THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK
Hosted by: Jeff Probst
Yes, I’m one of the losers who likes SURVIVOR so much they occasionally need to O.D. on it. And what better season to get all hopped up on than the infamous season 2? It is in the Australian outback that we first become acquainted with Colby, the handsome young cowboy with the Texas drawl; Jerri Manthey, the bitch queen from hell; Maralyn “Mad Dog” Hershey, the retired cop who does her own sound FX; Kel, the U.S. Army Captain made famous by a piece of imaginary beef jerky; Elisabeth Filarski, the cutie patootie with the stupid name who cried every day, became BFFS with Kentucky Joe, and landed herself a sweet gig as a talk show host; not to mention Keith, the gourmet chef who “can’t cook rice”, Kimmi, the obnoxious wannabe vegetarian, Nick, the lazy grad student, and Michael “pig killer” Skupin.
This extraordinary cast of characters (there were random others like Jeff Varner and Deb Eaton, but you can’t possibly expect me to drone on about all 16 of them, geez) is the major reason why this season was so great. They played off one another like actors in a sitcom, making one memorable episode after another. The other element that makes this season a particularly memorable one is the outback itself. We’re talking crazy lightening, flash floods sweeping the camp (and food) away, horrible beasties, and withering heat. Australia’s no wuss, people.
The game was still relatively young back in 2000, and either there wasn’t much scheming going on back then or the editors just chose not to show it. As I recall, you don’t see all the scrambling before each tribal council that you see now. People here just seem to go quietly into that dark night, whereas in more current Survivor seasons they fight to the death (unless they’re being royally screwed by a big blindside) to keep their torch lit.
There also seems to be a lot more interaction going on between cute little Jeff Probst and the castaways. He comes down to their beach sometimes, heck, he even shares in their rewards occasionally. If he still does that in season 20 or whatever we’re in, they sure don’t show it much.
And another thing… Ole Jeff’s got a pretty sweet gig. He gets to fly all over the world, visiting beautiful and exotic locales, sampling local cuisine, probably staying in fancy hotels, enjoying the finest hookers that money can buy, and every couple of days he pops out to the wilderness to make snarky remarks and boss around a bunch of dirty, hungry people.
Who among us wouldn’t want that job?
Knoxville mom of two and personal nurse Tina Wesson for the win (and in my book, she deserves it! She was the nicest person there and she single-handedly saved their replacement rice from the dangerous rapids. She is woman, hear her roar).
FINAL GRADE: A
Off in search of a nifty bandana of my own,
M.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment