Survivor
A few words about Survivor (why not, it's gotten good).I’m a mild Terry supporter, but I can see why some might hate him. I feel, in these shows, that there is always a sliding scale on the uber-competent middle age males, where they can either come off as incredibly self righteous and overbearing (like that bald fireman on Big Brother) and get very little public love, or as gracious and together (like Survivor Mike who fell in the fire) and be well liked, or any point in between. I actually like Terry more than Survivor winner Tom, but mostly because Terry wasn’t forced to play head games with a tribemate who was decompensating worse than Amanda Plumber in Pulp Fiction (Ian) in order to win (Ian threw away the game in that “Honey Bunny” moment). However, I think this all depends on any one person’s given tolerance for alpha males, and on your age. I would really like to see a poll on the average age of Terry lovers and haters… I think there would be at least 15 years gap in the average. But, for me, bridgeguy said it best in that he’s more confident cocky than arrogant cocky, and I can forgive the fact that he just doesn’t know how to put things sometimes… like with the wives before mom’s discussion.
What I don’t understand, though, is why there is not more Aras hate. He is the very picture of a guy, probably very likable at home, punking out over having his sense of absolute superiority punctured by not being able to “teach a lesson” to the guy making him look bad. Aras seems good looking, smart, and athletic, and is probably well adjusted at home, but you can see in his face that he just can’t understand how he might not be the best at something, and his composure is cracking. There is an element of entitlement denied that I haven’t commented on. And, lets face it, Terry was right about the “love” choices, but saying wives beat mom’s just wasn’t the right way to put it. If you are in your mid twenties and you can’t spend one month away from your mom, something is wrong with you. If you are married and you can easily spend a month away from your wife and kids, something is also likely wrong. I would also like to see age data on Aras supporters and haters.
I love Cirie too, but does anyone else fell like she might be a little tainted? Swearing with Shane on the lives of children, and going back on your word is somehow is vaguely worse than doing the same thing with a fully mentally capable person, and is kind of icky. BUT she has shown real control in the final stretch, after seeming to float under the radar for most of the game (nice change in direction) – I mean, getting Courney out really served only her ends, and didn’t actually help anyone else, but she got everybody to go along.
For me it’s either Terry or Cirie, with a lead for Terry at this point, and I’d like to see these two in the final. I agree with those that say that Terry could win against Aras or Danielle in the final 2 because Shane was sent off in almost the optimal way to get him to vote for Terry (Terry letting him spend time with son followed by steps towards an alliance followed by his entire tribe stabbing him in the back), and Courtney not only resents the tribe but (crazyness of crazy) listens to Shane. However, this assumes Shane remembers and processes facts as normal humans do, which has been shown to be an erroneous assumption.
posted by Todd C. Murry @ 12:04 PM
2 Comments:
Todd, you sum up my feelings about the Terry/Aras rivalry this season to a T. (I'm 33, for the record.) There's no question that Terry is obnoxious and a bit of a clod socially, but I find Aras insufferable and have taken an unseemly amount of pleasure in his frustration this season. I'm not sure that Terry will take the big prize though. He wouldn't dare bring Cirie with him (assuming she makes it that far) since she could likely beat him, which leaves Danielle and Aras. Could he really win against them?--it will be very close if he does manage that feat given the make-up of the jury. My prediction: he'll bring Danielle and she'll win in that sort of lame anti-climactic way that most of the Survivor winners do (I'm not a Danielle fan). Of course, my predictions are reliably wrong.
First, a question I haven't heard addressed anywhere else, one I figure you might be astute enough to ask and to answer. When the producers of Survivor were choosing the "representative races" of the United States to compete with one another, how is it they forgot Native Americans altogether? While the rest of America snacked on the premeditated controversy about creating racially based teams, I was scratching my head over how millions of Americans with specific racial qualities were completely forgotten. Granted, I am Native American, so these things stand out a bit more, but you’d figure somebody else out there would have glommed on to this, well, racial omission.
Of course I might be over sensitive at this point. You see I’m also the producer and writer of a children’s TV show called Raven Tales based on Native American stories, which has won 22 awards worldwide and has been licensed in nine countries, and was even shown at the United Nations. You’d figure some broadcaster in the United States would be interested. No dice. Canada, Germany, Japan, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France and heck, even Norway licensed it, but, and here’s the irony, nobody, not even PBS wants to show it in the United States. And to add insult to injury, PBS even has money mandated for Native American programming which they never seem to get around to spending.
Sorry for the rant, but maybe this will be a story of interest to you. Heck, I’ll even throw in some free screeners.
Chris Kientz
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