Survivor 46 Mid Season Check-in

This is my first Survivor 46 post since the season started and I have a lot to say. The season had me nervous in the pre-merge, watching Yanu implode was not fun. Especially since that meant we got Bhanu hogging insane amounts of screen time. But holy cow, this season is really hitting it's stride at the merge.

I won't dwell on the pre-merge too much. The premiere was fantastic, mainly because of Jelinksy. The rest is kind of a nifty self-contained Bhanu arc. I loved Bhanu for awhile, but I grew tired. Maybe one less episode of him crying would have been perfect. Overall pretty straightforward gameplay, with some pretty comedic moments interspersed.

I will say, this season is so funny. Yanu is full of comedians, Venus is an iconic queen, and Ben rocks hard. Everyone has an attitude, nobody has a filter, and they all kind of hate eachother. It's rare to see castaways so spiteful in the new era. The Kumbaya vibe is hardly there, which means we get real drama. People are picking arguments that are terrible for their game, and they don't care, they just want to argue.

And the gameplay is gloriously terrible. I don't necessarily watch Survivor for good strategy. A well-crafted blindside is always amazing, but give me a train wreck season every time. Watching queen Venus scramble around and fail to connect with anyone is fantastic. Venus is playing hard, but not well, and that makes great Survivor. Similarly we saw Tevin turn on Soda like 5 episodes too early. We got a fun blindside from that terrible move (Tevin went home one episode later).

The epitome of all this is Q. My winner pick, my hero, my GOAT. Q is gonna go down as my favourite new era player. He's playing hard and aggressive, but he's delusional about how bad he is. The guy who asked to quit 3 times thinks he's Gods gift to Survivor. He'll throw a fit if anyone else tries to play, and he'll throw a fit if nobody else is playing with him. Q is awesome and I want more of him.

The most recent episode, Hide and Seek, really captures what I love from 46. The Hide and Seek game itself is a fun reprieve from the game. We got time with the cast, and we got hilarious commentary from Q and Venus. Our delusional King and Queen. It's messy, and it's great TV. I hope 46 continues on this trajectory, and the gameplay doesn't get any better from here.

Looking forward, I think Tiff has the best shot. She's incredibly clever, has a rock solid alliance with Kenzie, and has an idol. Her name came up recently but only cause Q was fucking around. Otherwise I could see Charlie have an awesome arc where he dismantles the alliance of 6. Charlie has a tough road ahead of him but he's impressed me. It won't be Q, but if it is Q I will fall to my knees with joy.