| XoXo |
Posted
on 12-Jan-02 01:31 AM
'Survivor' Watch
End Game
Did Ethan deserve to win? The nicest competitor beat out the second nicest, says Ken Tucker, and the ''Africa'' season grew on him
WE HAVE A WINNER Mild mannered hunk Ethan won the ''Survivor'' million
Congratulations, Ethan Zohn. The nicest person, the best competitor and hackey-sack player, won last night's third edition of ''Survivor,'' defeating the second-nicest, -best competitor (and at 56, the oldest finalist ever), Kim Johnson.
Now then: In a penultimate move so patently stupid I was moved to wonder whether Mark Burnett was standing off camera holding a gun to her head, Kim voted the third finalist, tattooed narcissist Lex Van den Berghe, out of the three-way competition. I can't imagine millions of you weren't out there screaming in your living rooms, ''WHAT IS SHE THINKING?!?!''
Her response to this question, when posed by Bryant Gumbel in the 10 p.m. reunion special, was that Lex was probably as well liked as Ethan. Sorry, Kim: Even given the brilliant, notorious deviousness of producer Mark Burnett's editing, there's no way that could have been true. Had gutsy-grandma Kim gone up against prickly-haired and prickly-tempered Lex, the woman would be a millionaire today.
The expanded-to-two-hours game part of the show started off dully, with an immunity challenge involving a memory game -- who remembered the most about the other contestants. That was lame, very ''Big Brother''-y, I thought. But the opening moments did allow a moment for farmer Tom Buchanan to say that the conflict between Lex and him was due to ''a case of paranoia and wearyation'' -- a superb neologism, that. Thanks, Tom!
Oh, it's a grand old game, isn't it? Grouse as much as I did in the opening weeks of the third edition of ''Survivor,'' the African adventure became more involving, more venturesome, with each succeeding week. It may not have drawn the same number of viewers that the two previous ''Survivor''s did, but it will nonetheless stand as one of the 2001-2002 season's top-rated entertainment series, if not the tippy-top.
So as we bid farewell to Africa, let's hand out a couple of awards.
Source: Entertainment.com
|
