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Post by PG on Jun 15, 2016 12:03:50 GMT -5
Just finished the Pre Merge portion of the game. Still finding this one to be a rough rewatch. Every single boot before the merge was either boring and unmemorable, or just completely unlikeable... Hard to connect with any of them.
If I remember correctly, the entertainment picks up a bit at the merge, but yeah... I've never been a huge fan of Borneo since the season that got me into Survivor was Gabon... and that's like a million times more interesting than this one. I appreciate it for what it is, being the first season and all, but yeah... it's a hard season to rewatch.
Anyways, once I finish the season I'll probably do something similar to Nate. Give some random thoughts on the season, give out some awards, and then I'll also post an updated ranking because some of my opinions have changed a little bit. Hopefully will be done sometime this week!
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Post by PG on Jun 18, 2016 14:06:28 GMT -5
Review
And finished with my rewatch (thank goodness). I'll say it once again, this is an extremely difficult season to rewatch for me. Over half the cast for me was either unlikeable, or pretty much unmemorable by the end of it.
By saying that, I do appreciate being able to watch an original where strategy was pretty simple for the most part, and it is fun to watch the series evolve. Even in this season things started off with little strategy, and then some people started realizing how to play the game. Some people still stood by and watched, but it was interesting to see the few that wanted to try playing hard.
It would be interesting to see a lot of these players come back and play again. We saw Gervase actually pick up on the strategy game when returned, but not sure if Kelly really did in Cambodia due to her edit. Apparently she was playing hard, but from what I remember we didn't see much of it. I'd be interested in seeing more of the Pagong members who didn't want to play cutthroat this season... see if maybe they changed their minds after all these seasons.
Awards
Player of the Season: Richard Hero of the Season: Colleen Villain of the Season: Richard
Rankings
16. Joel - I stand by my past statements… Joel just seemed cocky and arrogant and I’m glad he was only really seen in the last episode he was on.
15. Sean - Yeah… laziness and a terrible strategy with the alphabet system. Not an interesting character at all, and just seemed to be there for the ride.
14. BB - I appreciate the work ethic and all that, especially in the first season… at least in future seasons when people aren’t helping around the camp they’re probably either strategizing or looking for idols… in this season it was just laziness… and BB honestly did kind of make a few good points. Still don’t really like him, but it was interesting to see the first signs of someone thinking of quitting in him. But yeah, not my type of character.
13. Dirk - Ok, it’s kind of funny to see him and Sean as a duo because they are trying to get stuff done, but they just fail over and over again. One of my favourite moments is when Sean and Dirk are in the boat trying to catch fish and saying Rich is never going to catch anything with the spear, yet Rich catches like 3 sting rays while they catch nothing. Dirk alone was pretty unlikeable though. I get the religion thing and all that, but I don’t usually like it when a contestant comes on a show like this and constantly talks about it.
12. Stacy - Pretty boring and unmemorable. Would have been a good character in a future season probably. Tried to start a girls alliance, and was good friends with Kelly but voted out for being the weakest. Not much about her to talk about but she showed potential in personality I guess.
11. Ramona - I think one of her main purposes was to really show what the elements can do to you out there. And in the very first season, we never had intense medical evacuations to compare things to, so I guess Ramona feeling weak and ill would have been the “Oh wow this is really about surviving” sort of thing back then. She was alright, like I said before though, most of the pre merge boots in these early seasons were either boring or unlikeable.
10. Gervase - Definitely nice, but straight out admitted he was lazy and didn’t do anything around camp. He was alright, but at the end of the day he didn’t really end up effecting the season all that much.
9. Sonja - Total sweetheart, really shows how the gameplay at the very beginning was simple. She was voted out solely for slowing them down in the challenge. No real strategy involved. Very fitting for her to be the first boot in the first season to set the pace for future seasons. Left very little impact on the season though and is pretty forgettable in the long run.
8. Jenna - Didn’t like her as much this watch around. She didn’t really cause that much of an impact. She seemed like a sweetheart, but could definitely see why the contestants called her annoying.
7. Gretchen - Out of everybody on the Pagong tribe, it seemed like Gretchen was the most likely to stir things up and play the game. Out of everyone she seemed like the most serious on that tribe, and the most willing to make big moves. She wasn’t afraid to voice her opinion on anything, speak up against others, or straight up say she wasn’t joining an alliance. I feel like had the tables been turned and a Tagi tribe member was voted out first at the merge, Gretchen would have been a strong candidate to win the whole thing.
6. Rudy - Surprise, surprise… didn’t like Rudy as much this time around. He’s good for providing unintentional funny moments, and his “I don’t know” moment in the Survivor Folk Lord challenge will forever be one of the funniest moments in Survivor for me… His constantly giving opinions on life situations was a bit annoying. I mean I guess it was good to see an older guys perspective on things, but around camp that was pretty much all he really was good for.
5. Susan - She was fun to watch in her seriousness, and I mean even though I think her final tribal council speech was uncalled for, it was still an epic moment. Was interesting to see her and Kelly slowly drift from best friends to complete enemies throughout the season.
4. Kelly - I actually really enjoyed watching Kelly this time around. It was like watching an inner battle of ethics vs winning. I actually feel like she could’ve made an interesting winner… not that I would choose her over Richard, but still would have been a good ending as well.
3. Richard - Definitely was the best person to win the game. He showed the most strategy, and the most willingness to play the game. Led the way for future Survivors to play hard. And he was actually a funny character at the same time.
2. Colleen - Part of me wants to lower some of these people for not rewarding strategy and actually going against any sort of strategy, but then I have to remember this is the first season so it’s kind of understandable. Colleen was sort of a sweetheart but also with an attitude. Her mini rivalry with Richard was pretty good, with her being like the annoying little sister. Was nice to see someone like her mixed in with the other characters.
1. Greg - Fun character, still don’t know how serious he was taking the game or not since he said some stuff that sounded like strategy, but for the most part he just seemed there to enjoy it. Was fun to watch.
Who Should Play Again
1. Gretchen - I put her over others that I liked more simply due to the fact that she seemed more willing to play the game. I want to see her return and see what strategy she would use. I think she could be a pretty good player in a season now where strategy is not frowned upon.
2. Greg - I still debate whether he would come back and play to win, or if he would come back for the fun of it. Part of me feels like it would be a waste to see him return and just have him be a fun character, because I think now that would get you kicked off pretty fast. Would still be interesting.
3. Colleen - I'd love to see if she would continue being a sweetheart, or whether she would let her b*tchy side take over. Something tells me if she was to return we would definitely see a different side of her rather than the one that was showed in Borneo.
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Post by Jhonmarco on Jun 18, 2016 16:44:38 GMT -5
I feel like Joel, Dirk, and maybe Sonja are the only unmemorable characters from Borneo. Everyone else ranges from good to great to some of the greatest of all time (Richard and Sue).
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Post by Dankan on Jul 18, 2016 12:41:25 GMT -5
Overall, I enjoyed this season for several reasons. The first reason is the development of strategy. It's hilarious to see that most of these people had no idea what they were doing when they were voting, to the point where Sean developed an alphabetical voting system to keep it random. This was ironic, because it's ultimately what sent someone home, which kind of proved that you must get blood on your hands one way or another. There are some people that realized this early on, like Sue and Rich, and that's why they were as successful as they were, but overall, the confusion in pioneering this game was one of the things that made it great.
The second reason would be the great casting. There are a lot of memorable characters from this season and the Final 4 from this season is probably one of the best groups, minus Kelly because she's a floater for the most part. If Gervase or Colleen had taken her place, it probably would have been one of the most deserving groups to make it to that point. Greg is probably the most interesting character from that season, his obvious intelligence could have gotten him far but Rich caught on to this pretty quickly and got rid of the threat. I would be really interested to see Greg return, maybe with an improved social game.
The third reason would be how frank and outspoken everyone was. There were discussions about sexual orientation, children out of wedlock and a lot of other real world issues, which you don't find very often in a show like this. Which leads me to the iconic final tribal council speeches in which Sue called out Kelly for "backstabbing" her even though she was trying to secure her position with both sides and then Gervase called out Sue for being a sore loser and getting her personal feelings involved in the voting. One of the most straightforward characters, Rudy, made it very entertaining to watch and ultimately made into the Final 4 because of his honesty.
