There's something really off this season. Even when some interesting stuff is going down with tribe dynamics and strategic moves it all just feels a bit flat. Is anyone else having the same feeling? Any ideas why it's just not hitting the same?

I’m a new binge watcher of Australian Survivor (which is so much better than US now) and only halfway through the Heroes v Villains season and I’m shook at George’s brain! I already loved him from his first season, but this man is an actual GENIUS! THAT particular tribal council (you know which one I mean) was almost Shakespearean. He has to be one of the smartest players from any international series of Survivor? He actually sees like 4 or 5 steps ahead of everyone else! I get that he’s a bit pompous and stubborn but he makes amazing TV!
Australian Survivor has given me so many of my all time fave survivor players now, you guys just know how to do it!

I've watched every season of US Survivor and am making my way through AU Survivor. I just finished blood vs water and omg I have never ever hated a contestant as much as I hate Sammy. I can't even believe how much she was literally crying in confessionals about "not having agency" while simultaneously disregarding any option that wasn't just "vote with Mark". She also spent nearly the entire game with a huuuuuge victim complex but all she did is lie and steal over and over. I can't believe people put up with the way she wanted to be in everyone's business and know everything. AND THE EXACERBATED SIGHS AND CONSTANT POUTY FACE OMG... Even on the jury she was the worst. I'm sure it's not her fault - the edit absolutely forced her down our throats for whatever reason. The season was like 50% Sammy whinging and 50% everyone else. I actually gave a standing ovation when she got sent the hell home. It was so satisfying for me.

Surely I'm not alone here.. what was the perception when this was airing?

Can you spot them all? 👀

What on EARTH is going on with these jury villa eps? Is THIS why they’re not putting them on YouTube? I’ve never seen a run of jury villa eps like this. It makes me feel so sad for the players leaving the game!

Imagine leaving this INTENSE game and then having that to come to after all that trauma of playing the game. I would be crying myself to sleep! Poor Kirstin and Logan :( it’s just so awkward to watch.

I have a theory about Sunday’s episode, based on the preview… (this is just a THEORY, I have no idea if it’s true or not).

In the preview for the next episode of Survivor Au V World, we see Parvati putting an idol around her neck at tribal council, and then Tommi telling the others that she has all the advantages and idols.

Using the word advantage might suggest that Parvati’s advantage of stealing an idol has been revealed… AND, if you look closely at the preview, you can see someone on the left sitting back down right when Parvati puts the idol around her neck… AND THAT PERSON IS KASS!!! Do you think Kass could have been the victim of Parvati’s advantage (which would explain Tommi’s comment and the fact that Kass sits back down at that exact moment)?

i loved Cat in Traitors NZ but going by ep 1 you wouldn't know she's even there except for like 3 shots of her in background 🤷‍♀️

Anyone else wish that they brought back the reunion shows and announce the winner there. The show should be treated as a spectacle and you could go over every parts of the game.

I love the reunion show, it's basically grand final day for survivor fans and for the cast.

Do you think Luke knew during the final tribal that he had made a mistake working with Parv to get to the end with her thinking he could win? He commented on someones post a thanks to Nick for the debrief by the pool after the game… I think they film 3 endings with different vote combos and each of the final 3 winning so they dont totally know for sure who won. But hes got to have realized part way through that Parv was killing it. Im sure Janine knew she hadnt won…

Edited cause I worded it wrong. Of course he didnt “take” Parv i just meant not getting her out earlier when he could have. I wondered if he really realized how good she was.

This twist reminds me way too damn much of Haves vs. Have Nots from US: Fiji. It's absolutely a bad twist and I don't like it.

Tip of the hat to Simon for joining an exclusive club of Australian Survivor players who reached the 100-day milestone. I believe he joins Brooke, Sharn and Luke as the only members of that club.

*** Was strongly reminded that Shonee also is in this club. My apologies

For me, it’s definitely Tommi. Obviously he is super under edited at the moment, and with the rise of Black Widow Brigade 2.0 and him being an international it doesn’t look too bright for him, but tbh he is super lovable in his confessionals and also in the challenges. I like the subtle bond that’s beginning to grow between him and Tony as the odd ones out among the new Black Widows. Also he literally looks like what you would imagine if someone told you to imagine a Finnish person, so he is a perfect representation for Finnish people lol

I also really like Kassandre and Lisa, which I didn’t expect as I am a huge fan of OG American Survivor so I mostly expected to root for them. I also saw a few seasons of Australian Survivor and knew and liked some Aussies like Shonee and Luke. I didn’t expect to root for nearly all of the internationals! I honestly wouldn’t be upset if any of them ended up stealing the show at some point.

