Survivor: Racism Lives!

Okay, so I'm going to try to watch Survivor this season and Blog about it, by request (much like the US Olympic Curling team did back in February). This is difficult for me because it comes on at 7:00pm and I'm still not used to Central time, even though I've been here for several months. So… no guarantees, but I shall try. Although, I promise no entertainment whatsoever. You shall take what I give you.

I'm starting tonight with, I think, episode two, but I could be wrong. Here's what I missed so far according to the recap: There are four tribes named insanely stupid things which are separated by "ethnicity". I shall call them Whities, Asians, Hispanics, and Blacks, as I'm sure they want me to - Otherwise they wouldn't have given me those ridiculous names to try to remember. One team has already thrown a challenge in order to kick off one of their members (Billy, the dude in love at first sight) and some insanely muscle bound dude named Yul was sent to Exile Island. If this was a contest on who has the best abs, he's already won. But, it's not... so he got an immunity thingie and I expect he'll be smart in using it to his advantage.

So, here we go. The episodes starts...

With all the hype of separating these tribes by race, I'm currently pissed off. It's the second episode and they've already integrated them! I mean, c'mon. If you're going to do something, commit to it, damnit! I mean, if you're going to toy with racism and stereotypes, let's go all the way, man!

Pussies. I'm so disappointed. I mean, I wanted to see the Asian engineers build their own ship and sail off the island. What's that you say? Not really how the show works? Siiiigh. Fine, now that television isn't even doing segregation right, let's move on.

Oh, and by the by… White girls can't use the phrase "The sister on the end" when referring to black women. I think it's against the unwritten rules somewhere. I'm surprised there wasn't a huge cat fight right there in the sand. I mean, I fully expected this show to be just like Jerry Springer. Obviously I'm in for heavy disappointments.

So now they're all together and talking about how they're a group and none of them see color… bullshit. Since they were all just separated by race you know that they're all still thinking about it and the friendships they originally made. Especially since people are making comments like "I think we can get into an alliance with some of the Asians" and "we understand each other because we have similar interests and backgrounds".

So, basically, they're all tainted with racial undertones for the remainder of the show, regardless of their adamant refusal that it's not happening. Okay… maybe this will be interesting. I like the denial - and the creative editing.

Moving forward, we find that the red team is split into Becky, Yul, Jonathan and Candice v. everybody else. I'm okay with this. It seems all the smart people have gravitated toward one another. Although the "everybody else" category is simply because they aren't showing those people enough that I know anything about them. Which means they must be dumb, right? Okay, maybe not dumb, but at least not charismatic.

Then the coolest thing happened. A guy got eaten by an octopus! Okay, not really, but that would have been really cool. Instead they caught an octopus and made a girl scream a girly scream by waving an octopus in her face. You know, 'cause that's what you do when you catch an octopus. But the screaming was really annoying. For that simple fact, she should be the next person kicked off the island.

And so comes the challenge... Which, I thought there would be more of, but apparently the show is more about the drama between people than the challenges - so I might be able to get into it after all, if I just pretend it's being aired on MTV. Hey, why are there not Survivor marathons? I probably would have started watching this show much sooner if I had stumbled upon one.

Anyway, blah blah challenge stuff… and the blue team wins because they have Rebecca, strong black woman! on their team. At least, that's what I believe.

And then Candice gets sent to Exile Island. She's voted there unanimously by the other team. But I don't know why. I feel I missed something important last week... or this week. I'm not that great at giving this my full attention.

So, we are forced back into the drama of the alliance of smart people trying to work the magic of the game. I like the four people who've formed this partnership so I'm rooting for them… and I'm worried that they aren't going to get the numbers they need and consequently Becky will be voted out. So, on with the persuasion of the weaker links.

Jonathan handles his race, Yul handles his. This thing is totally working out... no?

So Yul reasons with Cao Boi (who will henceforth be known as Cowboy) and wins him over with something that resembled logic. And Jonathan gains sainthood by talking to Jessica for more than five continuous minutes. That's Jessica "Roller Girl" (is that a job?) otherwise known as, "Like-why-the-hell-like-are-we-not-like-kicking-her-off-like-this-very-second?"

And they vote and everyone says that it's not personal, they're playing a game. How original…

And so Cecelia gets kicked off. I didn't even know her. I'm not sad. And I expect that the Whities and the Asians are going to make minorities of everyone else, but quick. I guess we shouldn't really be surprised, right?

I think this is one of those shows that slowly grows and gets better as people are removed. I really will try to stick around. This was somewhat entertaining.


End Blog.



Oh… PS – In case you were wondering (since they didn't actually figure it out in an hour for once), I'm with Sara Sidle on this one - Malibu Barbie was totally the killer on CSI tonight.