Archive through November 08, 2002
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TV ClubHouse: Archives: This Season's Editing: Archive through November 08, 2002

Bastable

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 09:51 am EditMoveDeleteIP
It can't be just me. But I think there is something seriously wrong with the editing of the show this season.

Most importantly, of the contestants who have been voted off so far, I'd say that for about half of them, we were never given very clear reasons why they were going. It's really been making for lame suspense. Erin left last night, and I still have no understanding of why her tribe chose her to go over Penny or Ken or Jake. I think you could say that for many of the evictees so far (Tanya, Stephanie, even John), the setup has been inadequate. Ghandia's and Shi Ann's departures were very clear to the viewers, but the other eliminations have been somewhat murky to me. I've been able to fill in the gaps myself, but in past seasons, the editing has been much more explicit in telling us where each tribe member stands with their fellow players.

It has been said that the crew were not very happy during this season. Could it be that they missed filming a lot of the conversations and set-up this year? Or do the producers think that reducing the number of advance clues will lead to more suspense? (It doesn't. Suspense only happens when you see the metaphorical train coming down the tracks and you can't stop it.)

Also, in last night's (11/7) episode, there was no reward challenge, and it gave the whole episode a very slow, deliberate, plodding pace. It was not fully programmed from act to act. There has been no precedent for an episode without a reward challenge at this point in the season. Because of the awkwardness of the pacing of last night's show, I strongly believe that a reward challenge was indeed staged and filmed, but that for some reason, the producers had to scrap it. Perhaps the challenge malfunctioned, perhaps the wrong winner was declared, perhaps equipment fritzed out in a rainstorm, perhaps a sponsor pulled out, perhaps it was sniping contest. But the turgid rhythm of last night's show makes it evident that there was supposed to be a challenge in there that didn't go in, and the rest of the show stretched to fill the gap.

Anyone else notice these things? Does anyone else think that the editing has been way off this season? Does anyone else think that these guys should hire the people who do "The Amazing Race" to learn what brilliant editing really is?

Seamonkey

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 09:58 am EditMoveDeleteIP
You make good points. I do think the ousting of Jed, Steph and Robb was pretty clear.. they seperated themselves and weren't nice to others :)

Webkitty

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 10:45 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Bastable, I hear you, but I don't think MB lets anything to chance. I think everything we get to see is for a reason.

Remember last season when Kathy's top was flapping around in the breeze with nothing under it? I kept harping and harping about this here because it was odd to me that the footage of her seemed to zoom in on this all the time. She usually had something to say, interesting observations, why did we need to see THAT? Know what I mean?

But, as we saw in the end, her loose shirt with nothing underneath was her downfall. Of course, MB didn't KNOW this was going to happen, but when it did go down like that, with Neleh calling her on it and causing her to loose her grip, causing Vee to take Neleh instead, well, imo, I can see MB commanding his editing crew to go over all footage of Kathy with a fine tooth comb and purposly SHOW
the loose top with nothing underneath.

Anyway, my point is that I think we will look back on last night's episode and see the reason for lingering so much on the reamaining SJ. I think their seeming loyality and love for each other will play a part down the line. Penny will backstab some or all of them, is my guess.
He had to linger on that last night to get the full effect of it when she does. JMO.

I think MB loves to weave a story more than anything, somethimes this takes time. The pace of TAR is perfect for that show, I agree, but with Survivor we need to see the boardom, its part of what makes it so hard to hang in there. Stranded on an island with nothing to do except the mundane chores of survival. Apples and oranges.

As far as the RC goes, I don't think there was one because it would have been just too awkward for one team to have a reward in front of the other. Sure, it could have been the type where one tribe goes away to a feast, but who know what lurks in the mind of EMB? Its anyones guess.

Babyruth

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 10:49 am EditMoveDeleteIP
The Shadow knows. Hehehehehe

Jagger

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 10:57 am EditMoveDeleteIP
MB did say he was going to switch things around this year, that it would not be the same each week, that there would be weeks with no luxery challenge, maybe even weeks with no eviction, that would be different. I think he does it all to keep people guessing. I don't think many people expected Erin to get the boot last night, so the shock value of little air time and no real reason to boot her worked.

