bluepenquin
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4-Time VolleyTalk Poster of the Year (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016), All-VolleyTalk 1st Team (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016)
Posts: 12,447
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Post by bluepenquin on Mar 7, 2024 14:30:37 GMT -5
The orange team has 'predictably' dominated the challenges thus far. Hunter is the most physical player and has a huge impact in the challenges - and then Venus appears to be a puzzle master. The combination should be highly effective together. They do have Liz, who appears to be a particularly annoying player. Jess was a completely uninteresting player - which was bad for e2, but good going forward (now that she is gone). I liked Jess and am sad to see her go. I've got all my eggs in the Venus basket now. Liz is something else. She might be the most annoying sit-out bench cheerleader in Survivor history. If they ever go to tribal council, I would vote her out just for those chants. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next challenge because the new rule (due to Claire sitting out all the time) means that Liz will be required to compete in the next challenge. They would be making a mistake if they leave out Venus if there is a puzzle aspect at the end (spoiler - there always is one). I will say - that Venus does come across as 'why is everyone ganging up on me' too much, but I still like her as of now. She needs to adapt and move on. Liz was already very annoying before the sit out chants. Other than her - I really liked that challenge. It was physically very difficult - and the joy from winning that challenge was apparent to the participants (it was like winning a very long tug of war). Just realized - they will have to sit out 2 of the other 5 on the tribe next week - that will be an interesting decision for them. I just don't see Jess as a good or interesting player. She struggled coming up with a coherent strategy - and was mostly out of touch with the entire tribe. That can happen to anyone, but I think her personality made this more likely. But that would be a difficult tribe to work with.
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 7, 2024 15:57:43 GMT -5
If you have Paramount Plus and are looking to get into The Challenge, I might suggest World Championship if you haven't seen it already. It has a mix of Challenge USA players (Sarah, Danny, Justine and--unfortunately--Ben), players from international spin-offs, and Challenge legends. CT isn't on that season, but Bananas is, along with other legends like Darrell, Jordan, Wes, Jodi, KellyAnne, Tori, Theo, etc.). Also, everyone has different taste, but I tend to prefer the team seasons. So even though Inferno 1 is hard to find, the more accessible Inferno 2 is also really good, and CT is a major player on that season. From the little I've seen of the Challenge, I like how much the show mixes up the format. Especially compared to New Era Survivor being the same thing for 6 seasons now. Yeah, The Challenge changes its format basically every season. The main formats are team, individual and pairs. But within those structures, there is a lot of variety in how they handle who goes into elimination (e.g. last place automatically in, winners choose, house votes, random draws, callouts). In pair seasons, they sometimes have rivals, exes, or veterans paired with newbies (Fresh Meat II is this format). There's also a lot of variety in challenge design, way more than what Survivor has. I think Survivor is the more interesting game at its core, mostly because of the jury. But I like The Challenge as well. It's different in that you can get away with having a bad social game if you can just win the challenges because there's no jury to worry about. A good social game is still important because that helps you stay out of elimination in the first place, but there are Challenge winners who never could have won Survivor.
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 8, 2024 1:00:45 GMT -5
I thought last week was so much fun. Then this week, most of the cast annoyed me. Also, I'm sick of people making fake idols. That took up too much of the episode with very little payoff and honestly just feel mean. I would've rather watched the Metallica vs Taylor Swift song naming contest (jkjk but Charlie starting off with "All of the Girls You Loved Before" was such a choice).
Based on what we've seen so far, I'm interested in what would happen if the green tribe goes to tribal council. Also, I want to see Venus decimate her tribe of extroverts because I love her fury in confessionals.
(Side note: CT of Traitors S2 is making me want to watch him in The Challenge.) The thing about CT is that he is a real jerk on his early Challenge seasons (a fairly entertaining jerk, don't get me wrong, but still). The older version of him is nicer but still has some jerk tendencies. Lol, we saw this again in the Traitors finale. No matter what his sycophantic fans (basically the Parvati fans of The Challenge) say, CT is and always has been a very selfish player. And Trishelle remains terrible. I did enjoy MJ saying that they had "grifter energy" at the reunion.
