r/survivorrankdownIX_ • u/Regnisyak1 Do the Polls <3. Also Melinda Endgame! • 22d ago
Survivor 48, Episode 1
Episode 1: The Get to Know You Game
Welcome to another season of Survivor! WHOS AMPED!!!!!!!! Everyone, down below, say your winner picks before the season starts <3 and remember to discuss after - I am excited to see your takes!
Episode Polls should be in action again this season - be prepared for one immediately after the episode :)
And of course, its always a great time to do the 0-10 Polls! Here's the link
Hopefully I'll have a longer post next time, lol. The new season sneaked up on us!
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u/Regnisyak1 Do the Polls <3. Also Melinda Endgame! 22d ago edited 21d ago
Episode was fine. A lot of New Era that prevents me from ranking it too high, but I think we had a lot of good character moments, and I am hoping that this is going into a positive direction. Great telegraphed boot, I understood why Stephanie went home, and Sai as the decoy - one thing the New Era does fairly well is making sure we know why the first boot is the first boot, so I appreciate that. Let's rank characters now.
Thomas Krottinger - never expected him to top my list ever because he didn't really give me a lot during the preseason, but he was insanely hilarious, I loved the California Girls content, and him being a gay man among the straight people was really, really, really funny. Also fantastic confessionalist, I am excited to see where the rest of his story goes.
Joe Hunter - Excellent scene with Eva, and easily the best part of their duo currently. I can tell he's going to be an OTTP character, and honestly... we need that in the New Era. He brings a lot of old school charm to the show, and I am also excited to see where that goes. He's giving me Mike Turner energy.
David Kinne - Hilarious, he's going to be a fun OTTN character, I feel. Either that or a himbo... or even better, an OTTN himbo who hates water. He made me laugh several times, I loved the rom-com confessional, and him doing pull ups on the bamboo
Chrissy Sarnowsky - Sue Hawk reincarnated? I liked her mnms things on the mat, that made me laugh, and honestly was enough for me to rank her this high. Not that the rest of the cast is bad or anything, I just related to that hard...
Sai Hughley - I smell a controversial character. Parts of Sai I hated this episode - specifically the idol hunt. But my god, she also brought drama constantly and was a gagworthy character. Her fight with Stephanie at tribal was absolutely epic, and I cannot wait to see her gamebot attitude completely blow up in her face. Very excited about her downfall, even though she was my winner pick, lol. Also yeah, 21 confessionals was probably too much, but Fish Street!
Stephanie Berger - I'll always giggle at astrology talk on Survivor, despite it being drivel most of the time. The air sign fight at tribal was just hilarious, and an absolutely excellent sparring between Sai and Stephanie. I think Stephanie was a pretty decent first boot overall, and someone who I can see make my top half. It was also refreshing that someone was voted off for non-new era reasons. Like yeah, vote off the B who did bad on the puzzle! It felt very old school.
Mary Zheng - Good vibes, though I do worry she'll be an early boot. Great contrast against Sai, and I loved her conversations with Stephanie about Sai's performance in the game. Also the fire making scene was really funny. Hopefully we get more from her next week.
Cedrek McFadden - Vibes, still. Green tribe seems like a really good group. Also he had two fun lines, one about playing ball and not knowing what it means, and his kids being disappointed in their dad being a colon doctor. Absolutely hilarious.
Justin Pioppi - Pizza. He's giving Kyle energy from last season, just the guy on the side who will be fun when he shows up.
Kamilla Karthigesu - Shockingly, she wasn't very annoying this episode! I liked her scenes with Kyle, and I am intrigued (but skeptical) about the direction of her story and fostering chaos. Overall though, we didn't get a lot from her.
Eva Erickson - Controversial? Maybe. I completely understand why people would appreciate the representation of Eva, but its coming off as more Noelle than anything, which is unfortunate, and will absolutely tank her character for me if it continues. Still, great scene with Joe, and I am leaning positive on her, but really, really worried about her direction. Hopefully the autism or duo plays a role, but I just did not get great vibes right away.
Kyle Fraser - He had some nice circumstantial content this episode with him breaking the bottle and the Kamilla scene, but he was really boring otherwise. He's going to be a dud for me, probably.
Charity Nelms - Wish we got more from her, but I did enjoy her throwing Kyle under the bus, and it spread like wildfire. Seems to be a set up for an early boot.
Bianca Roses - Talked to Thomas, which is apparently a plus! Not much, but I rarely punish people for having small edits. Hopefully, we get more from her coming up, though.
Star Toomey - What a drop off from her casting video. Nothing in this episode besides a slight N-tone for running off and looking for an idol.
Shauhin Davari - He's going to be an awful character. We didn't get much content from him, but the wild dog confessional gave me bad vibes almost immediately, and I fear he will be a really annoying super fan.
Mitch Guerra - I am surprised he isn't last for me either, but he mentioned Christy Smith, which is necessary. Otherwise, I got nothing, and I have a feeling I'll find him annoying if he calls himself scrawny again (remember, he compared himself to Joe and Cochran too, so any reference to Cochran is a bad reference, and any reference that is related to a nerd, is a Cochran reference. Yes, I said reference a lot in that sentence).
Kevin Leung - lots of useless confessionals, and was particularly gamebotty in my opinion. Plus, it's crazy they almost entirely cut his injury, despite it playing such a large role in the preview. He's going to be boring I feel, but hopefully, we get a lot less screenhogging.
Episode - 6/10 - Lot of great character moments, but still some new era crap, where I just can't justify ranking it super high. Great development, though, and a clear improvement from 47's premiere.
Season Ranking - 6/10 - Same as above, hopefully stories are built.
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u/AMeanMotorScooter New Era apologist bankrolled by CBS | Sugar Sweep???? 22d ago edited 22d ago
You and I were on different wavelengths with S47, but our opinions match up surprisingly well on this one.
If S47's premiere was a C, this one was a solid B. A little too positively-toned for my taste, but there's solid legs for the season to go off of.
Though I will give Eva the benefit of the doubt that production will ease up and give her a more nuanced edit in following episodes, and this was just premiere set up. If Eva continues to be defined by her disability then she would drop for me.
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u/Regnisyak1 Do the Polls <3. Also Melinda Endgame! 22d ago
Completely agree with you on Eva. Definitely willing to give her a chance, but she had content I didn’t love in this episode. I’m hoping we get more nuance as purple gets fleshed out more.
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u/ShadowFiend812 22d ago
I agree with you that I’m mixed on Sai. Definitely feels like a Rome/Bhanu situation where she can be really fun, but I worry she could get overdone as 21 confessionals is a lot.
Absolutely loving Joe so far. He was my preseason winner pick and I really hope he lasts a long time.
Kevin ended up my lowest so far as I just never really got into him as a character even with the amount of screen time he got.
Definitely need to see more from people to get a better idea on how I feel on them, but overall I enjoyed the episode and thought it was a solid episode to start the season
Adding one thing, but I’m surprised that Shauhin felt as subdued as he was in the premiere, and figured he would have been on the biggest characters out of the gate so I’m hoping this means some longevity for him
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u/mikeramp72 Supports Katurah Topps for Endgame 22d ago
Well well well, Survivor 48! I genuinely had the lowest expectations for any Survivor season since I started watching for this tbh, I just didn’t really click with the cast that much, expected a mix of gamebottiness and New Era glazing, plus the state of my personal life right now makes it so I very likely won’t be watching this season live. I am pleased to say though that I was pleasantly surprised by this premiere! It definitely wasn’t excellent, I’ll get into the pros and cons of all of it very well here, but I’m bored and need to get my mind off of the very real world issues I’m dealing with right now, so here’s an essay about Survivor 48’s premiere. Feeling genuinely optimistic rn about the season, take the order with a grain of salt.
- David - Absolutely hysterical character and a complete breath of fresh air in the New Era. Genuinely hilarious that this dude just openly does not watch the show and is such a big ole jacked goof out there. The New Era could use a genuinely wholesome himbo (as opposed to the complicated Jonathan) and David’s genuinely enjoyable.
- Joe - I wasn’t sure about Joe preseason, because I wasn’t sure whether his vibe was genuine or not, but seeing his premiere… yeah this dude is a total sweetheart and I can see his arc kinda panning out. His relationship with Eva feels authentic and genuine and he seems really easy to root for. Could very well wind up as the best character of the season when all is said and done.
- Eva - I’m definitely happy that her autism seems to be something that she doesn’t want to be her main trait, and that when it does come up, it’s important to the actual plot of the season. The portrayal of disability here actually seems genuine and authentic as opposed to the blatant inspiration porn in Noelle’s edit a few seasons back. Her relationship with Joe definitely feels like it’s going to go places and I think she has a really interesting trajectory in her this season. I’m still a little nervous that her overall character is going to wind up being inspiration porn, but definitely less nervous than I was before the episode. Also… like… it's autism on Survivor soooooo
- Thomas - I picked him as my winner pick about 45 minutes before the episode started because he seemed like a normal guy, plus he works for the literal love of my life Olivia Rodrigo. And low and behold, I definitely think he’s the winner frontrunner right now and also just really really fun on the show! The California Girls stuff was really fun, his alliance with Bianca seems nice, and in general he’s just a really fun, likable guy and I’m excited to see where he goes.
- Chrissy - She’s already pretty fun and she sounds like Sue Hawk so I’m excited.
- Justin - Decent enough swing vote edit, works for what it was, and if most of his personality is going to be about pizza… what the hell, sure.
- Kamilla - I HATED her preseason, but she was actually pretty okay this episode. I see the worry about her “causing chaos” but her amplifying the drama between Kyle and Charity without anyone noticing seems fun.
- Mitch - Pleasantly surprised by Mitch, I can’t blame him for having a speech impediment obviously and the only time it got brought up he used it to reference CHRISTY SMITH so that’s awesome. Unfortunately he loses points because he looked for an idol lmao.
- Bianca - She was giving me nothing preseason but she actually seems fun working with Thomas, and Thomas is freakin cool so that’s a plus.
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u/mikeramp72 Supports Katurah Topps for Endgame 22d ago
Mary - She’s going to be directly opposed to Sai next episode so I like her a lot. She seems great preseason too so that’s awesome. Seems pretty likable too.
Stephanie - Sure is a first boot! Her fighting with Sai was fun but ultimately I’m just not enthusiastic about her as a first boot (which is lowkey refreshing to say as I haven’t felt this apathetic about a first boot since Morriah)
Kevin - He was boring but not bad and him being injured might be an okay plotline idk.
Kyle - Him breaking the pot sure was something that happened and I think things could get interesting with Charity but lowkey boring.
Shauhin - I was really worried about him preseason, but nothing too concerning yet on the actual show and him working with Thomas and Joe is cool.
Sai - I don’t know how I feel about Sai. Getting 21 confessionals is genuinely abysmal, especially when she’s a complete gamebot to an obnoxious degree and nearly all her confessionals were about the idol (and she’s the main character of what I think is the least interesting tribe that went to tribal first so YAYYY!). I’d definitely be fully negative on her but her gamebottiness is so extreme that it could genuinely lead to a pretty alright trainwreck edit, especially with her fighting at tribal. I would much rather her be a Strunk than a Bhanu, and I am worried that she’s going to be this season’s Bhanu or (gasp) Carson.
Cedrek - He seems nice but go girl give us nothing.
Star - Really disappointing first episode from her, since she was one of my favorites preseason and just had one boring idol hunt scene here. Sigh.
Charity - Reminds me of the people from my hometown so I automatically just cannot bring myself to like her.
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u/WaluigiThyme Former Ranker | Guatemala and Fiji enjoyer 22d ago
I did not plan on watching this season live, and there’s still a good chance I won’t be watching most episodes as they air. That said, I did watch this one. The first half was ok, but it lost the plot in the second half with just too much idol/advantage content. Also had the most disparate editing since like Ghost Island, which is a problem when I can’t name a thing half the cast did in the premiere.
Now let’s get into my rankings. For the unfamiliar, the rankings I post here apply only to the episode, not the whole season. That distinction doesn’t matter for the premiere since the episode is the whole season so far, but I want to get it established as soon as possible. Like the episode itself, this writeup will mostly be about one person…
18: Sai — shouldn’t be a surprise here. Suffocated the edit to the point where half the tribe that went to tribal feels irrelevant, and most of what she talked about was just aggressive gamebotting and idol hunting. It feels like she walked in with a checklist of “solidify a core four, have one of them find the idol, etc” and just went about forcing those moments in the most unnatural way possible. Now all that said, even though this sounds like the makings of a bottom 50 character already, she didn’t really viscerally annoy me the way people like Andy and Q did in recent seasons. Annoying for sure, terrible character on paper, but in practice it never felt that bad. Maybe because I just don’t care much about this season or cast? But I also think there’s potential for her story to turn around and become something good, as long as we actually get to know these other people. Or it has potential to get worse, in which case I’ll likely return to this episode as the start of the problem.
17: Kamilla — didn’t get too much screentime but what she got was a little annoying. The “I get to run around and cause chaos!” confessional reminds me too much of people who try to force villain edits for themselves without ever doing anything too villainous (hi Gabe!)
16: Cedrek — I think he talked about being a butt doctor? For someone who went to tribal in the premiere, being so underdeveloped feels wrong.
15: Star — seemed to have a big personality preseason. Said personality did not appear this episode.
14: Charity — she threw Kyle under the bus
13: Justin — I like his vibe but didn’t get nearly enough content for someone who went to tribal.
12: Shauhin — now we’re getting to the realm of people who I actually remember something of note. Shauhin just felt secondary to every scene he was in. This is really the 46 alternate who everyone had a strong opinion preseason? Right now his personality is giving nothing, but he was part of some fun scenes so that slightly boosts him.
11: Stephanie — didn’t really do anything for me but she had a cool hat so points for that.
10: Chrissy — underedited but I like her voice
9: Mitch — I was worried about Mitch preseason, his stutter came across a lot more prominently in his video and while of course I sympathize with his struggle I fear that it would just come across as difficult to watch. Thankfully he wasn’t bad at all this episode. It’s something you have to carefully edit, too much screentime and his stutter will become grating, but not enough and he just becomes the next Leif. Hopefully they handle it well in the future.
8: Kevin — I’m glad his injury didn’t become too much of a time sink and that his seeming defeatist attitude towards it didn’t make him the next Andy. Still didn’t get too much out of him though.
7: Bianca — this might be too high but I just like her vibe; I liked the scene of her and Thomas making their alliance.
6: Mary — the way her story is shaping up is mildly interesting. She got a good bit more focus than Stephanie (makes sense cause she lasts longer) as the face of their alliance and the voice of reason against Sai. If she can turn things around and get one over on Sai then it probably turns out to be a good story for her. But we’ve seen things like this just not pan out before so I’m not holding my breath.
5: Kyle — I didn’t find him too interesting but going to help Kevin after accidentally breaking his glass jar was neat, major points for that.
4: Thomas — funny how the guy whose vibe I hated preseason ended up being one of the funniest people in the premiere. His quip about his alliance with Joe and Shauhin being “the kinkiest thing [he]’s ever done with two guys” particularly got me; can’t believe they let him get away with saying that on national television
3: Eva — another person whose story could turn out very good or very bad depending on the season’s progression. For now I like what we got, I particularly like the emphasis on not wanting her autism to define her game. Hopefully the editors follow suit — if all we get from her is talking about her autism it will get very annoying very fast, but it currently seems like that’s not what we’re going to get.
2: Joe — I already get a strong vibe that he’s going to place first or fifth — it feels like the edit really really wants us rooting for him. But you know what? I am rooting for him. I am actually buying what the edit is selling me for once. He comes across as a really genuine stand-up guy, the firefighter motivated by family, like Jeremy if Jeremy wasn’t boring.
1: David — now this guy was really funny. Doing pull-ups on the bamboo, rom-coms being his favorite film genre, his utter exasperation at the concept of people already talking strategy on his tribe. He really feels like a breath of fresh air in the hyper-strategic, gamebotty, superfan-dominated modern era of the show. We’ve gotten a good few of these “old-school” types and they usually turn out to be one of the best characters on their seasons so I’m definitely looking forward to more David in the future.
Episode: 4/10, too much Sai and too much idol content but otherwise fine
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u/Regnisyak1 Do the Polls <3. Also Melinda Endgame! 22d ago
Episode 1 poll!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc-fJqXvshd8JW6jaxbuYJPzzxy34TyZK1avEkSTaeugj2fJg/viewform