Dee Watches Survivor (Currently On Kaoh Rong)

[Deeee]

Shane at Final Tribal 

[Elliott]

3 hours ago, Alex95 said:

You got all of Casaya and Elliott stans Aras. Shocker .

[Deeee]

THOUGHTS ON SURVIVOR: PANAMA - EXILE ISLAND

 

 

CHEF'S KISS. ICONIC. GLORIOUS. THIS IS REALITY TELEVISION GOLD. MICHELIN STAR TELEVISION.

 

Panama/Exile Island was such a massive improvement over Guatemala. Might be too early to say this, but I highly doubt many seasons to come will touch Panama in terms of pure entertainment from start to finish. Every single episode contained a gem of a moment.

 

The Casaya Tribe. What a toxic, messy, iconic, flawless group on not only competitors, but characters. Wow. Bobby, Bruce, Courtney, Shane, Cirie, Danielle, and Aras. BRAVO. BRAVO. Each and every one of them are complex, crazy as hell, great in the confessional, and delivered. EPISODE. AFTER. EPISODE. I was not expecting such a toxic group of individuals, but I loved them so much. Their interactions with one another, the constant fighting, the shenanigans, the gameplay. Casaya has to be the greatest tribe in Survivor history. I feel comfortable stating that right now. I highly doubt this will change. Whoever casted this group and ensured that they all ended up together during the swap deserves a raise and all the glory.

 

The gameplay was fierce and I thought there were so many fantastic game players. The competitive aspect of this season did not disappoint. Terry and his domination for the entire post-merge portion of the competition is pretty iconic. But Aras, Danielle, Courtney, Sally, Austin, and Nice were all physical beasts. Cirie is one of the finest social players I have ever seen on this show. The game felt just as exciting to watch as the drama, which is saying something for this season. 

 

My only complaint would be that the format at the beginning of the season was so quickly abandoned. LOL. I can only imagine that they figured out how stupid of a concept this was and decided to quickly switch things up, but IDK. I am just glad the early merge/swap happened and allowed for the season to take the f*ck off. The Immunity Idol also stunted the excitement of the game a bit. Not that I wanted Terry to leave, but knowing that he was never going to leave stifled the suspense a bit.

 

All-around phenomenal television.

 

CAST RANKING: 

 

1. Cirie Fields - What a wonderful human being. The Greek Chorus of the season. So righteous. So hilarious. So endearing. So personable. The journey she took from being afraid of leaves on day one to the self-sufficience she displayed by the end of the competition...THE GROWTH. Cirie sucked you in from Day 1 and never ever let you down. I knew she was going to live up to her reputation from the moment she verbally displayed her surprise that she found herself on the "Older Women" Tribe. Then her beautiful bond with Melinda as they each feared being eliminated by the majority alliance of the Casaya Tribe. The writing truly seemed to be on the wall for Cirie at the beginning of the competition. Yet Casaya started to win the immunity competitions, and her lovable and friendly personality played to her advantage as she worked her way into the fabric of the Casaya majority alliance. As the Casaya team started to implode, Cirie found herself out of harm's way due to her social graces and masterful approach to the political aspect of the game. Cirie quickly formed genuine bonds with the tribe, and was part of the smart decision to flip the vote from Bruce to Bobby. But the best part of this process was watching her laugh at all of the drama between go down between Casaya, her cool and calm demeanor, and the way she narrated life on Panama to the audience. Cirie may not have been competent in many of the physical challenges, but she very quickly ran a masterful social game that beyond impressed me. The way she managed to keep a cool, and level-head even when she was turning against her own on Casaya. Beautiful strategist. She intelligently snuffed the flames of both Courtney and Shane, maintained loyalty to Danielle and Aras, and reached the final four looking like the strongest competitor. I loved how she was there fighting for her family. I loved watching her reunite with HB on the island and putting him to work. I loved how she really embraced the experience. Between catching the fish all by herself and learning how to create fire, I just was so proud of Cirie by the end of the season. Her elimination was crushing, to say the least. But she left an impact on the series that I know is still felt to this day. 

 

2. Shane Powers - Mentally unstable Shane. What can I say? Iconic rivalry with Courtney. Iconic blowups at Casaya. Iconically bad performances in many of the challenges. Iconic image of him bumming a cigarette from the Panamanian villager. Iconic chafed penis moment with Cirie. Iconic pretending that he was using his Blackberry on the beach. Even though he was villainous through and through, terrible in his interactions with people at camp, unstable in the way he approached the game...I could not bring myself to hate him. The love he had for his son was so overwhelming and quite emotional, and I was super invested in his journey on the island. From nearly quitting at the beginning of the competition to successfully dominating the game with the Casaya Tribe until Top Six. Shane had quite a journey. You have to give him credit for managing to advance so deeply in the competition despite the frequent blowouts he had at camp with Bobby, Courtney, Danielle, Cirie, Aras. LOL. As much as he was terrible, Shane made me laugh. SO. DAMN. MUCH. His lunacy was hysterical. What a personality. The way he came at Aras and Danielle during Final Tribal. The way he threatened to kill Courtney at her small apartment in LA. The way he medically evacuated Bruce in the nude. HE JUST WAS THE GIFT THAT KEPT ON GIVING. 

