kiko

i'm so liking survivor philippines.

i'm more of a kapamilya than kapuso coz i find that most gma primetime shows are too campy (asero, kamandag) or just plain copies of international hits like lord of the rings (although i enjoyed encantadia, their best fantaserye to date), harry potter (majika), smallville (captain barbell) among others. their dramas fare poorly against abs-cbn's, not because they don't have competent actors, but i think they lack the same pool of writers who can concoct viral lines that could give old teleserye themes new twists and exciting.

it's a totally different story with some of gma's reality shows. i liked extra challenge coz of the celebrity factor in it, as well as the creative challenges that they've done. but i think gma found gold with survivor philippines! although it should have not been billed as "survivor philippines" coz it was done in thailand (more apt could be pinoy survivor: thailand), gma's version doesn’t have those sappy storylines ala-abs-cbn's reality shows. instead, survivor ph focuses on what's important – building up the excitement through series of challenges and the usual survivor gapangan and scheming tactics of the castaways. there might be some cliffhangers here and there but the show stays true to the nature of the game and does not dwell on make believe stories. i think what's working for me in this show is that they did not force the contestants to play a certain pre-arranged or pre-themed role so as to supposedly make the series more exciting. there are no lingering sub-stories that are shown over a long period of time. in short, gma didn't do an overkill on this one! that's very good. coz it will get tiring especially if you see it everyday, unlike u.s. survivor shows which are shown once a week only.

i'm so glad that kiko got the boot this early. with his departure, it would be nice to see how "followers" would chart their own strategies, especially as sir kiko seems to have called all the shots and decided for the whole tribe, all in what he had branded as tribe spirit! i think marlon will also be voted off very soon, so next episodes will be exciting as well. teka, i've seen some blog entries that jc is the sole survivor, supposedly leaked by a survivor ph crew to a friend. i hope that this isn't true coz it would kill all the excitement! we'll see.