Outwit. Outlast. Outplay.

I really got hooked on Survivor last semester, thanks to my roommate. When I was younger, I don’t think I understood the logistics of the game enough to get what was going on. As a result, I liked watching the challenges, but past that, I didn’t understand what so and so was getting voted off or anything.

Now that I’ve watched a full season, I’m beginning to learn about the nuances that make good players and things that make certain players more successful than others. Ever since the last season ended, I’ve been itching to watch past seasons to observe and learn more about the show.

Luckily, I convinced my dad to subscribe to Hulu Plus. Well at least subscribe to the free trial for a week and that means I get to watch however many seasons they’ve uploaded, which looks like at least three. One of the seasons is the very first season ever of Survivor! The show is completely different from what it looks like now. I’m only halfway through the first episode as I’m typing this but there are some pretty obvious differences already:

First, the players are just tossed into the sea from a boat that they’re allowed two minutes to salvage whatever they can from. Then they had to swim the raft carrying all their stuff to the beach of the island. It looks like they could all bring a knapsack with them too with a few personal effects. The things they salvaged include crates of supplies, rat traps, fish traps and someone even brought a ukulele with them! It seems more like a game of survival than of the wit and cunning that today’s game is about.

I can’t wait to keep watching and I’ll update you on how the old seasons of Survivor are! Tomorrow my mom and brother and I are going to have tea. Like the kind with scones and stuff!

Summer Television

Summer time also means new TV shows. My favorite television season has always been that winter into spring season because all my favorite shows air at that time: How I Met Your Mother, Community, Dance Moms, The Office (RIP :'[ ), The Big Bang Theory, Grey’s Anatomy, Castle…I think you get the picture, I’m a bit of a television addict. This has always proved somewhat problematic because of the whole school thing. Spring television means that the season finales were always around finals time, which proved detrimental to my studying at a critical time.

My school also had something called “Dead Week” which was a week before finals where classes were cancelled and it was, in theory, a week for students to take the vast amounts of time they were given to study. But in reality, we all used that time to catch up on some social activities (that may or may not have included various forms of a liquid diet) or in my case, start new series of TV shows.

My summer viewing schedule has yet to be planned but I’m looking forward to the finale season of Breaking Bad. I don’t watch much drama but last summer before school started, I gave in and started the season, curious to see a television show where the main characters moral compass actually declined.

Look at those collage skills. I'm really getting the hang of the crop and magic eraser tools.

Another show that’s riding on my radar is “The Goodwin Games.” Its main selling point for me is that it’s created by the same guys who made “How I Met Your Mother.” The premise is that three estranged siblings are brought back together by their father’s death and in line for a humongous fortune. The catch is that because they’ve fallen apart as a family, their father has arranged from them to inherit the fortune in a non-conventional way – by playing a game. It’s very “The Westing Game” (remember when we had to read that in the 5^th grade?) meets the three kids in Modern Family. I can see the series being a bit dragged out – I guess Bays and Thomas are good at taking a could-be simple plot and prolonging it, as evident in HIMYM. The pilot has been intriguing enough so I’ll at least give the season a try.

What summer shows are on your viewing list? I’m open to suggestions and recommendations!