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Dee Watches Survivor (Currently On Kaoh Rong)


Deeee

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17 hours ago, QueenKalie said:

So there's a funny story about lunch lady Denise. So she lied about getting fired from her job because of Survivor. Survivor felt bad about it and gave her some money to compensate her for her loss. They eventually figured this out and I'm not really sure what happened from there I forget but still funny 😂

She donated the money to her school or something, I believe.

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Sean with his alphabetical voting strategy. 

 

Greg saying Colleen is his kitten that he will eventually stab in the neck.

 

Borneo is 20 years old and is still amazing television.

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1 hour ago, Deeee said:

Sean with his alphabetical voting strategy. 

It might've just been him saving face, but there was an interview (or an episode of RHAP, I honestly can't remember) a few years after Borneo where Sean mentioned his alphabet strategy was a way for him to vote out the Pagong members since their names all came before the Tagi tribe's alphabetically.

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THOUGHTS ON SURVIVOR: BORNEO

 

400px-Survivor.borneo.logo.png

 

One of the most influential moments in television history. Survivor: Borneo is a game-changer, and who could have ever expected the show to emerge as one of the biggest cultural phenomenons in history. 

 

Does Borneo feel more tame and less intricate and complicated than every single season to follow? The answer is obviously yes. But watching the landmark season again highlights that there has never been a better first season of any reality television show (besides maybe The Real World). Borneo holds up so spectacularly. For so many reasons. What a brilliant season.

 

The story of sixteen castaways that all arrive for an incredible social experience, all of them so concerned with building a functional and capable society - purely about survival and withstanding the elements. By the end of the season though, and to the shock of most of the contestants, the experience stopped being about survival, and eventually morphed into its truest form: a cutthroat game of alliances, betrayal, greed, and one million dollars. The tone of this original season is very, very dark. Sinister. Every single player that advanced far enough in the competition really had to grapple with the notion that they really had sold their souls for money. A completely demoralizing 39 days. 

 

The stakes of this game feel so high. There is a quiet storm cloud hanging over every single moment of this competition. Since the game had not yet evolved into this hyper-strategic game that the modern Survivor is, every single decision and result felt monumental. Every action by the players is magnified. The simplicity of its structure really aids this season, since the game is boiled down to its most basic parts: trust and perseverance. The documentary-style production really makes the season too, since the season is far more focused on the mental journeys of the contestants than the production value.

 

Every single character is so fully-realized. What a seriously interesting group of people, all of them with distinct personalities and their individual sets of morals, beliefs, and attitudes. No one person dominated the camera or the game, every single player felt important to the story being told. I cannot begin to think of a more mentally complex group of individuals to have appeared on the show. While many of them are quite honestly, terrible people that I would never relate to in real life, it's so hard not to feel invested in what happens to them on this show. What lessons they learned, what bridged they burned, what moral struggles they face.

 

There are too many incredible moments on Borneo. So iconic.

 

The biggest takeaway from this season is the moral dilemma and overarching theme of the season: how would one rather live? As the morally corrupt snake that knows its identity, or the rat that refuses to acknowledge its status as a rat? To eat or be eaten? What a beautiful story that is so brilliantly told in the finale episode of this season. The greatest finale in Survivor history. This story was told so beautifully throughout the course of the season, and this moral dilemma became the groundwork for one of the most groundbreaking reality shows in history.

 

*Ranking this cast is extremely difficulty. Let me just say that I think every single cast member sans my bottom two are absolutely essential to the success of this franchise. I would argue that 1-10 are Top 100 Survivor contestants. Top 3 are probably Top 10 Survivor contestants.*

 

CAST RANKING

 

1. Richard Hatch - The Snake. Enough said. The reason the show evolved into the game it was trying to be. The gay, nude, rude, pompous, arrogant assh*ole won the season because he knew that above all, this was a game. Nothing personal.

 

2. Susan "Sue" Hawk - F*cking brilliant from the very beginning. Sue fired on absolutely every single cylinder possible as a character. Operating on a very strategic level from the very beginning, the breakdown of her façade over time is absolutely critical to the story of Borneo. I think Sue is the only other person besides Richard that was playing this game to win from the very beginning. Except Sue is trying to hide this evil, brash, vindictive side to her for most of the time. She never sugarcoats anything, and is completely honest with every single tribe mate along the way, but she mainly keeps her strategy hidden. Except not so hidden because Sue could not hide her feelings if her life depended on it? LOL. That is why her confessionals are so absolutely iconic and devious. She lets loose in her confessionals and is very transparent in those moments about who she dislikes and how she plans to vote with Tagi 4 in mind. I also think Sue is so compelling for how often you want to laugh with her and relate to her, but then the next moment want to hate her. Such a polarizing individual. Sue is responsible for blindsides, the first majority alliance, the intense deterioration of a friendship after feeling like Kelly was the first close friend she had made since the passing of her best friend. The Snake and The Rat speech. Enough said. Sue was the needed villain of the season, and I think she knew she was the villain. But she tried to hide all of that underneath the blunt persona she put on her face. Watching that façade completely crumble the second she felt like Kelly could be ruining her game...fantastic television. 

