My Full Thoughts And Breakdown Of Surviving Barstool Season 4
*SPOILERS IN VIDEO AND IN BLOG*
Surviving Barstool Season 4 came to an end last night after an insane 15 episode journey that had lies, tears, backstabbing, drama, ruined relationships, Ben Mintz, and a whole lot more. I gave a full recap of the two-hour finale with some thoughts in the video above. But now that I don't have to worry about accidentally spoiling the show, I can finally give some more detailed thoughts on the season as a whole and everything that went down.
-Ria played a fantastic game and was an extremely deserving winner. It was clearly shown early on in the pre-merge portion that she knew the show and had an understanding of the game that few on the cast had. She used it to be on the right side of every vote while simultaneously keeping a target off her back the entire game. Survivor is all about managing your perceived "threat level" and she was able to keep hers low despite being aligned with the biggest target in the game (Dave) and controlling the votes with him the entire time. Very impressive. I think over the last two seasons, a lot of people (myself included) had the thought of "If I get to the end with Dave, I think I'd win because people won't give him his own money" and she was the one who successfully pulled it off. This game is all about making alliances, lying to and backstabbing people, and doing whatever it takes to advance yourself further in the game. Safe to say she did that and is now $250,000 richer for it. She played the almost exact game that I would've tried to play myself. Anyone who doesn't think she's a worthy winner who played an unreal game just doesn't understand the game of Survivor.
-While Dave didn't win, this game probably couldn't have gone any better for him. Every single person who wanted him out got eliminated as he got to sit back, laugh at them, watch them be miserable, and then gloat about it to their faces. The Pink Wedding was a pure masterclass as he stayed calm, cool, and collected in a chaotic environment. All things considered given the stakes of this show, I think we will look back on Dave's opening Final Tribal Speech as an all-time Dave moment. Getting to rub it in all their faces while wearing a Will Compton jersey was a vintage Dave performance. 99 on the black as they say! Obviously the discussion of him being the boss and having an "unfair advantage" will always be a talking point, but guess what? This isn't Survivor. This is Surviving Barstool. And I think that's a fascinating factor that is just part of this game which people have to deal with it. It was overall a great 15 episodes to be a card carrying Team Portnoy member.
-Overall, it seems like some viewers were upset that the core alliance of Ria, Dave and a rotating cast of others controlled the whole season and picked off whoever they wanted. But that's the game! Sure, is it more exciting Survivor when there are constantly shifting voting blocs and nonstop blindsides? Of course. But you can't blame the people in the majority alliance for making the "boring" moves when it's in their best interest. There's been plenty seasons of Survivor where there's a dominating player or alliance that runs the game from start to finish. This isn't unforeseen by any means.
-Now that being sad, it's certainly fair to be frustrated that people were not able to make moves and stop what was happening. But I'm actually going to say something that is seemingly an unpopular opinion, I think there were more people who played well and knew the game than it's being perceived by the audience. It wasn't like it was Ria, Dave, and 22 infants. Big Cat (thanks in part to my coaching before the show) was playing a really strong game up until he wanted out. Rone binged a ton of Survivor beforehand and had some very good game moves. Kirk was in a great position in the game up until the chaos of the Pink Wedding. Will screwed the pooch at the Pink Wedding, inexplicably didn't play his key (so so so so so so so so dumb), and got played like a fiddle by Ria, but he's still a former champion who knows the game well and was able to last a long time despite the HUGE target on his back. Kelly played a better game than people are giving her credit for, maneuvering between different alliances until Final 6, when her key mistake was not voting Ria to force a 2-2 tie. But she's admitted she chose friendship over the game at that point, and that's a decision that people have to weigh in Surviving Barstool that they don't have to weigh in normal Survivor. Rico Bosco assumed the "underdog" role that every Survivor season has, hunted like a mad man for keys, and would've been a massive jury threat if he made it to the end. Yes, people like Biz, Megan and Moobie were not exactly strategic masterminds. And I'm sure they'd admit that themselves. But they came in 8th, T-2nd, and 4th place respectively, so that's nothing to totally scoff at when the cast started with a massive 24 people. I hate to even give some Klemmer some credit, but his game plan of getting to the end with the famous "Pizza Four" was a sound one. He was just a victim of being nauseating to look at and an easy vote out because he's Klemmer. Should he and others have ganged up early on the Pizza tribe and got out Dave and Ria? Sure, it's easy to say that in hindsight knowing they got to the end. But at that point you had Arian Foster who refused to lie, Caleb who was checked out and winking at people, and White Sox Dave ... who is White Sox Dave. Basically, I say all this to underscore the point that sure, this was not exactly Season 47 level Survivor strategy with every player being a brainiac making big move after big move. But it's easy to play Monday Morning QB when you're watching the finished product. Being there in the moment that week, there were certainly some moves where I was thinking to myself "What the fuck are these people doing?" but it wasn't nearly as much as you'd think.
-My god, I just can't get enough of Ben Mintz. Anyone who thinks he shouldn't have been on this cast is eating crow now. From almost shouting out his vote at the first tribal council, to his absurdly tight white t-shirt, to somehow accidentally surviving until the merge, to his insane FTC speech last night, to not knowing how to open his pen, to not knowing the paper was right in front of him, to not knowing how to write, it all was some of the greatest comedy I've ever seen. I have friends from high school who don't follow Barstool much but watched this and they were absolutely enthralled by this man. I was trying to send them some of his all-time best clips, but there's just too many to count. The clip that infamously got him fired didn't even cross my mind as a top 10 absurd Mintzy moment, and that alone tells you everything. In my mind, he's a must cast for all Barstool reality shows going forward.
-How awesome was that fucking Pink Wedding? I wish I could take credit for that idea, but that would be a complete and utter lie. In reality, that came from the minds of Tara, Rob, Jeff, Dags, Dustin, and the branded producer team. When they brought it to me, I threw out some tweaks and ideas, but I unfortunately can't act like the mastermind behind it all. An amazing idea that helped solved the huge problem of how to get rid of 21 people in 7 days. And it ended up being one of the most incredibly tense and dramatic things I've ever seen on reality TV.
-Overall, I had a blast being a part of the production team with all these insanely talented people. Here's the full credits list so I don't forget anyone.
As a lifelong Survivor fan, getting to help be a producer of it all was a really cool experience. I've obviously played these games (and won) before, but being on the other side of things, seeing the creation of it all, and watching all the drama unfold stress free while I got to sit back and watch up close all week was a unique experience. Jeff did a great job hosting as he always does, and I was honored to be involved in any way. Sure, did I look like his disabled gimp at times?
Perhaps. But it was still fun getting to be involved. We have so many smart behind the scenes people and watching them make this show first-hand was fascinating. Rob and his entire team are some of the most talent producers in the game. And a special shoutout to Will who has worked on real Survivor and built all the challenges this season in addition to doing a bunch of other stuff. I basically treated him like a God all week knowing he's stood next to Jeff Probst at some point in his life. And not be a sappy gayball, but I literally partly got hired as an intern because I wrote Survivor: Barstool fan-fiction blog series when I was in college. So to see it all come to life 9 years later in this huge fashion is truly surreal.
-Now listen, I hear the Tommy chanters saying they wish I played, and I cherish those comments as I read them with a hand down my pants. But I think I would've been out early with another huge target on my back. I wasn't on the original, smaller, mainly new player cast and they wanted my help behind the scenes. By the time people were dropping out and more spots were being added, I had already been way too involved in the planning to actually play. Although it would've been funny for me to play knowing every single challenge and twist that was about to happen, it would've been a tad unfair. Now with all that being said, while I'm ultimately satisfied with the role I had this season, if there's a Season 5 or something similar………. I will be back.
And that's a wrap on Surviving Barstool Season 4. If you want to catch up on the full series, you can watch it all here.