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Post by storyteller on Mar 8, 2024 12:11:07 GMT -5
The thing about CT is that he is a real jerk on his early Challenge seasons (a fairly entertaining jerk, don't get me wrong, but still). The older version of him is nicer but still has some jerk tendencies. Lol, we saw this again in the Traitors finale. No matter what his sycophantic fans (basically the Parvati fans of The Challenge) say, CT is and always has been a very selfish player. And Trishelle remains terrible. I did enjoy MJ saying that they had "grifter energy" at the reunion. Haha yes! I thought about your CT comments after that move. I actually liked the move from a gameplay and entertaining TV standpoint, but it's so frustrating that they won't own it. Especially after they both spent the whole season talking about how loyal and faithful they were. And then for Trishelle to cry every time someone didn't hand her a shield or do what benefitted her game and then be surprised MJ is still mad at her?? I hope she's not in any of the good Challenge seasons because I never want to see her on my TV again lol
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 8, 2024 16:25:06 GMT -5
Lol, we saw this again in the Traitors finale. No matter what his sycophantic fans (basically the Parvati fans of The Challenge) say, CT is and always has been a very selfish player. And Trishelle remains terrible. I did enjoy MJ saying that they had "grifter energy" at the reunion. Haha yes! I thought about your CT comments after that move. I actually liked the move from a gameplay and entertaining TV standpoint, but it's so frustrating that they won't own it. Especially after they both spent the whole season talking about how loyal and faithful they were. And then for Trishelle to cry every time someone didn't hand her a shield or do what benefitted her game and then be surprised MJ is still mad at her?? I hope she's not in any of the good Challenge seasons because I never want to see her on my TV again lol I still haven't watched the whole episode yet. I immediately skipped to the end to see who won, saw that it was only CT and Trishelle, and then I did something else, lol. Most of what I've seen has been on Twitter. But yeah, I'd respect them more if they just said that they're greedy, so that's why they voted MJ out. If someone took ~$70K from me when they didn't need to (this isn't like Survivor where there can only be one winner), I'd probably block them too. MJ is 100% right about what happened at the end, but since she was one of the people who banished Sandra, I don't feel that bad for her. This ended up being the worst-case scenario. In another world, Kate takes out Trishelle before getting banished, and then Sandra, Sheree, and MJ banish CT and win the game. I also had no respect for Dan's pathetic attempt to justify blowing up Phaedra's game. His argument made no sense, since he and Phaedra could have won the game together (well, if he wasn't one of the most incompetent players in franchise history). And at that point, he was done. There was a zero percent chance that anyone would risk ending the game without him banished, so all he did was make it impossible for the only traitor who actually played well.
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 8, 2024 23:41:22 GMT -5
I liked Jess and am sad to see her go. I've got all my eggs in the Venus basket now. Liz is something else. She might be the most annoying sit-out bench cheerleader in Survivor history. If they ever go to tribal council, I would vote her out just for those chants. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next challenge because the new rule (due to Claire sitting out all the time) means that Liz will be required to compete in the next challenge. They would be making a mistake if they leave out Venus if there is a puzzle aspect at the end (spoiler - there always is one). I will say - that Venus does come across as 'why is everyone ganging up on me' too much, but I still like her as of now. She needs to adapt and move on. Liz was already very annoying before the sit out chants. Other than her - I really liked that challenge. It was physically very difficult - and the joy from winning that challenge was apparent to the participants (it was like winning a very long tug of war). Just realized - they will have to sit out 2 of the other 5 on the tribe next week - that will be an interesting decision for them. I just don't see Jess as a good or interesting player. She struggled coming up with a coherent strategy - and was mostly out of touch with the entire tribe. That can happen to anyone, but I think her personality made this more likely. But that would be a difficult tribe to work with. Jess wasn't a very good player. I just liked her personality (this is even more true after watching her exit interviews), which is why I was sad to see her go.
