In Defense of the Saanapu Alliance
Australian Survivor got off to an incredible start with it's sprawling cast of interesting and likeable characters, from the goofy Sam, to all-Aussie dad Lee; from tough mother Kylie, to even tougher grandmother Sue; from the gay-but-ferocious Craig, to the sneaky but charismatic Phoebe. There were some huge idol plays, some huge twists in the game, and some huge major players getting booted pretty early on, including Rohan, Andrew, Kat, Craig and Phoebe. However, since the merge, it feels as though this particular season has fallen into mediocre territory. Basically the last five votes ended up the way we thought it would, even with the blindsides of Nick and Kylie. The game's felt controlled, supervised and restricted, and many Survivor fans aren't happy, as this isn't what they've come to expect from Survivor. If you look at the American version, virtually every season since Caramoan has been ultra-competitive, with regular #blindsides, bold moves, and an emphasis on strategy and the politics of the game. Very rarely have seasons featured cruise-control players, and if they do, those players usually only end up early-episode fodder, or goats that have no chance of winning at the end. Survivor fans have come to appreciate the craziness, not the comfort, of Survivor. And Australian Survivor just hasn't lived up to their expectations since the merge. In fact, it's been a major disappointment, with some calling it boring television, and not worth watching altogether. To say this isn't great for the series is an understatement. Survivor can get away with being mundane in the early stages of a season, because there's always the promise of unpredictability later on, and the lure of mystery and intrigue surrounding the winner. However, if the show has reached it's mid-way point, and is actually rapidly declining in terms of it's ability to maintain your attention and passion, something's gone wrong. The ones who are to blame are the so-called Saanapu alliance, if you believe the disappointed fans. Featuring, at various points, Jennah-Louise, Kylie, Nick and Matt, the main staples of Sam and Lee, and led by the core trio of Brooke, Flick and El, the Saanapu alliance has been a juggernaut that has literally dominated the game like few alliances in Survivor history, including the American version. As the Saanapu tribe, they won five immunity challenges in a row, almost wiping out the opposing Vavau tribe completely. They've since proceeded to send a further five contestants packing under their order. That's right: Out of fourteen contestants who have been voted out of Survivor (not including Peter, who quit), ten of them were given the boot by the Saanapu alliance, whether directly or indirectly. There are two ways you can look at this. You can look at it from an entertainment value perspective, or from a strategic perspective, and even then, there are multiple perspectives within those perspectives. From an entertainment perspective, the Saanapu domination has been both good and bad. It's a cool throwback to the vintage American Survivor seasons, such as Panama, Borneo and Palau, when dominant alliances would remain air-tight and just build their game on allegiance and unity, rather than scheming and politics. Whether you like the alliance or not, it's hard to deny there's a pretty strong connection between the main members, predominantly Brooke, Flick, El, Lee and Sam, and it brings back memories of the original alliance formed by Richard Hatch in Borneo, or Tom Westman's dominant alliance in Palau, or the dysfunctional yet loyal alliance in Panama led by Aras Baskauskas. However, if entertainment's your thing, watching a bunch of semi-interesting players (Sam is about the only one in the alliance of real star power) just plot around their rivals before picking them off one-by-one probably isn't your thing, particularly when stacked against the recent seasons of American Survivor. And from a strategic point of view, there are both positives and negatives. Obviously it's been a pretty average season as far as strategy goes. Beyond the core trio of Saanapu girls, and those on the outer scrambling for their lives, post-merge strategy in Australian Survivor has been virtually non-existent. Sam, Lee and Matt have played the game almost entirely on the back of their long-term trust with the members of their alliance and don't seem to have an end-game in sight, while the hanger-oners, such as Kylie and Jennah-Louise have only awoken to the threat the majority alliance poses once they belatedly realised they were on the wrong side of it. But the flip-side is that Saanapu will go down as one of the most successful alliances in Survivor history if it manages to continue it's path, and it would take a spectacular meltdown for one of Jennah-Louise or Kristie to take out the title of sole Survivor from here. As a long-time fan of Survivor who fist-pumped the air when Richard Hatch devised his 'voting bloc' strategy way back in the show's inaugural season, I love a good alliance, but forming a good alliance, and succeeding with it, is very difficult to do. It's harder to accomplish than a successful idol play, or a massive blindside, or an immunity challenge win, and that is why the social aspect of Survivor is so important. If a great Survivor game is generally defined by the dominance with which they achieved their title, having a solid alliance behind you will provide you with a platform for that domination. The core trio of Brooke, Flick and El may simply be exploiting the naïve game-play by their allies in Sam, Lee and Matt, but it's still pretty impressive to witness. Did the fact the notorious yet legendary 'Black Widow' alliance of Parvati Shallow, Amanda Kimmel, Cirie Fields and Natalie Bolton played against some of the dumbest male contestants in Survivor history make their maneuvering to the end any less impressive? Nope. What's gone un-noticed, though, amongst all the hysteria over the "predictability" and "lack of strategy" in Australian Survivor since the merge is that it's given us a crucial reminder that Survivor is, first and foremost, a social experiment. It's been a social experiment since it was conceptualised by the folks at CBS over sixteen years ago, long before it became a 'game.' Each new season brings with it a new cast, each with their own dynamics, their own personalities, their own values, and their own outlook on how they want their Survivor experience to be. There's no right or wrong way to play