Survivor is a game of relationships, and there are always castaways each season that struggle to form them. More often than not, there are a few players who are so inept at bonding with other players that it becomes the prevailing theme of their edit on the show. Maybe they have an abrasive personality. Maybe they’re too bossy or too opinionated or just outright annoying or keep telling people not to eat the chickens. Whatever their issue, it becomes a theme, and we get a ton of confessionals from the other players talking about why they don’t or can’t fit in.
I’m used to that. There are probably more than a hundred players who have gotten some version of that edit on Survivor. What I’m not used to is whatever the hell is going on with Mike Pinsky, who is getting one of the wildest WTF edits I’ve ever seen. He seems like a pretty basic, relatively well-intentioned dude that shouldn’t be rubbing people the wrong way, and yet, we’re getting confessional after confessional of other players talking about how much they cannot stand him.
Ordinarily when someone is hated by pretty much everyone on Survivor, there’s a really obvious reason why. Eric Macksoud, who is also on this season, is a good example of that. He talks too much, is extremely emotional and once forced an improv comedy routine on everyone. He seems like a good dude, but he’s just a lot, and in a confined space, it rubs people the wrong way. We’ve gotten like a dozen instances of him doing something and other players reacting with eyerolls (looking at you, Sharonda) or annoyed looks.
That’s not the case with Mike though. He’s not like a loud person. He doesn’t seem to be arrogant or incapable of forming relationships. He seemed to have a close bond with the dearly departed Pantsless Patt. If you just went by the way he communicates in his confessionals, you’d think he would be able to form blandly positive bonds with most people, but yet, he’s been the subject of more negative confessionals than perhaps any castaway since Bhanu on Survivor 46. It’s wild to see.
Even when he does something that should be building favor with other people, it somehow backfires in his face spectacularly. He alerted Kristin this week that the vote had shifted on her, but because he did it in a hurried and vague manner before quickly leaving, she interpreted it as a threat and dropped a confessional accusing him of bullying her. It’s just that story on repeat every single episode. We see him trying to talk to Thien An, then we get a confessional from her about how he’s a bottom feeder. We see him making a sack swing with Carter and Brady and then we get a confessional about how they just don’t trust him.
In the headline, I called Mike’s edit almost comically negative. Part of the reason why I’m so fascinated by whatever is going on with him is the same reason I felt compelled to put almost in the headline. Yes, he’s getting dunked on repeatedly by the edit, but yet, there are legitimate signs of life and reasons for optimism if you’re a Mike fan. He drops pretty thoughtful confessionals on a regular basis about his own place in the game, and he even dropped one about what he needs to do to win the game. We also get a fair number of confessionals from other players talking about how they want to work with him and see him as someone who can be a number for their cause.
Thankfully, Mike seems to have a pretty good sense of humor about the whole thing. He’s had some fun exchanges and made some fun videos about all of Thien An’s negative confessionals and already seems really integrated into the alumni community, as he recently organized an event for the New York City Marathon that involved a bunch of former players like Kyle, Kamilla, Mitch and Noelle among others. Outside of the game, he seems well-liked, even by the castaways bashing him on the show, at least if you judge by all the social exchanges they have.
If you haven’t gotten on board with 51 yet, I cannot recommend it enough. There are so many vibrant, over the top personalities, and there are so many fun sub-plots like this one with Mike. The season has something for everyone and is a huge step in the right direction for the franchise. I can’t wait to see what happens with my guy Mike and everyone else on the island.