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Post by storyteller on Mar 9, 2024 23:47:02 GMT -5
Haha yes! I thought about your CT comments after that move. I actually liked the move from a gameplay and entertaining TV standpoint, but it's so frustrating that they won't own it. Especially after they both spent the whole season talking about how loyal and faithful they were. And then for Trishelle to cry every time someone didn't hand her a shield or do what benefitted her game and then be surprised MJ is still mad at her?? I hope she's not in any of the good Challenge seasons because I never want to see her on my TV again lol I still haven't watched the whole episode yet. I immediately skipped to the end to see who won, saw that it was only CT and Trishelle, and then I did something else, lol. Most of what I've seen has been on Twitter. But yeah, I'd respect them more if they just said that they're greedy, so that's why they voted MJ out. If someone took ~$70K from me when they didn't need to (this isn't like Survivor where there can only be one winner), I'd probably block them too. MJ is 100% right about what happened at the end, but since she was one of the people who banished Sandra, I don't feel that bad for her. This ended up being the worst-case scenario. In another world, Kate takes out Trishelle before getting banished, and then Sandra, Sheree, and MJ banish CT and win the game. I also had no respect for Dan's pathetic attempt to justify blowing up Phaedra's game. His argument made no sense, since he and Phaedra could have won the game together (well, if he wasn't one of the most incompetent players in franchise history). And at that point, he was done. There was a zero percent chance that anyone would risk ending the game without him banished, so all he did was make it impossible for the only traitor who actually played well. The finale really was a worst-case scenario. 😠I wanted a Sandra win so bad. She played a great game, I just don't know if most of the cast was there strategically.
Dan throwing Phaedra under the bus nearly ruined the season for me. I don't know if Phaedra could've won, but Dan made sure she wouldn't.
What Survivor players would you want to see on future Traitors seasons? It looks like Richard Hatch is rumored.
I want to see one of the Housewives go after Tyson at a round table lol
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 10, 2024 1:15:11 GMT -5
I still haven't watched the whole episode yet. I immediately skipped to the end to see who won, saw that it was only CT and Trishelle, and then I did something else, lol. Most of what I've seen has been on Twitter. But yeah, I'd respect them more if they just said that they're greedy, so that's why they voted MJ out. If someone took ~$70K from me when they didn't need to (this isn't like Survivor where there can only be one winner), I'd probably block them too. MJ is 100% right about what happened at the end, but since she was one of the people who banished Sandra, I don't feel that bad for her. This ended up being the worst-case scenario. In another world, Kate takes out Trishelle before getting banished, and then Sandra, Sheree, and MJ banish CT and win the game. I also had no respect for Dan's pathetic attempt to justify blowing up Phaedra's game. His argument made no sense, since he and Phaedra could have won the game together (well, if he wasn't one of the most incompetent players in franchise history). And at that point, he was done. There was a zero percent chance that anyone would risk ending the game without him banished, so all he did was make it impossible for the only traitor who actually played well. The finale really was a worst-case scenario. 😠I wanted a Sandra win so bad. She played a great game, I just don't know if most of the cast was there strategically.
Dan throwing Phaedra under the bus nearly ruined the season for me. I don't know if Phaedra could've won, but Dan made sure she wouldn't.
What Survivor players would you want to see on future Traitors seasons? It looks like Richard Hatch is rumored.