 

3. Courtney Marit - Fighting with Bruce over the stone garden. Messing with said stone garden the second Bruce was medically evacuated. Trying to sing to Bruce as he is having a medical emergency despite his pleas for her to stop. The constant back-and-forth blow-ups with Shane. Not believing in Bruce's water filtration system. Her speech at Final Tribal Council and responses to Danielle and Aras. The random bits of fire dancing with no fire. COURTNEY IS A BIRD. SHE CANNOT BE HELD DOWN BY ANGER AND RESENTMENT. Courtney is a gift from the Survivor Gods. The perfect sparring partner for Shane. Courtney provided endless laughs, both with her and at her. LOL. So delusional and so LULZY and so unaware of just how delusional and LULZY she was. That is the perfect recipe for an iconic reality television character. The way everybody wanted to drag her to Final Tribal because nobody could stand her! Courtney does not live in a small apartment in LA. BTW. 

 

4. Bruce Kanegai - The stone garden. The karate. The drunken night sleeping in Casa del Charmin, only to be found by Cirie. Him begging Courtney to stop singing. The water filtration system. The chipped tooth. The medical evacuation. His living on Exile Island by himself for the beginning of the competition. Bruce had a rough go-of-it during the season, but I loved him. IDC. I feel like I will probably catch heat for ranking him this highly, but what a character. Bruce is an integral part of the crazy that is Casaya. I also really admired him as a human being and his commitment to his beliefs. Just a really respectable guy. Watching him cry over the video of his dog. UGH. So many fabulous moments with this guy, and I am just really happy that he was okay, even if his exit was unfortunate. His gameplay was pretty smart too! Sticking loyal to Casaya, but always giving Terry a glimmer of hope. Solid character. 

 

5. Terry Deitz - His domination was so unexpected. I never expected anybody from La Mina to be exciting in this game. Especially when merging with the Casaya tribe. BUT. Terry really brought the heat to the game post-merge. His pre-merge presence was minimal, considering Casaya stole the show. He seemed like a nice, stand-up guy. I loved his little friendship with Dan, and the nice way he tried to let him know that he was leaving the competition. Terry obviously was running the show on La Mina, but the tribe was a flop. He spent quite some time on Exile Island, and I was super impressed with how quickly he found the Immunity Idol. I was also impressed with how he handled the competition post-merge. Five consecutive immunity wins. Casaya could not get rid of him. At all. I love how much he got under the skin of Aras and Shane. He definitely rubbed salt in the wound when given the opportunity to do so, and definitely did not lie down and take it from Casaya. He consistently tried to sway the numbers in his direction, and came close quite a few times. But the loyalty of the Casaya Six was too strong. Terry was smart in the way he held on to his Idol, rather than giving the Idol to his allies to prolong the inevitable. I did find him to be a d*ck on more than one occasion, and I do not appreciate the way he spoke to Cirie after Shane was eliminated. His rivalry with Aras was exciting though

 

6. Aras Baskauskas - Lowkey found him boring for a good portion of the season. I knew he had potential at the beginning of the season when he asked the men to put their hands in, but not touch. Just feel the heat. LOL. I grew to love him by the end of the competition, but I feel like he was on the more tame/sane side of the Casaya tribe for some time. He was an ass to Melinda and Cirie at the merge. And then he was sort of the sidekick to Shane for a bit, upset with perceived laziness around camp. But he did not cause too many waves in the game. I really feel like it took him a while to become an interesting character. Maybe he started being interesting around when he wanted to go to Exile Island to rejuvenate and have some time by himself? I thought that was really interesting and one of the first peaks into his character. Outside of being a cute, young yoga dude. Even his reveal that he had spent some time downplaying his abilities in the challenges felt like an afterthought? Aras only became interesting when post-merge hit and he developed a solid friendship with Cirie and a solid rivalry with Terry. His fight for immunity against Terry was interesting, and watching him lose every single time clearly bothered him. I think he played a solid game by keeping the Casaya Six strong and befriending the true strategist of the group - Cirie. The loyalty and camaraderie between them was super sweet. His fights with Terry were quite intense, and I respected that he both stood up for Cirie, and apologized to Terry for lying on his character. I wanted to love Aras more, but he was just overshadowed by his tribe and did not really arrive as a competitor and character until too late in the season for me. Not mad at his win, but do not feel like his win was that well-earned. I think his biggest asset was befriending the majority and maintaining solid relationships with them. But he had major assists from Danielle and Cirie. 

