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5. Survivor: Pearl Islands



This season is what I would consider to be the turning point in Survivors history. It was the first season where two or three characters truly overshadowed the other players. Lucky for us, this was one of the most entertaining and strategically active casts we have ever had, and the blatent attempts at diminishing the show went by unnoticed. Now Survivor has always been heavy handed with its editing, but the over the top(one commercial specifically calling him "Americas Favorite Survivor") praise of Rupert through the editing was what led to the even worse(so awful that it is now a parody of itself) editing of later seasons, when we were almost held with an invisible gun to our heads, and told to root for certain players. Rupert's behavior on both Pearl Islands and All Stars was already over the top, and his self entitlement based antics were amusing to some, disgusted others and fooled many(not me, I had him pegged by the first episode). He is one of the most controversial players the show has ever had, both because of his behavior and demeanor, which lets face it is actually very entertaining and interesting to watch, and his almost surreally awful game play. He literally expected everyone to just hand him the money because he looks like a 17th century Caribbean pirate and had a few bad years in grade school. Nevertheless, even his oafishness can be endearing, even to me, and he is remembered for a reason.

The other side of the coin is of course Jonny Fairplay. He is the embodiment of what people hate about the genre: he seems meanspirited, trashy, belligerent, full of himself and a leech who has made a career for himself simply because the modern age has a horrible, obsessive taste for celebrity culture. Most of that is true, and I myself am openly hostile to celebrity culture; it will be the death of us, but you cannot blame someone like Jon for taking an opportunity and running with it. For one thing, he is not stupid; he comes off quite eloquently and tastefully when he wants to be, so from the start he cannot be compared to the fools on most of VH1s reality roster. Number two, he actually is very entertaining in his own way. Not only is he one of the best players to not win the game, he is also one of the funniest. Contrary to a lot of evidence; humor cannot exist without some sort of knowledge. I think the dichotomy between Jon Dalton the intelligent player and connoisseur and Jonny Fairplay the drunken asshole is very fun to watch. He's a legitimate entertainer imo, and I certainly have had more of a ball trying to be simltaneously disgusted at his habits while admiring his personality, knowing that it is all a joke, than with most "legitimate" entertainment personalities.

The entite cast was fantastic however, and I can't stress how entertaining all of them were. If you want a jerky alpha male, you have Burton(as well as fallen ones like Andrew for example). You have jerks like Shawn, and bitches like Christa(hey, it's what they said). You have underrated stratagists like Trish, and over the top personalities like Rupert, Jon, Lillian and Osten. I actually really like Osten. He was comedy gold, and I actually felt a little sorry for him, he isn't the only pansy boy bodybuilder I've seen(I know a few), and he wasn't obnoxius to me, at least he wasn't to me. Lillian is a trip, and what they edited out of the Final Tribal Council must have been what I presume to be totally uncalled for and mean. We need more wildcards like Lill on the show. Ryan Shoulders probably represents a good proportion of this forums population; a huge survivor fan who probably wouldn't make it on the real show. Michelle was one of my favorites as well. I didn't like Sandra, she came off as very meanspirited and childish to me. Despite that, I am fair and proclaim her win as worthy of the win, she was certainly no coattail rider. The rest we cannot say much more for, but they were endearing too, more or less.

I really liked the theme of this season, and the editing of the catchy theme and beautiful footage of singing whales were entrancing. Really, this is one of the most beautifully shot and edited seasons. Somehow, the islands used on All Stars and Panama didn't seem as beautiful as they were here, even if they were the exact same islands or in the general vicinity. The Outcast twist? I hated it, but I have come to accept it and even like it as an interesting sociological experiment. On Big Brother or some other show, bringing back previously eliminated players means little to nothing, because the integrity isn't there. With Survivor, it produced an onslaught of rage and anger at the decision, including me. However, aren't the way the Outcasts are treated, especially by Andrew, reflective of how minorities are treated in public? I don't think being an Outcast inherently makes you an inferior player by necessity, but many people think so, and that can be spelled many different ways. I also like this season because it was the first season I watched when I began perusing this forum. Things have changed quite a bit from the days of Ferris Bueller, Tedhighway and Ajenda. On Sucks, Pearl Islands was treated with an alarming display of optimism, and newbies would be suprised at how little malice with which the people on the show were treated. Instead of what we have now, there was an across the board dismissal of the whole show, everyone sucked, there were no sacred cows, and everything moved on from there. Not like today where there are prejudices for and against certain castaways. The public treated it with enthusiasm too, for the whole thing, not just what Mark Burnett and crew tell us to like, and that is representive of why this season is one of the best the show has ever had.



ONLY FOUR SHOWS LEFT! WHAT COULD THEY BE?