Survivor, and there's no right or wrong way that it's supposed to play out. In Worlds Apart, the show's landmark 30th season, few people wanted the sexist Rodney, or the chauvenistic Dan, or the down-right nasty Will to make the top six, yet they did. In Thailand, few would have wanted the sleazy, arrogant Brian Heidik to win in such dominant fashion, yet he did. In Redemption Island, those looking forward to Russell Hantz' third attempts wouldn't have wanted him to be the third person voted out, yet he was. Survivor doesn't follow a script by producers, or the fandoms wishes. The script is written by the character of each and every contestant. Which brings me to the Saanapu alliance. For the first time in what feels like a long time, this feels like an authentic season of Survivor. Not that the other seasons have been inauthentic, but there has been this growing forced nature in the way recent seasons of Survivor have unfolded. Players now believe they have to make a big move if they want to win the million dollars, now that the importance of a 'Survivor resume' with the jury has been emphasized. Post-Russell Hantz, players can get far in the game simply by relying on hidden immunity idols rather than actually forming the right bonds. And in the awesome Cambodia - in which the viewers' votes determined the cast - players felt the need to play the game hardcore simply to justify the viewers faith in them. It's felt like Survivor has become more than just the bodies and the bush. There are usually eighteen or twenty contestants on Survivor, but recent seasons have felt like the cast also includes the viewership and the production crew. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing Survivor. It's my favourite show in the world, and I love how it's evolved over time, able to reinvent itself and it's format, and constantly breathing new life into a series that would otherwise run the risk of being typical. But before Survivor became a game, it's origins in the social science of human activity was it's most fascinating aspect. Real people from different walks of life were thrust into an unknown scenario and confronted with the concept of forming their own society. It gave us brilliant friendships and enthralling rivalries that recent seasons of Survivor just haven't been able to match. From the unlikely friendship of grumpy war veteran Rudy Boesch and gay business man Richard Hatch, to the feud between hot-headed Latino Sandra Diaz-Twine and slimy dweeb Jonny Fairplay. They're so iconic they will out-last whatever major moves or shocking moments recent seasons have provided us with. In a sense, when Survivor wasn't overly strategic in it's early seasons, it required a great deal more skill. Alliances were less common, living conditions were much harder, blindsides were considered almost taboo, and hidden immunity idols didn't exist. All you could rely on was your ability to gain trust and friendship, forge genuine connections, read people's emotions, and maintain your charisma. You were stripped of all advantages in the game, exposed and vulnerable to your rivals. It made Richard Hatch's supervising of his dysfunctional alliance all the more impressive. It made Tina Wesson's maternal assertion over the merged tribe in Australian Outback that much greater. It made Ethan Zohn's unconventional bond with Lex and Big Tom even more interesting to watch. There's a reason most of Survivor's best ever players originated from the show's first dozen or so seasons. The Saanapu alliance may not be as interesting as, say, the Black Widow alliance. If the mischievous but impossibly charming Parvati Shallow was the ring-leader of that alliance, then the mellow-but-fierce Brooke has a long way to go. If Amanda Kimmel was the hero of the Black Widow alliance that we were all kinda rooting for, then Sam's got to get himself in a position to be the hero. If Cirie Fields was the witty narrator of the Black Widow alliance, then the Saanapu alliance is lacking in that department entirely. They haven't really provided us with someone to totally root for to make the alliance's domination more satisfying. But this feels like real television. Watching the alliance inevitably cannibalize each other, and then face off as members of the jury will be almost painful to watch, because it will be a hard-hitting realization that the demands of modern-day Survivor are different to how the Saanapu alliance want their Survivor to be. First and foremost, you have to respect them. Flick is possibly this season's most annoying contestant; Lee it's most disappointing character arc; El it's most invisible figure; Brooke it's most definitive villain, and when you combine them all together, it reads like a bloopers scene from Mean Girls. But none have been so bad that you could really hate them. The alliance of Brooke, Flick, Sam and Matt have been together since day one. That's over 40 days, more than the duration of an entire American season of Survivor, and the credibility of their friendship would be very hard to dispute. With the exception of Lee, they're all very similar in age, and there's even rumours of relationships between Sam and Brooke, and Lee and El (though I'm fairly certain they're purely rumours.) Why is it so hard to concede that perhaps they just want to be playing the difficult game of Survivor with the comfort of their friends and allies? Why not make a brutally tough experience that little bit easier for yourself? They enjoy each other's company, they've forged bonds that have already lasted far longer than any alliance in Survivor history, and they trust in each other. Sure, it's certain some of that trust is misguided. We know for a fact that Matt's trust in his long-term alliance with Brooke and Flick is misguided, as they very nearly voted him out of the game. It's almost certain Sam's close friendship with Brooke is probably misguided, as Brooke has conceded she can't win with Sam in the game. We know at some point El is going to have to make a decision between the girls and her long-time ally Lee. We know Matt is going to have to decide whether he bites the bullet and makes a move against his alliance, or continues to show blind faith. It's all inevitable as six simply has to become one winner (and that's if they don't implode before then, allowing Jennah-Louise or Kristie the chance to swoop in.) But for now, we're witnessing a great alliance in action, one that harks back to the glory days of Survivor when it felt like we were watching real people, not players.