Hermione69

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 11:05 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I missed the first 1/2 hour last night and was very surprised to hear there was no RC because I wondered what they showed to fill the time. Apparently I missed the recipes and the peeing. Gosh, darn. I found the 40 minutes that I did watch to be very boring, especially all the loving between the SJs, but I tend to agree with Webkitty that something is being set up for later. I hope so, anyway, because you are right, Bastable, in that so many story lines are being left untold.

Erin said during an interview that Penny and Jake told her they were voting for Ken and she thought it would be the three of them against Ken. What a good story that would have been.... to show them lying to her that they were voting out Ken and then to have shown Penny, Jake and Ken talking about voting out Erin. That would have created a bit of suspense and MB still would have fooled us because most of us were believing it was Ken's turn to go because of his face time. Why was this not shown? I would have loved to have seen that.

Bastable

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 11:25 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Exactly my point, Hermione! It's a sad state of affairs when you learn more from the four-minute "The Early Show" interview than from the hour-long episode.

Goddessatlaw

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 11:44 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I could agree more with your posts, Bastable. I'm just plain bored. I couldn't care less what happened to any of these people - they could be cancelled and marooned out there like Gilligan's Island and I might be happy about it. And it's not because of them, it's because of the editing. Seriously flawed or non-existent character development, no suspense, no information with which to speculate and draw excitement that way, boring challenges, no oversized personality conflicts, no evidence of the scheming or backbiting which is surely going on. I could tune in to the last 5 minutes each week, see who's kicked off and not have missed a thing. I'm still riding the show to see what happens. Maybe something wonderful. But I'm very disappointed in this year's editing.

Meggieprice

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 12:02 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
It is bad editing, and nothing else, that led us all to be in a state of shock when Erin went. Are we suppposed to be impressed? Not I. The suspense and tension would only exist if we were give some shred of an idea what these people are thinking. You know there has been plenty of plotting and planning in Sook and we have seen NONE of it. This is not reality TV, it is slickly packaged and manipulated. I will bet that MB was shocked himself when Sook did not win the IC- that, at least, did not go according to plan.

Tester

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 12:19 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hey Babyruth - I remember the Shadow and he does know. I can hear the door squeaking now.

Csnog

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 12:23 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Each year we are allowed to see less and less of the conversations between the people. Last night we saw a LOT of talking.

Now we have to figure it out as we see the key players unfold.

Next week ALL of the remaining players should be at TC because most of them will be on the jury.

Each year we also have more UTR players which also makes it boring. Lets hope the rest of the shows are more interesting.

Marysafan

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 12:43 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Goddess that is exactly what I have been doing. Hubby has hogged the TV watching hockey...so I ask to see the last few minutes of tribal council to see who gets booted off. Between that, the Early show interviews and this board...I don't feel that I have missed much at all.

Last year, I brought the TV from the bedroom downstairs and put it in the kitchen and I used to run back and forth between Survivor in the kitchen and the hockey game in the living room. this year, I am just not that emotionally involved with these people. I really don't care who gets booted, (well, maybe except for Helen).

Now, you should see how I agonize over the the Today Show's version of American Idol. I HATE that those people have to get eliminated...I like ALL of them!

I hope the next cast offers a better group of characters and for sure....MUCH improved editing. I passed on Survivor Africa...and only watched about four episodes of Austrailia. I loved the first Survivor and Survivor Marquesas...but this group isn't holding my interest.

Katlady53

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 01:32 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Survivor Thailand is my very first season, and I keep wondering why the show has been so popular. Lol I guess I'm glad to know that the show has been better in the past and that it's not just me missing the boat!

Spunky

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 01:46 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I agree that there is a tendency to "surprise" the viewers but it's not working. I prefer seeing the scheming and tactics and then find out if what they said matched their vote.

For example, last night it looked like Jake wanted to pick the loser in front of the whole team and go to Tribal Council prepared, and it looked a lot like it was Penny the one to be the "sacrificial lamb" (since they made it look like they didn't want to vote anyone out) and that Penny (crying) accepted to be booted out.

Then we saw Erin "unanimously" voted out and we have no inkling as to why, especially since we saw how Erin was comforting Jake making us think that he may lose because he didn't win immunity or the team. I can only assume that since Erin voted for Ken that it was Ken who convinced the others to vote Erin out. Go figure...

Denecee

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 01:50 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Me too Mary! I turned the channel just in time to see Erin get evicted. My family chooses to watch Friends and we watch t.v. together so the majority rules. Friends was on for 45 minutes last night so I missed everything or nothing from what everybody has been saying.

Kaili

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 02:27 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
About the editing...any reason why we were blessed with a closeup shot of Erin's butt in a bikini? This was at some point after the immunity challenge when they were back at the cave. She was wearing a shirt and her bikini bottom and the camera totally zoomed in and stayed there for a second. There seemed to be no purpose except...err...visual.

Meggieprice

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 02:35 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Speaking of those scenes of Erin comforting Jake- why didn't anyone bother to mention that the responsibility for that loss belonged on the two who popped out in 9 and 15 seconds-Penny and Ken? Jake was the one who did the best, not the one who blew the challenge. One of the many editing things I do not like.

Islandgirl

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 02:45 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Kaili, the impression I got was that we were supposed to be watching Clay leering at Erin

Car54

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 03:04 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I am surprised that so many people were surprised. From the minute the show started, I knew Ken wasn't going. If he was going we would have seen some sign that he was not a core Sook, but except for saying piss about 30 times, he really did not have much of a role.

Penny clearly has Jake in her pocket. They need Ken for possible team challenges. Erin HAD to go.
It seemed really clear to me that they had no choice that someone had to go, and Jake and Penny had the decision made.

I don't think it had much to do with Erin per se...she was just the most expendable.

All week I the conventional wisdom was that Ken was going, but I just could not see it unless they merged, and all the pics and previews seemed to say there was no merge. Ken has no issues with his own tribe...Brian and Ted will vote him off as a threat, not his own people.

Now if they DON't merge next week and lose again... I think Jake will stay with Penny... he and Ken talked about an alliance, but it was mostly Ken doing the talking. I don't feel like Jake really agreed to anything serious. I think Penny fulfills Jake's daddy tendencies... there is no one else left for him to father much.

Dahli

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 03:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Oh Meggie - THANK YOU for saying that - I kept yelling at my husband - WHY is it Jake's fault? - he stayed under practically single handedly!!!!!!! It was a combined time people.... those of you who managed to stay under a whole flipping 2.5 seconds should be the cryin' ones... sheesshh

Plus Kaili I agreed with you on the give me a break on the butt shot already!

Gina8642

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 04:36 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I gotta agree with you all that the editing is just plain bad. They sure did spend a lot of time on nothing.

I have no idea why they had no reward challange. It made a boring show even more boring not to have one. I remember the first season that Entertainment Tonight showed a challange that was edited out of the show. I wonder if they did that this season too?

'Course, I don't see how 'cave peeing', several minutes on 'people being squimish killing a bird', and 'Clay leering at Erin' was supposed to be more interesting than a RC.

Juju2bigdog

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 05:26 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
The butt shot was to play up Clay leering at Erin after having bragged that he was 46 years old and thus immune to the girls' (Penny was who he was talking about) charms.

Pamy

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 06:07 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I think Erin was the one peeing outside the cave, but they couldn't show us that. Ken probably said 'she has to go' meaning go to the bathroom, but the others took it as go = boot.

Lilliegirl

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 06:19 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I agree with the editing it was bad I thought I was watching a soap opera and I hated when Jake was with Brian and Jake asked him which girl was the prettiest one and then you see Erins butt give me a break, I think they really thought they were a family, If Erin and Penny had gotten together they could have voted Ken off but no they all sat there trying to think who to vote off,I could not believe my eyes they were all crying and I was laughing, these people have lost there minds. The only thing that keeps the show going is Brian and Clay, he is so funny, and Helen with her cooking thing drove me crazy. I think Jake has a crush on Penny, she sure changed going up to Ted, Clay doing her thing.

Bastable

Friday, November 08, 2002 - 08:34 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Don't know how many of you noticed, but Erin's figure is also caressed by the camera in the opening credits of every single episode. The camera misses her face at first and starts with a big shot of her cleavage.

Also, as if to prove my original post, Entertainment Weekly's lead TV review this week discusses how lame this season has been, editing-wise. It ends with a wistful recollection of the glory days of reality game shows, when Anderson Cooper was still in the ring. I couldn't have written it better myself!