In this day and age, we hear it time and time again from countless fans across the globe – “This game is over saturated with advantages and twists! Tone it back!” That alone is from the American edition of Survivor. When looking back over the past three seasons (Edge of Extinction, Island of the Idols, Winners at War), there is a solid argument for there perhaps being overkill with advantages in the game. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure all of us like a good twist – but Island of the Idols had ten tribal council available advantages. Ten! That makes up half of that season’s cast! Not everyone is severely longing for the days where you had to get by in the game on just the three key components: sociability, strength and strategy, but when there’s ten tribal council based advantages in a season, it makes people question what the future of Survivor itself would look like.

                That being said, in the recent year or so, I’ve found that US Survivor is not the only culprit when it comes to the plausible oversaturation of the game. Let’s say we have a sliding scale. On one end, there’s advantages, and on the other, there’s twists. The US Edition may be called advantage heavy, but it’s reasonable enough to call the Australian counterpart twist heavy.

                I wouldn’t go so far as to accuse either edition of Champions vs Contenders as exceptionally twist heavy, as in 2019, they included a kidnapping and Exile Beach (post-merge, will get back to that momentarily). That overall didn’t impact the game that hard, seeing as how Simon Black was promptly “voted out”, won his way back in from Exile Beach against Daisy, and was sent packing for good two days later. It was just like a bonus episode for a lot of viewers because it wasn’t breaking the game at all.

 2018 felt a little more questionable with the Dead Man Walking twist, as it essentially leaves said recipient of that twist helpless and useless for the remainder of their time in the game, seeing as how Commando Steve only lasted two more pointless days in the game after that vote. The Save or Send twist also felt a bit pointless at the time, as that was moreso watching the possibility of Teagan surviving yet another elimination, but she was sent home promptly then and there. Along with that…Exile Beach, where the two people voted out premerge would duel their way back into the game. A little testy for a couple of premerge boots, but it worked out decently.

This brings me to Australian Survivor: All-Stars. Three actual twists are listed, but all of them felt heavily flawed on execution, and took away from the excitement of the season. First off, the pre-merge Exile Beach. This is the first instance where Exile Beach was, and I cannot stress this enough, not entertaining in the slightest. A Zach vs Shonee duel would’ve been fun to say the least, but it was just filler for a tribe swap and bringing them both back set the stage for Shonee turning on everyone, which felt like the main story of the premerge. We then get to the episode where both tribes are voting someone out and two people get individual immunity, which feels super exciting, right? Well, it would’ve been had they not dropped a bomb of a tribe vs tribe fire making challenge twist. With the exception of Survivor: Palau, because you know, Palau, fire making should go nowhere NEAR the premerge phase of the game. In a cast of 24, you can afford to lose two players in one night, because the fallout of that becomes a lot more interesting. Instead, you have Phoebe (who, let’s be honest, we knew she was in trouble premerge anyways) coming back with about as much power that she had the day before – not a whole lot. Phoebe leaves Day 18, Mokuta loses again, and the game is up for grabs.

Finally, the All-Stars edition of a post-merge Exile Beach can only be described as an absolute mess. With nine players left in the game, how does one come up with the idea to send two-thirds of the remaining players to exile beach only for five of them to come back anyways? It took up three episodes and made Days 34-36 somewhat pointless. All of it led to three people “winning their way back” into the game and the other three automatically having a chance at being voted out without being able to compete for an actual immunity. AK, Shonee and Zach deserved a fairer shot and it wasn’t really given to them because it wasn’t a standard Exile Beach in seasons past where they would duel to get back into the game. It felt like a missed opportunity for yet another intense showdown. Shonee got the second worse of this twist because she was promptly voted out later on, AK at least had somewhat of another chance by the unnecessary Trial by Fire twist.

This brings me to ask – where in 2019/2020 was it possible to find a healthier balance of twists and advantages? In short – Survivor South Africa: Island of Secrets. This season isn’t talked about as much compared to the other two because this is the hardest for international fans to access, I’ve found, but it was a very good season with a good mix of twists (Island of Secrets) and advantages. In order to access the majority of the advantages, one had to be sent to the Island of Secrets itself, which meant they would sometimes miss tribal which would be exciting, or seeing them come back with something could easily set a tone for a new event. But the best part was, it wasn’t always going to be an advantage! They had choices as what to take, my personal favourite being Geoff taking the candy over firewood with child-like joy, Durao earning information about an impending merge, or competing in a small duel for Individual Immunity. Unlike a season like Ghost Island, there was more to this island than just constant advantages, there were a number of things that could have made the game more interesting, which was captivating to watch. Vote blockers, extra votes and reward steals were not game breaking either, as they were well spread out through the season. Even idol clues had to be wagered for votes, prompting a longer thought process. Overall, the execution of the main twist was satisfying to say the least and resulted in a well flowing season. A high recommendation for any Survivor fan!

What do you think about the recent history of twist/advantage saturation? Let me know!