Survivor secrets and extortion, plus Lego Masters' fail and Making the Cut's final slice
Dear newsletter friends,
Eye strain is real: I’ve been staring at screens too much over the past six weeks. So, I’ve been trying to take breaks—to look around, and also to do non-screen things.
One project: digging into boxes in my closet that I haven’t looked at for 10 years. This week I shredded more than 22 years worth of utility bills and old pay stubs.
I don’t know why I’d need a record of how much natural gas I used in October of 2003 for a water heater in a rented house, or how much my paycheck was that first month at a new startup in Chicago in January 2000, but I had the receipts. (I suppose there’s a reason why Hoarders resonated with me!)
But I also found things I’d kept from grad school—letters from faculty, comments on my writing, lists of fellow students, a random scribble on a napkin—that instantly triggered memories I’d forgotten about.
And those all stayed, in boxes, labeled. Because, at least for now, and perhaps especially now, that ability to be transported to a different place and time feels particularly valuable.
Did Lego Masters master Legos? Did Making The Cut make it work?
Making the Cut’s final two episodes dropped today. Also I can’t use the word “dropped” without thinking of “My Single My Single is Dropping is Dropping” from 30 Rock.
I’ve seen both episodes of Making the Cut, and will have a recap and interviews with the winner and runner-up tonight at 9 p.m. ET.; that’ll be published here.
Earlier this week, I talked to Amazon about something that’s frustrating a lot of people: Making the Cut’s clothes have sold out almost immediately.
The show pitched itself as instantly “shoppable,” but hasn’t been for most people. (And that’s completely unrelated to our world’s current state; they just didn’t make enough to meet demand.) While it sucks for people who want to buy the clothes, there’s some good news for the designers in that story.
So let’s talk Lego Masters ended last week. Last Friday night, I wrote about my disappointment with the finale—and really, with the final two episodes.
I really enjoyed a lot of Lego Masters, and hope it comes back—with less of a focus on creating drama and clearer judging.
Speaking of judging: Making the Cut and Lego Masters couldn’t be any different, but both have issues with their judging, which I wrote about here and here.
Survivor secrets, and extortion
I gathered together 13 of my favorite in-depth, behind-the-scenes stories about Survivor.
Of those stories, I’m so glad a lot of people are reading my profile of the composer of Survivor’s theme song, Russ Landau, who composed for the show, too, starting with season one.
He told me the surprising origin of that now-iconic yell that starts the theme song, and explained why he stopped making new remixes of theme songs and left Survivor. Read all that here.
I miss the opening credits and listening for what he’d changed each season.
This week, Survivor: Winners at War became The Tony Vlachos show, for better and worse.
It also introduced 🙄🙄🙄 a new extortion twist, which I explore in my recap.
Also this week, it was the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and there were several Earth Day marathons this week.
This weekend, we’re getting our first two reality shows produced at home, including a quarantine edition of 90 Day Fiance.
I hope your at-home, physically distancing time is going as well as possible. Stay safe and well.
By the way, if there’s anything I can write about that’d be particularly helpful or useful or interesting to you right now, whether it’s a show or something else, I’m always open to suggestions.
And I’m also always looking for new questions to answer in Ask Andy. Send it all my way! See you in your inbox next week.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 191, first sent 24 April 2020, and it would pay six fire tokens for some Chipotle.
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📷 Photo of tulips in Chicago in the spring by Michael Beener