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Marathoned season 39 the last couple days and it was so cancerous I was ready to give up on Survivor forever... until they previewed S40. Goddammit. Episode one was really fun and I’m totally here for the winners gimmick. A little bummed by some of the people who I can only assume refused like Richard Hatch, Todd Herzog and Cochran. But I’m super happy to see Parvati (one of if not my all time favorite player), Tyson, and my pick to win the season Yul. This should be a fun ride.
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Feb 19, 2020 07:30
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Chili posted:Hatch didn't refuse. He was apparently disinvited, and he has some feelings about it. https://youtu.be/XQE4QsjJD54 Well that sucks. He’s still a blowhard jackass, but I’d happily replace any of the recent winners with Hatch given the choice. Still excited for the season. I really hope at least one of Yul/Parvati/Rob/Tyson goes deep as that seems like the best bet for keeping things fun. Tony causing chaos is always fun, but I’m skeptical he’ll last. I don’t really care about most of the post-HvV winners.
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Feb 19, 2020 08:01
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Episode two was pretty fun. A little bummed about the redemption island gimmick given I wouldn’t miss any of the first three boots, but I suppose the fire tokens are an interesting twist. I hope the producers don’t lean into it too heavy and Rob/Amber win the game by having her feed advantages to Rob every week. He’s one of the best players in the history of the game, if not the best. A steady stream of production gimmicks plus his level of skill would be gamebreaking. I hope at least some of the old school players go deep into the season. Ben is about as terrible as I expected him to be. I like what I’ve seen of Sophie so far. Tony is always fun. I liked Adam during his season, but he’s super annoying this time. Solid episode!
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Feb 24, 2020 05:50
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Could be wrong, but I read Rob and the bag dump thing as a bit of a temperature check to see how much he can get away with. Less about the result than seeing if he could get away with it and what the reactions would be. If he was concerned about idols from Denise and Adam he would have walked over to take a closer look, or had someone else do it. It wasn’t a very thorough search.
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Feb 24, 2020 23:28
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Aerox posted:Jeff hates him because on day one he made an alliance of uggos and voted off all the beefcake. Jeff has extremely strange taste in favorite Survivor players. I haven’t listened to RHAP in a while, but the interviews Rob did with Jeff were fascinating.
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Feb 25, 2020 23:55
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Rupert is this libertarian rear end in a top hat: Russell is this guy:  Also sometimes this guy:  It gets a little confusing at times.
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Feb 26, 2020 21:53
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Bummed to see Ethan go, but as long as it’s not Parv I’m good. Might even help long term having Ethan on the edge feeding Parv advantages much like I hoped could happen with Ambuh/Rob. I’m not sure how I feel about Ethan in that spot. Seems highly likely a tribe swap is coming soon, maybe even next episode. Gives Parv and Rob an opportunity to recruit some new allies and get back on top. Hopefully when the season is over everyone looks back on this episode as the missed opportunity to take down Parv or Rob.
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Feb 27, 2020 07:50
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Pinterest Mom posted:I kinda feel like the merge i the riskiest vote, so you just use it there. Makes sense, but I’m not sure how you do it without blowing up your game in the process. I can’t imagine a merge alliance being cool with losing a vote and leaving everyone stuck behind to bear the risk. I’m having a hard time imagining how it gets played as anything but a desperation move from the bottom to survive one more week. Maybe a situation where a tribe swap puts him massively down in the numbers and he just needs to get through a week to the merge? It’s a clever design with a ton of potential to backfire spectacularly.
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Feb 27, 2020 20:30
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Boston Rob taking total control and making this look like Redemption Island 2.0 might be the funniest and most entertaining possible outcome. Just an entire season of Rob clowning on all the other winners. It would expose so many winners as frauds.
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Feb 27, 2020 23:36
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Spatula City posted:also, by taking out Ethan, Rob and Parvati have been isolated, almost declawed completely. Only if there isn’t a tribe shuffle in the next episode or two, which seems highly unlikely.
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Feb 29, 2020 03:36
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I liked Gabon  Sugar was endearing and fun, it had a Super Smash Bros pro, Bob was an amusing winner, and I always get a kick out of Matty smiling in that GIF. Plus it was back in the era where challenges were still cool. I have no regrets about any of the four or five times I watched Gabon. Beats the hell out of Nicaragua or One World.
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Mar 3, 2020 07:15
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I caught up on the last two episodes back to back tonight. I’m always down for Sandra getting exposed, but drat. Tyson before, then Rob/Parv/Sandra all in a row is pretty disappointing stuff. I guess there’s Yul left to root for? Denise maybe? I guess Tony could go crazy and make things fun? I’m rapidly running out of players I like and all the players I dislike seem to be in it for the long haul. Now I can’t even root against Sandra anymore. This was supposed to be sweet. 