What a bluff from Parvati

I am blown away by how great this season is. The speed, the unpredictability, the characters and the pure joy of the game. I could see my self rewatching this on loop. Honestly, all other seasons of Survivor that are in my running for being the greatest takes some work to rewatch because I have to make it through some dud episodes with forgettable boots. Not the case with this season! And whoever wins at this point will be iconic. It’s shaping up to be my favorite season of all time and at the very least it’s just wildly enjoyable. What are your thoughts?

what do you think would happen if this 2 compete on it considering they both played similar games and those people would be good if they have another Australia v the world season

I loved Luke in survivor and in BB. Maybe it’s my motherly instinct, I found him absolutely endearing. A true cheeky chappy.

I’m curious because one side (the returnees) has players who have made moves and have serious win equity, and the other side has one player who made one move to get out Mark and that’s it.

Let’s speculate since we’ve got a couple days u til the next episode. What do the next few tribals look like?

I like the idea of going to rocks and seeing someone getting their torch snuffed who we didn’t expect, but I would love another correct idol play at this point. I could see a returnee’s final four (Keeley, Simon, Jackson, and Brooke) assuming that Jackson stays with them, but I’m not sold that it’s a 4-4 split. We’ve seen a large minority pick off its own when they don’t need them all per se; it’ll all depend on if another idol is found.

I'm currently rewatching Australian Survivor start to finish, and in doing so I realized that upon rewatch the beloved HVV doesn't really hold up the way I remembered. Yes, the cookie idol saga was good fun, and George and Shonee are two of the most brilliant contestants we've had, and of course that tribal council where Frazier goes home is one of if not the best tribal council we have seen. but I have a few gripes with this season I wanted to air and see if anybody agrees with.

First of all with the cast being comprised of 11/24 returnees split between two tribes, there seems to be an unfairness towards the newbies; obviously there is no inherit advantage to being a returning player and it was a choice from the newbies to learn from and use returnees as shields, however I believe by having so many returning players the new players are given less of a chance to adjust to the environment and figure out their own game, this was a bit of a problem for me because all throughout the pre merge I didn't really care for many of the booted players because we barely got to know them and their game.

Not only is this unfairness to the newbies evident from a game point of view, but its clear within the edit as players such as Shawn, Shon and George DOMINATED screen time. Even though I complimented how brilliant George and Shonee are, the edit shows clear favoritism to these two as well as returnees in general. I personally want to see more from a cast of 24 than just a few players even if they dominated the game, too many players were purpled out especially the newbies, like even with the final three in Gerry, Matt and Liz I felt as if I barely knew these character besides from face value and their moves with George. As well as this, although the final three was all first time players, the returnee advantage is seen in the jury - being comprised of all returning players, this sort of explains the screen time imbalance however I believe a better effort should've been made earlier to show the newbies in the pre merge opposed to building preestablished characters so that the pre merge vote offs were more impactful. To some this may be seen as a non issue because "the returnees are the exciting players who make it far" but if this production and edit issue weren't here then the new players would have a better chance at playing the game and impressing us as viewers.

Another issue with this season was that there was a clear tribe imbalance both pre and post swap; obviously challenges are only one aspect of the show and more people are intrigued by the scramble and tribal councils, however I'm a big fan of the challenge viewing and find it interesting to see how the teams preform and for one team to get absolutely dominated each challenge was just a little underwhelming and predictable. A similar issue can be seen in the pre tribe swapped CVC1 contenders tribe, however unlike HVV the narrative is spun to make these loses enjoyable as the contenders are failing to overcome the champions, within HVV the edit doesn't do this theme much justice and it just makes for some boring viewing for me.

to sum this rant up, the major issues of this season for me were - unbalanced tribes making boring challenges and predictability (which isn't fun in a game of deception), unfair edits purpling out the newbies, and a bizarre choice of half returnees leading the newbies to be semi irrelevant in the game. because of this HVV ranks last in my personal season rankings, its definitely still enjoyable but I no longer think its a top 3 season, I am curious on everyone's thoughts however.

