Survivor: Edge (and Bono)

[Kodos]

Devens is definitely the fan favorite this season. Everyone I know who watches Survivor is rooting for him.

[Maple Leafs]

Boooo.

[Mota]

Well that was really dumb. Some dude who got 10 minutes of airtime all season won the game. Talk about not earning a victory. I liked the "Edge" story, but I don't think you can have a person living with the jury and then getting into the top 5. It's a lot easier to build relationships with the jury on the Edge when they're not trying to eliminate each other. It's not an even playing field. I would say if you would repeat this, that if you choose to enter the 2nd stage of the Edge, you also disqualify yourself from the jury.

Mind you, being up against 2 other useless people helped him out a lot, if he was up against Devens, he wouldn't have had a chance.

That ceremony when everybody plays an idol was classic though! When he returned to the game, Devens played like he had nothing to lose, and made for some entertaining viewing to say the least.

[larrymcg421]

I never understood why they let the people who lost the merge challenge to go back to the Edge of Extinction. That makes no sense. You could've theoretically had the first boot win the season. And Gavin had to make a pitch to people like Reem, who he spent 0 days in the game with, against Chris, who spent almost the entire game with her.

[LloydLungs]

It was an incredibly stupid twist. Chris made the most of it and, in the effed up universe of Survivor 38, earned the win. He seems like a good guy and a pretty hardcore superfan, so congrats to him.

However, to demonstrate how stupid this twist was, just pretend that from now on it's the norm, and every season of Survivor is structured that way. You would start to see the game evolve towards people, especially challenge beast types, intentionally getting themselves voted off early. That would become the smart play. If you're good at challenges, getting a FastPass to the final 6 without having to piss off the jury would become the go-to strategy. And that is a ridiculous game to watch.

Supposedly there were rumors going around that production was very unhappy with how this season turned out, and I see why now. Talk about an editing nightmare. I think actually the editors did a good job given what they had to work with. But there is no way to construct a coherent story out of what happened. Best play is to highlight all the mini-dramas along the way, give the funniest player all the screen time, and then promote the finale as wildly unpredictable (it certainly was that) and then try to forget the season ever happened as quickly as possible.

[molson]

Part of the editing challenge must have been that nothing was happening on the Edge of Extinction. There was that early stuff about maps and running around that I don't remember the point of, but then it was just lounging all day. Rick said he took 4 hours naps during the day when he was there.

Of course on reddit everyone was complaining about how Rick was going to win and how boring that was....And I don't think anybody would have been excited about sole survivor Gavin. Chris did have one of more dominating and ballsy short runs ever at the end there, so, it worked good enough for me. I just wish more happened at extinction island, that it could be a place you had to fight and claw to survive, and not just take to take naps all day and poison the jury pool.

[Racer]

Really hated how Survivor 38 ended up but at least we have this to look forward to now for Survivor 40:

(Cast Spoilers only)

Survivor Season 40 Cast Revealed : Inside Survivor

[molson]

Originally Posted by Racer

Really hated how Survivor 38 ended up but at least we have this to look forward to now for Survivor 40:

(Cast Spoilers only)

Survivor Season 40 Cast Revealed : Inside Survivor

I'll watch the crap out of it, but it feels like a season where all relevant alliances and even order of elimination will be in place long before the show starts taping.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by molson

Part of the editing challenge must have been that nothing was happening on the Edge of Extinction. There was that early stuff about maps and running around that I don't remember the point of, but then it was just lounging all day. Rick said he took 4 hours naps during the day when he was there.

Of course on reddit everyone was complaining about how Rick was going to win and how boring that was....And I don't think anybody would have been excited about sole survivor Gavin. Chris did have one of more dominating and ballsy short runs ever at the end there, so, it worked good enough for me. I just wish more happened at extinction island, that it could be a place you had to fight and claw to survive, and not just take to take naps all day and poison the jury pool.

I think Gavin would've got a much better edit if he had won, but the show didn't want the audience to be upset that he lost the jury vote. I think his game was underrated. It wasn't flashy, but he maneuvered throughout the game and stayed out of danger for 39 days.

[CrimsonFox]

I'm happy Chris won over Gavin/Julie/Lauren/Vic

Those four did NOT deserve it.

Liked his firemaking move.

Still wish Devens would have won. So happy Sia gave him 100 G's

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Racer

Really hated how Survivor 38 ended up but at least we have this to look forward to now for Survivor 40:

(Cast Spoilers only)

Survivor Season 40 Cast Revealed : Inside Survivor

So I just learned Michelle Fitzgerald, winner of season 28, is from the same town as me and still lives there. Relatively small town and my dad owned the pharmacy so she may know of my family. My son is a certified survivor nut, and it is his dream to go to the live finale. He would freak to meet someone on the show. I wrote her on facebook and asked if she knows of anyone at CBS who could help us out. I didn't mention my son wanting to meet her, as I didn't want to come off as a bona fied creeper. Curious to see if she writes back. I doubt it.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

I'm happy Chris won over Gavin/Julie/Lauren/Vic

Those four did NOT deserve it.

Liked his firemaking move.

Still wish Devens would have won. So happy Sia gave him 100 G's

Hated the ending. Sure he had one big move when he came back but he had a couple weeks of no worry about having to play the game and only working the jury in a way the current players can't.

[EagleFan]

dola: Once the edge of extinction reached a certain point they should have also been playing challenges and voting players out. That small change would have made me feel better about the outcome because then the player would still have needed to play the game.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

I'm happy Chris won over Gavin/Julie/Lauren/Vic

Those four did NOT deserve it.

Liked his firemaking move.

Still wish Devens would have won. So happy Sia gave him 100 G's

Why didn't Gavin deserve to win? He won two immunities and was on the right side of every vote. He even switched a few times, such as when they abandoned Ron and Julie to get rid of Eric, then flipped back to Ron to get rid of Wardog and Kelley, only to flip back on Ron to get him out using Aurora's double vote advantage. Again, the edit didn't really highlight Gavin's play, but that's because they didn't want people to be mad when Chris won, but the evidence seems pretty clear that he played a solid game.

[Kodos]

Not looking forward to 39 and the Boston Rob/Sandra gimmick, but I think 40 sounds great with nothing but past winners.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by LloydLungs

It was an incredibly stupid twist.

I think you could argue that it was a decent twist that could have worked out well, but that backfired awfully.

In theory, there could have been all sorts of drama around people deciding whether or not to go to extinction, and how long to stay. Big moments where people broke and raised the flag to quit. Some sort of big redemption story where somebody came back into the game and played great to earn the win, or even somebody trying to get voted out because they realized their game was hopeless and their only path to a win was to re-enter the game late.

Instead, they got pretty much none of that. Rick came back and was great, but he was too great and became the obvious target. Every single boot chose to go back into the game, most without even having to think about it. Only two of them left, and that was barely even mentioned as an afterthought so it must have been incredibly boring. Everybody else sticks around. And then somebody who barely played wins the whole thing, based on hanging out with the jury and being handed free idols.

I guess when you're 38 seasons in, you have to be willing to take some chances. But this one didn't work at all.

[B & B]

spot on