 

3. Kelly Wiglesworth - I feel like it is unpopular to feel so strongly about Kelly, but she is probably the most important contestant in Survivor history. Yes, I do believe she is more important than Richard. While Kelly may not be the most vibrant personality on the show, Kelly is the most important character of Borneo. Without Kelly, I cannot say what would have come of this show. Seriously. The importance of her character arc in shaping the history of Survivor and illuminating the dark themes of the game/experience cannot be understated. The legacy of Survivor is born out of Kelly's moral dilemma and multiple identity crises while on the island. The intense construction and demolition of the friendship between herself and Sue is one of the darkest in the show's history. The struggle Kelly felt when joining the Tagi 4 alliance, and having to live with herself for playing a game in a way that just did not sit well with her spirit. Kelly faced a ton of cognitive dissonance while on the island, and the moments where she talks about this moral dilemma are some of the darkest moments in reality television history. Kelly truly could not reconcile with her decision to join an alliance, but could also not fully commit to abandoning the thought of advancing further in the game. So how did Kelly cope with this struggle? She played both sides of the fence, the first player to ever do so in the history of the game. Most of her competitors found her to be duplicitous in her actions, but I think Kelly genuinely thought she was doing the right thing by connection to each individual living with her. It's quite compelling how she would fall in and out of viewing this as a game. Kelly is the first person to really suffer from not realizing how her actions on the island would be perceived. At the end of the day, this was a game, and Kelly often tried to make a conscious effort to forget about this being a game. She was far more concerned with being at peace with herself, but one million dollars often drew her back into being deceitful. Forming a side-alliance with Sue, breaking the bond with Sue, talking to the Pagong members and becoming closer with them, yet still not derailing the plans of the Tagi 4. You could see that by the time Final Tribal Council had approached, Kelly did not even care to defend herself or plea with the jury for money. Because she had ultimately realized what she had done along the way to reach the finals. She is also the first contestant to dominate the immunity challenges post-merge, with a five comp sweep. You could probably write an entire dissertation on the impact she had on this game. What an iconic character. 

 

4. Colleen Haskell - The original sweetheart! With a surprising feisty wit about her! Sweet, cute, funny, observant, and the perfect creator of the "America's Sweetheart Archetype." What is hilarious though, is how Colleen is credited for inventing this archetype, when in reality, Colleen had a sharp tongue and ripped most of these people apart in confessionals. Her reaction to everything happening on the island is hilarious, particularly her reactions to Rich getting naked and Sean being an idiot. Colleen being such a light character highlights just how dark the events of Borneo are towards the end of the 39 days. Colleen being the voice of reason, despite being the youngest on the island, is also such an integral part of the season. That is because Colleen served as the rational voice. We hate Richard because Colleen hates Richard. Very real and down-to-earth, perfectly matching the vibes of Borneo. Icon.

 

5. Greg Buis - What a trip. LOL. Greg is hilarious af. Without a doubt. You can tell pretty early on that Greg simply does not give a f*ck about this competition. Or how people perceive him. Greg pretending to be incestuous with his sister is iconic. That entire video from home is amazing. Seriously. Greg playing up the romance with Colleen only to admit he does not give a single sh*t about her and compares her to a kitten that he is going to stab in the neck. His fake crying after his elimination. The lack of jury speech, boiling it down to a guessing game. The coconut phone. The singing and the dancing. Greg is not critical to the story of Borneo, but he is so whacky and hilarious that he earns this high ranking. Borneo needed this absolutely batch*t crazy personality.

