Survivor DG: The Draft

Welcome to Survivor, season 37, David v. Goliath. I know we're only 1 episode in, but is anyone else already completely over the castaways on the David tribe being referred to as "Davids"? It's a little confusing, maybe a little sexist... I'm not 100% sure why it bothers be so much, but clearly it's enough of an issue that I'm leading off the blog with this opinion.

The pool this season will follow the same format as the last couple seasons w/ double drafts & 6 teams. We added a tribal fire-building rule to address the horrible truth that there will be a fire-building challenge when there are 4 players left each season. To which Eric responded "I'll be honest, this rule change isn't going to change my draft picks one iota  because I have no idea what I'm doing" and completely made my night.

This season looks to have a different director or editor as they are comfortable showing events in a non-chronological order. I love this! It's a much better change than when Top Chef decided to mix things but by showing people cooking in slo-mo. What was the point of that??

And while I think the "David v. Goliath" theme is one of the dumbest they've had, this seems to be a season of cannier castaways than we've had in the last few seasons. So call me cautiously optimistic about this season & hopefully some exciting game play!

The Teams:

Doug & Bri "Maybe I can't drive, but at least I can draft"

• Christian
• Dan
• Alison
• Bi
• Bi
• Elizabeth

Phil "Missed the draft, but I bet he cooked something amazing"

• Angelina
• Alec
• Alison
• Jessica
• Nick
• Jeremy

Eric "I have no idea what I'm doing"

• Natalia
• Gabby
• Jessica
• Kara
• Lyrsa
• Lyrsa

Moon & Melissa "#Vytas"

• John
• Gabby
• John
• Mike
• Mike
• Nick

Michal & Ben "Get Out"

• Natalia
• Davie
• Angelina
• Carl
• Jeremy
• Carl

Bag & Andrea "My team is actually good"

• Christian
• Dan
• Davie
• Alec
• Kara
• Elizabeth

Natalie "The Greatest Dreg This Game Has Ever Seen... Now Get Back to Work!"

• Natalie
• Natalie

Player Rankings:

I'm not confident enough to give a power ranking, but I will share early thoughts on this season's castaways:

