Survivor

Survivor is back . . . with a vengeance. We took a break from GG to see the premiere and boy was it worth it. (We still managed to squeez in 3 episodes. We have the Reds game tonight but may pull an all-nighter to finish up. We've only got 4 episodes left. Come on, Luke!)

SPOILER ALERT! If you TiVo'd Survivor and haven't watched yet, stop reading.

Back to the game. Russell, not the "better looking Lennox Lewis" (or the "worse looking Milli Vanilli" -- thanks Dalton), the Oil Co. owner guy, is probably the "best" Survivor contestant since Coach. But I can't imagine a set of circumstances where I'll end up rooting for Russell to stay on like I did with Coach (to entertain, not to win). Maybe we should call him Russell Fairplay for now. This guy is a real turd. I assume he's the one kicked out of the challenge next week (as teased by the credits this week). That's especially true after I saw the exclusive deleted scene on EW.com where he talks about injuring someone, even if he gets hurt in the process, and how the injured person, even if it's a girl, will have to be crated off in a helicopter. (No. I did not make that up.)

Every contestant tries so hard to be liked or to, "fly under the radar." But R.F. has a completely unique strategy: align with everyone and, while doing that, sabotage the tribe. It certainly won't win him any friends at the live reunion show, but it might make for some very interesting t.v. I was disappointed that so few in the tribe sniffed this out. The female cop did (she credited female intuition -- I wonder if she doesn't want to say she's a cop) which bodes well for her in the game, even though her numbers seem to be in minority right now. As usually happens right off, we see a lot more of the tribal counsel tribe and not much from the winners. So picking a winner right now seems pointless. But I will do so soon. (It won't be the female cop ... or Shambo!)

Should be an interesting season. By the way, I have Yasmin in the office pool. Rachel had Marissa, the woman from Cincinnati, who went home last night. But it was a random draw, so I can't really be blamed.