pixelrobot.com

It’s been well over a year since Pure Pwnage stopped production due to the death of cast member Troy Dixon.

Despite news of the show being picked up by Canadian television company Showcase, and the weak promotional clips scattered up to it’s release, I had almost forgotten that there was a new episode coming.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had slept through not only one but three episodes of the new show.

Excitedly, I downloaded the new episodes (a process that is now illegal for those outside of Canada), sat back and returned to the world of Pure Pwnage.

The idiot grin on my face slowly began to fade however as I realised what they had done.

All of the plot progression, the character development, everything that I had felt for these characters and learnt about their universe had been stripped away.

To make matters worse, the creators were simply rehashing the same material that came before by taking key scenes from the internet show and re-shooting them to build this “new” universe.

They rebooted Pure Pwnage.

So what is actually new about the new Pure Pwnage?

Tagi, Dave and T-Bag have been replaced with characters who fill the exact same roles but without the believability of their internet counterparts.

New characters such as Jeremy and Dougs mothers have been introduced and feel completely contrived.

Aside from that, nothing.

The Pure Pwnage internet show was special because of it’s Mocumentary style. Because the actors were literally the creators friends or local actors with little to no experience which gave the show a sense of believability.

It felt special because it had credibility. It didn’t have to explain what certain gamer lingo meant so that the average Joe sitting in front of his TV wouldn’t change the channel.

It was a show made for gamers, about gamers and it made no apologies for it.

Watching the new Pure Pwnage I felt like i was watching Jeremy, Kyle and Doug walk around a bad American sitcom.

I understand why the creators took the opportunity to bring Pure Pwnage to the masses. They deserve the opportunity to expand their horizons and actually make some money.

Unfortunately the result is a new show that feels unoriginal and empty.

If you haven’t finished watching the Survivor Samoa finale, stop reading now.

Let me just start by saying  - what a fantastic season of Survivor.

There were countless great moments that will go down in Survivor history.

In no particular order:

Russell’s sabotaging of his own camp, burning Jaison’s socks (and then burning them again at the reunion) and dominating his entire tribes voting decisions up until the merge.

Ben’s racial outburst (conveniently glossed over during the reunion show) and his grilling by Jaison at the tribal council where he was rightfully ejected. Moron got told.

Galu Russell’s dramatic collapse. The polar opposite of Mick, Russell led his tribe to the extreme and ended up paying for it with his health.

The complete turnaround after Galu dominated Foa Foa up until the merge. Watching the formerly smug tribe fall to pieces against all odds.

Russell’s persistent strategy and animal like ability to sniff out the hidden immunity idols without any clues not once, not twice, but three times throughout the game – and then, his reaction at the reunion show when ultimately he was robbed of his hard earned reward and was forced to sit there (obviously infuriated) while somebody he was responsible for carrying the entire game won the million dollars and title of sole survivor.

Betsy’s line to Jeff at the reunion show about making her sweat and Jeff’s reaction.

Overall, great season.

Even greater however is the announcement for next season.

Survivor Season 20: Heroes Vs Villains will pit two tribes of former castaways against each other in a unique season unheard of in survivor history. Separated into two tribes (heroes and villains) they will compete for the Million dollars divided by their past actions in previous seasons.

Apparently the tribes are as follows:

Heroes:

Rupert Boneham, James “J.T.” Thomas, Tom Westman, Colby Donaldson, James Clement, Stephenie LaGrossa, Amanda Kimmel, Jessica ‘Sugar’ Kiper, Cirie Fields and Candice Woodcock

Villains:

Jerri Manthey, Parvati Shallow, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Courtney Yates, Danielle DiLorenzo, Rob “Boston Rob” Mariano, Randy Bailey, Tyson Apostol, Ben “Coach” Wade and Russell Hantz

An absolutely spectacular lineup.

February 11th can’t come soon enough.

Absolutely outstanding. You must check it out.