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I figure there's not going to be a new board opened for New Zealand Survivor and it's close enough to Australian Survivor to go here.
The current setup within the tribe and group dynamics as i see it is as follows.
Hermosa Tribe:
The power nucleus of this tribe at the moment seems to be with Mike, Georgia and Shannon. The younger, fit and attractive core. The narrative puts Mike out in the front of things likening himself to "Captain Jack Sparrow" as his last name is Sparrow and who is at the top of this tribe's chain of command but i suspect in all reality Georgia is the actual captain of this ship and not Mike. He comes across as a bit clueless like going off on his own to bring in Nate as their 4th and after Georgia and Shannon's dismissal of this idea quickly realizing how foolish it was. I'm seeing his future to be the shield for Georgia/Shannon, i'll be surprised if he ends up having success beyond that but maybe he'll learn more as things progress.
Out of these three Georgia early on appears to be the strongest all around and overall from what i'm seeing. Although Shannon could easily emerge since Georgia is more out in the front early.
Outside of these 3 there's Barb and Nate the older survivors of the group. Being much older and perceived as weak has put them in more of an outside position and easy targets. Mike initially tried to bring in Nate to the core but the girls weren't having that and things have since adjusted to bringing Lee into the 4.
Both Nate and Barb appear to be interesting characters. Nate's police background gives him that insight seen from people in the US version like Tony/Sarah and Barb seems like a tough fighter but they will both need time to find a better position in the group.
[An intriguing side note is that Nate appears to be on to Georgia and instincts are not to trust her, curious to see how this develops]
Also, another side note is for some reason i keep calling Nate, Sam which i just realized as i was putting his picture up lol. Not sure why i keep associating him with "Sam" but it's one of those things where i think of the name Sam with him
Lee's an interesting character on the tribe. He was brought into the power core late and so he's still kind of outside of the 3 but he's in enough to have room where he can work from. He's likable, positive attitude. I find his position to be the most interesting as there's numerous paths things could go down with him... he could pull a bro thing with Mike and things go in a direction from there, he could get in with Shannon/Georgia replacing Mike or perhaps split up Shannon/Georgia and get in with one of them. Or, he could just go with the flow and go where that takes him. I'm liking his chances at the moment.
Then you have Jak, he's been invisible and so it's difficult to have much opinion on him either way. The only thing that's been shown of him is that he's a bit high maintenance. I can't tell where he fits into the tribe yet. I don't see him being in with the core 4. In "Captain Mike"'s breakdown he listed Jak as "the parrot" who will just go along and so i'm guessing Jak will find himself in the position of needing to suck up to the others for now.
Dee was the first evicted on this tribe, i knew from the start with her first comments she wasn't going to do well in having too much arrogance and being so eager to play the villainous role. It was quite predictable she wouldn't last. I wasn't too bothered with her going tbh.
The Hermosa tribe hasn't been as interesting but i do think there's potential for this tribe. I'm liking the potential of Georgia, Shannon and Lee and think there's a few sneaky interesting scenarios that could pop up depending how a few things fall here and there.
Then there's the...
Mogoton tribe.
This tribe has been a bit more active and in flux, dynamics have shifted a bit more.
Shay seems to be at the center of most things so far. She's proving early to be quite an interesting gamer. Willing to pretty much cut anyone at any time, remaining open minded to what comes her way and embracing this fluid movement. I think out of both tribes she's been the early standout.
From Shay branches out to Sala who at least from this point she seems to have some connection to.
Sala from my early impressions seems likable and to have some game potential but i feel he might be too stuck in his ways. He's on this whole "honor and loyalty" feeling which could become an anchor.
These two were linked up with Lou and Tony as a "solid" four as the episode 2 progressed.
Tony's the typical older survivor stuck in his ways and jumping right out into the front of things as the leader and my way is the only way. I knew from this he didn't have much of a future. I was surprised to see him in with a core subgroup, i feel like if this was USA Survivor he would've been on the outside and had little chance but that is one of the things i find interesting about Australian Survivor and now New Zealand is there tends to be more of that oldschool Survivor found therein... only briefly, however as the more modern thinking quickly closed in and changed the course of this tribe.
