Jeff Varner's S5 Articles
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Car54 | Friday, September 20, 2002 - 03:48 am     Episode 1 PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION By Jeff Varner (9.17.02) OK. I’m gettin' in to it. I swore to God I'd stay far away from writing about this show. I left the ET article behind (which I loved writing) and crawled in a cave to deal with an injury and focus on other things. I love it, but I need a break from Survivor. The shows are awesome and I love them, but living it, then watching four times…they do tend to follow a certain formula. There's the initial trek to camp. Things happen along the way that teaches about the people. They arrive, build things, dig holes, go to a challenge, vote someone off, then episode two--gross food challenge...shall I go on? It must be very difficult to keep each season fresh and new, and for the most part, they've succeeded. But to sit down and write about it again...I don't know…too much. I just couldn't get motivated. I want to be a fan again. Now that the time is here to give it a go the promise of something totally new has me intrigued--interested enough to write this, anyway. How "new" could it be without changing the entire game? Maybe they do? Then, came the men vs. women commercials everyone is talking about. Men vs. women? That's weird. How are they gonna do that? The tribes would be unbalanced regarding strength. And I'd say the women might outweigh the men in the brains category. Then I realized whom we're talking about here. Mark Burnett is brilliant and I'm sure he is cooking up something good. I don't know what it is. And up until about last week, I didn't care, truth-be-told. This show makes me crazy. Our family is THE MOST eclectic, dysfunctional group of people I've seen. "Who else are we addin' to this mess?" (LOL) wasn't really a question that crossed my mind. But then I started thinking about how deceiving the promos always are and how blatantly they’ve told us "the men are against the women." Something smells funny to me, in a good way. I'm now convinced we're in for a totally new game that might bring back the excitement of the first Survivor, in that it was difficult to predict what would happen, keeping you glued to the tube. I think something cool and new really is coming. If it starts off in a "whole new way," then I'd wager something's up with the tribal arrangement. The episode that "starts off" is always the first and focuses on tribes. Since we're being told "men vs. women," I'd say it's probably not. I don't know, but let's think out-of-the-box for a minute. The game always starts with two tribes of eight. If it was going to be a totally new game, why not four tribes of four? Or three tribes, with one having to earn an extra player. Why not one big tribe of sixteen? So many ideas went through my head trying to figure out how this could be so different in episode one, as has been advertised. Then came the title of episode two: The Great Divide. Hmm. What does that mean? What divides? That soon in the game, there's not much to divide except THEM. If they were divided in some way, it would make sense they are divided from the greater whole, one tribe. I'm just speculating here, but what if they don't start this game in tribes at all? What if they start in one big clump, everyone living together in the same place. Bonding all over the place. Once the crushes, the initial irritations, and the early friendships start to take shape, break them apart and make them compete against each other. NOW THAT'S GOOD TV—especially if they divide into three or four tribes. If they started with three tribes, requiring one tribe to earn the extra player, the players would be thrown completely off balance, as would the viewer. What would they have to do to gain that free body? How would they determine who that person would be? That’s a fascinating idea. Four groups of four is an interesting concept, but the "challenge" aspect could become complicated. It might be tough to show that to us, given all the potential storylines that could develop. There are several directions this could be taken to make it the "all new game" we’re hearing about. Whatever happens, here I am, glued to it again and it hasn't even started yet (depending on when you read this). I'm not sure how much I'll write on the show, but I was moved to sit down and write this, so who knows? For now, I'm counting on Survivors growing weary of strategies involving religion. As the Dixie Chicks would say, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." I’m betting on Pastor John to be the first forced to sail away. |
Brenda1966 | Tuesday, September 24, 2002 - 11:29 am     Where are Jeff's articles being published? I checked ET online and they don't seem to have a survivor page like before. Thanks! |
Car54 | Tuesday, September 24, 2002 - 12:51 pm     The one I posted is at Survivor Fever. He says he is not sure he is going to do a series this time. |
Pamy | Tuesday, September 24, 2002 - 01:02 pm     Does anyone know where we find the funny survivor summaries that we had last time? Neko found them at first and I can't remember where they came from |
Spear | Tuesday, September 24, 2002 - 05:37 pm     Pamy, I created a new topic here. |
Pamy | Tuesday, September 24, 2002 - 06:16 pm     Thanks Spear!!! |
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