Survivor is still king of the jungle. Going into its 12th incarnation, one would think the premiere American reality series would be losing its novelty. Okay wrong word, but innovation aside, Survivor is still the ultimate psychological study on the block thanks to Mark Burnett and his ingenious team of casting producers.
Sorry Amazing Race fans, but you share more in common with Fear Factor than Survivor. You care too much about the “experience” of racing around the world, than the competition itself. What you lack in back-stabbing politicking you think you make up with cross-cultural epiphanies. But where’s the dramatic tension in that? Sure it’s fun to watch Rude Americans make fools of themselves and jizz about the cultural shock of shopping in an African bazaar, but who really cares anymore? Aside from the identity of the winning racers, there’s no cliffhanger edge to shows like the Amazing Race.
Survivor on the other hand isn’t about the experience of living on one’s own in the harsh elements of the Amazonian jungle, Kenyan desert or four tropical islands in the Caribbean. It’s about 16 Americans competing for money, resorting to their basest emotions for eternal (okay, fifteen minutes of) glory and wealth. Almost all people will resort to their nastiest assets when 1,000,000 dollars is up for grabs, especially when the illusion of island isolation from real-world morality is established. Like it or not, Survivor is a time-honored social experiment in the study of desperate measures and that’s what makes the show continually watchable. Each cast is wholly different, and its players behave in undeniably unique ways. This is particularly the case when producers throw format twists at Survivor-savvy contestants in order to keep them on their toes and prevent them from using meta-analysis as part of the gaming strategy.
And so we have the grand twists of numero 12, Exile Island. For the first time ever, our sixteen castaways are divided by age and gender into teams of four. Bobby of LA categorizes the groups best: there’s the beefcake (younger men), Love-Boaters (older men) Golden Gals (older women) and Spice Girls (younger women) but before you go thinking any group (the Love-Boaters) has a major advantage over the others, the challenges seem to be an actual mix of brains, brawn and sheer luck to give any group a chance. While the ditzy girlettes were squashed in the first reward confrontation (a skull-cracking race of chance), they dominated in a prolonged battle of rowing and ring puzzles, so maybe it actually is anyone’s game. Of course, after axing their only advantage, butch and brawny Lumberjill Tina, instead of useless black obeast Cirie, the Golden Gals should be easily decimated. And the beefcake may have pretty muscle on their side (Nick & Austin are babes), but Burnett ensured this batch is as immature and disorderly a bunch of boys as is possible to hamper their advantage. The Love-Boaters have wisdom, experience, brawn, an ex-Navy Fighter Pilot and retired astronaut about which to brag, but they also have an Achilles heel: cigarette addict Shane. So again, there are no guarantees.
The Exile Island plot device involves sending a player of the losing reward challenge to spend the night on an isle all by their lonesome. Supposedly there is a bonus immunity idol stashed away that can be played at any point, including post-votes, so this twist should amount to plenty deception. The island’s first tenant, femme engineer Misty, has already proven her strategizing skills need some fine-tuning by openly claiming (instead of subtly implying) that she discovered the idol, even though she is not endangered. Did she ever think a teammate might not believe her and demand to “prove it by showing us”?
Who knows where Exile Island will place in the hierarchy of best Survivors? With a delightful cast of idiots, hunkosaurusi and seasoned vets to clash to the deaths, and a few gameplay twists to keep them anxious, number 12 should be a hit.
