layed it all out on the table for them at council...not in a gloating way the way some weasels have...but in a gleeful kind of "this is how you do it" way.

No, he really did outplay the others.

Rae