While we here at EW know that the only review of last night’s Survivor: The Amazing Races! that matters is Dalton Ross’ weekly TV Watch, other TV critics are still out there laboring under the misapprehension that they should write one too. Ha, we say. But here, we’ll round ‘em up for you anyway:
Barry Garron at Reuters comes in for the kneecap almost instantly with "‘Survivor’ maven’s big racial experiment a bust." “The show always has been so slickly produced and edited that, in the end, what comes out of the players’ mouths is mostly what the producers want viewers to hear,” he writes. “If you think, for even a nanosecond, that someone might say, ‘We’re going to show those (insert your favorite racial epithet)!’ and it would get on the air, I’ve got some fabulous UPN stock to offer you.”
My good pal Robert Bianco over at USA Today keeps the hysteria out of his title — "Divisive ‘Survivor’ exploits ethnic cliches" — because he’s saving it all for this part: “Survivor has embraced the very essence of discrimination: treating people not as individuals but as members of a ethnically defined group. And the fact that Survivor finally, for the first time, has enough members of those groups to make discrimination viable is hardly a defense. Of course, the twist won’t be with us for long. Sooner rather than later, the tribes will merge and the ethnic opening will be forgotten. Which will allow many of us to forget about Survivor entirely… And that will be a happy day.” (I’m sure Mark Burnett will miss you, Robert.)
New York Times TV-watching-person Alessandra Stanley doesn’t really futz with the messy reviewing part, just sort of hands in some vague musings in "Will a Gimmick Be Enough For ‘Survivor’ to Save Itself?" For example: "It might be more interesting if they chose to mix it up geographically and culturally: Kamchatka or suburban Connecticut.” Oh, totes, Alessandra.
At MSNBC, Andy Dehnart rolls in with a fairly reasonable take on everything titled "Racial divide doesn’t change ‘Survivor’." Reasonable, with the exception of his subheading: “People are still playing the same game… and they still want to win.” Really? I could have sworn I read somewhere that Hispanics actually do not want to win. Wow, was I wrong! Thanks, Andy Dehnart!
Finally, let’s turn to the handsomest TV critic in the biz (besides Dalton, of course), Peter Ames Carlin of the Oregonian. "Could Survivor just possibly lift racial awareness?" he asks in the headline, and his first line is “Maybe it’s time to get beyond the moral indignation.” (Well. What would be the fun in that?) He concludes: “Racism is not a thing of the past. Though we do a fine job of telling ourselves otherwise, one good look at the unhealed devastation in New Orleans proves otherwise. Yet this is rarely, if ever, talked about on network TV. Until now. If it turns out that the Survivors divide along racial lines, if traditional hatreds and outrages boil out into the open, it will be a shame. And all too familiar. Welcome back to America.”
What did you think of last night’s season premiere? (If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s streaming now at CBS’ Innertube site.)
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I am willing to bet that those who are so offended by the “stereotyping” do not even have any friends who are of a different race! i live in california and have known, worked with and struck friendships with all kinds of people- big, small, black, white, gay, straight, god-loving, atheist- you name it. we appreciate each other’s cultures and have no problem poking fun at each other or ourselves like cao boi does. now people i DON’T wanna be friends with: uptight, politically-correct people- of any race!
It’s not that I’m a racist, I find the african american, asian and hispanic tribes to be well rounded, (I am myself hispanic) which is why I predict that one of the caucasians will win. However, it was nice to see every single group build such great huts. Ooops, except for the whites. They are going to wait till they can hire a person from one of the other groups to build the hut for them. So what does this say about this season of survivor, until they all get merged together… I am hooked.
I liked the show. I thought it played out more like any other season of Survivor. It definitely seemed like the producers were more amped up about the racial divisions than the actual contestants.
I thought the inner-tensions were more interesting. Such as, the 2 black men stepping away from the women to make a decision without the womens’ input. That was telling and it got Seiku voted out.
Also, the Asian tribe dealing with the fact that even within their own tribe, they are from different countries and different sub-cultures of the Asian community. That was an interesting point as well.
Hmmm people are so quick to write this show off. I am giving it a chance, its bold and its interesting. More episodes for me please.
It was just so delightful to see (a) almost no bobble-headed blonde girls; and (b) a reasonable variety of browner people. Enough so you see that even within races or ethnic groups, people still split out over other things or personality, and the few token brown/black people aren’t having to carry the load for everybody who’s not a BHBG. I hope they cast every Survivor this way.
I think Stephennie made a mistake though. The remainder of her tribe is going to be hard-pressed to vote out the leftover guy, and then she’s the odd man out again.
And in shallower news, Probst is looking old these days. Get thee to some SPF 45, Peachy.
Reality TV has been too white for too long – that’s one of the main complaints about the genre. I love that Survivor took that criticism and then did something about it (and people are still complaining). That said, I did have reservations about how it’d work out, but was pleasantly surprised. Shortly after the show began, it stopped mattering to me and became about the game of Survivor. Who works as a team, who has delusions of grandeur, who’s going to do something stupid (Flicka, what were you thinking when you let out the chickens), who’s nuts, but in a good way (Cao Boi, I’m looking at you – hope he doesn’t get voted out too soon, he’s highly entertaining) how’s Jeff looking (his old self, although I missed the hat). It looks like it’s going to be a great season!
