Survivor (TV series)/YMMV: Difference between revisions

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* [[Alternate Character Interpretation]]: Everyone. It's been stated time and time again that what the camera shows is not indicative of what each castaway is really like, so opinions on each character are going to vary wildly.

** The show itself. Is it a semi-voyeuristic slice of life about people stranded in the wild, a social experiment that tests peoples morality, an adventure show that just happened to evolve into a game, a cutthroat strategy game that just happens to take place outdoors, or [[Take a Third Option|some]] combination of the above?

* [[Evil Is Sexy]]: Female examples are Parvati, Jerri, Ami, Danielle, Courtney. Male examples are Brian, "Boston" Rob, and Tyson.

** [[Beauty Equals Goodness]]: On the other hand, the "Good" characters can boast Ozzy, Colby, J.T., Stephenie and Amanda.

* [[Fan Dumb]]: Probably the most interesting theme of ''Survivor'' is how differently everyone views the show. To some, it's [[So Bad It's Good]]. To other viewers, it may be absolutely terrible or [[So Cool Its Awesome]], and there's rarely any middle ground opinions about the "quality" of the show. The [[Fan Dumb]] for ''Survivor'' claim that the show used to be good, but dropped off in quality somewhere between ''Australian Outback'' and ''All Stars''. [[Your Mileage May Vary]], and it probably will.

** Some viewers (mostly viewers whose introduction to Survivor was ''Samoa'' or ''Tocantins'') actually agree with Russell, and ignore that it's also a ''social'' game, or ignore the "Outlast" bit of the show's slogan, meaning you can't win ''Survivor'' if the jury doesn't want you to win.

** It's also been speculated that they always have to film it on an island away from civilization or in the event of a mainland one like Gabon, China, or Amazon, in a ''very'' secluded area due to speculations of people trying to fly or drive into the filming area(s) and spoil or disrupt the game. It's speculated that's why they won't film it in Australia again, or try Alaska.

* [[Jerkass Woobie]]: [[Grey and Gray Morality|Many]]

* [[Love It or Hate It]]: The very early seasons (''Borneo'', ''The Australian Outback'', and ''Africa''). Some people love them for their emphasis on the wildness survival aspect, adventure, and superior character development(compared to the later seasons, everyone on the early seasons got a fair share of the camera time), while others hate them for their lack of sophisticated game play, pagongings, and the more neutral, impartial attitude of Jeff Probst compared to later seasons.

** The later seasons also apply (Post-Season 12), albeit to a lesser degree. While some people love the sophisticated plotting compared to the earlier seasons and the various additions to the show (most notably the Hidden Immunity Idol), other viewers find the heavy emphasis on strategy at the expense of everything else(including things like character development), as well as host Jeff Probst's interventionist approach to player politics, to have ruined the show from it's "[[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|former glory]]".

** Certain twists meanwhile. Tribal switches had happened before ''Africa'', and the concept of ''Redemption Island'' was actually used in previous versions of ''[[Survivor]]'', often called "Island of the Dead" or "island of purgatory".

* [[Old Guard Versus New Blood]]: As the strategy of Survivor has become more complex over the years, less emphasis has been placed on certain aspects that brought older fans into the show in the first place (such as the adventure element, which has sadly been more or less ignored in recent years) . As more and more twists became commonplace on the show (the hidden immunity idol, for example), there was also less time for character development. Old Guard fans complained about all the time being spent on strategy and twists, which lead to generic and dull seasons such as fan unfavorite Fiji and Redemption Island. These complaints consequently lead to the producers casting [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]] contestants like Coach, Rob, and Russell, and editing the show in the over the top style that we see in the most recent seasons. Of course, Old Guard fans ''still'' haven't gotten what they wanted, and they complain that the lack of adventure and character development in these newer seasons is even ''worse'' than they were in Cook Islands or Fiji, while on the other side of the equation, the New Blood fans complain about the older seasons for being boring and lacking in strategy.

* [[Plot Tumor]]: The Hidden Immunity Idol. In some seasons, the influence of the idol becomes so important that it's hard to imagine the boot order occurring even remotely like it actually did if the idol wasn't in place. It must be slightly jarring for modern viewers to imagine that once upon a time, ''there were no idols''.

* [[Portmanteau Couple Name]]: "Romber" was one for Rob & Amber.

** Redemption Island is often seen as this simply because it turned out to mostly be a chance to focus both seasons' footage almost ''exclusively'' on the [[Creator's Pet]] that returned.

** Cook Islands and Panama, which started with a ''four'' tribe game, only to be bumped down to two within the first couple episodes. To be fair, these were four tribes of five (and four) and things would have quickly snowballed for a tribe that was down one or more, requiring half the contestants to sit out.

* [[Unfortunate Implications]]: On ''Cook Islands'', the original tribes were segregated according to race. ''Cook Islands'' was a response to the criticism that the ethnicity of Survivor contestants became racially homogeneous overtime. Jeff Probst even admitted that when ''Entertainment Weekly'' brought up how "the cast has never been whiter" when describing the ''Guatemala'' contestants, that tipped the producers off. The producers also promised to balance the ethnic variety with its cast in future seasons. In ''Cook Islands'' itself, the ethnic segregation hardly affected the game in any fashion, given how the tribes mixed up so quickly. The more noticeable [[Unfortunate Implications]] came from two things. One, the Survivor producers more or less recanted their promise to make the game more racially balanced (stating the difficulty of doing that, compared to the ease of finding a mostly white cast and some token minorities), and two, during the ''Cook Islands'' and especially ''Fiji'' seasons, some fans complained about the lack of white contestants when their numbers dwindled with deadpan seriousness, obviously not seeing the irony of their complaints.

** Some people have said some...unfortunate things. [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|Best not repeat them]]. They often get called out on this in the jury, sometimes.

** And from the same season, Joel Klug. He was voted out of Pagong mainly because he thought this whole "alliance" thing might be a good idea to advance himself and his friends further in the game, and was promptly voted out for being ''arrogant'' to even bring up the idea and not just going with the flow and voting out whoever you feel like. Many viewers today may feel sorry for him for ending up on a tribe like Pagong, and wonder how he would fare on a season with modern players.

** Stephen Fishbach from ''Tocantins''. Post show, he's been very active in explaining his side of the story, and despite not winning, many praised his strategies (a few of the jurors even admitted that they'd have switched their votes if they'd known that he was as strong of a strategist as he was). J.T.'s blunder in ''Heroes vs. Villains'' certainly helped with this, too.

* [[The Woobie]]: Some contestants can be this at times, especially when they're in the minority or the victims of mean-spirited players. Sometimes, people actually ''are'' pretty woobie-ish, especially people who are having mental breakdowns or are being physically evacuated. A lot of people wanted to just reach through the screen and hug some of the players who were evacuated.

** The first example of this is from the first season, when Jenna was the only person that didn't get a video from her family.

 

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