Today's blog is brought to you by the word "editing" and the letters W, T, and F.
Editing
If you put a camera on me for 24 hours a day, you would gather enough footage over a 3 day period to paint me any way you want. Grab your thesaurus, sit down with FCP and you can make me a good guy, a terrible guy, someone deeply in love with his wife, a serial cheater, etc. I'll give you the sound bites and the clips.
Take Tuesday as a perfect example. I am not a good competitor. I play to win. I will put my body out there in a fucking rec. league, because losing just sucks. I don't play dirty, per se, but I give as good as I get. You shove me, you can bet your ass I'm going to push you back just as hard. There was a ball up in the air and the goalie was out of the box. I used my natural height advantage and leaned in and he went down. Take that five second sequence and don't give it the context of me being checked into the boards 30 seconds earlier and I look like the bad guy.
This brings me to Survivor. The theme this season is Heroes vs. Villains. I've already blogged about why some people are mis-labeled, so I won't rehash this here. Someone on a message board pointed out that the editors kind of painted themselves into a corner coming into this season. You had 10 "bad" people, and 10 "good" people. It is easy to make someone look bad, it is much harder to make them look good. So you have the 10 "good" people and they look much worse (as people) than the "bad" people.
James - won the people's prize twice. Has come off as a complete bully, a poor sport (I play hard, but I shake the hands of the other people [sincerely, not out of necessity] as soon as the game is over), a brute (at best), and damn near a sociopath (at worst.) Pretty much every week he has done something outside of the actual challenges that makes him look like a dick. Throwing the bag at Randy, bullying Steph (who I didn't like so I'm the last person to take up the white knight role with her), pointing the finger of blame at everyone but himself.
Rupert - I know this is sacrilege, but I've never liked Rupert outside of the first couple of episodes of his original season. He was much too much of a baby for my liking, and he became very enamored of his edit in his follow-up visits to Probstland. He threw a girl into a fencepost tonight. I would bet cash money he didn't do it on purpose, but his actions afterwards really paint him badly.
Colby - Well I'll skip him til the next part.
5 down, 15 to go
I've covered Rupert and James (and neither of them can win), so that leaves 12.
JT - Can't win. Dug his own grave. His constant obvious flip-flopping makes him a target. See WTF section below.
Colby - I can't believe how boring he has been. He has been a non-impact on this season so far. Can't win.
Amanda - She has a shot if she makes it to the merge. Her non-threatening lack of athletic prowess makes her a good shot to go far. However she can't give a speech to save her life, so she could finish as high as second.
Candace - On the outside looking in. Doesn't have a shoulder to cry on or a pot to piss in. Could go deep if she makes the merge, but she couldn't win.
That covers the heroes, so I don't think one of them could win.
Tyson - has not gotten much air time, which either means he is keeping a low profile or he learned from before. I would call him a dark horse, but he could win.
Sandra - Can't win. Shouldn't have won before. Will make the merge and probably top 6.
Danielle - Hasn't been a factor yet. I think she's trying to fly under the radar and probably actually has missed some challenges and nobody noticed. She could win, only because she hasn't done anything to make anyone mad. She'll go top 6 also.
Russell and Rob - One of them makes top 3. The other doesn't make the merge. It could go either way, but the odds favor Rob. By the way Rob earned my respect this season when he talked about how much he respects the game. It was a nice moment that showed he actually understands how this whole thing changed his life.
Jerri - Couldn't stand her the first two go rounds. Still "enjoyed" her Playboy spread. She will come in 7th.
Parvati - Wildcard. If Russell survives Boston Rob she goes top 3. If Rob survives Russell she either doesn't make the merge or gets booted shortly thereafter.
Coach - Another wildcard. Has no shot to win. If he picks the right pony (Russell or Rob) he goes to the top 6. If not he also is a pre-merge or immediately thereafter boot.
Courtney - I picked it in China. If she makes the merge she goes far.
WTF
Everyone on this season has played before. A few of them have won. Some of them should have, but came in second (Russell, Colby). No one has an excuse for being as stupid as they are. I will focus squarely on the heroes because the lion's share of idiocy has come from their side.
Sugar - Okay, I can see this one. She wasn't a big help physically or mentally, and she's a fucking basket case.
Stephanie - WTF #1. You have Amanda and Cirie sitting there, and you go with Stephanie. I didn't like her, but she was physical. Much more so than Cirie, and more so than Amanda. Cirie is only going to help herself and is a post merge mastermind.
Cirie - Finally someone makes a good decision. However half of their tribe wanted either Colby or Tom out. That's just dumb. JT did this one right.
Tom - WTF #2. Seriously? You have someone who is more or less crippled and you keep them? James stating that he is more valuable hurt than Tom is healthy? That's crazy. James is a liability now. Rupert is also, but not nearly to the extent that James is.
The heroes are just playing stupid. There next move will be Candace or Colby, but probably Colby. Once again WTF. On the upside, this should ensure the demise of the heroes tribe.
Bonus WTF: The villains are teeing up either Rob or Russell. Courtney and Sandra don't add anything to the mix.
It's Amazing
I haven't blogged about the Race in the better part of three weeks, so here's a brief update about last week. Three words: soccer, beer, and red-light districts. Man, could I have rocked this week.
It amazed me (no pun intended) that the teams had such a big problem with the boot of beer. It was also disheartening that they didn't actually drink the boot correctly, but that might be a Madison thing.
I said the cowboys would get their shit together, and they did. Nice to see the cops pull it together. Jeff and Jordan are entertaining, but can't win it. Eventually the need for an IQ over the Mendoza line will eliminate both them and the map girl team.
It is fun to watch the show with the wife and say, yeah, I've been there before.
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