I welcome the diversity of this season, even if the set up may seem gimmicky. The most interesting part I found was the interactions within the groups. Like Jenny said on the show, just because you’re of the same broad racial group, does not mean you are the same culturally. And really, even having the groups divided by racial lines, you still see the same differences come out you see in any other season, men versus women, older versus younger, etc. And I agree with Lene, after the initial few moments of the show, it merely became the same game of Survivor.
I LOVED IT!!! I am a minority and it didn’t bother me at all. I have been talking about this “controversy” so much for the last few weeks that my caucasian co-worker (who has NEVER watched Survivor) tuned in out of curiosity and guess what? — she’s hooked! Good job Mark Burnett- congratulations!
I loved how the caucasians seem to be having the hardest time dealing with the situation–trying to be so politically correct, referring to the other teams as the “green team” or the “yellow team”, etc.
Interesting that the white girl lost the chickens, the African American tribe would never let those chickens out of their sight.
By the way, that was just a joke, if someone can make a joke about white people waiting to build their hut so they can hire one of the minorities, then other jokes should be ok. At this point, I’m rooting for Cao Boi, he’s nuts but loveable.
I have to admit I really really enjoyed yesterday’s show. I rooted for the black team like I was rooting for my Mets! In the end we fell short but I knew it was a wrap when I saw it was a water challenge.
Well, I tried to post something like this on Dalton’s review page, but I don’t know why I bother. Anyway, I didn’t think it was too bad. There were a couple of awkward moments, but all in all it was pretty entertaining. I did think of the tribes by their ethnic designations, rather than their names, because it was easier (Hmm…), and I thought Cao Boi was going by the nickname of “Cowboy” the whole show. How embarrassing! I did like that nobody has mentioned Brad’s sexual orientation (yet).
Regarding the reviews, yes, “Survivor” is completely edited, just like all the other shows, and the producers will pick and choose what they want to use to keep the “storylines” going. As long as you don’t think of it as a reality show too much, it’s all good.
PS: Cao Boi reminds me of Bruce from last season, and that makes me think of the “crazy black women” role that was so popular for a while. Is this the beginning of a new trend?
brandonk, I found Cao Boi so much more entertaining than Bruce from last season (even though I did like Bruce). Cao Boi just looks, for a lack of a better word, cool and he’s comfortable that he is a member of a minority group that has sterotypes and can poke fun at himself. I’m hispanic and I don’t take offense to the border hopping and siesta jokes that I hear daily. I laugh at them and join in. The rest of his team needs to learn that. Except for Brad, whom I think had to deal with another kind of adversity besides race.
The Latinos seem to be doing well for themselves and I really hope they don’t throw a challenge just to vote someone off. Don’t these people know it’s a game of numbers? Once you merge, you’ll have one less person to take with you equalling one less vote. The other two teams don’t seem as interesting yet but I know that it’s because they have yet to get as much air time. The only times the caucasians were featured were stealing the chicken, Flicka’s loss of the chickens, groping at night, and going to Exhile.
Survivor needed to spice things up cause past seasons have been bor-ing. The ethnic divisions, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” local and marroon ship tribal council, the hot guys, gay guy Brad, and the beefed up woman has gotten my interest… for now.
I want to vote for a “Gay versus Straight” Survivor next. Anybody favour that motion?
Gay vs. Straight would be fun. What else? Hmm…how about Cowboys and Indians, Sorority girls vs. goth chicks, and Trekkies vs. Warsies…er, Star Trek fans vs. Star Wars fans.
How about Canadians Versus Americans (for that CBS and Marky Mark would have to open up the borders to have Canuckians enabled to apply)
The fascinating thing about all this is finding out people still actually watch “Survivor”! Who knew?
Too funny, Blackpower! I agree with several comments about the jokes. Folks need to lighten up a bit. I only take offense to jokes like that when there’s obvious malicious intent behind them. Actually, once the African-American group got in the water, they did well. What messed them up was putting the dang boat together in the first place. Just like one of them said (I can’t remember who) there were just too many headstrong people trying to take control. That’s not a racial thing, that’s just human nature–too many cooks in the kitchen. They couldn’t come together to get the boat built. They’re going to have to work on their communication and teamwork if they’re going to stay away from Tribal Council next week.
Overall, it was just a gimmick to get people watching, and obviously it worked. The game is still the game, and the world still turns…
I found it interesting that the racially charged comments promoting stereotypes came from the groups themselves putting their own race down. I haven’t watched survivor since they did the all stars, but this will be interesting. I am shocked by the idea but somehow survivor made it work, so far anyway.
The main criticism in the past about Survivor has been its lack of diversity. Now instead of including more people of various ethnic backgrounds, ages etc Mark Burnett comes up with the silly and salacious idea of pitting “races” against one another. MARK, you missed the whole point! Dohhh!
The link to this article was entitleda: The new ‘Survivor’ — gimmick or profound social experiment?
I’m laughing hystrically that the show Survivor is even mentioned in the same line with the phrase “profound social experiment.”
This is a freakin’ game show, bent on entertainment, exploitation and yes — GIMMICKS… don’t praise the creators of this show for doing something worthy of humanitarian accalades…
For crying outloud! They are TV Producers who want ratings!… They are NOT Noble Peace Prize Winners!
Hey people can you guys please help me out I’m playing a contest game and haven’t been updated with survivor at all! Can someone give me some answers to…….
1. Who’s nickname was F.N.F.?
2.Who came 5th in the All-Star Season?
Please help me! Thanks and bye!