 

6. Rudy Boesch - I struggled with the idea of where to rank Rudy. The person that I am wants to rank him dead last. But I knew what I was getting into when revisiting Borneo. Without a doubt, Rudy is a key player on Borneo and one of the most important characters in the show's very long history. As I said up above, Borneo is essentially a documentary, capturing the thoughts and actions of these people stranded on an island, culture shocked, battling the elements, and asked to play a game for one million dollars. Here enters 72 year-old Rudy. An accomplished Navy Seal with this badass demeanor and take-no-prisoners attitude. Nobody would ever think that Rudy would adapt so incredibly to the island life, or that he would be a competitive presence in the competition, or that Rudy would form the very first majority alliance and dominate the competition socially. But he did all of those things, proving that Survivor is a competition for everybody. Even the 72 year-old Navy Seal. But more importantly, Rudy was a very honest and simple man, which truly matched the documentary style production of this first season. Rudy never minced words and spoke his mind at all times. Even when he was saying truly ignorant things. Though part of the Borneo experience is watching Rudy attempt to adapt to a younger crowd, and finding comfort among the older members of Tagi. As well as watching Rudy struggle to accept that his best pal and closest ally is a gay man, who acts in a way that he completely disagrees with. There is no doubt that Rudy influenced this series in a massive way. A completely massive way. 

 

7. Jenna Lewis - She might be one or two spots too high, but Jenna's story on Borneo really resonated with me. Jenna wanted to prove that she was a happy mother, rather than a young mom just because of circumstance. Jenna really struggled with missing her children while on the island, and the episode where she misses out on a video from them is seriously heartbreaking. Especially after spending the entire night practicing archery to the point of bruising herself. I also was really compelled by her inability to play the game in a cutthroat manner. What an awesome character.

 

8. Sean Kenniff - DR. SEAN IS AN ICON. AN ICON. THE SECOND HE REVEALS HIS NIPPLE PIERCING, YOU JUST KNOW. #SuperPole2000. #BowlingAlley. The worst fisherman in the history of humanity. Absolutely worthless around camp. A bumbling idiot. No strategy in the game. Completely unaware of his surroundings and the happenings of the game. And the man is a neurologist!!!! Dr. Sean is the first joke character in the history of the show. 100% of the time he is hilarious. You never have to take him seriously, which is the makings of a great reality television contestant. Whether he is offering Kelly food and then asking her if she still wants it, and ultimately taking it away from her. Or voting people off with an alphabetical strategy post-merge and accidentally eliminating Jenna! Being constantly told by everybody to grow some balls! Somehow coming across as one of the least homophobic people on Borneo. His relationship with Richard is awesome. Such a funny character. Honestly.

 

9. Gervase Petersen - #CowGate. Gervase is a comedic character. Most of the time, Gervase is completely unaware that he is hilarious. On the surface, he looks like a physical specimen. Except he loses most of the challenges for Pagong. His performance in the eating competition is iconic. Well, except for that one time when he can hardly swim and somehow beat Kelly, the professional rower, in a rowing competition. LOL. Not only did he suck at competitions, Gervase openly admitted to not helping around camp. Gervase lounged and had fun at camp instead. Yet still was not being voted out because of his charming personality! Remember when he raised his hand, admitting to feeling invincible in the competition? And then he is eliminated the next tribal council? LOL. Very charismatic and hilarious.

 

10. Gretchen Cordy - Such an incredible character. Wow. A legend. Likable. Level-headed. Natural leader. Gretchen really set the Pagong tribe on-track. You really start to love Gretchen and admire her approach to this competition. You start to believe that Gretchen is the winner of the season, since she is the ideal person for the experience. Then the merge comes...and BLINDSIDE. The first ever blindside! Her reaction to her elimination is completely iconic. What a fantastic character. 

 

11. Ramona Grey - Probably one of the most compelling four-episode story arcs in the history of the show. Ramona very clearly did not fit in with her tribe initially, and being very sick did not help her to integrate within the dynamic tribe at the start of the game. She even admitted that she never had white friends before this experience, so this was a huge culture shock for the biochemist. Ramona made her first white friend in Jenna, which helps her to feel better and start to contribute to camp and fit in with the group. Just as she felt included and comfortable, she was voted out of the game. Compelling stuff. Honestly.

 

12. B.B. Anderson - The original train wreck!!! B.B. was horrible, but an important part of the first-season experience! He seemingly knew what he was doing, except he did not. B.B. washed his clothes in the drinking water. He built a horrible shelter that was about to be washed away. He was very rude, obnoxious, holier-than-thou, loud. He completely alienated himself from the tribe, all the while thinking that he was actually doing what was best for everybody. B.B. refused to conform, and that made him a very compelling character on the first season of the show.