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Mar 23, 2020 08:50
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Taste is individual, I dislike most of them.  Ben in particular is grating on my last nerve this season. What an unlikeable dipshit.It’s possible someone could win me over eventually. Jeremy could make a few cool plays and get me on his side. But it sure feels like we watched a bunch of the most fun players disappear in three episodes. A final eight of Nick/Michele/Sophie/Ben/Wendell/Adam/Sarah/Kim feels like a possibility and holy poo poo what a letdown given who we started the season out with. Hopefully at least some of Jeremy/Tony/Denise/Yul can hang around a while.
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Mar 23, 2020 17:00
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The Bloop posted:We may see if the producers agree based on what the folks at extinction get up to and how much airtime they get Yeah, I’m way more interested in the people on EoE than I am the players left in the game. Natalie was one of the better new players. Ethan is lovable if terrible at the game. Ambuh I don’t really care for but could be fun reunited with Rob. My love for Parvati knows no bounds. Imagine if Danni is the returning player from EoE. Oof.
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Mar 23, 2020 18:16
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I feel like Sandra deserves a lot more criticism than she’s getting for effectively signing her own death warrant. By agreeing to one token before, one token after tribal it set the price for keeping Sandra at one fire token. Denise was immune so she had the freedom to take a risk. Sandra earned none of the goodwill she might have got from just giving Denise the idol straight up. She could have even agreed to sell it for one fire token and been fine. She created a dynamic where keeping Sandra around cost Denise something perceived to be valuable and voting her out cost her nothing. There are so many ways Sandra could have played that situation and been ok, but she found the one way to screw it up spectacularly.
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Mar 24, 2020 02:46
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freeman posted:Sandra's been getting a ton of criticism here and elsewhere it seems. Only disagreement seems to be whether or not Denise screwed up by playing the 2nd idol. Yeah, that’s an open question. I really don’t know whether it was smart of Denise to do so. Falls into the category of “need more data” to me. Now that I’ve had a little time to process it I’m just in awe of how spectacularly Sandra screwed things up. Probably the worst gameplay all season.
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Mar 24, 2020 03:00
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You don’t even have to vote Cirie out. Just wait for the production twist to screw her. 
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Mar 24, 2020 21:04
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I should rewatch China. It’s been at least five years since my last viewing. Watched most of those seasons at least 7-8 times each, China is probably closer to 10-12. Or I could dip my toe back into Australian Survivor. I remember watching the first two (I think?) seasons and really digging them. Lol Hungry Jacks.
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Mar 25, 2020 03:34
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blue squares posted:How does it not get boring to rewatch Survivor seasons that many times? Genuinely curious. Most of those times have been rewatching the series with someone new to it. It’s a lot of fun going through it all with someone seeing it for the first time. When I rewatch one I’ve seen a bunch of times it mostly turns into background noise while I play games/clean my apartment/cook meals/whatever. I’m not sitting glued to the TV watching every moment.
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Mar 25, 2020 17:47
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Watching Borneo was super weird after watching ten seasons nevermind 40. I mostly remember Probst describing the contestants like some sort of rare Amazonian frog in a nature documentary. Australian Outback was a lot of fun and a little more recognizable as Survivor. Africa is still the most insane location they’ve ever done with a pretty good cast. I ended up deciding against another rewatch of China (it’s my “gateway drug” season to Survivor for newbies) and started on Australian Survivor again. I must have got to the end of season three so I just blitzed through all the “previously on” from each episode to remind myself. Now I’m two episodes into Australian Survivor season four and I’m really digging it! I think I’ll stick with it and catch up to All-Stars. (No spoilers please!  )
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Mar 25, 2020 22:30
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Unison posted:You aren't wrong... except that I'm not a Yul fan either... he's boring and virtuous. I liked Yul a lot mostly because I’m a big fan of that stretch of seasons a lot of people didn’t like from Panama through China. I liked all four winners a lot and thoroughly enjoyed each season. It’s wild looking back how many people felt the series needed to be “saved” by Micronesia. (Which admittedly might still be the greatest season of all time) They had no idea how dark things would get in the Nicaragua through One World era. One of my biggest disappointments about this season is it sounds like Todd’s demons prevented a potential return, and I think I read Earl Cole turned it down? Edit: ooh an excuse to post the Survivor Amazon MTV preview show with Shii-Ann and Rob Z, the Vanilla Ice looking dude who brought a skateboard as his personal item to a show filmed on a beach. Famous for chokeslamming racists in challenges. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJQ36WsW6O0
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Mar 25, 2020 23:37
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Unison posted:China's one of my absolute favorite seasons... It's a shame about Todd after the show (who was a fun winner in his own right), but it's surprising that a season that gave us James and Amanda could be seen as a bad one in the eyes of fans. It’s by far my favorite setting and the one I use to introduce new viewers to the show. It’s got a great mix of everything cool about Survivor IMO. A great setting, some fun idol hijinx, one big memorable moment, a lot of fun cast members and a super satisfying winner who played a brilliant game. I’m also the one weirdo who really dug Fiji. People hated that season for years. Last time I remember him answering Probst still cited it as his least favorite season.
