(S14E14) Oh my. Yau-Man made this season one of the most interesting to watch right up until the final episode. This was nearly the season that proved to me that Survivor should just be retired. But then we got to see some very interesting twists, not the ones by the editing team, which were haphazard and ineffective but by Yau-Man as he became one of the most loveable longshots the game has ever seen.

(S14E13) Will the car curse last another season? Certainly anyone who is a student of Survivor has seen the effect that the car reward challenge can have on the game. But this season, figuring out who would get the curse is tricky. You see, it depends on who you think would be cursed - the person who won or the person who ended up with it. This unique situation along with the fact that Yau-Man was in jeopardy made this episode one of my favorites of the season.

(S14E12) Episodes when there is one member of a decimated alliance still struggling to avoid getting voted off can either be fascinating or a snore. This one is actually a bit of both. I generally have a soft spot for the underdog but Alex is flatly unlikeable. Case in point, early in the episode, the increasingly needy Stacy approaches Alex to try and be friends after the show, his response, later to the camera is to say "like I care." Nice.

(S14E11) Some of you took me to task for only giving last week's episode a 5 rating. And perhaps rightly so, after all it was easily the best tribal council of the season. But I had my hopes set on tonight's episode because the most interesting thing is often the fall-out from a big shakeup. And sometimes players that are outnumbered and cornered suddenly become brilliant strategists. Not tonight.

(S14E10) After last week's rather blah episode this week redeems the season with some very interesting last minute machinations. This may be a season with a really good last few weeks because unlike in some other seasons were alliances were set in stone, this crowd tends to be flighty and unsure and neither core team has enough votes without trusting some of the fringe players.

(S14E09) Merge! Well, sort of. This week's episode throws in a bunch of shakeups trying for that "ooh" moment that usually keeps the audience so ensnared in Survivor. This week's twists however, seems sort of anti-climactic and don't lead to any really interesting shake-ups in the long run.

(S14E08) This really has been the most lackluster season ever. Even tonight's episode which had some very funny moments isn't really enough to redeem the banality. As the more obnoxious people get voted off I wonder if even the more appealing characters will be enough to sustain the interest in the show. I also wonder, after the last few seasons, if it is possible anymore to have two tribes that are equally matched up to a merge. But at least Yau-Man and Earl consistently rock each episode.

(S14E05) Just when I think, maybe, maybe I can enjoy this season we get more Ravu humiliation. This could be the season that breaks my Survivor love. Last week offered a tiny reprieve but mainly this is just relentless misery. Underdog stories are great. Aitu's wins last season made some of the best Survivor viewing ever. But you had some very physically and mentally adept players on that team and they seem to have had better access to natural resources. Here we have less hardy players who look like emaciated players from Survivor Australia or Survivor Africa and they are just being beaten. And worst of all, being beaten doesn't even make them likable for the most part.

(S14E03) This season's concept is rapidly getting boring. Not just sort of pointless the way last season's was but boring to the point of making me wonder if Survivor has, at long last, finally lost its appeal for me. We've had underdog seasons before but when the underdogs aren't particularly likable and they are only underdogs because the game is rigged against them I have to wonder what the fun in this. There was not an element of tonight's game that held any sort of surprise or joy for me. Has Survior run out of twists?

(S14E01) Season 14 and how are they going to mix it up this time? We've had old versus young, men versus women, and last season's controversial race against race season. This is the season of haves and have-nots because nothing provokes discord like sleeping under a tree with the knowledge that members of the other tribe are living it up with a couch. A couch? I wonder if the team living in the lap of luxury will later be at a disadvantage from living too soft. And didn't I already see this concept on the latest season of The Apprentice? Still, the overall tribe looks to be a bit more compelling than the usual and maybe a bit more feisty than last season's precision fighting team over at Aitu.