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| Category Advertising - Broadcast Date 9/15/2006 |
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'Survivor' debut insightful
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| **Contains Spoilers about last night's Survivor Debut** |
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Before they had watched even a single episode, critics decried the race
twist on 'Survivor: Cook Islands'. Many thought it was just another case
of Hollywood sensationalizing and exploitation a sensitive issue for
cheap drama.
On that point, I must confess, I agreed. People are people no matter how
different we are. I could see no benefit from packaging people into
groups instead of portraying them as the individuals they are and then
making a bad situation worse by pitting them against one another. I
don't know how the critics will respond, but I will confess. Based on
last night's episode, my assumptions were wrong.
For all the controversy surrounding the premiere, 'Survivor: Cook
Islands' turned out to be a positive viewing experience as the players
celebrated their ethnicity and more importantly, they didn't use the
race twist as an excuse to trash talk or malign the other tribes in any
way. The twist did introduce some fascinating issues into the tribal
politics at each camp. Seeing "Cao Boi" (Cowboy) Bui singled out by his
own tribe because he is older and honours the traditions of his homeland
and then admitting that he is not accepted by the Asian community in the
United States because he looks and acts differently was intriguing as
was watching some tribes deal with whether they have an obligation to
act as role models or not.
As crazy as it may sound, could the lack of controversial drama be a
reason why television critics were not permitted to view a preview copy
of the debut? Were Burnett and company rolling the dice thinking
negative publicity would boost the ratings? Did they surmise that having
the truth revealed beforehand would work against that goal when it was
discovered that people's fears were for nought at least when it came to
be debut broadcast? We may never know the truth.
What we do know now is that the Exile Island twist and Hidden Immunity
Idol are back and because some of the players have clearly never watched
the series before being cast, there certainly is a sense of the series
returning it its roots which is why the opening sequence of the players
scrambling for items on a cargo ship mirrored the first scene the ever
played out on 'Survivor'.
On the next 'Survivor': Television : Cao Boi's jokes get no laughs. Some
disagree with his sense of humour. Cao Boi: I don't care what other
people think. Billy's slacking drives Aitu to drastic measures. Cecilia:
Ozzy is thinking of throwing the challenge and I don't think that's
right.
Survivor airs Thursdays on Global |
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