• Alec: Eric said "Davie is like what's her name from two seasons ago.  He's not really even on the show." Which is both brilliantly said & also reflects my thoughts on Alec but not Davie this season. #Justanotherwhitebro #Bagdefinitelydraftedhim
• Alison: Reminds me of Chrissy from season 35 (which Ben won, but she came in 2nd or 3rd). Could be a challenge beast, also has potential to be crafty with the strategic play though we didn't see a lot of alliance-building from the Goliaths in this episode.
• Angelina: Reminds me so much of this actress from The Newsroom that I'm still unsure if I think she's a good pic or I was just thrown off by the familiarity of her face. Still, I loved that she knew the gender breakdown stats of who finds immunity idols. That's the sign of a harder-core fan than I am, and I gotta respect that.
• Bi: I like Bi a lot, but her experience with the show of Survivor is super lacking (based on reading her bio on CBS, which I pretty much never do, and may live to regret it this season). I think she'll be good at the social & challenge game, but I don't think she'll be a good strategist and will be outmaneuvered this season.
• Carl: Made his first alliance with a 19-year-old who reminded him of his daughter. I know he didn't do great at the challenge, but he was reaching out to the "underdogs" of his tribe, and I think he could go far through relationship-building.
• Christian: Cap'n Nerd Squad is a castaway stereotype we've seen before, but as discussed in the Greenberg household, we think he's more of a First Season Cochran rather than 2nd Season Cochran. He got a lot of air time early but he's on the underdog tribe looking to take a leadership role and that can be a dangerous position to be in when the inevitable tribal mix-up happens.
• Dan: is in for a world of hurt when he realizes that this isn't a show about finding love and talking about how hot he and/or his fellow castaways are. Also I really could have done without watching him pull an idol out of his undies. Still, props to Dan for finding the idol. Maybe he has more potential than I'm giving him credit for...
• Davie: I learned what "blerd" means from Davie, which is cool, as is catching an octopus. A potential provider for a tribe who can bond with the reigning Nerd Party on this island could have strong potential.
• Elizabeth: This friendly cowgirl hasn't given me any indication that she can get very far in this game & was understandably one of the last picks of the season.
• Gabby: First impression of Gabby is that she reminds me of Melissa, so I'm definitely cheering for her. I'm worried she might end up prioritizing loyalty over winning the game, though. Hopefully she can step up as a leader and build a resume while also building friendships. Also #Nerdlove?
• Jeremy: Someone else we know nearly nothing about, though I did love his "I'm only out looking for an idol because everyone else is, and damned if I'm going to build a shelter when no one else is" line. But that's not really enough info to be able to judge someone's potential on, so we'll have to wait & see with him.
• Jessica: The sweet 19-year-old who may be in over her head.
• John: Ab-raham Lincoln "they hate that in Mexico, isn't that funny?" John is SO unsuited for this game. That dude's gotta be 250 pounds, right? These big guys with big names & assumed big bank accounts do not thrive on this show. And he certainly has no business being the #3 overall pick in the draft. Also, even if you really like John, metagame this draft Moon! Who on earth else would draft this guy before the 3rd round? You could've gotten John two times & much higher caliber player in the #3 overall pick. C'mon man.
• Kara: Well, we know she's blonde and she's hot, but what else do we know? Kara may get handicapped by association with Dan. Early on this is shaping up to the be the next Cole/Jessica relationship.
• Lyrsa: "Spunky" is the word that comes to mind when I think of Lyrsa. Not sure about how much of a competitor she'll be & previews of next week make it look like she'll be targeted. Though we've all been fooled by that before!
• Mike: Mike totally looks like Woogie from There's Something About Mary. Ding ding ding, Doug! He could be the next bald guy David, but I doubt it. His story is already known so he won't have a good character arc to get him by. Also apparently the only person talking to him is Natalie, which is a bad bad sign. I foresee an early exit here.
• Natalia: Maybe a little too aggressive for the first couple days on the island, but she seems smart, crafty, and ready to make moves. I hope she goes far because she's my early pick to win it all.
• Natalie: So bad that it was known before this draft even began that she'd be a double dreg this season
• Nick: Did Nick come on Survivor to win, or just to make up random names for the fake alliances he's building? Might last longer than originally expected due to the editing of the show, but I hope not. This guy seems smug, lazy, and in-genuine in almost every way. 

Power Rankings:

1. Michal: Obviously this is the best team. Well-rounded, with hopefully a good mix of point-scorers in challenges as well as the wily ones who will go deep in the game. Honestly I do like my team a lot but many choices were made based on perceived potential rather than anything most of these castaways have done as of yet.
    
2. Bagdrea: This team is really solid. Lots of diversity, maybe not a lot of intelligence though. Replace Dan with an Angelina or Alison or Natalia though & I'd have a hard time saying anything bad about this team.
    
3. Doug & Bri: This team does look eerily like Bag's, but agreed that you only need to be half worried about it, Doug. I think too much depends on Bi with this team, though, since there's a lot of overlap with Bag, and I think that may prove to be your downfall. I'll still be cheering for her, though, and I hope she proves me wrong!
    
4. Phil: Why did people like Alec so much? I think taking him round 2 was a mistake, but overall I find this team unobjectionable. Getting Jeremy in the last round could be a huge dreg pick-up too...
    
5.  Eric: I like a lot of Eric's choices in his draft especially Natalia & Gabby, but he lost points by admitting that drafting Jessica was an error and that he drafted the wrong blonde. And not that I don't love women power, but I think it's risky to draft an all-female team in Survivor pool. Especially when we now know that 85% of idols are found by men, and there are definitely challenges where men will be favored to win. Both of which are huge point scorers in the pool. But this might be the first time we've ever seen an all-female team so what do I know. It is the Year of the Woman after all, right?
   
6. Moon & Melissa: MoonBee brought a club to a chess match when they double-drafted the Mayor of Slamtown. Also, while our sample size is tiny, there's no evidence that the double-draft is a winning strategy in Survivor Pool. The last 2 winners had no double-drafted players. But MoonBee doubled-down on the double-draft and did so with some hugely questionable players. And then they threw a dash of Gabby on top & called it a day. Please provide some comments explaining these choices because I'm honestly bewildered by what happened here. Though having a weekly opportunity to mock this team through the blog is definitely a perk. :)