SenseiKreese wrote:
You know, I have always been one of the fiercest defenders of Thailand. Since there were so many good comedic moments in it, I have pretty much defended it to death against all the nay-sayers since 2003. But I have to say... I watched it again this past week with my kids, and I sort of understand why it's considered a flop now.
My kids are just now old enough (ages 6 and 8) to finally sort of understand Survivor , so I have been giving them a crash course on the first 7 seasons over the past few months. And so far they have been transfixed by pretty much all of them. Pearl Islands, obviously, was a big hit. Amazon was a big favorite. Australia and Borneo got good reviews. But Thailand? They couldn't have cared less. It has been the one season so far that completely lost their interest.
And you know, I couldn't figure out why this was until I watched it again. Why do so many people call Thailand a boring season? What was the variable I had been missing all these years?
And then I figured out what it was. It was the swimming scenes. God damnit there are a lot of scenes of the Chuay Gahns SWIMMING. That's all they do. I swear, in like half the episodes, there is at least one looooong, drawn out, protracted scene of Helen, Clay, Brian and Ted swimming around, looking for something. And I never realized how many there were until I watched it with kids. It's like, holy shit, is this all the editors had to work with? Was this really the most interesting thing that happened every 3 days? Did we really have to watch 45 minutes of Ted and Brian and Clay looking for their lost boat??
So anyway, after five years of defending it, I finally figured out what is wrong with Survivor: Thailand. I still think it's a good season, overall, but damn why did the producers think it was a good idea to put Chuay Gahn so far away from their water supply? Why did they end up in a scenario where their dominant, winning tribe had zero drama around camp, and spent most of the day wandering out to find water? Who thought that would make for interesting TV?
I still think Thailand is better than just about every season after Palau, but in terms of the "glory days" of Survivor, I think they ended with Marquesas. Thailand was the first one where they sort of lost touch with their formula. Why? Well my theories are A) Because they let the players pick their own teams (bad idea), B) Because the whole editing style changed between seasons 4 and 5, or C) Because the location sucked and there was nothing for the players to do, other than search for water.
In any case, I'll still defend Thailand if I have to. But maybe not as passionately. :)
After re-watching it with my kids, it's now my least favorite non-All-Star season between 1-10.
Pick the tribe really hurts the season (and Amazon). I agree.
