!!! I have so much sympathy for what this experience must do to a person’s mind and body, but there was just no equilibrium to latch onto here. He hit that first beach convinced he was back in high school and never got out of that headspace.
I try not to get too hung up on things like this, but the fact that someone recognized Aysha, who is not even a huuugley prominent RHAPer, tells you something about how they cast nowadays. Seemed like a lot of podcasters, radio hosts, sports broadcasters, freelance writers, and graphic designers made it into the cast this season! (Otherwise psyched to see Aysha play thos season)
I was dissapointed with the boot, both because he seemed like ye would be a good narrarator and now it seems like we may be in abother Bhanu situation of having to watch Andy eat airtime for another 1-2 episodes before he inevitably gets eliminated.
As a Lovett/PSA listener and fan, I am SUPER bummed he went first because he's very clever and funny and would have been great but also? It was INCREDIBLY stressful worrying that he *might* go first so I'm kind of relieved he's not on the show anymore soooooo.
I felt like Jon broke the cardinal rule of first episodes of Survivor; if a majority of your new tribe members come to you and say, "Hey, based solely on first impressions, we want to vote out someone other than you.", then your response should be, "I am absolutely fine with that."
I've never watched a season of Survivor live before, and in fact I only just watched season 13 (the race-based tribes season) just before this one to get a brief sense of what the game is about. Looking forward to reading these reviews, though I'll definitely be coming to it as a newbie.
Anyway, I was just super disappointed that Lovett was voted out this episode. I'm not even a regular listener of his podcast, but was looking forward to seeing him on the show. As Myles said he was a good narrator in this episode. And the argument about keeping Andy because he's strong seemed a bit shortsighted if he's going to wilt under pressure.
I also did find it a bit jarring at how meta some of the contestants seem. Clearly Aysha being a Survivor podcaster is the biggest example. But someone else mentioned owning the Survivor 101 book, and even Jon referred to watching Richard Hatch winning. (And I saw on twitter that Tweeny is a superfan too.) It's not surprising that if you sign up to do this show you're really into the show itself. But as someone who's still quite new to all this, it felt like I was a bit out of the loop already. (This is true of the Beware Advantages too, which were not a thing in the one season I watched).
Again, I'm looking forward to reading Myles's reviews, but this was a disappointing start to the season for sure.
Lastly, for those of you who are more experts, was Andy's meltdown during the challenge like an all-time WTF moment, or just a pretty memorable one if not uncommon?
There have definitely been more mental health-related moments in the last few seasons - Ben from s46 was having panic attacks throughout the season, and the show, cynically, used it to build the eventual winner's narrative - Kinzie, the winner of s46, was portrayed on the show as always being there to comfort him and get him through his struggles, but in reality she was just one of many who assisted him.
But if you want to google "Brandon Hantz meltdown" you can see the granddaddy of them all.
I do think that's an attempt to create balance, but so much of the show seems to assume a ton of buy-in in a way that it didn't used to. We've traded trivia about the location (or tribemates) for seeing if you can organize past seasons in release order.
So my “on in the background while I work” show for the last couple of months has been old school survivor, something I haven’t revisited in many many years and am really changing my opinions about a lot of things while doing but I am really struck by the fact that back in the 2000s, people simply did not crash out on Survivor the way they do literally every season in the new era even though the game is way shorter (Osten in pearl islands kindaaaa but it wasn’t the way we’ve seen Hannah, Sean, Andy, Jess, Bhanu, and Brandon crash in the last couple of seasons alone). Maybe this can be chalked up to too many survivor nerds who maybe shouldn’t have “gotten up off the couch” in casting now as the show is more oriented toward its own superfans in its middle age (Aysha instantly being recognized, somehow benefitting from this, and getting to name check RHAP while nobody knew the actually famous Jon was the biggest symbol of it we’ve ever seen) but I also think that the fact that they give them SO MUCH LESS STUFF is causing faster and messier physical and mental breakdowns. I do not enjoy watching this. Andy breaking down hits at the most unpleasant intersection between empathy and wanting to give him a hug and secondhand embarrassment I’ve ever felt and I am tired of this feeling, it is not entertaining. Give them more stuff!
Jon was such a good narrator and I truly didn’t want him out first , but I hope Andy can take the chance to redeem himself a little—he’s someone who is very around in the RHAP circles and has a really charming story of being an alternate last year and having to go home but then meeting his girlfriend at a survivor fan event he wouldn’t have been at if he’d made it on and I hope he’s able to make this a better story for himself even if he has no game longevity whatsoever.
I wonder, honestly, if they were conscious about putting Lovett on a tribe with people they didn't think would know who he was. We'll get a better sense of whether anyone on the other tribes knew him when they get to the next challenge, but it does seem incredulous that there would be an 18-person game where not a single soul knows who he is.
As somebody who’s friends with Andy in real life (only hung out ~5-10 times, but often talk Survivor), this was a tough watch.
