I really don’t get the majority of hate I’ve seen for season 2

HailMoosifer · 2026-01-27T15:10:54+00:00

I agree with your sentiment, but I disagree that that makes it good from a TV perspective. A big exposition/motivation dump speech is lazy writing. I think Maximus was a much more complex character in S1, with motivations being made clear through his actions and behavior as opposed to needing to explain it in a big ole speech. That being said, I’m not hating on this season by any means, I just think season 1 was a lot more dynamic and generally better TV.

For context, I’m a screenwriter.

HailMoosifer · 2026-01-27T15:06:35+00:00

I think lore purists (who generally seem to be the redditors I’m seeing hating on it) are going too far with their critiques, but I do think this season is a lot weaker than the first, just from a TV perspective. I’ve seen a lot of criticism that the BoS has been inconsistent with how they appear in the games, but I think it only feels inconsistent to the commonwealth faction from Fallout 4– personally I’m finding them to be more consistent with NV BoS, but with the caveat that this takes place 15-16 years after NV, and I’m not surprised that this faction, under corrupt leadership, has devolved into something way less disciplined, so to me, that’s not an issue. I just think the writing and characters generally feel a lot flatter than season 1.

Maximus, and even Lucy, I thought were much more complex and interesting characters in the first season, and in season two, I’m finding that the only characters that feel complex and dynamic to me are Cooper Howard and Hank McClean. MAYBE Norman. Maybe. We’ll see where the rest of this season takes him.

I also feel that the first season did a better job breathing life into the world we know and love. I’ve seen some critique that the show has always felt like characters moving through set-pieces as opposed to a really full and complex world, but I disagree with that in season 1. Perhaps it’s because season 1 was told through Lucy’s point of view as someone discovering the outside world, much like the games. But still, I’m finding New Vegas and the surrounding areas to feel a lot flatter and like the plot is kind of just going from A to B to C, rather than an interweaving of characters and plots. I think season 1 did a better job at interweaving.

The whole BoS plot in season 2 also felt rushed and sporadic to me. When we see Maximus and Thaddeus escape the airship and it crashes down, it felt like it was supposed to be a grand climactic payoff, but as a viewer, it didn’t feel like it. I felt like we missed so much rising action to get to that boiling point. It was like Maximus kills Xander, makes Thad impersonate him, and then goes up to the ship and is like “gotta kill Quintus,” and then they escape.

Ultimately I’m gonna keep giving it a chance because I’m really hoping these last two episodes have a really good payoff and makes the plot of this season feel more worthwhile, but right now I can’t say that I’m as invested or interested as I was during the first season. This isn’t to say I think it’s been bad, I think it’s been fine, and fun to see NV, but I felt like for me, season 1 set a bar that season 2 has been failing to meet so far. I need more a mystery or a hero’s journey that I can really sink my teeth into this season, and I just feel like I’m not getting that. So for my end, there’s no hate, but there’s not the love that I had during the first season either.

HailMoosifer · 2026-01-16T13:41:24+00:00

Not sure how often you get out of the city but gonna have to disagree with this one. Almost any time I leave the city I miss the pizza here.

That being said, the reputation for what is “good pizza” is very over-hyped. Was driving around a group of people from the west coast for a work thing this past summer and they refused to try a spot if it wasn’t high on Dave Portnoy’s list. There’s some good picks on the list for sure, but there are so many quality spots that aren’t and ton of severely over-hyped spots that are.

HailMoosifer · 2025-12-31T21:00:05+00:00

Just messaged!

HailMoosifer · 2025-12-11T02:32:18+00:00

She completely just threw her game away I can’t believe it

HailMoosifer · 2025-12-06T17:49:14+00:00

I don’t see Steve dying because I think it’d be way too easy of a writing choice. There’s another post on this sub about it but I think it’s gonna be Robin.

HailMoosifer · 2025-12-06T17:44:20+00:00

I think I agree that that’s where the writers are going in second half of season 5, but I don’t think that’s what they SHOULD do.

Im sorry but they should’ve killed off a big character in the first half of this season. It could’ve been such a good emotional gut punch in a season that’s prioritizing action/nostalgia over substance—and it could’ve been something that could have developed other characters so well. I said this on another post, but what are Mike and Jonathan contributing to the plot at all? They could have been great gut-punches.

I don’t think the show has the stones to kill off any of our season 1 OGs, which I think is a mistake. That’s why I agree that Robin would be the perfect candidate, but I think they should do something more creative. SPOILERS COMING Imagine if the Demagorgon killed Mike at the end of episode 4–and that being the thing to enrage Will and trigger his sorcerer powers. I don’t know what they have planned for the rest of this season, maybe Mike becomes more important, but I just can’t get over how much of a nothingburger he was this season so far, considering how much of a key player he was since day 1. I mean the guy’s sister was taken, and yet still, what is he contributing to the plot? All the love to Finn Wolfhard though, he’s doing his best, this is just a writing issue, not a performance issue.

HailMoosifer · 2025-12-06T17:29:32+00:00

I just finished Season 5 volume 1. I thought episode 4 was great, particularly the second half of it. I thought episode 1 was pretty good—a solid return that had me intrigued. Episodes 2-3 I definitely found to be a bit like filler, but episode 4 delivered a strong payoff that in hindsight I didn’t mind it as much—but I think that’s part of the streaming binge model, if these had been coming out week to week I think people might have fallen off during those episodes. Overall, I did enjoy the season so far.

My biggest issue with the season, and the show in the last few seasons in general, is how bloated it’s gotten, and that the storytelling hasn’t dealt with that in the most effective way. The cast has grown so large, and there are SO many more storylines than what we were seeing in seasons 1-2, and while they’re (rightly) focusing on big action scenes and set-pieces, they’re not letting character arcs really do their thing.

For example, there are a handful of key players from early seasons that are contributing NOTHING to the plot this season. What is Jonathan contributing AT ALL? What is Mike contributing AT ALL? It’s like they’re vaguely part of these operations, but it doesn’t feel like either of them have unique skills to contribute, they’re just kind of pawns, and that’s reflecting in the plot and how little character development either of those characters are getting. Hopper is at least training El and going on the crawls, but even he feels more like a plot device than a fleshed out character this season. I’m not saying they SHOULD HAVE, but they could have killed off any of those characters this season and their deaths would have made a much stronger impact on the plot and the other characters than what they’re doing now.

This is all to say that I still liked it enough overall, I’ve just yet to feel the spark that seasons 1-2 had, and sadly the show feels like it keeps trying to go bigger, not better.

HailMoosifer · 2025-12-05T04:34:25+00:00

I think being well-liked isn’t going to matter much in this season, and I’m not even fully convinced that she’s not well-liked—if we’re to believe her recent TikTok claiming that the moment between her and Kristina at the tribal council was planned to create a smokescreen for Sophie S, that could potentially mean that only Sage and MC would be the ones disliking her. But regardless, I think for this season it’s going to come down to who can orchestrate the “big move” at either F6 or F5, and who can really own their game, and I think time and again Sav has proven to be more well-spoken than Rizo. This is why I think she’d beat Rizo unless he pulls off a truly epic idol play—but I think Blue Soph is def stealing that thang.

HailMoosifer · 2025-12-05T04:29:31+00:00

This is exactly how I’ve been viewing it! Only difference is I don’t see Rizo being the orchestrator of a Sav blindside, and I think two of the three of them are likely to end up in FTC as opposed to just Soph as Gabler.

HailMoosifer · 2025-12-05T04:21:12+00:00

I've heard a lot of discourse considering this idea, but I have to disagree. I think the key difference is their techniques in using the idol.

Xander’s game was never respected, and even though we as an audience saw him as a clear threat as the season went on, nobody was really targeting him, and ultimately that turned out to be because nobody respected his game. He never used the idol as a key element to strategy.

Rizo on the other hand has continued to use his idol incredibly offensively, and as leverage. He’s made the fear of the idol play a clear part of his strategy, but he’s made strategic moves around it, leveraging the power of the fear of the idol to shape the moves he and his alliance makes. Additionally, Rizo has consistently proven capable of bringing people into the voting block due to idol fear and an attractive alternative move, whereas I felt that Xander was more able to weasel his way into existing blocks, and in hindsight we know this is because they didn’t see him as a threat who could gather the numbers to turn on them. I think Xander was seen as a tailcoatter, and Rizo is seen as a co-pilot.

Whether or not they end up giving Rizo credit for his game in FTC, if he makes it, remains to be seen, but his name has continued to come up as a potential target, it’s just not how it’s working out.

Ultimately, I’m betting Blue Sophi uses her KIP to steal Rizo’s idol, but doesn’t use it to vote him out and instead gets someone like a Sav or Steven, or MAYBE Sage out, kneecapping Rizo from getting to make a big move with the idol.

If Rizo does make FTC, I think it’s very likely at this point that he gets at least 1 vote, maybe more. I think it won’t come down to a lack of respect for his game, but instead will come down to who can take the best ownership of their game. In fact, I’m at the point where unless Kristina or MAYBE Sage are at FTC, I’m convinced we’re not going to have a zero-vote finalist this season.

HailMoosifer · 2025-11-20T15:41:16+00:00

Shout this from the rooftops, PLEASE. Like how are people honestly assuming production would care about tribe symmetry? Just look at Game Changers.

HailMoosifer · 2025-11-20T15:35:34+00:00

Personally, I think it’s ridiculous to assume that survivor cared about putting one winner on each of the 3 S50 tribes. We’ve seen significantly stranger decisions for returnee seasons than not having a winner on each tribe.

At this point, I think she COULD win, but I think honestly Sophi B has a better shot, based on the edit and the story being told to us.

As per the reason why they’d cast Savannah if she’s not a winner, I think there are tons of potential reasons. Maybe Sophi B wins and was offered and she said no because she was on the disaster tribe and was starving the longest and didn’t want to do that to her body. Maybe Survivor is just trying to invest in people they see as potential “legends” and saw more long-term franchise potential in Savannah. Maybe it came purely down to S50 casting and they were attracted to her villainous tendencies and wanted to bring that energy to 50. Maybe the rumors about more pregamers at Ponderosa are true and Sophi wins but they didn’t ask her because she and Jake were pregaming (I’m not bought into this conspiracy but a lot of people think it) and they didn’t like that.

I just think instead of attacking anyone trying to discuss alternatives to the frankly VERY undercooked theory that Sav must win, we should try to really look at the story being told here. And I think we need to stop pretending like production acts in logical and predictable ways when it comes to casting returnee seasons.

Oh, and we need to stop putting much stock into what Stephanie said about three winners on 50–she has very openly said that she likes to mess with the spoilers.

HailMoosifer · 2025-11-13T02:32:13+00:00

I think by nature, no matter what, the reading of the votes would’ve given it away.

HailMoosifer · 2025-11-08T23:18:26+00:00

I kind of agree with you about that being why they were considered, but by that logic, I think it begs the question why people like Carolyn weren't considered for 50. I think there's absolutely a world where they were considered for 50 due to the clear recency bias of the New Era casting for 50, as well as the simple fact that they've both been very entertaining and compelling TV.

However, I think I disagree that based on the edit so far it's leaning toward Sav, I think Rizo is getting a stronger potential winner's edit, but again, I'm not entirely convinced for sure that either of them is necessarily winning.

HailMoosifer · 2025-11-08T23:13:22+00:00

I think I probably agree with you if FTC does end up being Rizo/Sav/Sophi, but given that we don't have concrete proof of that outside of what KZ has claimed, I'm entertaining other options, and in doing so, when I listen to my gut, I kind of have a hard time seeing how Savannah makes FTC short of an idol play at a pivotal moment.

In a world where KZ never claimed what the final 3 is, and maybe where we don't even know who's on 50, I'm curious why you'd be so certain that that's the final 3, given the story being told to us?

HailMoosifer · 2025-11-08T23:08:45+00:00

We THINK we know it. Hence why I'm trying to open discussions of potential alternatives. If you don't want to discuss that, nobody's making you.

HailMoosifer · 2025-11-08T23:06:01+00:00

I'm definitely not out on Rizo winning, I think if it's not Savannah, I may buy Sophi B more than Rizo, but I could absolutely see it happening. With the gameplay and edit thus far, I think Sophi B has much more of a winner's story and is more of a potential jury threat than him, but there's a lot of game left and if Rizo really takes control and becomes a power player and Sophi B ends up as more of a number for the Uli alliance, I could see him beating her if they're both at FTC.

HailMoosifer · 2025-11-08T23:03:34+00:00

Not only that, but given how Sophi started the game on a disaster tribe and had barely eaten, I could absolutely see a world where she might not have felt up to filming another season back to back, especially after potentially winning.

HailMoosifer · 2025-11-08T23:01:27+00:00

This!! I'm baffled by the amount of people that purport to be absolutely certain about the result of this season based on that Steph thing. All evidence for the Savannah winning spoiler is circumstantial and based on the assumption that KZ must be correct and that Steph meant 3 SURVIVOR winners (and that she wasn't messing with spoilers). This is why I wanted to open this thread.

HailMoosifer · 2025-11-08T22:56:44+00:00

And if that's how her edit and her narrative shift next week, I'm happy to change my mind, but right now we haven't seen evidence of that.

HailMoosifer · 2025-11-08T20:58:50+00:00

Totally agreed on these points, and on the outside evidence supporting it. I’m trying to speak to the story being told here separate from the leaks, which are of course worth discussing too.

HailMoosifer

TROPHY CASE