A new year is a time for growth, for resolutions, for new beginnings. And this new year, nice and early we are getting a new season of Survivor AU nice and early!
This year, it’s Titans vs Rebels. What does that mean exactly? Well let’s dissect, on the Titans team we have those who are at the “Top of their field” and Rebels are the ones who break the rules…
But with these definitions and the cast, who are an awesome, diverse mix of people it seems, seem to have been dubbed titans or rebels arbitrarily. A movie manager is a titan. A psychologist is a rebel. A model is a titan. A theft prevention worker in retail is a rebel. There’s not much meaning to it and that’s okay with me.
Sticking all the brawn, or all the charisma on one team makes for uneven matches in challenges and also for boring TV. So I’m happy about this mix, but I just ended up calling them the red and blue team in the end.
We start with an on-brand, over-the-top, action sequence that belongs on the big screen. Survivor AU never holds back on its entrance sequences, from long, hard journeys through the jungle, to Mad Max chicken fights in big trucks. This year the Titans are in one big boat, while the Rebels surround them in four smaller boats, taunting them with their rebellious calls! I was impressed.
Then they land on the beach and meet the man I like to call Australian Jesus, JLP, (Jonathan LaPaglia for those not in the know.) He lets them know why they’re here and why their teams are unique but to me, it was just more of the same confusing up talk that didn’t clarify anything.
On to the first rewards challenge, which is for fire in the form of flint. A tried-and-true motivator. Well, it’s apparent early on that the blue team- I mean the Titans, don’t know how to organise themselves, to many leaders, and not enough listeners. They lose the challenge, a good show of how it’s not all brawn on one team that causes a win this season, but teamwork.
Then they get to camp and meet each other, go around in a circle kumbaya all that. There are bodybuilders, teachers, a psychologist who seems mentally unstable and a walking blue fur coat wrapped around a person.
Then the groups start to splinter. A group of three in the Titans tribe, buff types, begin to form an alliance based on their strength and start looking for targets. You think you’d wait to figure out if they were even up for tribal council first or spend their time helping build their derelict camp.
At Immunity, Jonathan reveals that the AFL winner’s trophy is this year’s immunity idol. Then there is another pretty brutal defeat of the Titans, as they once again miscommunicate and put their strongest players where they shouldn’t be, truly earning them the loss. Titans go to tribal with JLP.
Lecturer Jess wants the team to discuss why they lost, earning her the first target on her back of the year. The brawny trio of Nathan, Frankie and Jaden get together to organise her demise and the plan spreads quickly.
Great, the audience may think, the big guns are going to call the shots all the way to merge. Not so! A few of the less physically gifted Titans come up with counter plans. A plan to remove Frankie, the only girl in the brawn alliance, gains momentum. Someone, at some point, says there are “Too many strong girls” in the tribe. Which makes me angry, and I wish the girls would form an alliance to fight getting picked off for this reason.
The brawny trio go into tribal feeling pretty cocky and sure of themselves. Big guy Nathan who fancies himself leader chews on a stick Dirty Harry style. As JLP starts to read the votes (after calling their tribe TITANIC failures OWNED) it looks like the brawny three will win before more and more votes for Frankie (the only girl of the three,) racks up 7 votes, and is the first survivor to be voted out this season. A blindside day one is rare. A blindside on a strength-dominant player is even rarer, it was very entertaining.
Overall, a very strong opening to what is hopefully another world-renowned season of Survivor AU. We get a look at some of the people who might lead the way in the beginning, a vision of a more balanced season challenges-wise, and a great blindside in ep One!
What did you all think? Follow me on Twitter Lil_Nazza for my nightly ramblings on the SurvivorAU hashtag!