I haven't posted much about this season because the show did what it never should do: I wasn't interested and this finale was a microcosm of everything bad about this season.
The FTC said it best. It was the Dom & Wendell show. This aspect highlights one aspect this season did terribly: the lopsided edit. Seriously, less than half of the contestants got any focus this season, even during the FTC only 5 people spoke. I don't feel like I knew this cast at all, it's so disappointing. Even when people did get airtime, we learned nothing about them personally; much of the talk was about the game. As much as I was annoyed about Ben's win, we at least learned about him personally.
Much of my frustration comes from the swap after two tribals, which led to the whole Naviti Strong.
In both GC & GI, one tribe lost both immunities in the first episode and were always in a minority after the swap and it stifled any gameplay. This in turn led to one dominant alliance with absolutely no resistance from any other contestant. Laurel kept saying that she was going to make a surprising move only to do nothing. This finale also saw Angela learn of a plan to flip the game. What does she do? Goes and tells Dom.
The concept of Ghost Island started off okay but ultimately fell flat to me. Seriously, we spent 5 minutes in the finale over picking an urn.
I did like the twist over the JT idol and how its power could be increased but that's really it. The show really didn't use their relics that well. Nearly all the relics on Ghost Island were from GC, and I don't feel that they were creative with the relics. For example, instead of the stick automatically becoming a HII, a person could have earned it on Ghost Island and had to give it to someone and convince them it's real for it to earn power thereby referencing the situation with Jason & Eliza. At the same time, I was also annoyed with the idols this season like when Dom found an idol Day 2 and kept it the entire game keeping all power concentrated to one alliance.
I think my biggest annoyance with this season is that I never felt invested in the cast & game, so I was rarely excited. The Bradley vote-off & Michael nullifying 7 votes with an HII, both should have been exciting but they weren't. It was interesting to see the show's first ever tie, but since the entire story was on Dom & Wendell this moment wasn't as shocking as it could have been.
The reunion
(That is all; seriously do we even need it anymore)
I love Survivor having watched it for 16 years, but this season was difficult to watch. And it's not because I'm becoming jaded with the show itself. Watching NZ & SA Survivor have been way better than GI. NZ has done a much better job of showing the contestants' personality and multiple perspectives of gameplay. And SA:
Show content
So far we've seen one contestant EAT the HII clue so others wouldn't find it.
Contestants go through an ostracized player's bag to search for a HII only to find a prepared FTC speech.
A tribe collectively agreed to throw an immunity challenge (different alliances had different ideas as to who would be voted out) only for their opposing tribe to perform so poorly that the tribe throwing the challenge thought that the other tribe was also throwing it (they weren't)
Lastly, a tribe formed a dominant alliance and was going to vote off a member of a minority alliance when they went to tribal. One member of the minority alliance bluffed having a HII to a member of the majority alliance. That person flipped forcing a tie & a rock draw. The majority alliance lost a member leading to the formation and destruction of an alliance in one episode. The rock draw was in episode 2. All that in the course of 3 episodes.
I don't know what to think about US Survivor leading up to DvG but the show in general is trending downward for me. I remain hopeful that next season can change that but I don't know. My reaction after watching this season:
