"Survivor" and "Law and Order"

"Survivor"

My husband had noticed this a couple weeks ago, but this was the first time I actually watched it for myself - they've changed the way they do the "opening credits". Usually, they just continue to show all the members of both original tribes. This go-around, though, once they got to the merge, they changed the opening credits to only show the people who were still on the merged tribe and then also the people who had then moved to the jury. (Before the merge, not sure if they took people out of the intro once they were voted out.) I think that's an interesting change, and it actually makes a lot of sense. The other people really don't matter anymore, and with no more than 10 people to show, it makes the opening credits shorter. As it was, in previous seasons, once they got toward the end, I would periodically watch the roll-call, and I wouldn't even really remember half the people they were showing.

I had mentioned about last week's episode that I thought it was weird that Todd was so mad when Denise told him that P.G. was gunning for him. So this week, he says that it would be smart for the others to vote him out, but he wasn't going to tell them that. Ummm, ok, P.G. already not only thought about it but tried to pull it off several days prior, and you got all mad about it.

The family challenges are often fun to watch, and it's especially touching to see the reunions. I noticed that Denise was the only one who had a spouse as visiting family. And it really shocked me that Courtney's father was British. With the way that she is, I just completely didn't expect her father to be English. I loved the look on his face when Jeff explained what the challenge was.

When they first showed the maze, I thought they were going to have one person talk the other through while blindfolded. I don't remember a challenge before where both people are blindfolded, and they have to find each other *and* find a particular location. That was pretty cool. Amanda and her sister with their bird-calling sounds were cracking me up. Courtney seemed irritated with Jeff's play-by-play. Ummm, that's what he's supposed to be doing. I thought it was cool that Denise won. I wasn't terribly surprised that she picked Todd and Amanda. At that point, it's about alliances. Even though P.G. had chosen her to participate in the last reward, I didn't think that necessarily obligated her to pick P.G. in return, though P.G. apparently did.

So, something else I noticed - what is with Amanda's butt? I've noticed over the past few episodes that either during a challenge or even when they're just walking around camp or something, the area around Amanda's butt is blurred. No, I'm not staring at her butt - the blurring actually catches my attention. This time, I noticed it particularly when they were getting on the boat for the reward challenge, I think. I'm presuming that her underwear or bikini bottom or whatever she's wearing is showing too much of her butt to be aired on TV without being blurred. Just seemed odd to me.

When they came back from their reward challenge, and they had chocolate on their hands that the others licked off - ewww. I thought that was kind of weird. I guess I wouldn't know unless I was in that position, but the thought of licking food off of someone's hand just strikes me as icky. I don't think I could do it. Maybe I just don't like chocolate enough.

So P.G. wins a do-or-die immunity again. In this case, I didn't think the challenge was skewed towards her like I thought last week's reward challenge was - the questions seemed a lot harder this time, and it was only because Todd missed the last question that she ended up winning.

Having to do with nothing, there was some point when Todd was doing a sort of diary entry to the camera, and his hair was just sticking up and all weird. He reminded me of a chia pet.

So Erik and P.G. try their best to turn Denise, but they fail, and Erik is voted off. It was interesting that Denise's testimonial during her vote was that this was probably the biggest mistake she'd make in the game. If she thought that could be the case, then why do it? I do think Erik and P.G. had a very valid argument. Denise has gotta know that she's fourth in her alliance, even without hearing what Todd and Amanda said with their siblings around. Unless she can win an immunity challenge, she's gone when final four rolls around. If she had voted with P.G. and Erik against Todd, she was guaranteed to get to final four since their three votes would control at the next tribal council. And she at least had a shot at final three since because if either she, Erik or P.G. won the immunity idol (and Erik and P.G. have had recently great track records at winning challenges), it would be them as final three. But she stuck with her alliance, relying on her trust, though I'm not entirely sure what that means. OK, next round, if P.G. doesn't win immunity, she goes. If she does, then Denise would go. P.G.'s win would only prolong Denise's stay by one week. In either case, her alliance wouldn't be breaking their word to her by voting her out. Once the "outsiders" are gone or at least not able to be voted out, they have to vote someone off from their own alliance, and I don't recall Todd or anyone else in her alliance promising her final four or final three.

With Erik out, that leaves four women and one man. I would actually like to see Todd voted out this week, so that would leave all women in the final four and beyond. That would be fun. I think this week is when the car challenge would be, so we'll find out who wins the car and subsequently, according to tradition, not win Sole Survivor. Maybe Todd can win the car as a consolation prize and then be kicked out.

If the women do make final four, I'd want Courtney out next. Hmm, I'd also be ok with her going next and then Todd going the week after that. I want final three to be Amanda, Denise and P.G. I'd be ok with any of them winning, though I think it would be great if Denise ultimately won.


"Law and Order: SVU"

I thought this was a bit of a weak episode, not to mention quite politically correct. OK, tribal customs for female circumcisions, and crimes being witnessed and then the black crime lord that has the whole neighborhood scared to do anything against him. But he was really a one-note character, and a red herring at that. I don't know if Method Man is a good actor, but if he is, his talents were wasted here. It was definitely not the intriguing character that Ludicrous had to work with. Turns out the black 15 year old was actually killed by the white wife in the polygamist relationship - and the surviving black husband testifies against the black crime lord to finally stand up for himself and his family put the guy away. OK.