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Wacky Wanda's S12 Episode 1 Review!
« on: Feb 6th, 2006, 8:35am » |
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Sent to me by 'Wacky' Wanda Shirk this weekend...
Ah, Tina, Tina, Tina..... It is so sad to lose you from the cast already! Truly, from what we saw, you brought more to the game than any other woman there! You had strength and skill; you were a fire-builder, a provider, and an inspiration! You brimmed with spirit and enthusiasm, from your opening prayer to your singing --- to your candid pondering about your tribemates: "She hates leaves? Did anyone tell her what show she was going on " I loved it! How disappointed we are, by the MILLIONS, to see you gone already! Oh, I hope you get another chance some day!
Exile Island still holds the promise of being one of the best Survivors ever, but the early loss of Tina is tragic. If viewers at home could push buttons for "Sack!" or "Salvage!", episode one would have ended differently! It certainly does remind us of Jolanda, the strength of Ulong tribe, being voted off first in Palau, and of Brook in Vanuatu getting the ax first in Vanuatu. But the show must go on....
This was a great opener because every viewer had "a dog in the hunt." So how did we view it, from our different perspectives?
Fans of the "Master's Division" (Love Boat), as I'll call the older men, know this show was GREAT! The older men succeeded just as we would expect: they soon had not just a small cooking fire, but a regular bonfire blazing away. Probably the best scene in the whole show was Dan and Terry establishing the bond of kindred spirits and promising never to lie to each other. What made this truly great, interestingly, was that while many people must choose either to hide or to confess the failures and embarrassments of their lives, the best people have to ponder hiding their successes and achievements, as Gary felt he had to hide his background in professional football from the rest in Guatemala. Dan and Terry, our astronaut and our Annapolis-grad/Navy pilot, were actually able to share their accomplishments with each other. This creates strong mutual respect and trust. They both know the discipline and the integrity those professional achievements required of each other. An alliance like that goes a long way. Remembering that up through Season 10, half the winners were men and half were women, and that a woman won Season 11, we might think wonder if it isn't "the men's turn" again in Survivor 12. They should go far.
Shane, by contrast, is a fish out of water. He was one who did not list Survivor as one of his favorite TV shows, and since he lives in LA, it occurs to me that Shane may have had less real interest in Survivor than Survivor had in him as a potentially interesting character. 'Nuff said on that. Bruce, on the other hand, is a fully competent and worthy camper, leader, and champion in his own right. He is disadvantaged in that Dan and Terry have so much in common with their backgrounds in the air, where teacher-artist Bruce is quite a down-to-earth man in the most literal sense, as an accomplished hiker and backpacker -- my favorite sport! I hope Bruce does not end up being too left out; I want to see his Eagle-Scout competence showcased and honored.
Young men, fans in the "Beef Cake" division, as Bobby dubbed them, probably were left scratching their heads. Reality check here. Is this representative of young men? While lots of older folks are undoubtedly giggling in glee at their lack of success in fire-building and the most pathetic attempt at shelter-building since the girls in Amazon, some young guys have to be crying out from their couches, "Let me on there! I could do better than that!" Aras is totally cute, but his science teachers are cringing, or should be! We're looking forward to better things from the "Beef Cakes," or they get demoted to "Calf-(and-that-rhymes-with-half-)Cakes!"
The young women did okay. They can't be faulted for not finding an amulet in a pile of skulls; that was a matter of luck rather than skill. I admire Danielle for volunteering both to run and to stay on Exile Island. I was somewhat disappointed that it didn't occur to anyone else to volunteer to stay there. I love lone-camping myself and would have relished the opportunity to be a hero to my tribemates by bearing the "punishment" for the rest, perhaps earning an "immunity of appreciation" at this point in the game. We don't know whether "The Spice Girls" could build fire; they did not get flint. I liked Sally, who was wistful about the lack of decisiveness among her tribemates in determining a site for their shelter, but I wondered if she couldn't have provided the missing leadership. Sally's astute about Survivor. Perhaps she sensed that, as illustrated again with Tina, early leadership is an early ship home. Too bad people think that way. That must say a lot about us. It's the Lord of the Flies tendency.
My "dog in the hunt," of course, was the older women -- and oh, it's so great to recognize that in Survivor, "older" can start at age 32! When "old" is that young, you just can't feel bad about being an "older" woman! But oh, how we "older women" cringed at the way our team represented us! Half the tribe (Melinda and Cirie, the spokeswoman), agreed that if you were at home on the couch, you should stay there! Women afraid of leaves! Whoa! Where are the strong and the bold! (You know -- voted off!) Thanks to Tina, we got a fire and food -- but what next, without her?
My biggest disappointment was Ruth Marie. I expected sisterly leadership from her. However, her game was to sit back and let Tina do leading in practical matters (and then take the executioner's blow), while Cirie took the lead in decision-making for the TC. Ruth Marie ran for the group in the first challenge, and that was good, but after that she didn't play as much of a role as she should have. First, as the oldest woman, she should have initiated a group bonding on their first night together. How could they not have asked each other about their families and the people that were important to their lives? How could they have let Tina walk alone, and then criticize her from a distance, never walking down there to see "I love Charlie" in the sand, never doing what women should do to bond, the way Dan and Terry did what men should do to bond? I don't understand. I really can't imagine spending a night with three other women and not knowing at least an hour's worth of the most important stuff about them by the next day.
For not knowing, for not initiating the caring... I somehow fault "The Golden Girls." I am sure that when they heard Tina's story later, they wished they had known it earlier. Why didn't they? What didn't happen there? Too worried about leaves? Isn't getting to know other people the heart of this game?
I really respect Ruth Marie for having run all 150 miles of the Marathon deSables in the Moroccan desert, and I respect Cirie for losing 30 pounds to go on Survivor. I wonder why Melinda, who didn't help dig in the sand for the clue in the immunity challenge, was never targeted in TC, while Tina was. I wonder why Ruth Marie didn't go to bat for Tina and defend her competence. Maybe there are answers to these questions. I will need to know those answers before any of them gets my vote on the S-13 jury!
A final note: On Survivor Palau, we had 20 people to get to know in two days. We could barely scratch the surface in terms of relationships; we were struggling to nail down names and identities of so many people in so little time. In Guatemala, tribes started with an eleven-mile hike in hundred-degree temperatures. These folks of Exile Island had what any other group of Survivors might consider the most ideal starting conditions ever: a chance to bond with just three others of the same gender and approximate age.
Wow. How lucky could they get? This was an opportunity not to be blown. Dan was exemplary for doing it right. I'm afraid Ruth Marie was exemplary for doing it wrong. The rest remains to be seen.
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