 

13. Joel Klug - Joel is the first true casualty of the social game that is Survivor. Joel seems like the contestant that would win the entire game, on paper. Intelligent, good-looking, in great shape physically, a competitive beast. The original alpha male, if you will. Joel could have never predicted his personality being his downfall in the game. A chauvinist that really rubbed the women the wrong way post-merge. Despite his attempts to talk strategy post-merge, Joel really suffered because most people were still voting based on personality by this point in the competition. Joel also had some good conflict with B.B. in the beginning of the season too. And he is part of the very interesting #CowGate with Gervase. He is a good character overall!

 

14. Stacey Stillman - Stacey is a very important character in my opinion. First of all, we have to address the lawsuits she filed against Mark Burnett for him influencing her to not vote for Rudy. Very interesting and speaks to how messy the producers have been since the absolute beginning of the game. That being said, Stacey is also a very interesting character due to her being the first in history to try and form an alliance. Her efforts were futile, but there is something to be said about her recognizing this as a game before most of her competitors. She was also quite a lightning rod in terms of conflict, clashing with most of her tribe-mates, namely B.B.

 

15. Dirk Been - Dirk is far more interesting than most early boots. But when speaking about Borneo, Dirk contributed the least to the story of the season. He is also one of, if not, the only one-dimensional character present on this season. He is just a virginal, hyper-religious guy that read his Bible most of the time on the island. Dirk also had a brief crush on Kelly. There is not much more to his character than that. 

 

16. Sonja Christopher - What a legitimately sweet woman, and who can ever forget her singing to Rich with the ukulele. She is the first boot in the history of the show, which is a big moment. Sonja was eliminated for being a physical liability to the Tagi tribe, which is an early indication that avoiding strategy-based decisions was going to be impossible in this game. 

 

MY FAVORITE MOMENT

 

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"I have no questions; I just have statements. Rich, you're a very openly arrogant, pompous human being; but I admire your frankness with it. You have worked hard to get where you are at; and you started working hard way before you came to this island, and I admire that. So, with my working ethic background, I give that credit to you. But on the other hand, your inability to admit your failures, without going into a whiny speech, makes you a bit of a loser in life. Kelly: the rafting persona queen; you did get stomped on, on national TV by a city boy that never swam, let alone been in the woods or jungle or rowed a boat in his life. You sucked on that game. Anyways, I was your friend at the beginning of this, really thinking that you were a true friend. I was willing to sit there, and put you next to me. At that time, you were sweeter than me--I'm not a very openly nice person; I'm just frank, forward, and telling it the way it is;--and to have you sit there next to me, and lose $90,000, just to stomp on somebody like this. But as the game went along, and the two tribes merged, you lied to me, and showed me the true person you were. You're very two-faced and manipulative to get where you're at anywhere in life, that's why you fail all the time. So, at that point of the game, I just decided then to just go out with my alliance to my family, and just to hold my dignity and my values in check, and hoping I hadn't lost too many of them along the way. I'd tried to play the game as long as possible, and hang in there as long as possible. But Kelly, just going back to what Jeff says, 'what goes around, comes around': it's here. You will not get my vote; My vote will go to Richard; and I hope that it's the one vote that makes you lose the money. But if it's not, so be it. I will shake your hand, and I'll go on from here. But if I were ever to pass you in this life again, and you were laying there, dying of thirst, I would not give you a drink of water. I'd just let the vultures take you, and do whatever they want with you, with no ill regrets. I plead with the jury tonight, to think a little bit about the island that we have been on. This island is pretty much full of only two things: snakes and rats. And in the end of Mother Nature, we have Richard the Snake, who knowingly went after prey; and Kelly, who turned into the Rat, that ran around like the rats do on this island, trying to run from the snake. And I feel we owe it to the island's spirit that we have learned, have come to know, to let it be in the end the way Mother Nature intended it to be: for the Snake to eat the Rat."

 

SEASON RANKING

 

1. Borneo

2. Panama - Exile Island

3. China

4. Palau

5. Vanuatu

6. Guatemala

7. Cook Islands

8. Fiji

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1 minute ago, Elliott said:

You're not willingly rewatching Thailand, are you? O.o

 

Shii Ann in All Stars is their only returning representative.

 

UGHHHHH. IDK. I don't want to because the cast is so unlikable that the season is hard to watch. Maybe I'll do the season drunk and post drunk thoughts for you all? LOL.

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"There's more of them than there are of me. They don't have to adapt to me; I have to adapt to them."

Rudy knowing how to succeed on Survivor from the get-go with a strategy people still don't follow.