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Mar 25, 2020 23:46
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Finally got around to watching the episode this week after marathoning Australia Survivor. I don’t know that I could have scripted a more disappointing boot order for Winners at War. Ouch. Australian Survivor season four stuff: I was disappointed to see so many of my favorites end up on the jury with so many awful potential winners left, but I was surprisingly ok with the final two. I liked Luke’s bootleg Tony gameplay. Henry was a lot of fun too. AK was a great villain and one goony motherfucker.
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Mar 31, 2020 07:23
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A couple episodes into Australian Survivor season 5. This is extremely cool and good. I’ll spoiler tag any actual discussion of stuff that happens on seasons, but I highly recommend anyone disenchanted with S40 dip into Australian Survivor. It’s a throwback to the days when Survivor had a budget of more than Jeff Probst could find in the couch cushions at CBS. Also straight up, Jonathan is a better host than Jeff Probst.
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Apr 1, 2020 21:39
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Just finished the episode, it was fine. Tyson is cool, so that could be fun down the road. Was rooting for Rob, but there’s a decent shot he gets back in on the second EoE challenge. No strong feelings about Wendell so that’s fine. But OH MY GOD AUSTRALIAN SURVIVOR SEASON FIVE IS SO FREAKING GOOD. Watching the 2018 season right now and I think I might have just witnessed one of the greatest plays in the history of the game, US or AU Survivor. Spoilers for Australian Survivor season five. DO NOT CLICK if you haven’t watched it, this is seriously one of the best seasons of Survivor I can remember, US or otherwise. I’m only up to the episode where this all went down so I’d appreciate no further spoilers till I have time to finish the season, or at least a warning if the spoiler box spoils past this point. Watching Benji talk Sharn into wasting her idol on herself instead of saving Mat was potentially a “Erik gives up his immunity necklace” level play. It’ll depend on how the rest of the season unfolds, but holy poo poo that was brilliant. I’m guessing there will be terrible fallout that could potentially derail Benji’s game, but good god that was one incredible Jedi mind trick he pulled. She was standing directly next to Jonathan and said out loud “I’m playing this for Mat” and he still managed to put the toothpaste back in the tube and get Mat out. Wowwwwwww. If anyone is feeling a little burnt out on US Survivor I’d again recommend dipping your toe into the Australian version. The seasons I’ve watched so far have all been tremendous.
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Apr 6, 2020 05:14
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The thing that’s really jarring for me about Australian Survivor is the same thing I experience when watching old seasons of US Survivor, it’s astounding how many budget cuts the US show has seen over the last decade. Australian Survivor seems to have some real money behind it. So the challenges are huge, some rewards are tied to big name sponsors, the casts are significantly larger and seasons last longer. Both shows are good, but the Australian version feels a lot like those mid-range US Survivor seasons I love so much from around All-Stars to Samoa/HvV.
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Apr 6, 2020 20:35
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I think I like that phrasing better to get at what I was aiming for. It’s not so much a dollars and cents thing as much that Australian Survivor feels “epic” in a way US Survivor used to but hasn’t since that run of terrible seasons around One World. I still enjoy US Survivor but the locations often feel very small and uninteresting. Something about the presentation in the AU version takes me back to how the US show used to feel. I’m pretty sure they’re using locations used on the US show, but they’re presented a little differently. Both shows are great! I think I’m just loving what a breath of fresh air Australian Survivor is vs elements of US Survivor that maybe feel a little stale. Edit: Wow, AU Survivor season five just poo poo the bed hard. Yikes. What a colossal disappointment. BGrifter fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Apr 7, 2020 |
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Apr 7, 2020 03:44
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Bleh. Glad to see Adam go but it feels like we’ve got a ton of these sorts of uninteresting votes left. Hopefully we get a couple 2-3 boot episodes in the near future. Unfortunately this season isn’t shaping up to be much fun. Maybe someone like Tony or Tyson could spice it up a little? Or maybe someone fun returns from the edge? I don’t feel like anyone is playing a particularly good game right now, it’s just a shitshow out there. The music during the challenge was intensely cringe. I dunno. Maybe it’ll get better in a few episodes?
