By Jeff Pitman | Published: January 30, 2021
There are good and bad aspects to Survivor: Samoa's second pair of episodes: On the one hand, nearly all the time spent with Galu is delightful, which is good, because they're the focus of Episode 4. Unfortunately, while there's a great story in Episode 3, as Jaison demands that Ben be booted, the show chooses to smother that in unnecessary (and inaccurate) deification of Russell Hantz.
By Jeff Pitman | Published: January 23, 2021
There's a lot going on in the first two episodes of Survivor: Samoa: picking tribal chiefs, a hero challenge, two immunities, an idol find. Unfortunately for the season, almost all of that action is shown from the perspective of one person: Russell Hantz. We do get occasional efforts to also show the Galu tribe (a.k.a. Shambo and a bunch of people who aren't Shambo), but it's mostly Hantz. So here's an effort to try to deduce/ reconstruct what we missed.
By Jeff Pitman | Published: January 5, 2021
Rather than a celebration of strategic gameplay, the final two episodes of Survivor: Gabon are a full-voiced repudiation of it, with both vote-receiving finalists strangely touting their lack of a résumé, and jurors attacking the third for making moves (which she paradoxically also does as she targets others). It's weird, it's loud, it's confusing. But at least it's over.