Is Survivor Still Good?

Dear Frank: A new pop culture column

Introducing Dear Frank, a new pop culture column.

Who hasn’t argued about pop culture? Whether it’s with a friend, significant other, or annoying co-worker, we’ve all had pop culture debates… okay, arguments… okay, sometimes fights. Sometimes they’re even with strangers on the internet. For all my frustrated readers, I’m calling for submissions of your heated pop culture fights — and I’ll decide who’s right and who’s wrong.

Frank,

Although I have watched U.S. Survivor fairly consistently since 2000, when Richard Hatch set up the original strategy for this show, I have only caught a few seasons of Australian Survivor. The current one in particular really shows how much this show is closer to the original iteration of US Survivor, especially since the new school way of casting in U.S. Survivor. Now, I think some of the changes were needed, especially when Survivor moved away from actors to more real people. Still, we have also ended up with many who seem unwilling to play the game, quitting early, or the ones who are all strategy and worried about moves for the final tribal.

I am curious about your thoughts on whether there is a better version and whether Probst would ever adopt a few of the ideas that work on Australian Survivor. And maybe it’s related, but why hasn’t Australian Survivor been as available to North American audiences as compared to Traitors, making all its versions legally available?

Looking forward to your thoughts,

Nicole

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Nicole,

This debate currently exhausts the Survivor fandom the way that “who’s the villain in The Devil Wears Prada” exhausted BuzzFeed newsrooms in the late 2010s. For extremely online fans of the Survivor franchise, the clear winner amongst both shows is Australian Survivor. The casting is fantastic, the challenges are intense, and the episodes are thrilling. And made even more thrilling because they drop three times a week.

I’m on the record as loving quite a few seasons of Survivor’s “New Era,” which is what the era post season 40’s Winners at War has been dubbed due to its elimination of themed seasons, a single location to save budget (the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji), and an influx in casting “super fans” of the show — people routinely monologue about how important Survivor was to them growing up. Season 47, where Rachel Lamont won Sole Survivor, was the best season of the New Era and, for my money, stacks up against some of the best seasons of the entire series. However, the current season, 48, is one of the more boring seasons in recent memory.

But ironically, it’s not boring because of any New Era shenanigans! It’s boring because it’s Old School. And by Old School, I mean the first few seasons of Survivor. The season has been dominated by two players — Joe Hunter and Eva Erickson. Eva, an autistic hockey player who abhors working with other women, is the surrogate daughter for Joe, a firefighter with a hero complex. From the moment she broke down crying about her disability during a challenge and Joe coaxed her back from tears, they’ve controlled the series narrative. The season’s antagonists have largely been Kyle Fraser and Kamilla Karthigesu, who are in a secret alliance, as they debate breaking up Joe and Eva’s stronghold on the season… and then largely doing nothing. So we’ve had a season dominated by Joe, Eva, and Kyle’s alliance, which has also included former members Shauhin Davari and David Kinne.

Original seasons of Survivor were largely run by strong alliances that went all the way to the end before the show added more twists and advantages to mix up the game. We’re watching an Old School season. The only problem — the producers don’t seem to know how to make an Old School season anymore. The show, 90 minutes long now, focuses on twists and advantages and thrilling moments that never happen. None of the advantages this season have amounted to anything. Eva has been the most powerful person in the game and has done nothing with it. I know the producers were pissed when Star Toomey just handed her idol over to Eva! But then they didn’t do anything useful, like populate the island with more idols. Maybe they’ve forgotten how to play the game on the fly. Maybe they’ve forgotten how to produce an Old School season. But the main problem this season is with the editing. And the fact that the vibrant characters all went out pre-merge.

Will Jeff borrow anything from the superior Australian Survivor? Hell no. Jeff is a Scorpio. He has my MOM’S birthday. I grew up with a stubborn Scorpio, and they never admit they’re right. And then they bully you into admitting that you’re wrong, even when you’re not. Jeff will never admit that Australian Survivor is the best currently because he views his iteration as the apex predator. Honestly, I’m shocked he’s even acknowledged Rob Cesternino as much as he has, but Rob Has a Podcast has completely dominated the Survivor sphere online that he kinda has to. And the podcast at least pays deference to U.S. Survivor!

And as for Australian Survivor being available on streaming in the U.S., good luck seeing that happen! Jeff doesn’t watch that show, and he doesn’t want you to either.

The best version of this New Era was last season. This season would be better with a better handle on the advantages this game is obsessed with. You can’t focus solely on gameplay if the advantages in the game require solving a murder mystery to play them. So much so that people give up when they find them or have to involve the whole fucking tribe to solve a clue. I’m looking forward to Survivor 50’s Old School vs. New Era season. If the producers have forgotten how to produce a fun Old School game, then hopefully some Old School players will arrive and show them how it’s done.

I still have high hopes for this series. I’ll keep watching till I’m dead. It’s a little boring now, sure, but so were the first few seasons. And then we got Pearl Islands with Queen Sandra Diaz-Twine and a host of other iconic Survivor players.

And for what it’s worth — if this is truly an Old School season then Kyle wins. Strategic players always won out over immunity wins. Colby Donaldson lost in Australian Outback!

Got a burning pop culture question?

E-mail submissions to: frank@iramadison.com