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Apr 12, 2020 01:59
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STAC Goat posted:But I can see who people who were really rooting for the old school characters or wants to see someone take the game over would be disappointed. I absolutely fall into both categories! My ideal season of either Survivor or Big Brother is something like Big Brother 10. I enjoy seeing a dominant player take over the game and win on the back of big flashy moves or death defying escapes from what seems like inevitable defeat. I want a Parvati or Cirie from FvF to emerge from the pack, Boston Rob & Ambuh from All-Stars, or Dr Will on Big Brother All-Stars. Failing that, I like the chaos of a Tony or the entertainment value of big personalities like Tyson, the sadly ineligible Coach, or Rachel from Big Brother. Instead this season has felt like a muddled mess of hesitant overly cautious players. Ones I can’t stand like Ben seem destined to go deep, while most of my favorites got the boot early. It’s certainly not a bad season, it’s just not what I was hoping for when we started. In unrelated news, for the love of god the word blindside needs to die. Watching Australian Survivor and it’s irritating referring to every single vote out as a “blindside”. It’s overused to the point of feeling meaningless.
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Apr 12, 2020 03:38
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precision posted:I agree, we should say "bamboozle" instead Hoodwinked would also be acceptable!
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Apr 12, 2020 03:50
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SLICK GOKU BABY posted:This season is good and I'm enjoying it so far. I’m almost caught up to be able to watch it and I’m SO excited.
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Apr 12, 2020 04:47
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Oh it’s definitely smart gameplay. It’s just a lot less fun to watch on TV.
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Apr 12, 2020 07:53
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IcePhoenix posted:Wendell and Dom pretty much ran Ghost Island the whole way through right? That was a decent season I think. I’d agree with that. Of the last half dozen or so seasons I felt like most had tolerable winners, even if it wasn’t always my preferred type of season. I still can find something to enjoy most seasons if they don’t have a big flashy dominant winner or a fun character at the heart of it. I will admit to having higher hopes for this season than a typical one though. Last ones I really enjoyed from start to finish were probably Tony and Cochran. Was very happy to see Tyson get his win as well. Lone Goat’s post reminds me of something Stephen was frustrated with on this week’s Know-It-Alls. The amount of time taken up this week by Edge of Extinction and the whole Fire Tokens gimmick really cut into time that could have been used to give a clearer picture of what unfolded strategically. I also agreed with Stephen’s frustration that the amount of randomness and gimmicks is getting a bit out of hand. The coin flip idol is dumb as hell. I don’t know if we’re there yet or not, but eventually all the random bullshit gimmicks start to detract from players being able to craft coherent strategies. I dunno. There’s still time for this season to get on to what I’d consider a better track. For example I’d love to see whether the years of hype around Kim are justified. If she manages to take over the game that could be fun. Tony could make this a fun ride. A steady diet of Tyson confessionals would be another good possibility. I’m way past ready to see Ben, Sophie, Michele and Nick shown the door though.
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Apr 12, 2020 17:29
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Unison posted:FWIW, AU Survivor gets way better in later seasons. Eventually (maybe in AU Season 5?), there's a tribal where someone accidentally calls Jonathan "Jeff" and everyone laughs. Jonathan is a better Jeff Probst than Jeff Probst is in 2020. I used to think Probst was impossible to replace. Now I think replacing him with Jonathan would be an improvement.
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Apr 13, 2020 20:11
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I’m not usually an Amazing Race fan, but it was super fun seeing Rachel and Brendan on there. Can never have too much Rachel on these sorts of shows. 
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Apr 15, 2020 02:31
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Huh, just watching AU Survivor and saw what sure looked like one of the most rigged challenges in Survivor history. It was one where Jonathan had to do a three count at the end, did a slow count for the first player and a super fast one for the second. Turns out it was one where the actual challenge was very different but they changed it around to make it more dramatic for TV. Pretty sure stuff like this happens on almost every episode. Spoilers in the linked article for Australian Survivor season 6: https://amp.news.com.au/entertainme...bf05b1c8c363ab2
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Apr 15, 2020 05:34
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I’ve changed my mind about Australian Survivor. It is a machine which manufactures only human misery and sadness. Australian Survivor is where hope goes to die. Never ever watch it. Ever. Seriously. Don’t do it.
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Apr 15, 2020 10:42
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ApplesandOranges posted:CvC2, Final 4 is my guess? You would be correct. Glad US Survivor learned to stop editing seasons like this.
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Apr 15, 2020 10:46
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Dugong posted:Can you remind me what happened there? I’ve got a sneaking suspicion. Luke lost the immunity challenge and got voted out in the final four. They really turned the knife with the episode around it too. I kind of resent the production team for how they present these seasons only to have them fall apart in the final couple episodes. I’m glad the US production team has learned to not do that anymore. I don’t know if I even want to watch the final episode after that.
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Apr 15, 2020 11:58
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ApplesandOranges posted:The finale is still very much worth watching. The FIC is honestly brutal and the FTC is decently entertaining. Yeah, I’ll probably wake up and watch it in the morning. It’s been a really good season but goddamn that left me gutted. I guess the upside is I’m one episode away from All-Stars if I decide I’m willing to put myself through this one more time.
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Apr 15, 2020 12:03
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