Survivor: Caramoan - Preview, Part 1
Meet the Fans
By Ben Willoughby
February 11, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
But this season is completely different because as well as fans who are “fans”, we also have favorites who are “favorites,” like "crazy whatsisface” from South Pacific and “who was that again?” from Gabon and plenty of other contestants who we’ve been trying to forget. I barely remember half these people because I gave up watching their seasons because of these same people. Why are they back? On the bright side, it’s not like many of these “favorites” will be able to run rings around the “fans” like Parvati, Amanda, Cirie etc did, so we might have an even contest.
Let’s meet this season’s “fans”, or at least my impressions from the meager snippets of video that CBS is offering this season:
Reynold
Reynold works in sales, and it shows. Reynold talks about how socially adaptable he is. Like, he’s traveled! And lived in Australia! Not exactly a culture shock there. The only real cultural differences are that Australians dislike American sports, gave up the penny in the '80s and are about three seasons behind on How I Met Your Mother. Anyway, Reynold keeps talking about his social adaptability, and how he wants to be the “fun guy” and form relationships with everyone and not be too threatening or get voted out first. Reynold seems pretty smooth but dull, so he should be safe in Episode 1.
Assessment: Reynold seems the sort of tall, blandly good-looking, white-collar white guy that castaways typically turn to for leadership. Expect him to stay around.
Matt
Matt is a brand manager of a BMX company, and he has a beard that looks like a dreadlock. In fact, from some angles it looks like he used to have two, but one got stuck in some bicycle gears and hair amputation was required. Matt says that he looks like a “bad-ass dude,” but explains that he is really “sensitive, and wears his heart on his sleeve.” I think that’s code for emotionally unstable.
Matt’s preparation for Survivor includes “kicking caffeine and not drinking as much.” I suppose that’s preparation – at least, compared to Zane from last season. When asked if he fits that Survivor platitude “the complete package,” he agrees. He’s physical, he will “excel” at the social game and he’s mentally tough, having “dealt with hardship and crazy things." He wants teammates to perceive him as “an outspoken individual,” as though that’s a good thing in Survivor, as well as being positive and a “big kid at heart.”
Assessment: Matt doesn’t look like he is going to fit in with the rest of this crowd.
Eddie
Eddie is a firefighter and prominent cross-wearer. He says he works with a variety of people and should be able to fit in with any group dynamic. He wants to be seen as “the happy guy, the fun guy, the out-there physical player who wants to have fun and laugh.” So for those keeping track, that’s three out of three male “fans” who want to be seen as fun.
Eddie goes on to describe himself as being “extremely hard-headed” and whatever he wants to do, he wants to do as best as he can. So much for being the fun guy. And for the complete package question, he wants to be in the top echelon of physical players this season, and he’s mentally tough, but “not a great puzzle-doer.”
Assessment: Eddie’s going to be valuable to the tribe early on, but he’s going to end up out-maneuvred by better players.
Allie
Allie is the “bartender” that we see every season. If Survivor casting were a true representation of demographics, America would have about 17.2 million bartenders. Anyway, Allie claims that her profession of bartender means she deals with people at their best and worst, and she hears a lot of stuff and gets people to trust her. Sure, but it’s a little easier with drunk people.
Allie describes herself as “very friendly” and “so generous,” but a beat later she is talking about how she “won’t suck up if she thinks you’re an idiot” and is “not a people pleaser.” She doesn’t want to be seen as an “instigator,” which means she probably will be, and she’ll do “whatever it takes... lie, cheat steal” and is in it for the money.
Assessment: You know what kind of people fit in well on Survivor? Blunt women. Allie’s best chance is probably with an all-female alliance.
Hope
Hope is this season’s beauty pageant winner. I don’t know why she was selected out of America’s 21.8 million beauty pageant winners, but here she is. Anyway, the thing Hope learned from pageant competition is the importance of staying focused and keeping a positive attitude. Couldn’t she have learned that last part from her name?
Hope too claims to be able to deal with all different kinds of people. Like she was originally from southeast Missouri, but then grew up in the capital, so she can work with all kinds of people. Or all kinds of Missourians at least. Also, CBS interviewers! Please ask more original questions than “How do you work with different people?” and “Are you the complete Survivor package?”
