This Week in Television - Dec. 14-18, 2009

Survivor: Samoa
(I'm including the big Sunday finale here even though I don't really include weekends in the TV posts.) So I said in the beginning that Russell wasn't going to win. Turns out I was right after all, but I do have to admit that as his power continued to grow and grow throughout the season, I was doubting my prediction and I thought maybe he might take it after all. But it looks like there is no consistency in juries - sometimes they respect the villains who totally backstabbed them all, and sometimes they're whiners who ultimately shun those villains. This was a whiner season. Not that I necessarily disagree with Natalie's win - she seems like a nice girl and I am happy for her, and even though Russell did play a crazy strong and dominant game, comparing his strategy to Natalie's is really just apples and oranges. Making the jury want to vote for you is part of the game, and an important one at that, and that's where Russell failed, so it is not fair to say that, as he claims, he played a perfect game. I also don't think it is fair to say that Natalie was a coattail rider. True, she didn't strategize as much as Russell, but she wasn't following him blindly either (voting Erik had nothing to do with Russell) and there have been much better examples of those players in other seasons. Russell was pissed off to the point of visible nervousness during the reunion, and it showed, but he should have realized that his downfall was getting too arrogant and not thinking about jury votes until much too late.
The next season looks like a lot of fun - I like when they bring back past Survivors. I just hope that when they categorize the "heroes" and "villains", that the people participating will rightfully fall under those titles and not just be placed there because they were the only ones willing to do another season. I would love to see them do a season made up entirely of past winners. That would be the ultimate season.

Kenny vs. Spenny
Who is a better basketball coach? Once Spenny caught a glimpse of Kenny's wheelchair team, I knew exactly how it was going to play out, and I was right. Kudos to Spenny for doing his best to fight Kenny's schemes, but he just did it wrong.