being a big fan of survivor (having watched 25 of the last 26 seasons); i am always excited to watch a new season. making it more exciting is that the season is once again filmed in my home country, the philippines.
it is shown late here in the philippines (since i missed the afternoon premiere via satellite since i have to go to work), here are some of my thoughts on the first episode of season 27!
> nice to see past contestants return to the game. i can remember most of them. having 2 winners in the cast (tina and aras), the most popular player ever (rupert), a veteran from season 1 (gervase); a villain from his season (colton); good looking gals (kat and candice); a very competitive player (tyson). but unfortunately, i cannot remember both monica and laura.
> it seems that this will be a very though season. a series of twists at the start of the game was thrown at the castaways immediately! first twist: castaways against their loved ones. second twist: each tribe needs to vote out a tribe member immediately. third twist: there is redemption island. fourth twist: the loved one or the returning player can take the place in redemption island. whoa! four twists in less than ten minutes!
> not surprised that laura was a target. but i was really surprised on why they voted out candice! she is a strong woman and can help you the tribe in challenges! i agree with colton that i think he was the one that should have been voted off...
> tribe names are "galang" for the returning castaways and "tadhana" for the loved ones. "galang" means respect in filipino and "tadhana" means destiny. i prefer if "galang" was replaced by "respeto"; which i think is more apt.
> camp set up was really easy for the returning castaways; they got fire immediately and has water and food - proving that experience is valuable in this game. on the other hand, tadhana is truggling with camp life and can't even start fire. in redemption island; rupert is not helping at all; leaving candace to do all the work...
> too much drama followed after. with confessions from sierra, vytas and colton... to much drama at the start of the season...
> brad formed the 5 man alliance in tadhana. being a ring leader this early in the game can bite you back later in the game...
> the first challenge was a hard one. both physically and mentally. the challenge only proved that the loved ones have the advantage (mainly because of the age difference - tina and gervase played this game more than a decade ago already!) but the veterans proved that they are stronger mentally. the girls made the puzzle look so easy and gave galang the first win for the season!
> gervase's outburst after the challenge was really uncalled for. he performed the worst amongst his tribe in this challenge. if they have lost, he might have gone home. lucky for him, the puzzle solvers were amazing! what he did was really silly and he put his niece to the chopping block.
> the immunity idol looked great, very different from the other idols before. but it doesn't look filipino at all! it looks more chinese than filipino
> the tribal council was a bit predictable; with marissa earning the votes to send her to redemption island, thanks to gervase's outburst! i liked the awkward silence when marissa looked back to her tribe after her torch was snuffed - everyone was avoiding her stare!
> next episode seems exciting, with colton back to being a villain and a surprising result in the redemption island challenge - so it seems that rumors and spoilers that rupert will be out immediately is indeed true!
till next week! i am really excited for the next episode!
