Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator
    
 
Gender: 
Posts: 292
|
 |
Entertainment Weekly Finale Recap/Review
« on: May 20th, 2002, 9:41am » |
 Quote  Modify
|
Vee is for Victory
Vecepia takes the million. Ken Tucker recalls the finale's coolest (and least cool) moments
It was really cool that genius producer Mark Burnett made ''Survivor: Marquesas'' finalists Vecepia Towery and Neleh Dennis wait five months and then sit through a chilly Central Park evening last night before counting up the votes that gave Vecepia the ultimate ''Survivor'' prize of a million bucks.
It was much less cool that, closely following the announcement, Rosie O'Donnell, hosting the post-game show, sang a version of the ''Gilligan's Island'' theme song with special (i.e., cornball) lyrics.
It was really cool that, once he hit Manhattan on the live, final-hour broadcast, Jeff Probst asked the cab driver for a receipt as he left the vehicle.
It was much less cool that the two-hour taped part of the finale was padded out with too many greatest-moments montages and the sequence in which Vecepia, Neleh, and Kathy bathed with some yellow gunk in a hokey purification rite -- it was like CBS' test to dare us not to turn over to NBC's Bill Cosby special, or to check out David Duchovny's return to the final installment of ''The X-Files.''
It was really cool that Vecepia took full advantage of being the first African-American to win the contest, dedicating her win to ''people of color.''
It was much less cool that, by the end of the night, O'Donnell had turned the show into a tiki-torch-lit version of ''The Price Is Right,'' giving every ''Survivor: Marquesas'' participant -- as Bob Barker would say -- a new car!
Coolest post-''Survivor'' makeover? Kathy, with her new Marg Helgenberger hair.
Least cool post-''Survivor'' jurist? John, with his new John Corbett hair. No sex in the big city for John with that 'do, I'd wager.
How fitting that, on a Sunday night, ''two Christian women,'' as Paschal put it, should end up the finalists. Except that on this Christian day of rest, we heard a lot of virulent anti-religious sentiment expressed by the losers. Among the final-jury statements, Tammy excoriated Vecepia and Neleh for their ''holier-than-thou attitude,'' scheming ''under the guise of Christianity.'' John -- better known as John The Guy Whose Hand Got Peed On -- scorned ''these Bible-thumpers.'' Only Paschal -- the kindly judge who (I admit my prejudice) should have been the winner -- remarked neutrally, wonderingly, ''I don't know what caused these two Christian women to be left'' as the finalists.
''Survivor: Marquesas,'' remember, started out pretty dull, full of moderately attractive people of less than moderate abilities to articulate their philosophies of life. But the game is a machine that Burnett is always tinkering with, and he souped up this slow-mover until the last few weeks just flew by, with last night's delayed-finish-line surprise, when all was said and done, a triumph.
|
Sponsored by: The Fans!
Home
Help
Search
Members
Chat
Member Map
Login
Register
Reply
Add Poll
Notify of replies
Send Topic
Print