Assessment: Who was the last pretty but bland castaway to win? I think Hope may stick around, but it’s because she’ll form an alliance with someone bigger and stronger.
Laura
Laura lives in Washington DC and works in US-Middle East trade. Does that mean she’s really a spy? She says she doesn’t trust anyone (spy!) and that her upbringing made her confident. She says that living in DC, she “sees politics 9 to 5” though less outside of working hours. Laura says that she will be perceived as a “sweet, naïve 22-yearp old” but she is “willing to cause trouble if she has to. Not if people are already crazy and off the wall, but if that person isn’t there, I’ll create something." So Laura won’t be needing to exert herself this season. In answering the “complete package question” she agrees, but minus the muscles. So she’s realistic.
Assessment: Laura seems pretty keen to play an aggressive social game, and eventually that’s going to work against her.
Michael
Michael describes his job as a “freelancer in corporate meetings and training”, whatever that means. Does he just turn up unannounced at meetings and listen in? Or is he some sort of sycophant-for-hire who says “great idea” and “let’s do it”? Anyway, Michael says that Survivor is “a game where you have to lie and make deals behind backs and misrepresent yourself” and that’s not a problem, and that everyone knows that going in. Michael says he “can tend to be surprisingly goofy” and “a little bit of a nutter.” Great! And the other castaways will probably underestimate him physically because he wears glasses. But he claims to have a strategy and says that he will be “totally chill until it is time to make a big move.”
Assessment: Michael seems pretty comfortable going into the game, but as the oldest guy on his tribe he will need to prove himself physically early on. Of his tribe, I think he’ll have the fewest moral scruples playing the game.
Julia
Julia is a Stanford student and a race-car driver! And instantly is my favorite “fan”. She says that one of her strengths is “turning on and off aggression” because “in racing, when you put the visor down, you have to be in the zone and focussed on winning,” but that doesn’t really work in people environments. I wonder if the other players will see it this way. Anyway, Julia describes herself as “analytical and strategic,” and that she would like to be underestimated because of her youth.
Assessment: Just because I like Julia doesn’t mean others will. I think she will be an outsider and out early.
Shamar
Shamar was a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps who spent 14 days on a hill during the Battle of Fallujah, without being able to harvest any coconuts, so he feels he is prepared for the hardship of Survivor. His USMC background has also prepared him for the social game, as he learned to deal with all types of people. Is Shamar’s strategic game influenced by the USMC? His strategy is “destroying other people,” so that’s a yes. By the second week, he wants everyone to want to “go home, to be cold, wet, tired, miserable.” I’m sure everyone will appreciate a drill sergeant by then. “That was my four years of Marine Corps. Make it a horrible experience,” says Shamar, USMC recruiter. Oh well, at least he’s not saying “I’d like to be the fun guy.”
Assessment: Shamar’s biggest challenge is obviously going to be the social game. Expect him to take a leadership role early, and for other castaways to complain about him.
Sherri
Sherri is a 40-year-old business owner, and she wants to show that anyone of any age can do this and compete with 20-year-olds. Hasn’t it been shown several times already that 40-year-old women can succeed at this game? Like when Denise won last season? Or Tina back in season 2? If Sherri were 60 or even 50, I could see her point. But I suppose I should cut her some slack because Sherri has three teenage kids and 65 teenage employees, and they probably call her “old lady Sherri."
As if managing nearly 70 teenagers wasn’t enough preparation for Survivor, Sherri has also been working out for the last three months and doing challenges in her house, including balancing ping-pong balls on a platter. She says that she didn’t leave her kids for 45 days to play nice.
Assessment: Sherri comes across as more business-like than maternal, which is how “older” women need to come across to do well in Survivor.
So there are our nine “fans”. They actually have a tribe name – Gota – but I’ll be calling them “fans” throughout the series, or at least until the air quotes become too annoying. It’s a pretty young group with Michael at 44 being the oldest, but it’s a pretty typical group of castaways with the stock characters of the bossy control freak who’ll drive everyone nuts, the schemer who’s not as smart as they think, the pretty girl and the dude who’ll do whatever the pretty girl says. So far, so standard.
Come back tomorrow, where I’ll discuss this season’s “favorites”! Which, let’s be honest, is the part you’re really interested in.