What stupid twist will be on Australian Survivor tonight?

Excuse me, Australian Survivor watchers, for not posting a new thread at the start of the viewing week but let’s get to the point: OMG what is with all the silly twists!

First, we see a voted-out Kez sneak her idol to Flick in a move that is usually illegal. Cue online outrage and then we have to leave it to a former player (thank you, Nick Iadanza) that this is a recent rule change and is now kosher. Whaaaat! Way to blindside the audience.

And then last night a challenge skewed to brawnier players is set up to win three immunity necklaces (I initially thought they would be girl/boy necklaces, as they sometimes do) and JLP says only those three people get a vote.

Then we get to tribal and – gotcha, audience – only one person gets to vote and they have to make fire to do so. Grrr.
Now, think what you like about Dani but it was satisfying to see her beat Andrew and Emmett, after her chances were completely dismissed by her tribe mates.

And THEN, after Baden is booted, he’s not actually gone but sent to some kind of Redemption Island scenario.

Channel 10, just let them play! We don’t need explosions every minute.



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16 Comments

  1. The one good thing to come out of this was JLP (who has been tweeting like a madman about this season) asked the ether what they thought of the twists and received a mass of negative feedback. And look, he liked my tweet!

  2. It takes away from the perception that this is a fair show. If the game’s rules can change at any time then what is the point of strategising and planning etc. The producers then become a third player with all the power.
    You can imagine the writers/producers high fiving each other when they come up with some tricky dicky idea to make this season different. It doesn’t make it better, just makes it less fair and therefore why get engaged with what is happening. The viewer is supposed to be the one observing the players trick each other . It’s not supposed to be about the producers tricking the viewers.

      • ‘ Who wins? You decide’ is not part of the way Survivor works or advertises itself. The rules and twists are all written down before the season starts. That’s a requirement of the license that productions have to buy from the franchise holder.

        The rules, like transferable idols, are known to the players. The twists aren’t, but they are on record, usually with a trustee company. About this stage in every season the cry of rigging goes up. It’s no more persuasive this season than it was last season or the season before.

        Rigging would be a crime and also give players a chance to sue. No Survivor production anywhere has ever been successfully prosecuted or sued for rigging.

    • Meathead still won, though.

      They made the right decision to get rid of Simon when they had the chance. And the last three episodes are the reason why.

      When hulking challenge beasts get to the individual immunity part of the game? They are very hard to stop. Case in point. Emmett’s won three in a row, now. He doesn’t even need to be diplomatic, strategic, or a fraction less of an arse. He just needs to keep on winning these damn things, and there’s a chance he might.

      Every single one of those morons should be thinking, “the first time Emmett doesn’t win one of these damn things? He’s gone.”

      Anyway. Tribal council was really annoying, tonight. I don’t care who goes, to be honest, I was just kind of hoping Dani would snap and just start beating their heads in with their own torches.

      • Well, isn’t that just the aspect of the game that strong physical players have to manage? They are spotted as threats from the first day, and know that come merge, their names are first up. So they have to work very hard in the first half to set themselves up to not be targetted. That’s when they have to be diplomatic, strategic etc. Look at how many of the strong men didn’t make it to merge – nearly all. There has to be some kudos in surviving to that point.

        It is almost impossible from there, though, as they do have to win every challenge or find idols. It is very, very hard, which is why David Whatisname was so exceptional.

      • On the other hand, Emmet is cruising on an immunity run because Simon was booted and George is cruising to become Russell II because Hailey missed her chance to boot him. The end game is starting to look a lot like will Emmet lose an immunity challenge and will George get Russelled, as happened in Samoa, where a bitter jury voted for Natalie, one of Russell’s concubines because they loathed Russell. Neither of those questions make my heart beat a whole lot faster.

        The twists are a problem but the real problem is a cast who don’t know much about Survivor and don’t actually contain many likeable or admirable people.

        • I tend to agree with you on that last point, and it’s becoming an ever-bigger problem, the longer the season goes.

          Maybe the producers just aren’t good at showing off the cast? But there’s, maybe, 2 people who I don’t despise. How are you supposed to cheer for any of them when they’re all tools?

  3. I’m obviously a bit against the flow in regards to twists. I like a bit of a surprise, and after so many years, a twist-less season would be quite mundane because everyone who goes on the show is so survivor-savvy now. You don’t get dumb mistakes much anymore, even on the infant Aus version.

    The big qualification is that the twists can’t be designed to save particular players, or give too much power in a vote, those sort of ones that feel like producer manipulation of the game. In particular, I am very, very anti Kez being able to play her idol back into the game after being eliminated!

    The twists I do like are small advantages that could help any player who is lucky to find it, or earns it in some way, and then the twist just gives them a small opportunity which they have to grab. For example, winning the chance to sit in at the opposing tribe’s council, which can give a player knowledge but doesn’t allow them to influence that TC. Or, being able to choose people to take to rewards, so you have the chance to network. I am not averse to a second chance situation. I like the possibility that my favourite player just might be lucky, and the dynamics of returning players shakes up the game. The returnee never gets an easy ride. It is not an advantage at all, but second chances must be very sparsely used, no more than once, maybe twice in a season.

    I like clues that lead to the possibility of idols, rather than all idols just being found. I love the ones where the idol has to be retrieved during the challenge without being seen, or during the night in a hard place, or from under the shelter. These require skill and cunning.

    I think they have listened this season to at least some of our gripes from previous seasons. One big bonus has been only doing a couple of one-to-one challenges instead of millions in the past. The editing feels tighter and less waffly and the TCs have been shortened. I would still like to see more conversations and less to-camera stuff.

    No secret that I like Hayley, so I am glad she is back, but it is going to take a miracle now for her to get too much farther. But then, twists and idols create miracles.

    • It’s not the twist itself that is the problem. It’s the apparent use and timing of the twist that convinces us that producers are manipulating the game to make it more of a TV show for gullible viewers than a genuine, fair and honest game.

  4. I am convinced Andrew threw the fire challenge. I think he just didn’t want the responsibility of deciding on his own, and then making enemies for it. There’s no way he didn’t know about shaving the flint first.

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