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Happy Birthday Blonde Justice (and more!)
Happy Birthday to Blonde Justice (the blawg), which is one whole year old today!:
Blondie is probably watching the big Survivor finale right now, and I'm headed there soon, too. (The magic of Tivo means I generally start watching about 20-30 minutes into a network program so that I can then skip through the commercials.) What big surprises are in store? It's supposed to be television like you've never seen it before! Oh my gosh, I can hardly wait!
Really, after such a great season of the Amazing Race, Survivor has had a hard time keeping up. It's gotten better recently, so tonight could be good, but I'm not holding my breath.
It's been quiet around here recently as I worked on a little freelance project which is now mostly finished. Work starts tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it, but it's also been nice having a bit of freedom the last few days. More on all that soon.
Posted May 15, 2005 08:38 PM | meta-blogging tv land
Thank you!
And (I'm not giving anything away, because I don't know if you watched it yet), but the finale of Survivor was good, wasn't it? There was one big shocker in there. And I was happy with who won.
Thanks again!
Posted by: blondie at May 16, 2005 12:05 AM
Yes! That was a pretty darned fine finale in my book.
*Spoilers follow so if you haven't seen it and want to, close this window now!*
I'm still not sure what to make of Ian's big move, but once he made it there was little doubt what would happen. I thought briefly that maybe some people would have so much resentment against this season's Godfather (Tom) that they would vote against them, but the tribal council made that seem pretty unlikely. Survivor is funny for the way people seem so often to reward those who screwed them the best or most. My girlfriend says it's like the players get a sort of Stockholm syndrome where they become so dependent on the alpha player that they will suffer almost any abuse at his hands. (Has this alpha manipulator ever been a woman? I can't think of an example.)
I generally think if you're good enough to become the major manipulator -- whether through wit or brawn or both -- then you deserve to win, more or less. At the same time, it's generally refreshing when some of the more background players step up, realize they're being played, and give the playa the axe. Katie had at least two chances to do this; one was spoiled by Karen, and Katie herself ruined the other when she voted Karen out. So Katie had her chances and didn't take them. It seemed she reaped what she sowed.
Tom maybe did, too. He was a remarkably self-aware gamemaster, always aware of his status as target and constantly checking in to see what he needed to do to retain his position. He rarely if ever became cocky and complacent. Usually when someone looks into the camera and says they have the game in the bag, that's the night they get blindsided and voted off. (See, e.g., Greg this season.) That never happened with Tom; he played as humbly as he could and played scared when he needed to. He did get a little ugly when it came down to five and looked like the women were going to start voting off the women, but he did what he had to do, more or less.
And then Ian. What the heck? Part of me says he just should have been honest all along from the moment Tom confronted him: Yes, Tom, I would have voted you off if I'd won immunity. "I'm playing a game for a million freakin' dollars and I love you, man, and I've been true to my word until now, but this is for the game. That's how I'm playing it." Tom would have been disappointed, but it probably wouldn't have turned into such a major drama and Ian would have been able to play to win instead of giving up like he did. Once Ian chose to dissemble so much, well, he didn't have so many choices. That also made it easy for Tom to rationalize getting rid of his major competition, so Tom blew it into larger proportion than he needed to just to assuage his own guilt or sadness about wanting/needing to vote off Ian. In the end, it all seemed to turn out ok.
In all, some good tv and the joke's on me for thinking so hard about what is essentially a game show. I still think I should make my video and send it in though, don't you?
Oh, but that reminds me: Lawyers do crappy on the show (see, e.g. Karen and Willard this season), so maybe I'd best stay on the couch.
Posted by: ambimb at May 16, 2005 06:53 AM
MORE SPOILERS...
I agree totally. I'm not sure why Ian gave it all up... "guilt" doesn't seem to make that much sense, since it's easy to say "Hey, it was a game." I think it can kind of be chalked up to immaturity, maybe.
How about what they said about Willard in the finale, that he denied being a lawyer? Interesting.
I keep pushing the boyfriend to make a video, but who knows if he actually ever will. I, on the other hand, can't handle more than 6-8 hours on the beach. Then I'm ready to go home and take a shower.
Posted by: blondie at May 16, 2005 07:35 PM