 

Greg, Colleen and Richard are my favourites. Sue's 4th for me, then everyone else is kind of bunched together except for Dirk and BB as my bottom two. :giggle: I remember how hated Richard was after he won, but I liked him because I was a chaotic little sh*t even as a child ❤️

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Just now, Deeee said:

UGHHHHH. IDK. I don't want to because the cast is so unlikable that the season is hard to watch. Maybe I'll do the season drunk and post drunk thoughts for you all? LOL.

It's my least favourite Survivor season. One of two I never finished watching. So if you can sit through it twice, you're braver than me.

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Just now, Elliott said:

It's my least favourite Survivor season. One of two I never finished watching. So if you can sit through it twice, you're braver than me.

 

I've made it through Nicaragua, so I think I can watch Thailand for a second time? Especially with the aid of alcohol. LOL.

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3 minutes ago, Deeee said:

I've made it through Nicaragua, so I think I can watch Thailand for a second time? Especially with the aid of alcohol. LOL.

Nicaragua is great, I don't see the correlation 🙂

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18 minutes ago, Deeee said:

@#jeah @Elliott @Alex95 @Solaris @QueenKalie @Zoey

 

Borneo thoughts up, already halfway through Australian Outback.

 

Jerri still being an iconic b*tch.

 

Also, watching Elisabeth before she showed her ass to the world is still so strange.

As a very young straight male I like many others probably was in love with Elisabeth way back when that is no longer the case now but it was certainly an interesting time.

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"Umm...we're all sitting here, we're adults. This is a game, but the game also reflects a lot on real life and you always bring up this alliance thing. Well, America is run on alliance. The minute someone gives money to a president for his campaign as a lobbyist, that's an alliance. Don't tell me he doesn't think he doesn't owe him anything. Because he does! They help put him where he's at! Same thing goes when people join a church and they're not religious, but they join the church because they want to make connections for, be it they're an insurance agent and they wanna sell more insurance in town, or they're a real estate agent and they want to sell real estate. They want to meet up with people! So there is gonna be alliance. Don't tell me there ain't alliance! Tagi, we lived together for 20 days and built things and were totally happy and totally comfortable so don't tell me there ain't gonna be an alliance. Of course there's gonna be an alliance! This is just a chess game. It's the way life goes."

 

This>snakes & rats 🙈

 

But Sue f*cking Hawk is responsible for the two greatest monologues in Survivor history :wub: :wub: 

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2 minutes ago, QueenKalie said:

As a very young straight male I like many others probably was in love with Elisabeth way back when that is no longer the case now but it was certainly an interesting time.


For a long time, Elisabeth was my favorite Survivor contestant ever. Until she wasn't. LOL. 🙂

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2 minutes ago, Alex95 said:

"Umm...we're all sitting here, we're adults. This is a game, but the game also reflects a lot on real life and you always bring up this alliance thing. Well, America is run on alliance. The minute someone gives money to a president for his campaign as a lobbyist, that's an alliance. Don't tell me he doesn't think he doesn't owe him anything. Because he does! They help put him where he's at! Same thing goes when people join a church and they're not religious, but they join the church because they want to make connections for, be it they're an insurance agent and they wanna sell more insurance in town, or they're a real estate agent and they want to sell real estate. They want to meet up with people! So there is gonna be alliance. Don't tell me there ain't alliance! Tagi, we lived together for 20 days and built things and were totally happy and totally comfortable so don't tell me there ain't gonna be an alliance. Of course there's gonna be an alliance! This is just a chess game. It's the way life goes."

 

This>snakes & rats 🙈

 

But Sue f*cking Hawk is responsible for the two greatest monologues in Survivor history :wub: :wub: 

 

An iconic monologue. Without a doubt. I just think the sting of The Snake and The Rat is so huge and sets into motion the vindictive nature of Survivor. So it's hard not to favor that one, even if this speech is great as well. :lmao:

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1 minute ago, Deeee said:

 

An iconic monologue. Without a doubt. I just think the sting of The Snake and The Rat is so huge and sets into motion the vindictive nature of Survivor. So it's hard not to favor that one, even if this speech is great as well. :lmao:

That's the monologue that defends alliances, the core of Survivor. It also reflects real life better than snakes and rats does.

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1 minute ago, Deeee said:

 

I like one contestant from Nicaragua. It's a wretched season.

Yeah there's a couple people on Nicaragua I liked but it's a really bad season. I won't be be re watching Thailand that's a big no from me. I think I got through 1 maybe 2 episodes of that re watch and was like f this 😂

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