‘Survivor’ Premiere Review: Am I Being Manipulated Correctly?

Watching the season 45 premiere of Survivor left me thinking and feeling exactly what I imagine the show’s producers wanted me to. At the end, I felt irritated at people I don’t even know and questioned why the producers cast some of the contestants for the show. 

I mean, that has to be true. 

I say that because the casting team spent eight months screening some 25,000 audition tapes for potential candidates. Then, they screened those people further with psychological tests, background checks, and multiple rounds of interviews until they found the best 18 for the season.

Also, the show has been on the air for 23 years now, which breaks down into 44 seasons and approximately 650 episodes. It’s also consistently ranked as one of the best-performing shows for its primetime spot. You don’t typically reach that level of success without knowing what you’re doing. 

I could be wrong, though. 

Watching the press screener of “We Can Do Hard Things,” I couldn’t help but adopt the groupthink when one contestant did something that was obviously annoying or selfish. In one instance, a player was overly critical of all her teammates for things like stacking logs, and at times she even seemed to be expressing some sort of prejudice against them by using words like “they” and “these people.”  

Then, the same contestant couldn’t comprehend how all of her teammates could agree that aliens built the pyramids. It’s one of those conspiracies that people like to entertain because it’s funny and it happened so long ago that who really knows. What annoyed her about that conversation wasn’t the fact that it was offensive because people actually designed and built the pyramids. No, she just didn’t find the topic interesting. 

The moment reminded me that Survivor is a game show that’s selectively edited to highlight drama and create a story arc. For the episode, the cameras filmed 18 people for 48 hours, but the producers only used 60 minutes, so there’s some context missing. Plus, watching benevolent people do things competently doesn’t always create entertaining social situations. 

Which brings me to my last point.

In the first few minutes of the episode, we see a grown man cry uncontrollably because he’s feeling “a lot of emotion” by fulfilling his lifelong goal of competing on Survivor. It’s not my goal or the goal of anyone I really know, but to each their own. 

What gives me pause, though, is that he didn’t appear as if he trained or conditioned himself in any way for this experience of a lifetime. He appeared both mentally and physically incapable of enduring the challenges of the show and struggled with things like climbing a ladder and living without a medication he’s been taking his entire life.  

I have full confidence that the people behind the scenes at Survivor would never let someone die on TV, but I do wonder what happens to some of these contestants after what appears to be their worst traits and incompetencies are on full display for the world to see. 

With that said, 10 out of 10. Will watch the next episode. 

The season 45 premiere of Survivor airs Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 8 pm Eastern on CBS and you can stream it on Paramount+. 

Source: https://outdoors.com/survivor-premiere-review-am-i-being-manipulated-correctly/