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This is where I obsess about Survivor and have semi-interesting opinions about TV shows

Survivor
TV Reviews

Survivor 48 First Impressions and Predictions

2025-02-26

We're so back baby. My opinion of new era Survivor has never been higher. There's no reason to think we don't have another banger in store. I'm hoping for a messy messy cast. Survivor 47 was all gameplay, let's change the pace a little bit. From what I've seen, I think we got that in store for...

Everything I watched in 2024

2025-01-16

2024 flew by. The last time I reviewed a show was Game of Thrones almost a full year ago. When finishing a show and deciding to post, I need one of these things to be true: - Did I enjoy the show so much that I must spread its gospel? - Do I have something unique to say about the show that may...

Survivor 47: The New Era's Strategic Awakening

2025-01-04

The last time I posted was the Survivor 47 prediction post in September. That was before the season started, and now it’s over. This isn’t my regular posting cadence, and I don’t want my lack of updates to reflect negatively on the season. Survivor 47 was fantastic—I almost have no notes. First...

Survivor 47 First Impressions and Predictions

2024-09-18

We are in a modern golden age of Survivor. 45 and 46 were both fantastic seasons, by new era standards, and Survivor 47 starts in only one day. This cast is hungry and I can tell they will play hard. I'm really excited to dive into another set of predictions, so let's get into it. ## Zero...

Winning New Era Survivor: Learn to Lie

2024-09-01

“Lie, Cheat and Steal” used to be one of Survivors taglines, nearly as synonymous with the show as “Outwit, Outplay, Outlast”. However, Survivor strategy has become a lot more “honest” recently. Players are willing to go to any length to win, except seemingly lying? Twisting the truth is one of...

Winning New Era Survivor: Social Aggression

2024-06-14

New Era Survivor is a fast game and there's generally two approaches we see from players. Over-eager aggression or cautious coat-tailing. The fascinating nuance of Survivor is this tightrope balance. If you play too hard, you get sniped. If you play too slow, you won’t win. This “threat level...

Survivor 46: Messy and Mesmerizing

2024-06-02

Survivor 46 may be my favourite season of the New Era. And it really comes down to one thing: humour. I was laughing my ass off at every episode. Survivor 46 excels at many things, but at the end of the day, I watch TV to be entertained. And oh boy, I was entertained. In these retrospectives, I...

Winning New Era Survivor: Embrace the Meta

2024-05-05

Welcome to my new series where I analyze Survivor strategy. The goal is to post more and in engage with the show in a more thoughtful way. This series is about my Survivor strategy hot takes, hopefully it will be cutting edge stuff. We are six seasons deep into the new era. Each season has had...

Survivor 46 Mid Season Check-in

2024-04-21

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...

Survivor 46 First Impressions and Predictions

2024-02-26

After the success of Survivor 45, I have nothing but excitement for Survivor 46. 90-minute episodes proved that the show is most limited by its editing. And thank god, the 90-minutes are sticking around. This cast looks chaotic and messy. Some personalities that I'm just dying to see play. I can't...

I Finally Finished Game of Thrones

2024-01-13

Why did I not get around to this show earlier? For years I thought it was overhyped. Not worth grinding because the ending would suck. I knew spoilers. I knew about “Bran the Broken”. Game of Thrones is not overhyped. George RR Martin sucked me into his fantasy world and held on with an iron...

Survivor 45: 90-Minutes Well Spent

2024-01-06

Let me start off by saying I loved Survivor 45. 90-minute episodes are gonna revitalize the show. Every season is automatically better with the longer episodes. We got to intimately know the cast, saw so many extra camplife scenes, and the strategy was actually explained properly. As far as new...

90-Minute Episodes are Saving Survivor

2023-11-02

The castaways of Survivor 45 have officially merged and this season has been fantastic. The characters are dynamic, the edit is incredibly balanced, and we are getting vintage Survivor. And of course we have the 90-minute episodes to thank for this. The additional runtime makes a mind-boggling...

Survivor 45 First Impressions and Predictions

2023-09-24

Survivor 45 has me cautiously optimistic. As time goes on, my opinion on Survivor 43 increases but for Survivor 44 it sours. I think 44's cast was incredibly top-heavy, with only three notable stands out. Survivor 43 didn't have the same individual star power, but it filled out much more evenly,...

Prestige TV

2023-07-18

It feels like at any point in time, there's one show that's THE show. You know what I'm talking about. The show that everyone's watching, and if you aren't watching all your friends are saying you "need to watch it". The Sopranos, Lost, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and most recently Succession....

Jury Duty and Pushing TV's Boundaries

2023-07-08

Imagine you're summoned for jury duty. You serve on a jury for three weeks, you're sequestered in a hotel and you form bonds with your fellow jurors. Then it's revealed everything was fake. Everything was one big social experiment, and you were the subject. This happened to Ronald Gladden. The...

