Two More Heroic / Villainous Thoughts
4:13 PM Posted In Reality TV , Survivor , Television Edit This 0 Comments »
Two final Survivor-esque comments I forgot to make while making my fantasy non-‘Favourites’ draft.
#1) A finale’s worth of curious editing finally made sense in the Heroes vs. Villains finale. Obviously at some point, likely once Russell secured himself a spot in the H vs. V finals, the production crew alerted him that he indeed did NOT win Samoa. Which explains his teary-eyed appearance at the Samoan finale before the votes were even close to being revealed. It makes sense that they did this from an editing standpoint – it was no skin off their back to let Russell know at that point in the game that all his bravado throughout the season was for naught. It also probably rattled Mr. Samoa 2009 enough that it led to his final tribal demise that we witnessed last night. It did make for some GREAT editing though, as no one thought Russell would have made it to the end of H vs. V based on his lemon-sucking mug at the Samoa finale.
That being said, I feel like I’m unravelling a mystery of Lost-esque proportions. Here are my remaining questions:
- If Russell knew he hadn’t won Samoa prior to entering the final tribal, why didn’t he adjust his strategy a bit more going into it? I suppose the argument could be made he really doesn’t get it with his ‘no apologies’ stance, but for someone who *seemed* aware going into final tribal that he hadn’t won, you’d think he’d ask himself “why not?’
- How much did the players really know or talk about Russell’s past exploits on Samoa? Going into it, Colby was the only one who seemed perplexed at the inclusion of Russell. ‘Stranger Danger’ he called it, and rightfully so. You’ve got a guy no one has heard of be cast on an all stars season before his season even airs? Yeah that’s cause for concern people.
- Beyond that, why didn’t we get to see more of Russell acclimating himself with the castaways? Other than rounding up Parvati and Danielle and throwing the gauntlet down with Rob, we never got a sense of the castaways getting to know one another this season (another problem with having so many uber familiar faces), especially Russell. Where was the big reveal about him being a millionaire back home? I know that for some people, a friend of mine included, they hadn’t tuned in for some time, so not knowing anything about Russell (among other castaways) was a bit unnerving and probably would have coloured their opinions of them even more!
- Although we didn’t see a clip of Russell acknowledging that he didn’t win Samoa until the final episode, I wonder when he was actually told. My theory is once he got to the final 3, as I said, for editing, but for editing purposes…how is it possible that he never talked about his ranking prior to this? He continually said lots about being the King of Samoa, but he never ever said he guessed he won it because of those bozos poor performance. His arrogance implies he thought he beat them, but he never said it. Weird.
#2) Beyond all of what I’ve just said, I have to say the final tribal lacked some of the arguments it could have included. Perhaps the topic of personal wealth was left off the table because we had two past winners and Russell ‘Moneybags’ Hantz in the house…but then why bring two former winners to the end with you (thus negating Jerri’s chance to make a ‘poor me’ case) and not bring that up even once?
Other moves that should have been touched on to convince the jury:
- Parvati’s double idol play and concealing an idol from Russell should have been more focused on
- Sandra convincing Russell to drop Coach
- Russell playing up the poor me card to JT and company and taking it through to the first 5 on 5 tribal
- Parvati being able to make the same sneaktastic moves at Russell but still have the respect of the jury (i.e. of the villains that played with these three for the whole game, Parvati scored 75% of their votes, and Courtney’s was just a throwaway…sour grapes Heroes?)
- Russell taking down his formidable villainous (heroic!) opponent Rob by convincing Tyson to vote out himself essentially
Oh the list goes on. I just felt like there wasn’t a lot of supportive arguments going on, other than Sandra’s “I did what I had to and look where I am bros” and a few lacklustre responses from Parvati. Although it bears repeating her statement of being the best all around player this season was dead on.
Sigh. That’s all I’m going to say about this season, consider the book closed. On to fresh blood, and hopefully less bitter juries.
- Britt’s On
#1) A finale’s worth of curious editing finally made sense in the Heroes vs. Villains finale. Obviously at some point, likely once Russell secured himself a spot in the H vs. V finals, the production crew alerted him that he indeed did NOT win Samoa. Which explains his teary-eyed appearance at the Samoan finale before the votes were even close to being revealed. It makes sense that they did this from an editing standpoint – it was no skin off their back to let Russell know at that point in the game that all his bravado throughout the season was for naught. It also probably rattled Mr. Samoa 2009 enough that it led to his final tribal demise that we witnessed last night. It did make for some GREAT editing though, as no one thought Russell would have made it to the end of H vs. V based on his lemon-sucking mug at the Samoa finale.
That being said, I feel like I’m unravelling a mystery of Lost-esque proportions. Here are my remaining questions:
- If Russell knew he hadn’t won Samoa prior to entering the final tribal, why didn’t he adjust his strategy a bit more going into it? I suppose the argument could be made he really doesn’t get it with his ‘no apologies’ stance, but for someone who *seemed* aware going into final tribal that he hadn’t won, you’d think he’d ask himself “why not?’
- How much did the players really know or talk about Russell’s past exploits on Samoa? Going into it, Colby was the only one who seemed perplexed at the inclusion of Russell. ‘Stranger Danger’ he called it, and rightfully so. You’ve got a guy no one has heard of be cast on an all stars season before his season even airs? Yeah that’s cause for concern people.
- Beyond that, why didn’t we get to see more of Russell acclimating himself with the castaways? Other than rounding up Parvati and Danielle and throwing the gauntlet down with Rob, we never got a sense of the castaways getting to know one another this season (another problem with having so many uber familiar faces), especially Russell. Where was the big reveal about him being a millionaire back home? I know that for some people, a friend of mine included, they hadn’t tuned in for some time, so not knowing anything about Russell (among other castaways) was a bit unnerving and probably would have coloured their opinions of them even more!
- Although we didn’t see a clip of Russell acknowledging that he didn’t win Samoa until the final episode, I wonder when he was actually told. My theory is once he got to the final 3, as I said, for editing, but for editing purposes…how is it possible that he never talked about his ranking prior to this? He continually said lots about being the King of Samoa, but he never ever said he guessed he won it because of those bozos poor performance. His arrogance implies he thought he beat them, but he never said it. Weird.
#2) Beyond all of what I’ve just said, I have to say the final tribal lacked some of the arguments it could have included. Perhaps the topic of personal wealth was left off the table because we had two past winners and Russell ‘Moneybags’ Hantz in the house…but then why bring two former winners to the end with you (thus negating Jerri’s chance to make a ‘poor me’ case) and not bring that up even once?
Other moves that should have been touched on to convince the jury:
- Parvati’s double idol play and concealing an idol from Russell should have been more focused on
- Sandra convincing Russell to drop Coach
- Russell playing up the poor me card to JT and company and taking it through to the first 5 on 5 tribal
- Parvati being able to make the same sneaktastic moves at Russell but still have the respect of the jury (i.e. of the villains that played with these three for the whole game, Parvati scored 75% of their votes, and Courtney’s was just a throwaway…sour grapes Heroes?)
- Russell taking down his formidable villainous (heroic!) opponent Rob by convincing Tyson to vote out himself essentially
Oh the list goes on. I just felt like there wasn’t a lot of supportive arguments going on, other than Sandra’s “I did what I had to and look where I am bros” and a few lacklustre responses from Parvati. Although it bears repeating her statement of being the best all around player this season was dead on.
Sigh. That’s all I’m going to say about this season, consider the book closed. On to fresh blood, and hopefully less bitter juries.
- Britt’s On
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