A 20 Year View
We've come- and fallen- so far
Recently a friend convinced me to watch Survivor. I suppose that at some point in the last 22 years I had seen an episode here or there, maybe even a season, but I don’t really remember ever consciously being aware of it. So when my friend was like, dude, how are you not a Survivor fan, I thought, well I’ve seen every season of Alone 20 times, I guess I should try this.
So, first of all, SURVIVOR IS SO EXCITING. Oh my gosh! How did I miss this? The intrigue! The starvation! The bugs! So thrilling!
I was in almost immediately and easily decided who I was rooting for and who I would like to see drown as soon as possible. My friend recommended a recent season and as I watched I was struck by a few things:
How did everyone look so glamorous after 30+ days sleeping in shacks and eating rice? Eyebrows were popping. Teeth were brightened. Skin was immaculate. But how tho?
Everyone in the later seasons is a student of the game. Half of the conversation is about past characters, strategy, or moments they know are coming. You know how sometimes you watch a reality game show and you’re yelling at the television IT IS SEASON 35 HAVE YOU NEVER SEEN THIS SHOW BEFORE (ahem almost every contestant on The Amazing Race)? Not so with Survivor. These people have STUDIED.
The new judge glow up is insane. These folks get voted off the island, spend a week in the dream factory apparently, and show up looking like Gaga on her wedding day. It’s… unnerving and wonderful. It screams “you voted me off and I had a full meal and a shower so who’s laughing now”.
The new seasons were fascinating but I kept wondering what was this like in season 1, when no one knew what was about to happen, no one had studied, everything was brand new? So, I watched. And, you guys,
Season 1 of Survivor is an incredible historical artifact.
Let’s start with the fact that it looks like it was filmed with the first ever video camera. The picture is grainy. The sound is a disaster. The editing is really rough in some parts. I kept wondering, “Is this what we were watching in high school?”. The year 2000 never seemed as far away as it did watching this found footage of the stone age.
Second, this was pre-Kardashian, pre-Instagram, pre-”being on reality shows is a career choice”. Everyone was hideous. Which is to say, they looked normal. They had bad hair, unruly eyebrows, terrible skin. They got dangerous numbers of mosquito bites. There was not a six pack in sight. These people had never heard of fillers. It reminded me of this “If Friends aired today” meme:
I read an article about the dangers of reality show celebrity that said that these days, reality contestants show up with new veneers, new boobs, new botox, new everything. They know they’re going to be on TV and our instagram beauty standards are so high that they have to reshape their faces to fit the image. Had anyone even heard of fillers in 2000?
The other interesting thing was how the contestants talked about issues like gay rights and single parenthood. The cast was trying adorably hard to be understanding of the one gay contestant (who was wonderful but also clearly had just been in his office at Deloitte before he got on a plane to Borneo). Back in 2000 we didn’t have much language for talking about LGBTQ issues. We didn’t even have LGBTQ, or at least not if you were in high school in the suburbs of the Pacific Northwest. I don’t know what was going on in places with taxis and late night dining options. So the cast was trying to say how totally cool they were with having a fellow gay contestant and one guy was like “I know you all don’t like being called homosexuals” and Deloitte Gay was like “We don’t?” and then three of the contestants in unison said “IT’S A LIFESTYLE!” and I died laughing because that was about as accepting and allied as anyone knew how to be in the year 2000.
The whole show was so retro and normal and weird and backwards and progressive. It made me realize how very, very far we have come on social issues and how very, very far we have backslid on issues of beauty standards and body image. A few years ago I watched Labyrinth and Jennifer Connelly looked like the child she was and I was like that’s so weird because these days she would be a hot 26 year old pretending to be 13 and we would all pretend it’s normal.
Things have changed, for better and worse, and this show has made me reflect on how I have changed. How have the changing beauty standards changed the way I see myself? Have my language and judgments changed as the times have? Will they be even more different 20 more years from now? Will TV be holograms? Will Jeff Probst still look exactly the same? Will Survivor season 200 be on the moon? WILL I GO TO THE MOON?
For a fun thought exercise, and as my only recommendation this week, I suggest you fire up the ‘ol Amazon Prime and watch the oldest and most recent seasons of Survivor. Then ping me and tell me what you think.