Academic

2010 TV roundup, part 1

By Tung Yin

I haven't watched the "Lost" finale yet (last night went to "The Celebrity Apprentice") and tonight is "24" time, so "Lost" will have to wait until Tuesday night . . . .

Meanwhile, it's been a week, and I'm still trying to understand how Parvati did not win "Survivor: Heroes v. Villains."  But before getting into that, I wanted to say that I thought this was by far and away my favorite season of "Survivor."  In the typical seasons, the first 1-5 episodes are kind of blah from the social interaction perspective because everyone is unknown, and it takes a while for tribal dynamics to become apparent.  With all-star seasons, on the other hand, that's not the case.  Add to that the bomb throwers, both expected (Russell) and unexpected (James), and it's an explosive mix.  I thought the season would have a let down once the Russell-Boston Rob feud ended with the latter being voted off (pre-jury, no less), but I was wrong.

Now, as to the ultimate result, I think Sandra is not as undeserving as I might have thought at the beginning of the season.  She did two things that impressed me: (1) finding the hidden immunity idol and, more importantly, keeping quiet about it; and (2) exploiting the jury's anti-Russell sentiment during the final Tribal Council.  Therefore, she did two things more than the previous season's winner (Natalie, over Russell) did.

However, to me, Parvati outplayed both Sandra and Russell.  I wasn't a Parvati fan before, as I find the "flirt with guys" strategy kind of annoying, but I have to concede that for this season, she displayed an incredible combination of challenge competence and uncanny skill at reading people.  The episode where she figured out that her friend Amanda was lying to her about being a target, and thereby using the 2 immunity idols she had to protect her vulnerable fellow villains was amazing.

Obviously, the jury had it out for her because of her tight alliance with Russell, so maybe there's not much she could have done.  I thought her "Russell was a dragon that I found and tamed as my pet" speech was pretty good, but maybe she should have spent more time assuaging the feelings of the jury members by saying something like, "Jury members, it wasn't personal when I conspired to get you voted out; it was entirely in self-defense, because I was constantly targeted.  Sandra likes to lie low and draw no attention, but I couldn't do that.  I had to protect myself by coming up with ways to vote off those who wanted to get rid of me.  It was all in self-defense."

Oh well, on to "Celebrity Apprentice."  Not much to say here, except that wow, that finale show sure is full of filler.  My wife had control of the remote for the show and skipped things more aggressively than I would have (I had to request rewind to hear from Rod Blago. . . .  Loved it when Trump asked who thought Rod was guilty, and Michael Johnson raised his hand).  I had predicted that the finale would be Sharon v. Holly, about which I was half-wrong (but I did have Bret in the final 3).  Both project managers did good jobs, so either one would have been fine as the winner -- unlike last season, which had the awful Joan Rivers beating Annie Duke in a totally egregious result.

V ended last week with a pretty strong episode in which our skies turn red, which is never a good thing.  There was ambiguity, which would have been good if the show had generated enough buzz to have people talking about it: did Marcus revive Joshua because Marcus is also 5th Column, or to torture Joshua for information?; do the Vs really have no natural emotions (odd that Anna expressed such rage, then) or has Anna been suppressing them through her "bliss"?  Of course, there was also stupidity: why did Ryan leave his girlfriend alone with the Vs, and then accept Anna's word that she had died in childbirth?; why did the priest effectively announce publicly that he was 5th Column with his sermon?

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"24" series finale is tonight, and "FlashForward" (thank goodness) on Thursday.  And "Burn Notice" starts up again next week!

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on May 24, 2010 (boomark / email).