REVIEW: Survivor Finale

Although I haven't been recapping this season of Survivor, I've been following it since the beginning, and after last night's finale I decided to write a review of the season as a whole. A bit of background information on the season before I discuss the finale: This season was titled "Heroes vs. Villains," and featured a cast of 20 former contestants, divided into two tribes of 10, named the Heroes and the Villains, respectively. The cast featured such famous Survivors as Boston Rob Mariano, Parvati Shallow, James Clement, and Rupert Boneham. The wild card this season, however, was Russell Hantz. Although Russell was the main Villain of season 19, none of the other contestants were aware of this fact, as season 19 hadn't aired before season 20 began production. In fact, this gave Russell a pretty significant advantage, as none of the other contestants knew anything about him or his gameplay (although there were rumours that Parvati had received some insider information about him prior to the season). Read on for a more thorough review.

As I said, the season ended last night, and Sandra Diaz-Twine won the title of Sole Survivor for the second time (she won the first time she was on the show). Almost more notable, however, was Russell's loss. Russell played essentially the same game two seasons in a row, and a lot of people would argue the effectiveness of that game, since he has made the finals two seasons in a row. Unfortunately, Russell's game is predicated upon aggression. For certain, he makes some great strategic moves. He orchestrated a number of significant eliminations throughout his two seasons, and despite the fact that he antagonizes virtually every other player, he has made it to the end twice. Despite his strengths, he consistently ignores the fact that ultimately his success or failure in the game rests in the hands of his fellow players. You simply cannot win Survivor on strategy or skill in challenges alone. When you reach the finals, nine of the players that you probably had a hand in eliminating are going to decide your fate. Two seasons in a row now, Russell has ensured that the jury is filled with people who despise him, yet he still seems baffled when he loses. In fact, this season he didn't receive a single vote at the final Tribal Council. Jeff Probst desperately tried to explain to Russell that the fundamental factor of his game that is missing is the social aspect, and that while he might make it to the end every time, he'll never win unless he makes some significant changes to the way he is playing. Boston Rob explained it best, saying that Russell doesn't play to win, he plays to make it to the end.

Interesting to note is the disparity between the opinions of the players of the game and those of the viewers. Russell actually won the Fan Favorite award (it's an American show, so I left the American spelling intact), receiving $100,000 for being the most entertaining player of the season. To be honest, I would have agreed with that decision last season. In season 19, Russell began as a villain, but throughout the show his portrayal changed to something of an anti-hero, and he actually became one of the more entertaining players in recent memory. This season, however, he was way too cocky and aggressive, and he just became grating to watch. The finale was a virtual repeat of Russell's poor sportsmanship, although extraordinary in a different way. Last season Russell nearly burst into tears upon learning of his loss before launching into an angry tirade about why he should have won. This season he skipped the tears and went straight to the tirade, claiming that there was a fundamental flaw in the game if Sandra can win twice, and going on to explain the drawbacks of her game, while ignoring that she's obviously doing something right if she can win it twice.

This brings me to the actual fact of Sandra's victory. To be honest, I don't think she should have won. Parvati played a much better overall game, winning challenges left and right, creating strong relationships with the other players, and making significant strategic moves. Unfortunately, her game-long alliance with Russell seems to have worked against her; in fact she blamed her loss on her association with him, saying that it was a necessary evil because she started the game with a huge target on her back as both a former winner and an all-around formidable player. Teaming with Russell rubbed the jury members the wrong way, and in the end they gave the $1 million to Sandra.

Some final random notes about the season as a whole: we saw some truly stupid moves this season, with Tyson effectively voting himself out by switching his vote at the last minute and J.T. writing a fifth-grade love letter and giving his Hidden Immunity Idol to Russell (in fact, J.T. won a newly minted award for Dumbest Move in Survivor History). There were some people who were fairly entertaining to watch (despite her worthlessness in challenges, Courtney fired off one great one-liner after another; Coach's idiocy was hilarious; Sugar was incredible in the first challenge when she ignored losing her top and finished the challenge, then turned and gave a topless middle-finger to the Villains tribe; and despite the fact that I'm not crazy about her overall, Sandra also had some really funny moments), while we also saw the downfall of some Survivor greats (James kept raging out on his teammates and displayed a real lack of class in the muddy gladiator challenge; Rupert went from Hero to lunatic near the end of the season). It was a really entertaining season, and one that I think will be really hard to top. I actually hope they do another All-Star season too; and being Survivor, it probably won't be too long before that happens (they've been doing one every 5 or 6 seasons, which equates to every 2 or 3 years). As with a lot of shows, reality or otherwise, as embarrassing as it is, you actually start to care about these contestants (or at least you really enjoy watching them, and want to see more of them). In particular, I'd like to see Russell play another season, if only to see whether or not he'll learn his lesson, and if it'll matter (it seems likely that, knowing how he plays, people would try to vote him out fairly early on). The next season of Survivor, premiering in the fall, takes place in Nicaragua, and will include some sort of twist (possibly the return of one or more former Survivors?). Until then, we'll have to rely on such fare as Big Brother and Hell's Kitchen to tide us over (or at least readers of this blog will, as those are two of the shows that I'm going to be recapping this summer).