Flashback.

“The people you laugh at for little reason, others are like. Others look up to them. If you’re gonna mock them so relentlessly, you better have a goddamn good reason. Otherwise, that’s the real Surviving Shame. There’s a difference between being angry that Max Dawson did not play Survivor well while being a noted fan, and between, say, Will Sims losing his goddamn mind on Shirin because she was vaguely connected to two other people who lied about him. Such extreme negativity should be towards moments that we think are problems in society, not just problems in Survivor.”

I wrote this towards the beginning of the season, but as the season went on there was no reason for that to be relevant. After Episode Five, nothing was really worth caring about, which is why I’ve sort of avoided writing about the season. There simply hasn’t been much offensive done this season- even the producers raining idols on the screaming masses is more annoying than enraging. Like, seriously, the advantages have gotten to a point where they don’t matter anymore- I do not think David’s fake idol mattered even a half minute after it was found and it will never matter again.

That’s sort of how I feel about US Survivor right now- it flat out doesn’t matter. That’s a harsh conclusion to come from, but it feels so strangely warped from what it was. Part of it is that matters nearly every round, part of it is that they simplify the narrative to the point where it’s insanely episodic with one or two overarching storylines, but the biggest part of it is that production is trying to play it safe. They’re handing out these advantages and trying to influence the gameplay, all while not letting the characters shine from beyond a trait or two, as if they’re trying to create a safe, bland story that always goes their way and doesn’t offend anyone or lose any viewers.

This season shouldn’t offend anyone. It was designed not to offend anyone.

Yet it has.

I would get it if it was at production because not only does Ghost Island sucks but it sucks in the exact opposite way of how I expected it to suck. It’s been very little despite giving out a million vote influencers that have done nothing but make things oppressively stagnant, which wouldn’t matter if the characters felt like someone. Worst of all, it feels like this is how US Survivor will go- that this is producers’ ideal.

There’s definitely been some barbs thrown at it, and you know what, it deserves it. More than anything, because the show will not be personally offended if we give it shit. Its goal is to maintain viewers, so we have to speak via our viewership. I mean I am not deluded enough to think that we’ll do anything, but this is exactly how to get angry at the show- speak to its pocketbook.

So why are we taking it out on the contestants?

I’m not so dense as to think online hate is a new concept, but when it’s over nothing I think people just pack it in. Especially since nothing is happening on the season it stands out more. Why is it a thing? Why do people care? To quote Zoe Zanidakis, fuck if I know.

To a point, aside from the pre-game “all Asians are samurais” BS that Domenick spouted about James, no one has really done anything objectionable (and Domenick got a legion of fans as soon as he found an idol, so clearly that did not linger). I mean, a lot of the cast is as average as you can get. They did insultingly little with the ones with potential to be interesting (I will forever mourn whatever the hell they did to Angela) and to the others they made them so babyproofed that all of the grown babies shouldn’t be crying and yelling at them, because they’ve padded over every edge they may have had.

I should have known. Rather than be less offended, people lower their standards as to what they get offended by. *

*Save for assuming all Asian people are the same. That can be negated with one immunity idol.

In the absence of more troubling moments, the first thing people really got offended at was Bradley whining and grousing. From the start I knew he had the makings of a powerful villain. I have never seen a grown man whine and complain as much as he does. I knew he would be hated, but he was definitely a love to hate type of person. Though many fell for it and just hated him, his douchery was appreciated by many under the surface.

I think because we appreciated Bradley in places like CTS and Reddit, we felt we were smarter. Elitism is always something we suffer from in deeper trenches. The idea that we are somehow better and more informed than other fans and less famewhorey and inferior than most RTV contestants. Apparently you have to have a very high IQ to understand Survivor. Whether we’re out and proud queer geeks with bloodlust to show how edgy you are, or a bunch of nerdy keyboard warriors who spend a thousand hours edgicking Vanuatu, we seem to believe we’re better.

I could say a lot about that attitude, but this season has proved that we are not better.

I mean, what’s the order of the day? We’ve really embarrassed ourselves by taking the same amount of vitriol and righteous indignation that we would give to WIll Sims or Colton or Varner (well, Varner in 2018, after it happened people ran to get their capes to justify what he did), and we’re giving it to people like Kellyn and Laurel. For what? Kellyn for Pagonging and Laurel for sticking with her friends.

