A Survivor Rant
I haven't posted something in quite a while, and to be perfectly honest, I don't have a very good excuse. I've had nothing but free time over the last few weeks! And yet, I've spent that time planted in front of my TV, watching what is undoubtedly my favorite show of all time: Survivor.
"You should be writing," I told myself over and over again. But there was no snapping out of it. This competitive reality show, which recently wrapped up its 38th season, marks the culmination of my media interests. Even as I continue to obsess over contemporary film (a medium I personally feel has underwhelmed thus far in 2019) and scripted television like Game of Thrones (disappointing) and Legion (returning soon!), I truly believe no work lends itself better to conversations about storytelling, character development, and the television medium itself.
I started watching Survivor in the fall of 2012 with the show's 25th season, Survivor: Philippines. The season featured a pair of famous contestants in childhood actress Lisa Whelchel and MLB player Jeff Kent, and also brought back three former players who had been medically evacuated on their respective seasons.
Survivor is no stranger to celebrity contestants. Former NFL quarterback Gary Hogeboom memorably masqueraded as landscaper Gary Hawkins on the show's 11th season. And even Jimmy Johnson, a Super Bowl-winning head coach, participated in Survivor: Nicaragua.
Returning players are similarly commonplace. Nearly a third of the show's 38 seasons have featured returning players in some capacity. In this way, Survivor is much like any other show you might watch on TV, tracing a character's journey over the course of a single or even multiple seasons. What I find so satisfying about Survivor and its countless reality TV counterparts is how it complicates the notion of character. These are, of course, real people with real lives and professions and families outside of the game. But Survivor sets out to tell a story much like any other show, and so these real-life individuals become characters. Contestants on the show only have so much control over who they are. Ultimately, a Survivor contestant is at the mercy of the producers and the audience in terms of how they are portrayed.
The task of telling a Survivor story at large is also a unique one. The show's editors must boil 39 days, 936 hours, worth of content down into roughly 15 hours worth of episodic storytelling. There is, of course, a particular ending that the show must reach. Therefore, the show often becomes the story of how a particular player wins the game, or at times, how a certain player comes up short. The show's storytelling is therefore one of the most complicated tasks in entertainment. There is an end, there is a beginning, and there is a whole lot in between. How we get from point A to point B must be sussed out from several weeks worth of footage. This unique quality has given way to what is referred to as Edgic within the Survivor community. Edgic, a portmanteau of both "edit" and "logic", encourages viewers to consider how the show is edited in order to predict who may win a particular season. Certain levels of visibility within the show, and certain types of content, are often indicators of who may claim the title of "Sole Survivor." Viewers of the show's most recent season may be quick to refute the validity of edgic, and they'd be justified in doing so. Still, edgic has previously been successful in predicting winners, even when the gameplay of a season seemed to indicate otherwise. This is part of what makes the show so fascinating to me. Survivor can be an interactive experience unlike many other television programs, affording viewers the opportunity not just to make predictions, but to follow the actual conventions of the show in doing so.
I go on this rant about Survivor simply to say it is an incredible piece of television, worthy of your future attention and investment. Further, my obsession with the show has inspired me to add a new tab to the site, all about Survivor! Follow along as I offer insights on ongoing seasons, and offer random thoughts on the show as they pop into my Survivor-obsessed brain. And as I have tried with so many other pieces of entertainment, I will search for what the show can teach us about ourselves and the world around us. For those feeling inspired to get into the show, start with my definitive season rankings!