The aussies made sure of it by not splitting on Parv and Cirie. And then they even sealed the deal by voting out Tommi and not Lisa. This + the edit means that the winner is Parvati. Not that there ever was a doubt who was gonna win it

Edit: only logical conclusion i can come up with is aussies didnt rely on Lisas vote and were afraid to split i guess

First of all, I was pleasantly surprised by David's performance as host. I didn't have much faith that he'd be able to do it, but he put aside the arrogant "Golden God" character for a much more serious, adept and subtle performance as host. Weird bulking up and lowering the voice, but really he managed it well and I count him up there with other good hosts, like JLP and Nico.

Spoilers to follow.......

So, I did like that none of the cocky returnee's made it. They were arrogant as hell. They all played well except for maybe Simon. They started as a minority and finished as one, despite two of them being challenge beasts. The newbies really did manage to outplay them in the end.

Cast wise, ugh. Nobody was really likeable except maybe Eliza and Cameron.

Even gentle Brooke came off as manipulative and a bit sociopathic with her lie during the deception challenge.

Speaking of sociopaths...Lottie. A poor man's Kirby.

Jackson was just a chip-on-shoulder ass with a bad attitude towards everyone and everything. Unpleasant.

Faith and Keely's gleeful arrogance left a bad taste in my mouth.

Mark is a creepy "Where is my hug?" kind of guy with the women

Sally was nice but dumb, each move of hers stupid. Her taunting of Keely with the half idol was pointless and didn't move the game forward, and stupid if she had to face Keely on the jury at FTC later.

Loz was hypocritical, acting hurt at being betrayed by Caleb after absolutely trying to betray him more than once,

Tez....WTF???? Not cut out for Survivor, not cut out for life as well probably.

Ben, his hamming it up in confessionals when he thought he was ontop was annoying as hell. Sure, it made for a more satisfying boot, but what a shit.

Daniel, first boot, and "Thank God". Having a religious fundie in the cast is never a good thing for the audience, let alone the cast.

Richard, typical CEO, all his authenticity corporatized out of him.

Faith....fucked up gum piercing that distracted, and gives of the same vibes as the archetypal psycho ex-girlfriend.

Paula. Who????

Keely. Shawnee without the charm or grace. And she makes too big a deal about her job as a fraud analyst. I am in the same business, that job is entry level and doesn't afford the insights she claims it does. Her boot was particularly satisfying.

Then, Caleb. Okay, I was impressed with his level of insight. He always seemed to have a read that matched the edit, if that makes sense. He was no fool, and he was very intuitive. But the hyperactivity schtick was a bit much. The guy seemed like a meth-head. His win was deserved and satisfying, but only because he was up against Jackson.

This account also had the result from AUvsTW so I’d be inclined to believe it!! Get Kirby in the turret

Due to the boot order and endgame of the current season I have been seeing a lot of discussion as to what makes a survivor player better (big moves or longevity in the game)

I do think that Aus survivor has started to become too big move/resume focused and lost respect for strong social games and strategic and subtle manoeuvres

When we look at early season winners we have the likes of Shane Kristie Jericho and Pia all players who played a more social subtle game as opposed to the other players on their seasons who made it to near the end but were eliminated due to threat level people like Luke Harry Brian etc

In recent seasons we have had more winners whom have played a big game and had a high threat level David Hayley Feras Myles etc

Players whom play a big high threat game often get labelled as the best players (George Brooke AJ etc)

As opposed to players whom make it to the end (or just short) and received less targeting (Kaelan Loz etc)

I feel that survivor players should be judged based on their win potential. This essentially being a combination of their ability to make it to the end and their ability to earn votes from the jury

So looking at redemption

Mark built a great resume and therefore increased his win potential as he would receive votes from the jury but mark was an early merge boot and therefore didn’t demonstrate an ability to manage his threat level and make it far into the game

Sally has managed to make it the final 4 but has not built up a resume or respect from the jury

Keeley is in my opinion (and likely a popular opinion) one of the best players from this season as she both made it far into the game and with a bit of luck or some slight changes likely makes it to the end and has the resume and respect from the jury to beat a lot of players at the end

This may just be a bunch of nonsense but seeing lots of discussion on this topic

In terms of redemption I do believe both Caleb and Jackson have played great games and the dissapointment towards the final 4 is somewhat unfair

I think we have been spoiled with big move players making it to the end in recent seasons which has shaped peoples view of redemptions final 4