We seem to forget that Survivor is in nature a very fucked up game. You have to deny people a shot at winning a million dollars to get closer. You have to set your humanity aside and directly hurt others, many of whom you befriended, to advance yourself. You may have to humiliate them, you may have to backstab them, you may have to be fake to get them to do what you want. It’s not a talent show where your talent will surpass theirs. You directly have to decide to send them out of the game or hurt them. The idea of asking people to do this is nothing but a sign of low humanity unless you are on Survivor.

Sometimes you crave the comfort to get away from that. Sometimes you decide to stick with your tribe so you can rationalize it as nothing personal. Sometimes you decide to help your friends advance at the detriment of yourself because the alternative is betraying them. Giving it up or taking it easy on your psyche is a total natural side effect of Survivor, and yet people are so enraged that the TV show they are entitled to, they are good enough people to deserve, is not an endless stream of hatred and viciousness, so they bring that to the contestants. I posted the obvious results I could get in fifteen minutes, but it gets more extreme. Kellyn has gotten death threats and many have said Laurel is a bad woman whose family would be ashamed of her. All of this over very little.

We may act like we have a steeled will and are objective, but I absolutely disagree. The things we get angry about are things Jeff Probst probably threw in our troughs for us to gobble mindlessly like pigs. When someone is mildly unpleasant and we can’t laugh at it we get very angry- the counter-Wendell movement getting angry because he talked bad about Chris’ rapping and held up last challenge is overdramatic as Chris himself. People got venomous when Jenna wanted to betray Donathan because apparently she’s not allowed to be as cutthroat as they want others to be. And yet because two people are not good at being sociopathic they act like they were personally affronted by not getting to watch the show exactly how they wanted? Get real.

Ghost Island is not a great season. A part of that is because of Kellyn staying on a Pagonging or Laurel blatantly playing to let Wendell win. Okay. So fucking what? No, that’s my question, so fucking what? What do we lose if Kellyn wants a stagnant game like so many before her did? If Laurel throws it to her friends like others did for JT? A season of a show? I will be sad that this season was a wash. I may bitch about it. But for people acting like this is an offense worthy of hatred and violence towards the two women, they must have never experienced a bad thing in their lives judging by how they’re acting.

Besides, the blame is misplaced. The constant cry of “shut up and be happy it’s on” is so infuriating that I think it’s why comic book supervillains are born. The amount of anger that someone would suggest someone getting four confessionals in twelve episodes is bad editing cracks me up with how shitty it is. Sucking kneecaps, I have heard. There’s no reason to cape for production because they could not give a single fuck about what we have to say. We will not kill the show by heckling it. You know how fan communities act like they’re better than everyone? That’s production to us.

Jeff Probst came from his production chair after Redemption Island to go to Sucks and basically tell everyone to shut their whining up after he was called out by an influential fan. Unless we get a multimillion mass of people to stop viewing (and there are so many revolutions well worth the power of millions far far before the dinky desire for a TV show) they’re not going to care. They’re an impenetrable wall of bullshit entirely responsible for many of the problems with the show we blame contestants for.

They’re why Kellyn doesn’t shake the game up into the face of an advantage like the two to three idols that Domdell had. They’re why Laurel could never find a prime time to flip on Domdell and get back safely after the unmerge twist basically left her outnumbered. Hell, they’re why Domdell have two to three idols in the first place. The reactions to that are reactions against what production did. By funneling it on Kellyn, Laurel, and Wendell, the only thing people are angry at is that contestants have too many human emotions to comply with the production masters.

I imagine many don’t care. I imagine the capes and excuses for the abuse will fly out. They asked it, it’s their fault, if they didn’t want it they shouldn’t have signed up- generally by those who made movements to stop getting Bradley criticized because it was too mean. If you appreciate Survivor, it’s because you appreciate the human conflict it creates and how it compels normal people to be coldly strategic. To get so angry at something so miniscule as not getting your way just makes you look pathetic. If you ask me, that oppressive reaction is far more toxic than any amount of Pagongings.

Fight the real enemy. Don’t take its place.

-Cam

P.S. I keep saying New Zealand is better than US Survivor, but better than them both is Survivor South Africa: Philippines. Hell, starting off it’s one of the best seasons ever.