Lou, i'm unsure of her at the moment. I'm feeling like she does have potential but might be a little too strong willed and stubborn. The way she wouldn't bend to this idea of getting Tony out like Sala wouldn't bend gave me some concern about her but it's still way too early for anything definitive.
Outside of those 4 you had Tom and Avi.
Avi is proving to be a very interesting survivor. I'd say behind Shay he was the person who's standing out most. From the main narrative it seemed to be Avi that led the flow of things away from Tom and onto Tony. He also flipped things around to where he wasn't connecting to many people to having connections with people. I liked what i saw from him in the 2nd episode in particular.
Tom i'm unsure of, he's been on the outside of things. He's been a target. His performance in the competitions and connection to Avi probably is what's keeping him alive at the moment. With Avi gaining more ground in the tribe it could help him. There could also be a situation where Avi needs to back off a bit now and allow the flow to go against Tom and so it's difficult to get an idea of what kind of potential Tom has right now.
Izzy is probably my early favorite. In the first episode the thing that stood out most was when the two tribes were competing against each other to grab whatever they could find and Izzy was stealing whatever the other tribe grabbed and taking it to her tribe lol... that cracked me up and caught my attention. Then she kind of fell backward into being an early target and sick and unsure if she was even going to make it through the next few days let alone survive long term. From what i can tell she seems to have bounced back okay. I'm a big fan of players in both Survivor and Big Brother who face adversity and she's already facing strong adversity and still surviving and so i'm liking that. I can't tell what connections if any she's made though. I'm hoping she can survive awhile.
Hannah was the heavy weights lifter, rollerderby girl, the narrative surrounding her was don't judge a book by it's cover. She initially was connected to Shay who then betrayed her as the group was perceiving Hannah to be their weakest link and she became a target.
Redemption Island is a theme of this season and so both Dee and Hannah upon being voted out then were on Redemption Island and had to battle each other to see who continues on and who doesn't. Hannah defeated Dee in the classic comp of building the stick to be sturdy and long enough to grab the keys and pull them back in. Tony being the next person voted out will then go on to face Hannah and it will continue until one person is able to come back with a second chance life. Not personally a fan of Redemption Island but it is what it is.
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Closing thoughts
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So far, it's decent. The Australian and now New Zealand versions doesn't have as good of editing as the USA version and it's an overall slower pace than all of the blind sides and big moves that the US version has tried to bring to the forefront more and more. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. If there's a blindside and big move every week it begins to lose some of that impact and lessens the excitement for when these things do happen naturally to the causality of group dynamics versus pushing it out to the forefront for entertainment purpose. when it simply becomes a weekly occurrence. For me personally i prefer a slower pace with focus on the tribe/group dynamics and relationships and things like this rather than trying to build up all of these blindsides and big moves every week. If someone prefers that more action styled modern USA Survivor they might find themselves bored with Australia or New Zealand's version but for me it's a nice mix and balance of oldschool and newschool and i welcome both of these new additions to my Survivor watching. There's some interesting people and some good possibilities to follow and so for now i'm going to keep watching. Hopefully there's no twist like what happened in Australian Survivor that almost ruined the season.
I doubt i'm going to actively discuss Survivor New Zealand but if something inspires me to comment then i will. I just felt like creating a foundation so something of it exists.
If anyone else wants to add their insights or opinions, or anything i might've missed or that you want to express. Go for it.
Ohhhhh. One final note. Why do these other versions feel the need to get a Jeff Probst clone? Haha. It's weird to me. Is Probst that integral to Survivor that any other version must clone him? Umm i'm sure you could have any host and it will work just fine it doesn't have to be a Probst clone if anything it would help not to do this. If for some reason anyone from Australian and New Zealand Survivor ever reads this... please stop. No more Probst clones. An original female host that is nothing like Probst might bring something fresh for example. There's absolutely no need for some guy to dress up like Probst and act like Probst for Survivor.
Edited (05/12/17 02:11 AM)
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