‘Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X’ premiere review: Eye of the storm
Tonight, “Survivor” played up its “Millennials vs. Gen X” theme as much as possible, giving us a morality play at times in how two different generations operate. For the Millennials, sometimes you gotta remember to work before you play. Meanwhile, for the Gen X folks you gotta be okay to go with the flow sometimes and read the room. It was glorious television, even if we’re not entirely sure every twist within the premiere ultimately worked.
For our prime example of this, take a look at the Legacy Advantage, an odd twist found by Jessica that will give her some sort of edge on day 36 if she lasts that long. If she doesn’t, she may will it to someone else to carry it after she leaves. This feels a little too Medallion of Power for us, especially since we’re not sure we want her stumbling upon a clue the first day impacting someone on day 36.
Now, what did work was something that producers did not even plan: The weather evacuation on day two. Anytime you can throw a “Survivor” first out there is welcome, and this was legitimately scary. We’re not sure that Erik Cardona in a tree would’ve survived it back in “Samoa.” Everyone left and came back to find their camps in ruin — but to be honest, the Millennials barely had anything because they were too busy having a beach party beforehand.
Before we get to the challenge, let’s give a quick breakdown of the two tribes.
Millennials – We’re of so many minds here. First, we’re not sure Taylor, Jay, Figgy, and Michelle have ever seen “Survivor: Caramoan,” because they totally did the cool kids thing from that season in isolating themselves / forgetting along the way that four is not greater than five. Yet, we love the name the Triforce for an alliance! Whoever came up with that pleases our Zelda-loving heart! Isn’t it ironic that one of the cool kids is apparently a secret Nintendo fan, and it was not video gamer Mari who came up with this? We know that the Zelda comparison doesn’t quite line up, but we want to imagine Mari right now as the Link with the Master Sword ready to tear these people up.
Gen X – To further along the video-game analogies, right now David Wright is Pichu to Cochran’s Pikachu in terms of social ability in the game. He’s completely inept at camp-building, and decided that he’d go scramble for an idol than help build the shelter. He may be wright that he is the target, but he could’ve probably put in more of an effort since the idol’s only a temporary amount of safety — if he finds it.
Immunity Challenge – This was an interesting challenge, mostly because it relied more on strategy and decision-making than physical strength. In theory, Gen X should’ve dominated this since they are a little more insightful and methodical. Yet, Rachel and David’s inability to figure out the puzzle doomed them to the point that they’re going to the first tribal. At this point, we were thinking that the “Family Guy” writer would be back to a writers room before too long.
Tribal Council – Back at camp, David spiraled into total paranoid-mode, trying to convince everyone that he didn’t have an immunity idol … which was true, but nobody seemed particularly inclined to believe him. the vote seemed to be Rachel vs. David, and with all of the talk of vote-splitting Bret and some of the other Gen X players in power took a risk that they didn’t get this turned around on them.
Ultimately, Rachel ended up going, and we don’t know what in the world happened with CeCe getting more votes than David. This was weird, and the biggest fault in this premiere is that for 90 minutes, we still didn’t have time to get a clear understanding of the vote. Yet, let’s not deny that this was a heck of a fun premiere, and despite its flaws, we have great characters and we’re setting the stage for a potentially-great season. Grade: B+.
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