TV and Burgers

Most of you know that I am an avid Survivor fan.  I have seen every episode of every season thus far and I am not about to stop.  We are in the 27th season of Survivor now and I am still a fan.  For many years I wrote a weekly blog about the show and I probably still would had I not gotten tired of doing it. I only like two reality shows; Survivor and The Amazing Race.  You can keep your Kardashians and your Honey Boo Boo.  You can take all your baking and cooking contests and toss them out the window.  You can take any show about hillbillies and ducks and toss them right in the trash for all I care, but do not mess with Survivor.  That said, I can tell you now that there are things I like and dislike about this season. First of all I like the premise.  Normally I am opposed to bringing back former contestants.  I have always found that the best seasons are ones in which we are introduced to a bunch of strangers that know nothing about ...

As you may have noticed there was no entry last week after the abbreviated entry from two weeks ago. For that, I do apologize. However, I have so much going on right now with the injury sustained by Lady Gianna and the many activities of the Little Prince that it is getting too difficult to continue doing this recap each week. I am exhausted. I am yawning as I write and my eyes are watering. I need sleep and I need time to do all the necessary work at home. For now I just cannot continue. I may return with recaps later this season, but for now I need a break. Thanks for your understanding.

Due to extenuating circumstances I will be unable to post a complete Survivor Caramoan recap this week. Lady Gianna was injured and hospitalized and my time has been preoccupied with her and her recovery. I will give you a brief recap today: Reynold found another hidden immunity idol. Matt showed us his nasty feet. It rained a lot. The favorites won the reward challenge and had a feast. Corinne drank a lot of wine. Brandon went nuts, dumped the rice & beans, yelled at Phillip and then pretty much everyone else. His tribe forfeited the challenge and gave immunity to the fans. Jeff had to give Brandon an awesome shoulder massage in an attempt to calm him down. They held tribal council right there at the challenge location and they all voiced their votes to Jeff. It was unanimous and Brandon was voted out. Dawn cried. So did Andrea. Hopefully things will settle down and I can get back to full recap next week. Thanks for your support and understanding.

I have been watching Survivor since the beginning and in doing so I have learned quite a few things. I have learned is that if the producers show us an arrogant guy at the beginning saying he will not be voted off while another guy is saying that the arrogant guy must go then it means two things: 1. That tribe will lose the immunity challenge and head to tribal council and 2. The arrogant guy will not get voted off despite half-hearted efforts by the producers to get us to believe otherwise. So was my early assessment on target as usual? Well, read on… Our episode began with the tribe of faves, Bikal, returning to camp. Brandon was visually upset. So upset in fact that new tattoos seemed to suddenly appear on his body. Just for a second, let’s recall how Brandon was like on his first go-round. Let’s see, he was very religious and did everything for Jesus, proclaimed he was nothing like Uncle Russell and gave up his immunity like an idiot and was voted out. (N...

As I have said before the Fans vs. Favorites format is not my favorite. I would much rather see 20 new people compete as opposed to 10 new people playing against Russell’s nephew, fuchsia undies, a woman no one remembered and seven others. However, after seeing Jeff standing majestically on his perch while helicopters flew by I was already hooked. The show began with the newbies on the Gota tribe arriving by boat. We were introduced to them before they were introduced to the favorites they would be playing against. As the favorites exited the helicopters the Gota tribe cheered and giggled when they saw who they were to be playing against. Well, except for Francesca since no one could remember her and Malcolm since they had no idea who he was. The favorites would now be known as the Bikal tribe. Jeff explained that they would have a challenge right away to play for fire and 20 pounds of farting beans. Okay, maybe he didn’t say that, but they played for beans no...

As we close out 2011, allow me to wish each and every one of my loyal readers a very Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy Holidays.  I thank you for your loyalty and for making TV & Burgers an overwhelming success. It is now time for Sir Griffin’s annual list of his ten best shows of 2011.  Before you read you do have to remember that this is my list, not yours, and thus if you disagree feel free to make your own list, but do not disparage mine.  I list my shows alphabetically and not in any order of favorites.  Also, there are a lot of shows out there that I just do not watch that are often critically acclaimed and since I’ve never seen them I cannot include them no matter how good they are.  I have never seen Mad Men or Breaking Bad so don’t look for those on this list.  So without further ado I bring you Sir Griffin’s Top 10 of 2011. 2 Broke Girls – From the first episode I fell in love with this show. ...

I had no idea I would get this many complaints about not posting a Survivor update.  Sometimes I have busy days.  I understand they are rare, but they do occasionally happen and yesterday was just one of those days.  My apologies. The penultimate episode of Survivor: South Pacific was a doozy.  This may have been the finest episode of a stellar season.  We started off with the five remaining survivors making their way back to camp after ousting Edna.  Then they proceeded to hug, congratulate each other and pray.  Praying has become a recurring theme for this season and this episode had plenty of it.  While I have absolutely no trouble with anyone taking time to pray, I do have a problem with foolish prayers.  Again, if God is spending all of his/her time watching Survivor and is overly concerned about the outcome then our world is way more screwed up than I initially thought.  But, the happiness would soon be wearing off ...

Before I get started I want to offer a suggestion for Survivor.  Next summer you need to have Survivor: Hantz vs. Wade where eight members of Brandon’s family battle against eight members of Coach’s family.  This will likely be the greatest season in Survivor history and will be especially exciting to see how they turn on each other.  Much like how Papa Sean Hantz could not believe how poorly his son was playing the game and shocked he was not yet eliminated.  Plus, the way Papa Sean approached Coach to ensure that Brandon would make the final three seemed eerily to the Godfather making him an offer he couldn’t refuse.  Just a thought for you producers out there.  I also am reporting to you now that I have officially decided to discontinue my Survivor recaps after this fall season ends.  Sorry my friends, but I’m just tired of doing it.  If you’re lucky I may treat you to a solo shot if there is a particularly good episode this win...

Why the producers of Survivor insist on subjecting us to Redemption Island I have no idea.  For now we are stuck with Jim whining about their lament, Keith standing around looking stupid and Ozzy desperately trying not to say I told you so while simultaneously actually saying I told you so.  Ozzy is both a moron and an oxymoron.  As Te Tuna returned to camp, Coach made a point of telling Whitney & Dawn that they had nothing to worry about and he was worried about Albert plotting something against him.  Now why Coach chose to lie to them I had no idea.  Seriously, he had been saying ever since the merge that they would be picking off the old Savaii one by one so why did they have nothing to worry about?  I’ll give Whitney credit, for once, because she noted that most of Upolu would never get to the finals with Coach.  She could not believe how “smart people could be so stupid”.  This coming from a girl that not only sings country...

This entry may be a tad shorter than usual today.  I’ve got a headache, I’m in a foul mood and I am extremely tired.  This is unfortunate because we had a whale of show last night.  My apologies, but let’s get right to the point. At the RI duel we learned that Ozzy is the world’s worst actor.  Seriously, I think I saw better acting in Busty Cops 3.  When Ozzy came out it raised a few eyebrows on the Upolu tribe and Ozzy should have let it at that.  Instead, he babbled endlessly about how he was fooled by Cochran and was seeking vengeance.  Albert said “I don’t buy it” and by the looks on the faces of Upolu no one else did either.  Well, maybe Edna.  I found it hard to believe that Jeff was able to not burst out laughing, but the look on his face clearly showed that he wanted to do so.  The duel itself was one we had seen before: each person would have to tie together a pole and reach three sets of keys to unlock a gate a...

Can someone please explain to me who or what Coach is winking and saluting to?  I cringe every time he does it.  He gets this shit eating grin and salutes.  Why?  To what purpose?  Is he saluting the camera operators?  Is there a hot girl behind the scenes that he is winking at?  Does he suddenly see his reflection in a mirror and then pronounce his undying love for himself?  Oh wait, he loves Brandon now and Brandon loves Coach, but we’ll delve into that later. Our episode began with a very angry Ozzy throwing a fit over Elyse being voted out at TC.  Now if he had been complaining that the hottest girl on either tribe had just been ousted that would be one thing, but Ozzy was whining and crying because they did it behind his back.  Oh boo hoo Ozzy, haven’t you played this game enough to know how it is played?  Instead of just manning up and refocusing his efforts to be indispensible to the tribe, Ozzy declares himse...

I’m just telling you now that if anyone calls me by my first name I am going to go nuts.  I am the Big Blogger damn it!  No one has called me by my first name since I was eight.  Even my parents call me the Big Blogger.  Even before there was such a thing as a blogger I was called the Big Blogger.  Now, I realize how ridiculous that sounds, but Coach?  Well he went nuts a long time ago so I am guessing he has no clue, but we’ll delve into that with a little more detail later. Our show began as so many others have in the past, with Brandon crying and saying bad things about Mikayla.  Seriously, this guy has a lot of issues and maybe tossing him out in front of cameras with a bunch of strangers was not the best idea.  I know they do all sorts of psychological testing before sending anyone out, but I think they just gave Brandon a pass due to the Hantz name.  Who would have thought that Russell would be the more stable member of ...