Review: Survivor, "Scorpio Energy" | Season 46, Episode 2
Survivor (Two-Hour Version) (Probst's Version) (From The Island of Bad Vibes)
After only a season, I’d say we know the rhythms of 90-minute Survivor episodes all too well1—more time for character stories, more narrative development for tribes that don’t end up going to tribal council, and of course more time for emotional backstory. And while I do have some issues with backstory fatigue, as I discussed last week, overall I don’t feel the pace of the show has been overly damaged, with the additional time bringing enough benefits to offset an occasional episode that drags on.
That said, there was something particularly languid about the opening of this second episode. I appreciate that we’re able to sit with each of the three tribes in the aftermath of the game’s opening days, but the stories just end up being too similar. We get emotional stories for Bhanu and Kenzie at Yanu, and then we get some backstory for Venus at Nami, and then we’re over to Siga for—you guessed it!—Ben’s teary reflection on being bullied. None of the stories are bad, and they’re a…