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Survivor Gabon recaplet: Charlie and Marcus in the inner layer of a large onion
The new season of Survivor debuted last night. This time the competition is set in "Earth's last Eden" the African nation of Gabon. Gabon has high hopes for the series, having set aside land to be protected, even though preserving that land has cost the country jobs. The country is hoping Survivor will help its young eco-tourism industry. I suspect the talk about "one of the last untouched places on the planet" and images like this, I can see how it'll tempt travelers.
Sadly, Jeff Probst will not be included in your view As usual, we meet the new cast who are taken into the wild "with nothing but their street clothes". That means they're inappropriately dressed, a Survivor tradition. At least no one complains about how uncomfortable they are in shoes that are obviously inappropriate for roughing it. Well... Olympic medalist Crystal complains about how heavy her shoes are as she struggles to climb uphill, but they turn out to be sensible-looking athletic shoes.
While preparing for a trip to the jungle, be sure to pack your suit so that it doesn't wrinkle. This time the castaways are allowed to pick out their own teams gym-school-nightmare style, which turns out to be awkward/hilarious since . Our guy Charlie gets picked for the Kota Tribe in the fourth round by the "tall farmer-looking boy" Marcus. Charlie responds with an excited run and a clingy hug that just telegraphs what is coming up.
"Charlie's happy." Yep, Charlie has a very obvious crush on Marcus, which inspires mixed feelings for me. On one hand, it's a little bit cringe-inspiring to see the stereotype of a gay man enthralled with an unavailable straight guy. Still, Charlie doesn't try in the slightest to hide his crush and it doesn't seem to bother Marcus in the slightest or cause any other kind of drama. In fact, Marcus agrees to team up with Charlie in an alliance, "I don't see any romance between Charlie and I. I think he's a great guy, you know. I can see that he's handsome and smart and all those things. I really can appreciate that about him. It's just not really the way I roll."
Alright, so Charlie's crush on Marcus is pretty understandable. Marcus and Charlie quickly start giving Survivor: Gabon great lines. In dealing with Ace, who's one of those bossy people who thinks adding "Why don't we..." to the beginning of every sentence makes him seem less bossy, they walk off and have the following conversation: Marcus: What do you think? Day four or five it's going to get really irritating? Charlie: One. Yes, that makes Marcus Charlie's straight man in the comedic sense as well. I hope after this season wraps up they take their act on tour.
It's just a matter of time before Ace talks about "Not being here to make friends." The Kota Tribe is lucky to have physics teacher Bob as their elder member, who turns out to be great at putting their camp together, since he spends his summers as a lobster fisherman. On the other hand, the Fang Tribe has Gillian, who quickly goes looking for elephant dung thinking food and water can be foraged from it. That turns out to be too much roughing it for her tribemates.
Gillian is a little too fascinated with the elephant dung. The Marcus and Charlie alliance does have its cringe-inducing moments, however. On the fourth day, Charlie confesses to being a little too dependent on Marcus telling him: I can't stress enough how safe I feel because I have you. Because when you go off, I do get this pang of (gasps), you know? When I see that you're there, it's like even if I'm not there, I feel like I'm there in spirit. I'm like -- someone's gonna back me up if I get knocked down. Our alliance is -- clearly, I just can't imagine there being a stronger one.
Charlie and Marcus talk alliance I really hope Charlie isn't letting his guard down too much. Still, Marcus doesn't seem to be looking to be taking advantage of Charlie's attachment to him. When he talks about expanding their alliance, Marcus compares it to an onion with Charlie being the "innermost layer". Jacquie (think you have a unusual way of spelling your name Ms. McQueen?) and Corinne and Bob gets added to the "large onion" alliance. I'm a little worried about Corinne considering that in her introductory interview she warned the audience, "I'm going to be a total bitch... and I'm going to hurt people's feelings and I'm going to laugh when they cry and I'm going to own it." I hope that's not foreshadowing a fatal mistake for Charlie. Then again, Charlie said he would be "playing under the radar" so maybe seeming to fall so hard on Marcus is part of seeming harmless?
Or maybe Corinne will be first to say she's not here to make friends: Fortunately, the "large onion" alliance didn't get tested last night as the Kota Tribe dominated the challenges. Not only did they win the first amenity challenge, winning the tribe additional food, they win all the challenges following, getting flint to make fire, fishing equipment and avoiding tribal council twice. Unfortunately, one of the two Fang tribe members voted out included the entertainingly odd, elephant-dung-seeking Gillian. Ah, well, this is Survivor, I'm sure the eccentricity vacuum won't last long.
"Bummer" I'll miss ya Gillian. How did you feel about Charlie and his first time out in Gabon? Does his alliance with Marcus look solid? Is he setting himself up for disappointment? At the very least, we know he'll win "Most dazzling smile" every week:
Submitted by on Fri, 2008-09-26 12:06. |
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Forget Bronnie it's all about Charlus - Survivor's hottest .....
I too had mixed feelings about the stereotype, but was immediately won over by what appears to be a fact that Charlie indeed developed an insta-crush on this guy and, while a little too George Bush in his heyday looking, has it ALL going on in all the right places. Since I can't see this element as having been scripted, I love it as it shows how a winning diverse cast can provide unexpected surprises on top of the usual class, color, religion, age elements that are a staple of this genre.
The producers took a left of center curve with bringing in so many hot white collar males as eye candy rather than taking the the usual route of equally brawny yet less educated hotties, as exemplified by the trainer who said that he did not trust anyone who wore suits. I am liking the mix, but fear that unless Charlie aligns himself with the women of the Onion to then spit out his crush, he will not go as far as he could without the crush.
Charlie's "reveal" on the fishing boat makes him look so vulnerable to taking 100 bullets for Marcus. Hopefully a twinge of Charlie' earnestness is game play and that once things get settled, he'll find a couple of faults in Mr. Perfect, but I saw none. For a couple of seconds, I thought that Charlie was going to go all Fatal Attraction when the "onion" concept was introduced by Marcus.
Snarky Corinne may provide a surprise life vest as she'll smell that crush a mile away and probably use it to open Charlie's eyes as Marcus cannot be allowed to stay too long as the game will be his to win. Hopefully Charlie will be a day-crusher as there is tons of eye candy as exemplified in the underwear yoga foreplay led by Ace. What was up with Ace's colorful tight underwear and that flexible butt? Quite metrosexual of him....
This was the only show that I saw last night that I enjoyed at all. The HD element brought this amazing place to life. The only thing from a production point of view is that the "animal placements" looked a little like stock footage. Hopefully Gillian took a little elephant dung with her as she really loved her dung...
Guillermo's Media Guillotine: Entertainment, journalism, politics, and popular culture.
http://springintoaction.typepad.com
A fine ''Bro-mance''
Guillermo, I love your description of Charlie and Marcus' bromance as an Abercrombie & Fitch ad come to life. In terms of sheer eye candy, yowza! But I find it remarkable for mainstream TV. Marcus knows that Charlie, a bright young gay guy, has a crush on him, but unlike some straight men, he doesn't feel his sense of masculinity threatened or resort to hostility or violence. We could use more Marcuses as role models. If you go to the ''Survivor'' board, you'll find a comment from ''Charliesux'' that reads: ''What the heck is Marcus thinking aligning himself with Charlie? Vote that it, thing, whatever off the show. I can't stand Charlie. He makes me sick to my stomach. I just want to punch him in the face and watch him cry.''
Where does such homophobia come from? So Charlie is a little giddy about Marcus. Why not? Marcus is smart, athletic and a doctor. Who wouldn't be giddy getting picked by such a hunk? I hope the relationship between Charlie and Marcus helps show America that straight guys and gay guys CAN be friends, not unlike ''Bronnie'' on Bravo TV's ''Make Me a SuperModel.'' Here's another comment from the ''Survivor'' board from ''brentwong625'': ''I can't stand it. Nothing againts gays, but you're here to win, not talk about how you feel in an alliance with him ... or how comfortable you feel with Marcus.'' ''Snomeister'' replied: ''You're being sexist, man, even if you think you aren't. Romance happens on 'Survivor.' Were you against Ken having feelings for Michelle? What about Rob & Amy? Sure, they come to play the game, but relationships can happen anytime.''
In the past, ''Survivor'' has had a couple of gay contestants who weren't even revealed to be gay (like Brad Virata), so bravo in this instance for showing an adorable & openly gay guy like Charlie.
I am obviously with you on this one. Go Charlie!!!!!
With regard to the comments on the board, it shows how uncomfortable people (esp. men) get when faced with something that they see all the time but it just happens to be with heterosexuals. I bet that the "nothing against gays" dude did not say the same thing about the gamer guy who was crushing on the show's first casualty. Having a crush on a fellow contestant and wanting to "win" are not mutually exclusive. Romber anyone? Maybe it was not the best tactic too fawn all over your crush, but at least Charlie was comfortable in his skin and giddiness. Total puppy love.
Since my loyalties are already with Charlie, I do want him to put the crush in perspective so that he can play to win and I see no reason why that can't. For now I'll enjoy all the eye candy and having a gay contestant who brings a little more to the show than the poor beauty pageant consultant brought last season as he seemed to be having a miserable time and was treated like crap by a fellow contestant who was a total d^ck.
Guillermo's Media Guillotine: Entertainment, journalism, politics, and popular culture.
http://springintoaction.typepad.com
Charlie all the way
To see more of Marcus ...
Speaking of the ''Survivor'' message board, there's a thread called ''Marcus' Manhood Was Showing.'' In the Big Ball challenge, Marcus is running ... and you get to see more of Marcus than CBS probably meant to show.
http://www.cbs.com/forum/posts/list/19355.page
OMG!!!
That was the funniest thing. I cant believe CBS missed that.
Too funny
I watched the video footage that appears further down on that link's page, and I really cannot see how on earth the editors missed that---it's very obviously flapping around there! Ha!
I'm like a superhero, with no powers or motivation...
Kudos for providing this fun link!
Guillermo's Media Guillotine: Entertainment, journalism, politics, and popular culture.
http://springintoaction.typepad.com
A cold shower needed.
It takes two to tango. But I can’t clearly see if they both (Marcus and Charly) are in the same dance. Obviously Marcus is used to be desired upon. So he doesn’t feel threatened by the fact that an obviously gay guy has a crush on him. The problem is that I don’t think Charly has the same “I can control the scheme” here. So I hope that it doesn’t end up with a pathetic scene with a heartbroken Charly about something that was never there (that immature mystical “feeling” that there is something special with that straight guy). Marcus clearly said “there is not two Adams here”. So he is not even bi.
If Charly were an experienced guy –don’t even know his obviously young age- he wouldn’t be chanting his crush so blatantly, with the risk of being an easy target and taken as a weak player.
But well, will see later if this story is up for cheers or tears.
I'm undecided
I found myself being uncomfortable about Charlie's affections for Marcus. When he started gushing about how Marcus made him feel safe I literally cringed. It may just be conditioning? I will say that I like and respect gay people who do projects like this and just seem like normal people. Charlie just doesnt fit with the type of gay guys I spend time with, so maybe that it.
I do think Charlie is sweet though. Hes very adorable and a little niave. I like that in general.
I think that after Marcus' slip with his junk hanging out that Im going to start calling this show Survivor: Gaboner...
''Queers''
There's a new thread on the ''Survivor'' message board by ''DaltonCross'': ''Why is it necessary that queers have to tell you what their sexual orientation is? Who cares? ... Having a token queer on ''Survivor'' is sickening. ... I am tired of the queer bombardment of the airwaves.''
http://www.cbs.com/forum/posts/list/19849.page
Should the ''Survivor'' message board delete homophobic rantings like this, or is it best to leave them up for others to see what kind of hate is out there? Or do homophobes find comfort in seeing others post such trash?
Marcus is the sexiest thing
Marcus is the sexiest thing I've seen on my TV screen in a long time.
Charlie is totally right. Marcus is the total package! He is so winning this thing.