While this also happens to be my first full season of Survivor, outside of that fact, it strikes me as a unique and great season.
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Post by James on Jul 13, 2017 18:06:14 GMT -5
Debate me on why Sean wasnt the best player on this season i dare you he was 1 immunity at f5 away from winning.
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Post by James on Jul 16, 2017 17:39:03 GMT -5
So unlike nate and pg im watching a bunch of these fresh for the first time. Im gonna rank the seasons and players based off of who I think deserved to win hehe. Im gonna group the seasons up in blocks and only do the jury+ftc people cause obv the premerge people are trash lmao. And it makes no sense to compare the strategy on borneo to like cagayan. The players will be judged based off the context of their season. So for example just cause someone like Tina may be ranked above Hatch it doesn't mean shes a better player nessecarily, just that she played better in the context of her game. Otherwise, all the early season players will be at the bottom lol. These are my opinions but id gladly discuss why they're correct.
Seasons (Borneo-a**):
1. Borneo - Borneo is the first season obviously so strategy is in its infancy. I dont know if they had an like BB seasons to feed off of but it couls have very easily been a popularity contest if the Tagi4 never came about. So, it gets a little pass but the strategy aspect is obviously lacking. I expect this to be towards the bottom of the first rankings lol.
Players:
9. Jenna Lewis (Borneo) - Jenna was both trasg and annoying ngl. All she talked about was her kids and hating the game. I mean I get it but I dont even think she played a good social game despite refusing to be sucked into the alliance gamestyle.
8. Kelly Wigglesworth (Borneo) - Kelly played this game so pourly lmao. As Greg mentioned she CONSTANTLY went back and forth on how she wanted to play and it was kinda dumb lol. I think if she had stuck with the alliance she couls have won, but the fact that she was a target and only made it to ftc because of like 4 immunity wins in a row drops her stock imo. Also I know the tiebreaker was unknown but why would you identif Hatch as the best player then save him not once but TWICE!!
7. Gervase Peterson (Borneo) - Ngl I wanna rank Gervase higher but there really wasn't much to him. Obviously you can't blame him too much for not realizing the alliance was there until it was too late but he couldn't even pull off any immunities when it mattered lol. He had a nice social game aside from being low key misogynist and irritating the pagong girls lol.
6. Rudy Boesch (Borneo) - Prolly controversial but Im not seeing WHERE Rudy had a good social game lol. Maybe its the edit but the only credit I can give him is being part of the Tagi4... but even then he was 4th out of 4 until Wigglesworth got crazy lol. He got played by Hatch 100x over.
5. Colleen Haskell (Borneo) - I felt like Colleen showed some strategic chops towards the end but ultimately she just gave up lol. Iirc she was the first one to realize the alliance was happening and led the charge to flip sean but after that she just gave up lmao.
4. Sue Hawk (Borneo) - Even though Hatch is credited with the creation of Alliances Im pretty sure Sue is the one to gather Kelly and approach Hatch initially. It seemed like Sue was leading a lot of the strategic decisions in the group but ultimately her telling Kelley shed get no where near the final was hilarious and asinine at the same time.
3. Greg Buis (Borneo) - Tbh idk if he deserves to be this high but oh well lmao. Greg is one of the only people who actually could have matched Hatchs thought proccess. He played a nice utr game until merge and actually played ahead of his time in terms of jury management. Unfortunately Hatch and co sniffed that out and snuffed it quick.
2. Sean Kenniff (Borneo) - Don't @ me but Sean played an amazing game with only 1 flaw, not winning f5 immunity. Honestly if anyone other than Wiggs wins f5 immunity Sean probably wins. He had his moments of weakness like when Sue told him to sack up but he did that sh*t and played a great game. He could have easily broke up the alliance right down the half and he even identified he needed to do it.
1. Richard Hatch (Borneo) - Meh. I guess ill give credit where it's due but Hatch pretty much almost threw the game away at ftc by being contradicting. He even lost Colleen's vote lol. Fortunately he was against Kelly and her multiple personalities so he won. He did create the alliance in survivor tho, and people tried to emulate his play style in future seasons.
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