The Haunting of Hill House is Why You Should Watch Horror

2023-06-14

I love horror, but it's a genre with a lot of untapped potential. Modern day masterpieces seem far and few between. Mike Flanagan, the creator of The Haunting of Hill House, is currently leading the genre in a huge way. Hill House isn't the first horror TV series, but it's perhaps the first to...

Survivor 44: The Tika Show

2023-05-28

Survivor 44 was the Tika Three's season. Carson, Carolyn and Yam Yam were the main characters, deservedly so. Their alliance is the most compelling of the new era, and they displayed a masterclass in strategy. Carson brought the brains, Yam Yam brought the charm, and Carolyn brought the levity....

Survivor 44 Final Predictions

2023-04-10

I've been meaning to post more. It's been a while partly because life in Toronto has been hectic, but mostly because I don't have a ton to say about this season. Survivor 44 feels very fun, but very vanilla. Great characters with great personalities, but ultimately uninspiring gameplay. At least...

Survivor 44 starts off Strong

2023-03-20

Three episodes of Survivor 44 have aired, and so far I'm loving it. I wish I made a blog post earlier, but I just haven't had the time recently. Now I'm here to gush about what's making 44 so great, and my hopes for how it'll continue this trajectory. One of my largest Survivor critiques in the...

Survivor 44 First Impressions and Predictions

2023-02-28

I have a really good feeling about Survivor 44. CBS and Jeff Probst have been pumping unprecedented levels of hype recently. The cast looks great, the medieval theme is badass, and I think we're due for a banger. I had a hard time coming up with first impressions for this cast because everyone is...

Survivor 43: Fun but Forgettable

2022-12-26

Survivor 43 falls somewhere in the middle between 41 and 42. The inspired casting continues to be this eras saving grace. 43 is filled with a diverse group of superfans, with no shortage of personality and charm. Yet, the season was a bit of a slog. The new metagame encourages players to be...

Survivor 43 Merge Check-in

2022-11-20

Now in its final stretch, the fireworks in Survivor 43 are finally starting to go off. After a string of straightforward eliminations, the players are at the point where they're ready to make moves. Last episodes double boot was the best episode of the season, providing some raw drama and a great...

Survivor 43 Pre-merge Discussion

2022-10-10

Three episodes into Survivor 43, it's about time I spoke about it. So far it's a lot of fun. A couple of top tier characters, some hilarious moments, and a lot of potential for great game play. I love the new beware advantage with the beads, way better than the phrases. Overall, the season is...

Survivor 43 First Impressions and Predictions

2022-09-20

Survivor 42 was one of the best seasons in a long time, and ever since then I've been patiently waiting for Survivor 43. Well, the wait is almost over, and I'm thrilled to be back with predictions. Survivor 42 proved that the new format can work, and can work really well. The question still holds,...

Better Call Saul: Better than Breaking Bad

2022-09-17

When I hear "prequel", I think cash grab. A studios cheap attempt to capitalize on the success of a hit show or film. Why tarnish Breaking Bads legacy with a show about the silly lawyer? What more story could there be to tell? Turns out a lot. A lot of really freaking good stories. Holy shit...

Survivor 42 is the New Era's Gold Standard

2022-06-03

I was pretty critical of season 41's twists and editing. Survivor 42 in theory is a repeat of 41, but the execution blows it out of the water. Production must have listened to feedback because it's night and day. And honestly, I can live with this new twisty era of Survivor if they keep these...

The Captivating Art of Stressful TV

2022-04-28

I recently finished watching Severance and The White Lotus. Two series that on the surface seem opposite, but ones that I enjoyed for identical reasons: the tone. Both shows exploit awkwardness, unease and surrealism to build tension. This tension makes it painful to watch, but even more painful...

Survivor 42 Merge Discussion

2022-04-13

This season has been fantastic so far. The editing is vastly improved over Survivor 41 and the cast has no duds. With a pre-merge that was nearly perfect, I'm hoping for a post-merge that keeps the momentum going. But with the hourglass twist making a return, I'm a little hesitant. The most...

Survivor 42 Premiere Discussion

2022-03-16

I loved everything about the premiere of Survivor 42. We got to know nearly every member of the cast, with only a couple of people feeling invisible. And these people are infectiously awesome. The producers also have stepped up their game, it seems like they listened to the complaints of Survivor...

Survivor 42 First Impressions and Predictions

2022-03-02

A new year brings a new season of Survivor. I had a lot of fun making predictions with Survivor 41 and I'm beyond excited to do the same for Survivor 42. In this post I'll be categorizing the players into 'Winner Contenders', 'Dark Horses', 'Long Shots' and 'Zero Chancers'. If I don't mention...