I want to see one of the Housewives go after Tyson at a round table lol The only good thing about Dan ruining Phaedra's game was that she lit him on fire at the roundtable, in her interviews with various media outlets and at the reunion. I forgot to mention earlier, but when Andy Cohen asked Dan if he regretted the move, he said that he didn't, which is hilarious. So even though it failed spectacularly, Dan would still do it? I'd respect him more if he said that he regrets it because it obviously didn't work, so he hurt Phaedra for no reason. As for Survivor players, Tyson is one of my least favorite people on the planet, so the only way I'd want to see him on The Traitors if I was guaranteed that he loses in humiliating fashion the way he did on The Challenge USA. Richard would be...interesting. Off the top of my head, I'd like to see Tony, Courtney Yates, Michele, Taj, Todd, Ami, Fabio, Dom, Rupert, Fairplay, Rob C, Fishbach, Earl, JT, Coach, Russell, Hayden, Kass, Brice, Natalie A, Jeremy, Adam, Michaela, Chris Noble, Angelina, Davie, Christian, Mike White, Wendy Diaz, Lauren Beck, Shan, Mike Turner, Gabler, Yam Yam, Kaleb, Emily, etc. I'm sure I forgot some.
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Post by XAsstCoach on Mar 10, 2024 12:26:16 GMT -5
Are Jalinsky and Jess the two most painful players to watch in Survivor history?
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 10, 2024 15:35:52 GMT -5
Are Jalinsky and Jess the two most painful players to watch in Survivor history? I wouldn't even say they're the most in the last two seasons. Hannah and Brandon in 45 were worse. Hell, most of the 45 cast was worse.
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Post by XAsstCoach on Mar 10, 2024 18:20:23 GMT -5
I wouldn't even say they're the most in the last two seasons. Hannah and Brandon in 45 were worse. Hell, most of the 45 cast was worse. 😂 Don’t think any of the cast from S45 were as clueless about the game as Jelinsky and Jess. Bhanu’s rant at the challenge and meltdown at the TC was also hard to watch. 🤣 Now, I didn’t get the joke Hunter made at the challenge that got the other two tribes laughing…Last name, First out.
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 13, 2024 20:28:50 GMT -5
Man, I'm dismayed that Randen got medevaced. Yanu's glee at getting their "first win" (an actual Kenzie quote) makes me want them to keep losing. A player on another tribe getting pulled from the game because medical is concerned that he could get nerve damage is not a "win."
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Post by storyteller on Mar 13, 2024 23:37:38 GMT -5
Man, I'm dismayed that Randen got medevaced. Yanu's glee at getting their "first win" (an actual Kenzie quote) makes me want them to keep losing. A player on another tribe getting pulled from the game because medical is concerned that he could get nerve damage is not a "win." Ugh, I hated that episode. Kenzie's quote annoyed me and so did the ending being framed as Bhanu's prayers being answered. Also, Jeff emphasizing that someone's loss was their gain. Yanu tribe is not the main character of the season. Venus is! (At least for me.) I'm not feeling this season yet. I think the first 2 eps being 2 hours long did more harm than good.
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 13, 2024 23:40:33 GMT -5
Man, I'm dismayed that Randen got medevaced. Yanu's glee at getting their "first win" (an actual Kenzie quote) makes me want them to keep losing. A player on another tribe getting pulled from the game because medical is concerned that he could get nerve damage is not a "win." Ugh, I hated that episode. Kenzie's quote annoyed me and so did the ending being framed as Bhanu's prayers being answered. Also, Jeff emphasizing that someone's loss was their gain. Yanu tribe is not the main character of the season. Venus is! (At least for me.) I'm not feeling this season yet. I think the first 2 eps being 2 hours long did more harm than good. Yeah, I agree with all of that. I think the first two-hour episode was fine because it was a premiere, and Jelinsky basically put up a quadruple double in terms of entertainment. The second episode was not very good, and this one wasn't either. And my Venus/Randen alliance is now dead.
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 13, 2024 23:47:57 GMT -5
Oh, also, I'm very anti-Australian Survivor for the most part. But I'll give them credit for one thing. They let you leave the game for 24 hours to get checked out, and then if you're okay, you get to come back instead of just being pulled permanently like what US Survivor does. I think this would have to be depend on the situation. I would say that if you're not going to miss a tribal council, as was the case with Randen, then this rule should be adopted. But if it was Bhanu or anyone else from Yanu, then I think they would need to be out. You shouldn't be able to get immunity from tribal due to injury.
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