Survivor: South Pacific pre-season thoughts.

Hey everyone, Survivor is coming back ( like it always does, after 22 season can that show die?) and with its new season called Survivor: South Pacific they will future the same "twists" that they did in the last season, which are The Returning players and Redemption island.

The Returning players.


Lets start with a short history lesson shall we?


Last season started this new tradition of putting in two old players along with new contestants, before this we had 2 all stars seasons and one  fan vs fan favorites season, season 20 named Heroes vs Villains showed us one of the greatest survivor rivalries ever, the one between Boston Rob and Russel Hants, as a guy who watched about 15 seasons of survivor ( yes I skipped a few that I hear sucked a bit) it definitely set up season 20 as something special.
So who won?

Russel won their rivalry  ( dont get mad at me, I am just stating who got voted out first) during the reunion show Rob challenged Russel and said he could "kick his ass all over the island" and that comment brought us Survivor Redemption Island.

After such an epic rivalry and indeed epic season CBS decded it cant just end at that, we need more R &R and brought both these players back for season 22.

Unfortunately,  Season 22 bombed.Hard. it wasnt a complete train wreck, but I reckon I'll never watch it again.

Firstly there wasnt any Rob vs Russel, which is odd considering that Jeff Probst in one of his youtube videos said it "plays out nicely, you'll all love it"  Instead they were put on different tribes and didnt speak to each other until Russel was sent to Redemption Island....

After Russel got voted out, the show quickly devolved to focus on Rob and Rob alone, with perhaps a bit of Philip if you're (un)lucky.

“Hell hath no fury like a lion and a gorilla when he thinks he’s been provoked.”

So season 22....a bad spot in survivor really, But unlike my initial thoughts that both the Returning players and Redemption island will be scrapped, both have returned.

So who is coming back this season?

If you havent heard yet, there will be 18 players this season, 16 new contestants and two "Favourites" and who are our two returning players?

Well the first one is a famed warrior, a wizened philosopher, a noble soul,  a man far traveled who has gone to the ends of the world and beyond and trained in martial arts passed from generation to generation,he is a warrior, a poet, a Dragonslayer.

Coach is back for the third time, debuting in Survivor Tocantines coach has been quite a dividing individual, most people either love him or hate him, he's that kind of character where you either despise everything he does or enjoy them.

Is coach coming back a good thing?

Well Coach gets a lot of focus, no doubt about that, not as bad as Rob last season but he takes up a lot of screen time, however to be honest I find coach to be entertaining, I mean who came up with lines like " “Sierra is the bowl movements that comes out of the dragon." Or another like " As iron sharpens iron, so must man sharpen man" Who can come up with gold like that?

I wrote a poem too

If Coach doesnt steal the show completely, then I have no real problem with him, sure its unfair for survivor to put back people who have played before (Twice!) instead of new players who havent had a chance yet, but its their show, we can complain about it all we want, but we cant really change that.

As for the second returning player?

Well he's not really as prominent as coach, he played in the Cook Islands ( an underrated season) and Fans vs favorites and is generally a decent guy, he is probably more famous for his challenge prowess then anything else.

Manly hairstyle

Oscar Ozzy also comes back to play the game for the third time, unlike the other 3 returning players Ozzy isnt as much of a base breaker so there isnt as much to say about him.

Whether this season works better then the last will determine a lot on how much attention those returning players get, Redemption island ignored everyone that wasnt Rob and gave him his own show and while  Rob did some pretty outstanding moves ( throwing a clue into a volcano after reading it? Beautiful) he made the season practically unwatchable after the 4th episode.

Still it remains to be seen how it will play out with these two, its already been announced that they will be on opposite tribes ( Upolu and Savaii) and hey at least one person is happy to have those two back

So thats our first twist, whats the second one?

Redemption Island is back

Redemption island returns this season, with a bit of changes this time.

If you didnt watch the last season, then Redemption Island is where players who are voted out compete against other players who were voted out and return to the game later on at some pre-determined stage.

I liked the aspect of " The tribe has spoken"  and then having that person get voted out, redemption island cheapens that a bit by allowing them to come back to the game, the only other season that did that was way back in the Pear Islands where 6 players who were voted out got to make their own tribal council and vote 2 players back in the game and that caused a lot of fans to rage a bit.

Many seasons later, we still dont like players coming back after being voted out.

Redemption island takes far too much time from the show and whats worse it replaces the Reward challenge which I always loved, watching two tribes battle it out in some swimming contest then run and do a puzzle or having them navigate blindfolded tribemates to clues is more exciting then watching two players who arguably dont deserve to be in the game, stack bricks or something >.>

Of course we might still get those big challenges as immunity challenges but we get half as many now in this season as we did in previous ones.

As for the changes mentioned? well Redemption island will not have group challenges anymore, they will all be duels, last season we had 8 players competing in the finale, unlike most where we have 4-5 players.
Not a major change really.

For me, I'd have preferred a good old fashioned survivor season, two challenges per episode, 18 new players, no redemption, but who knows this might work out better then last season ( it could hardly get worse)

What do you guys think? will these new twists ruin this season? how do you feel about Coach and Ozzy playing for a third time?

I'll leave you now with a picture of a cat begging for a comment or two :D