Community Season 4: Better than you Think

2021-12-27

Fans of Community agree, season four is the worst one. Many fans even pretend it doesn't exist, calling it the "Gas Leak Season". The failure is usually attributed to the departure of the shows creator, Dan Harmon. Community was Harmon's passion project and with him gone, there was a clear void...

Against All Odds, Survivor 41 Didn't Suck

2021-12-21

Survivor 41 has drawn to a close and was a surprisingly great season to revive Survivor after the hiatus. It was far from perfect, sometimes feeling like a shell of its former self, but there was a lot to love. In this blog I'll be talking about how the season was doomed from the start and the...

Survivor 41 Final Five Predictions

2021-12-15

The finale of Survivor 41 airs tonight, and before the dust settles I want to take this chance to make my final predictions. It's exciting because there's multiple players that are in winning contention. I can see arguments for why 4/5 of these people justifiably win. I'm going to run through all...

Arcane is the Best Show of 2021

2021-11-22

Recently I was starving for good content. I was missing that visceral "I'm witnessing a masterpiece" feeling. When watching Arcane, I had that feeling within the first episode. On paper, a show based on a video game shouldn't work. Discard your expectations, because Arcane is 100 times better than...

Survivor 41 Merge Discussion

2021-10-31

We are officially at the halfway point of Survivor 41. Everyone has merged into one tribe and it is now an individual game. It's time to take another look at some of my earlier predictions, to see if they are still holding up or if I missed the mark. First let's discuss Erika's "advantage". I'm...

Survivor 41 Premiere Discussion

2021-09-27

Survivor 41 started off strong with a fast-paced, character driven premiere episode. Over the two hours we go to know all of the 18 castaways, said goodbye to two of them, and gained some insight into their tribe dynamics. I have some brief thoughts that I want to put into this post. Just some...

Survivor 41 First Impressions and Predictions

2021-09-21

I originally created this blog so I could talk about Survivor, and with COVID interrupting those plans, my opportunity has finally come to gush about a brand new season. At the time of writing this, season 41 of Survivor is a day away. In this post I'll be making some hopefully correct predictions...

Tim Robinson has Perfected Sketch Comedy

2021-08-12

Almost a year ago I made a blog post claiming Nathan For You was the funniest show I've seen. I retract that statement, the honour now goes to I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. The first time watching the show I was in tears, _literally_ I was crying. Merely remembering some of my...

Bo Burnham's Inside is a Masterpiece

2021-06-05

The best way to describe Inside is _mesmerizing_. I was mesmerized by the camera work, every shot beautifully fulfilling a larger purpose. Mesmerized by the themes, Bo's honesty and vulnerability. Mesmerized by songs that got me thinking about my own life and how I fit into the world. Inside will...

Three Shows I've Finished in 2021 So Far

2021-05-17

Since the new year I've completed three shows: Mr. Robot, Gravity Falls, and Breaking Bad. The internet and some friends informed me of their acclaim and they all ended up being very enjoyable. A strange common thread in these shows was their epic conclusions. Respectively, a final twist, a solved...

My Thoughts on the Entire Marvel Cinematic Universe

2021-05-08

As a self-proclaimed Marvel "fanboy", I set a challenge for myself to watch every movie in order. I wanted to appreciate the timeline from start to finish. After a month, I completed my goal, and I gained a new appreciation for the universe. I'm not going to talk about every movie in this blog...

Bojack Horseman is a Masterpiece

2020-11-26

Watching Bojack Horseman was a truly life-changing experience. It's impossible to compare it to any other show because nobody else has attempted what Bojack pulled off. But what exactly makes it a masterpiece? Let's find out. The first thing that drew me in was the meticulousness of the jokes....

Comedy TV: Which Approach is Best?

2020-09-17

Over the summer I watched three comedy shows that approached the genre in distinct ways. The 2006 NBC sitcom '30 Rock', the adult cartoon phenomenon 'Rick and Morty' and the cringe-fest unscripted reality series 'Nathan For You'. After watching all three, I realized that I loved them all but for...

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a Masterpiece

2020-06-17

"Masterpiece" is a word that gets thrown around a lot. For me, I actually enjoy most things I watch but it is rare that something holds emotional weight after I've finished it. The Last Airbender stands out because of its maturity, storytelling and characters and I firmly believe its a show...

Survivor Winners at War Retrospective

2020-05-24

The superbowl season of survivor has come to a close all too soon and now it's time to take a look back. This season left me with some mixed feelings. On one hand, it had the best cast in the history of survivor. On the other hand, there are so many "what if" questions that left me wanting...

Analyzing the Winners at War Top Six

2020-05-09

The new king or queen of Survivor will be crowned in a couple of days. As it stands, there are five people left with one person to still return from the Edge of Extinction. These people are Tony Vlachos, Denise Stapely, Sarah Lacina, Ben Driebergen and Michele Fitzgerald. Each of these players...