 

7. Danielle DiLorenzo - She had her moments. Her horrid experiences on Exile Island. Her rivalry with Shane. Her move to switch the vote from Bruce to Bobby because of the fights. Clutching the final immunity win. Iconically defeating Cirie in the tiebreaker fire challenge. An overall solid player and dramatic character in the game, but not my favorite personality. I cannot deny that she was important to the season though.

 

8. Bobby Mason - What a troll! LOL. He was so vulgar. The way he felt it was necessary to tell us about his bowel movements. But without him, there would be no iconic Casa del Charmin moment. I also loved him dragging Ruth Marie. LOL. He definitely butted heads with most of Casaya and added to the crazy. Of course he fought with Courtney and Danielle. I cannot picture him as an attorney. 

 

-----NOT ICONIC BELOW THIS-----

 

9. Sally Schumann - She tried? Inoffensive and nice. Could not penetrate the Casaya alliance. I really thought she was a goner after losing the fishing spear on Day Two. LOL. 

 

10. Dan Barry - Such a sweet guy. I loved the story of his slow reveal that he is a NASA astronaut. I felt bad that he knew his time was up, but still held on to the hope that it did not need to be that way. But he clearly earned the respect of everyone around him and had a fun time on the show.

 

11. Melinda Hyder - I really felt for her. What a rough exit from the competition. Aras was an ass for that. She seemed really sweet and I hated watching her be doomed. 

 

12. Tina Scheer - Maybe this is too high, but she broke my f*cking heart that first episode. Wishing her well.

 

13. Austin Carty - Boring, generic white guy. Seemed nice enough. I thought his time on Exile Island with Danielle was interesting enough, but that was far too late for him. 

 

14. Nick Stanbury - Boring, generic white guy. Cute though.

 

15. Misty Giles - I LOL'ed when she got stuck on Exile Island despite being the one person that really did not want to be there. Really irrelevant tbh.

 

16. Ruth Marie Milliman - Who? I just remember feeling bad for her when Bobby grabbed her by the shirt straps and dragged her during the wrestling competition. LOL.

 

MY FAVORITE MOMENT:

 

TOO MANY BUT HERE ARE SOME

 

 

SEASON RANKING:

 

1. Panama - Exile Island

2. Palau

3. Vanuatu

4. Guatemala

[Deeee]

@Elliott @Solaris @#jeah @Alex95

 

Already on episode five of Cook Islands. But my thoughts are up on the ICONIC Panama.

[Alex95]

Oh good time for some righteous opinions and writeups-

*T*rry D*itz ranked 5th*

[Solaris]

yea Terry sucks.

 

 

Horsielle.     My Top 4 was Cirie/Aras/Horsielle/Bruce

 

Shane a good fifth, iconic personality.

[Deeee]

5 minutes ago, Alex95 said:

Oh good time for some righteous opinions and writeups-

*T*rry D*itz ranked 5th*

 

Just respond to the rest. I think Terry sucks as well as a person, but I cannot pretend that he was unimportant as a character or player. He is somewhat I find inherently unlikable, but a major aspect of the season.

[Alex95]

3 minutes ago, Deeee said:

 

Just respond to the rest. I think Terry sucks as well as a person, but I cannot pretend that he was unimportant as a character or player. He is somewhat I find inherently unlikable, but a major aspect of the season.

I mean, then you better start putting Jordan at the top of your Challenge ranking if that's all it takes lol. He's a sexist, racist, assh*le responsible for leading the most boring tribe of men (luckily to their slaughter by Casaya).

"What are you gonna do say something demeaning about women?!" >>>>>>>> anything Terry contributed to the season

[Alex95]

But yeah otherwise. Cirie, flawless . Shane and Courtney, amazing psychos . Danielle and Aras, fun side characters and one of the better final two's . Bruce and Bobby, also fun side characters . Tina, a sweetheart . Just an iconic tribe . And luckily took down one of the worst Survivors ever even if it took till the final three .

[Deeee]

Did I miss the part where Terry was racist and sexist? Legitimate question. Due to the binging, I might be missing some key details. Honestly.

 

An assh*le? For sure. That was glaringly obvious. 

[Alex95]

6 minutes ago, Deeee said:

Did I miss the part where Terry was racist and sexist? Legitimate question. Due to the binging, I might be missing some key details. Honestly.

 

An assh*le? For sure. That was glaringly obvious. 

