When Survivor is good, it is finger-licking good

Is it me? Am I getting too old/jaded/whatever? This season of Survivor is just not keeping me as deliriously happy as seasons past have, and I'm having a hard time with that. The formula is still good, Jeff is still reliably authoritative, I still get chills every time he says "Previously.........on Survivor." I even still enjoy all the B footage of snakes eating bugs and stuff like that. Casting seems to have done their job, I mean when we first started there was an interesting array of people and personalities. The wrestler, the former male model, the Christian who said "I'm not very religious" but still felt sick inside performing a welcome ritual in a Buddhist temple. I mean, that crap is like, pardon the expression, manna from heaven for us reality TV fans.

But somehow this season just has not gelled together for me. From the weird special effects, to the lame team trading, somehow it has just been a little off. Which isn't to say awesome television hasn't happened at all. Todd has been thoroughly enjoyable from the beginning, and I still stand by my love of Amanda. Courtney is awful, but in that way where kidnapping victims come to love their captors I'm starting to enjoy her which sort of freaks me out but there it is. But somehow I just don't care as much this time around as I have in seasons past. Eric is nice but boring, PG is mean but boring. Somehow the stakes just aren't enough for me this time.

Anyhoo, this is all me saying that my chocolate frosted brownies stayed in the oven a minute too long and are a little bit dry. I'd still rather eat the slightly dry chocolate frosted brownies than just about anything else. I'm just saying.

So the episode. They are all giddy about getting rid of James, which they should be, because that was awesome and he could've beaten any of them. Jeff starts explaining the reward challenge, and says "you will be in teams of two" and I groan out loud. Teams? At this point in the game? Team challenges do not belong anywhere after the merge, so why do they keep doing this? I'm totally annoyed. Then Jeff says "Eric, you will be teamed...with your sister!" Well played, Probst.

I always love seeing which family members come for people. I always want there to be more significant others than family, because seeing who people choose as family is way more interesting than seeing who they were born with/from. Like the girl power season where the two lesbian couples were competing together? Awesome. This time only Denise brings her husband, and instantly she is my favorite. I am, however, absolutely fascinated with Courtney and her dad, who is apparently British. When told he has to compete in a silly maze, she goes crazy apologizing to him that he has to, like, do something, that "I didn't know you would have to do anything." What does that even mean? Wasn't the whole seeing your father thing a surprise? Too bad this isn't the season where the family members had to eat spiders and cockroaches, remember that one? I would've loved to see pansy British dad choking down a bird fetus.

Other than the introductory fun, the challenge is rather bland, but luckily Denise and her husband win. I'm still sort of high on Denise from her karate show, so I was pleased with her win. Then she has to pick two people to go with her. I always like to pause the TV when people have to make these kinds of choices, so I can think through who would be the sentimental choices, and who would be the strategic choices. As an outsider, if I were her I'd be thinking "who do I need to get chummy with, or who could I plot with, or who do I need close to me so they can't plot while I'm away" or something along those lines. She picks Todd and Amanda, which sort of surprises me and reminds me that Denise is kind of lame. She doesn't pick PG, who besides the fact that she sort of "owes" her, could also be a potential ally. She just picks the two power players, neither of whom are going to be swayed by this gesture. She picks Amanda, as she later explains to PG, "because she was stumbling around and feeling faint". WTF?? First of all, if the producers are holding back yummy footage of that, shame on you. Second, that reason is LAME. Be honest dear, and admit you just wanted to hang with the popular kids for once, it's ok, everyone wants that. Anyway, as far as I can tell, no game play goes on at all on the reward, they just eat chocolate and have a big Sprint plug which as usual makes me vomit it is so clearly about product placement and nothing else. I am however very curious about how old her daughter is, because unless she is eleven all those tears kind of weird me out. At least in the end they throw me a bone and let the losers suck chocolate cake off of their fingers. If I made a montage of awesome moments in Survivor history, that would be in there for sure.

Also interesting, was Todd's little moment of finding out his sister had a miscarriage. Apparently it is true, which totally sucks and I send my condolences. But you can't blame everyone else for being like, "yeah right." And then it happens. I love Courtney. Her Oscar speech was pure giddy, bitchy delight. I may hate her and everything she stands for, but that shit was high-larious.

The only thing particularly interesting about the immunity challenge was, what the heck happened to Eric? He was meant to be a contender, but there was just passing mention of him getting "caught up" on something, and he was suddenly in last place. What happened? Anyway, Todd and Amanda remind me again why they are my favorites, but it is PG that pulls it out, surprising herself as much as me. I may not really like her, but she is winning challenges like crazy, and I always respect that. "Outplay" does matter.

So here is where I find myself torn. I like Eric. He is the kind of guy you want to date your sister, so you know that you'll have a safe place from crazy at family gatherings. I also love strategic upsets, so when PG goes to Denise to try and get her to defect, I love the idea. But when we get right down to vote time I realize that I don't want Todd do go home, I want Eric to go home. For all his twenty two-ish insecurity, Todd has at least been reliable for fun the entire season. Eric makes goat noises and doesn't have sex. (What is Jamie going to say when she finds out he was sucking frosting from Amanda's fingers?)

When Denise votes and says "This is probably the biggest mistake I'm going to make in the game", I know it is a vote for Eric. Denise wants to rock out with the cool kids, and who can blame her? Short term, I'm very happy about it. Long term I'm getting a little nervous, because we are getting down to the end, and I'm getting nervous about the bunch we have left. Neither Denise or Courtney are acceptable as winners. PG can make a case for herself with all her recent wins, but really for me it comes down to Amanda and Todd, either of whom have earned a win. It looks like next week Amanda continues being crazy awesome and starts gunning for Todd, which is brilliant and risky, two things I love in Survivor. But still it just irks me that Courtney or Denise or both could end up in the final three. A Todd/Amanda/PG showdown would be best case scenario at this point, though I'm hardly holding my breath. That is why I love the new format of having three in the finals, because it is near impossible to stack the end with a clear winner and a clear loser like used to always happen. But I just can't see anyone voting for either Denise or Courtney, no matter how mad they might be at the leader who orchestrated their ouster. But then, Dave did beat Twilah, so you never know.

Altogether not a bad episode. I just miss the steroids the show used to be on.