You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
Day 36 on Survivor.
Why am I still watching? Another season. 15 years of seasons and shows and challenges.
It’s like watching an old man walking on the beach.
You know that old guy? He’s got a big T shirt and over sized hat. He is wearing sun glasses the size of a car windshield. His shorts are hiked up to the middle of his back. He waddles slowly forward, his pace rhythmic and predictable. He is the old man you know and recognize and might even love. Yet he is old and tired and you wonder if he will make it down the beach or keel over from heat frustration. And so you watch, and root for him, even though his walk is steady and slow and ultimately uneventful.
And so it is with season 31 of Survivor. The games are the same. The islands are the same. The story lines practically the same.
Survivor is an old TV show that wears its shorts up to the back of its neck.
Survivor is fire and torches and rope swings and alliances that fray like old rope. I keep saying to myself “enough already.” Read a book. Go exercise. Write something. Yet here I am watching the 2 hour finale, yet again.
Survivors! Ready? Go! How many times has Jeff said this? We’re playing for a million dollars!
I have not missed an episode. NEVER EVER. I’m not proud. It just is what it is. I watched from the beginning. It was a family thing. It was a summer replacement show in 2000.
2000? Can you even remember 2000? Y2K? Quick who was President?
That’s almost 16 years ago. That’s an entire lifetime for my children. And the kids have also seen every show. They love it. Their biological clock is set to Survivor. The kids would gather around on Wednesday night and we’d watch another Tribal Council, another Blind Side.
The Tribe has spoken.
I guess it’s the human drama of outwit, outplay outlast. Watching people sweat and vomit and cry uncontrollably.
Sunburned skin. Mosquito bites and ribs showing. She’s a rat. He’s a liar. Paranoia coupled with exultation. I keep saying to myself, “why are you still watching this show? Don’t watch this stupid menagerie any more.”
But then the DVR light is on and you realize the show is taping. It’s like a weird siren’s song. It’s a hypnotic pendulum set in a black DVR box, making me watch, making me engage.
And then to hear Jeff say “the 1st time in 31 seasons we have no votes cast for anybody at tribal council.”
And that’s why you watch. Because at the end of the day you may see something that makes you say “Wow”
I don’t apologize for watching. Like the old man walking down the beach, I watch him as he walks by. He may not be sexy, but he is what he is. I’m watching him walk down the beach, and I can only wonder if I will watch him when he walks by again tomorrow.
and by the way, the sole survivor is Jeremy. Much deserved.
Life’s Crazy™