The racism, to be fair, was mainly known from a behind-the-scenes story from his second season where Abi-Maria was gonna read the treemail, but then he said someone who speaks English should read it or something like that (Shirin exposing him on twitter  ).

But Terry booting literally every single girl from his tribe because they're "weak" while dragging the bag of bones that is Dan as far as possible?

Also Terry's fight with Cirie was definitely rooted in some microagressions (him assuming that she hits her kids?????)

 

And though not bigoted, Terry declaring that he loves his wife more than Aras loves his mother is so disgusting.

[Elliott]

36 minutes ago, Alex95 said:

Oh good time for some righteous opinions and writeups-

*T*rry D*itz ranked 5th*

RT. 

[Deeee]

21 minutes ago, Alex95 said:

The racism, to be fair, was mainly known from a behind-the-scenes story from his second season where Abi-Maria was gonna read the treemail, but then he said someone who speaks English should read it or something like that (Shirin exposing him on twitter  ).

But Terry booting literally every single girl from his tribe because they're "weak" while dragging the bag of bones that is Dan as far as possible?

Also Terry's fight with Cirie was definitely rooted in some microagressions (him assuming that she hits her kids?????)

 

And though not bigoted, Terry declaring that he loves his wife more than Aras loves his mother is so disgusting.

 

Ew. Thanks for the information. I was genuinely concerned I was missing key moments of the show over here. Not surprised though, he seemed like a major d*ck.

 

I appreciated him for the villain that he was on the show. He should not have plucked off the women, but did it really matter? Nick, Austin, and Terry clearly were not going anywhere. Obviously him keeping Dan is showing signs of his partiality towards men, but I guess it did not make logical sense to vote Austin or Nick off over Ruth Marie or Dan, etc.

 

Now that I know he is racist, I definitely am viewing his argument with Cirie through a completely different lens. I thought the accusation that she hit her kids was appalling, but it seemed at first like he was saying it in a way to indicate he believed all parents hit their kids? Not that this is any better whatsoever, but now I know it's definitely a microaggression towards a black woman. Because why would it not be? LOL.

 

I laughed at this comment! Truly disgusting, and why should somebody love their significant other more than their mother? Why does it have to be a choice? Super old school belief, but he seemed like an old school, douch*bag white guy.

 

I will clarify again that I do not care for him in the slightest, but it's hard to argue against his pivotal role in the season. But I definitely am going to move him to the bottom of the list now knowing that he is a racist. 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Deeee

[#jeah]

Aras is one of the most attractive players ever imo.  I’d have Danielle and Aras higher than Bruce and especially Terry. Enjoyed your commentary (I’m not in love with Panama but I’ve only seen it once in a rush so I will need to rewatch it, clearly there are some passionate stans in this thread lol)

[Deeee]

Just now, #jeah said:

Aras is one of the most attractive players ever imo.   Enjoyed your commentary (I’m not in love with Panama but I’ve only seen it once in a rush so I will need to rewatch it, clearly there are some passionate stans in this thread lol)

 

He is definitely super cute.

 

Panama was amazing. I enjoyed the season far more than I am enjoying Cook Islands. 

[Deeee]

I would bet money that Cook Islands peaked at this very moment:

 

[Alex95]

You would be correct lol.

[#jeah]

5 minutes ago, Deeee said:

 

He is definitely super cute.

 

Panama was amazing. I enjoyed the season far more than I am enjoying Cook Islands. 

I am of the opinion that Cook Islands f*cking sucks, oops

[Deeee]

1 minute ago, Alex95 said:

You would be correct lol.

 

Just now, #jeah said:

I am of the opinion that Cook Islands f*cking sucks, oops

 

Good to know. Six episodes in and this season feels like an absolute chore. Even though I know the winner, the edit does not even seem to be trying to hide it? LOL.

[Elliott]

17 minutes ago, #jeah said:

Aras is one of the most attractive players ever imo.  

Him constantly testing Instagram's censorship rules  

[Elliott]

10 minutes ago, #jeah said:

I am of the opinion that Cook Islands f*cking sucks, oops

I am also of this opinion.

 

But I also think it's a season people should see considering so many returnees / legends have come from it.

[QueenKalie]

40 minutes ago, #jeah said:

I am of the opinion that Cook Islands f*cking sucks, oops

Yeah for a season that had some iconic cast members it's actually a rather poor season.

[Deeee]

Me to Cook Islands:

 

[Deeee]

Yul, Sundra, Becky, and Ozzy winning the reward after the mutiny has been the most exciting moment since Billy professing love-at-first-sight for Candice. LOL.

[Deeee]

Every time Adam, Jonathan, and Nate come on the screen: