They Are Night Zombies!! Part XII

"I don't know what it's like to be homeless, but being on exile island is a pretty good taste of what being homeless is like." - Bobby Jon Drinkard

In its twelfth season, and third visit to Panama, Survivor seems to have jettisoned any pretense of grounding itself in the symbology of the local indigenous culture (you know, like pirates from the Pearl Islands) - one of the reasons constantly cited to explain the show's success - in favor of the ridiculously arbitrary. Zombie heads? Wooden snakes? Exile Island? If anything, this season has its most obvious parallels to its Panamanian predecessor, All-Stars, in that the hook is based entirely on deviations in the game mechanics. So far, I am disappointed that the tribes were merged so early, and we will see if the hidden Immunity Idol will have more of an impact than last season when it merely delayed Gary's inevitable boot.

Yet, despite these faults, Survivor XII has come out of the gates as one of the more entertaining seasons as it has upped the wacko quotient by at least five. Splitting the group into four tribes really helped the editors cut together a decent premiere and it took no time at all for the contestant's neuroses to bubble to the surface. The schoolyard style merge was hilariously painful as all of the lunatics seemed to attract each other. Poor Melinda never stood a chance. Would you against a hippie-skippie turtle funeral director, a phyllophobe, and a psychotic chain-smoker?

This season has brought the crazy and I love it.