A lot of people

Have come up with reasons why Survivor isn't good anymore, I think to me the biggest one is that there is no element of "uncharted territory" to it anymore. A central part of the draw of the show, starting in 2000 and continuing on for many years, is how people navigated a high-stakes competition in a completely unfamiliar environment and the perceived moral questions that go along with it -- is it ethical to make alliances? Am I willing to backstab a friend to win the game? How far am I willing to go to manipulate people? What's the socially and ethically acceptable way of determining how to vote for a winner? Now take all of that and add in the element of adventure -- every season you were going to a new, totally unfamiliar location, and absorbing a little bit of the local bit of the local environment and culture. Every season was a legitimate *adventure* and had it's own unique "feel" to it. Survivor: Cook Islands feels very distinct from Survivor: China, for example, and so on and so forth. This is an aside but in Survivor: Gabon, there's an episode where the Fang tribe (who all absolutely despised each other) sees an elephant family walking by their camp and put aside their differences for a second to watch. Ace, one of the main pre-merge villains, even gets teary-eyed recounting the moment in a confessional. It's one of the most genuinely emotional and moving moments in the entire show, and such a fascinating insight into the human condition. Now, both of those things just aren't the case anymore. There is so much Survivor content, the moral quandaries have all been debated to death, everyone on the show more or less accepts the premise that they need a "resume" to win the game and whoever goes through a pre-set checklist the best will win: Did you make a move for your resume? Did you find an advantage and use it correctly? Did you prove yourself making fire? There is no sense of open-endedness, no sense of wonder, no sense of a grand adventure competition playing out on your TV screens. Just a dull, boring, slog that's one part Hallmark Channel Probstslop and one part job interview. I'm going to tune into Season 50 because there are a lot of people I'm excited to see again (Chrissy!) but I'm not sure if I'm going to make it through the whole thing or not.