!!! I have so much sympathy for what this experience must do to a person’s mind and body, but there was just no equilibrium to latch onto here. He hit that first beach convinced he was back in high school and never got out of that headspace.
I try not to get too hung up on things like this, but the fact that someone recognized Aysha, who is not even a huuugley prominent RHAPer, tells you something about how they cast nowadays. Seemed like a lot of podcasters, radio hosts, sports broadcasters, freelance writers, and graphic designers made it into the cast this season! (Otherwise psyched to see Aysha play thos season)
I was dissapointed with the boot, both because he seemed like ye would be a good narrarator and now it seems like we may be in abother Bhanu situation of having to watch Andy eat airtime for another 1-2 episodes before he inevitably gets eliminated.
As a Lovett/PSA listener and fan, I am SUPER bummed he went first because he's very clever and funny and would have been great but also? It was INCREDIBLY stressful worrying that he *might* go first so I'm kind of relieved he's not on the show anymore soooooo.
I felt like Jon broke the cardinal rule of first episodes of Survivor; if a majority of your new tribe members come to you and say, "Hey, based solely on first impressions, we want to vote out someone other than you.", then your response should be, "I am absolutely fine with that."
I've never watched a season of Survivor live before, and in fact I only just watched season 13 (the race-based tribes season) just before this one to get a brief sense of what the game is about. Looking forward to reading these reviews, though I'll definitely be coming to it as a newbie.
Anyway, I was just super disappointed that Lovett was voted out this episode. I'm not even a regular listener of his podcast, but was looking forward to seeing him on the show. As Myles said he was a good narrator in this episode. And the argument about keeping Andy because he's strong seemed a bit shortsighted if he's going to wilt under pressure.
I also did find it a bit jarring at how meta some of the contestants seem. Clearly Aysha being a Survivor podcaster is the biggest example. But someone else mentioned owning the Survivor 101 book, and even Jon referred to watching Richard Hatch winning. (And I saw on twitter that Tweeny is a superfan too.) It's not surprising that if you sign up to do this show you're really into the show itself. But as someone who's still quite new to all this, it felt like I was a bit out of the loop already. (This is true of the Beware Advantages too, which were not a thing in the one season I watched).
Again, I'm looking forward to reading Myles's reviews, but this was a disappointing start to the season for sure.
Lastly, for those of you who are more experts, was Andy's meltdown during the challenge like an all-time WTF moment, or just a pretty memorable one if not uncommon?
There have definitely been more mental health-related moments in the last few seasons - Ben from s46 was having panic attacks throughout the season, and the show, cynically, used it to build the eventual winner's narrative - Kinzie, the winner of s46, was portrayed on the show as always being there to comfort him and get him through his struggles, but in reality she was just one of many who assisted him.
But if you want to google "Brandon Hantz meltdown" you can see the granddaddy of them all.
The entire show is a dog whistle for diehards, man
IS it, though? The New Era’s Backstory approach has often felt like a conscious balance to the superfan side of the coin.
I do think that's an attempt to create balance, but so much of the show seems to assume a ton of buy-in in a way that it didn't used to. We've traded trivia about the location (or tribemates) for seeing if you can organize past seasons in release order.
So my “on in the background while I work” show for the last couple of months has been old school survivor, something I haven’t revisited in many many years and am really changing my opinions about a lot of things while doing but I am really struck by the fact that back in the 2000s, people simply did not crash out on Survivor the way they do literally every season in the new era even though the game is way shorter (Osten in pearl islands kindaaaa but it wasn’t the way we’ve seen Hannah, Sean, Andy, Jess, Bhanu, and Brandon crash in the last couple of seasons alone). Maybe this can be chalked up to too many survivor nerds who maybe shouldn’t have “gotten up off the couch” in casting now as the show is more oriented toward its own superfans in its middle age (Aysha instantly being recognized, somehow benefitting from this, and getting to name check RHAP while nobody knew the actually famous Jon was the biggest symbol of it we’ve ever seen) but I also think that the fact that they give them SO MUCH LESS STUFF is causing faster and messier physical and mental breakdowns. I do not enjoy watching this. Andy breaking down hits at the most unpleasant intersection between empathy and wanting to give him a hug and secondhand embarrassment I’ve ever felt and I am tired of this feeling, it is not entertaining. Give them more stuff!
Jon was such a good narrator and I truly didn’t want him out first , but I hope Andy can take the chance to redeem himself a little—he’s someone who is very around in the RHAP circles and has a really charming story of being an alternate last year and having to go home but then meeting his girlfriend at a survivor fan event he wouldn’t have been at if he’d made it on and I hope he’s able to make this a better story for himself even if he has no game longevity whatsoever.
I wonder, honestly, if they were conscious about putting Lovett on a tribe with people they didn't think would know who he was. We'll get a better sense of whether anyone on the other tribes knew him when they get to the next challenge, but it does seem incredulous that there would be an 18-person game where not a single soul knows who he is.
Pregame interviews I wanna say one person said they recognized him at ponderosa but more people recognized Aysha, I think 3?