Back when the original sixteen men and women were marooned on Pulau Tiga, Survivor captured my attention. The intrigue, the gamesmanship, the alliances, the betrayals — it was all captivating.

As is often the case, though, repetition breeds boredom, and subsequent versions of Survivor became less and less interesting. We're on Survivor 9 now, and you'd think the series could easily have run its course. And that's pretty much how it happened — until I stumbled across Jeff Harrell's The Shape of Days and his weekly reviews of the show. At that point, Survivor completely changed for me.

Every week, Jeff live-blogs each episode (well, he uses TiVo, but still...), and it's as much fun as watching it on TV. No, it's better. Much better. But I think it's best to watch the episode, then read Jeff's post the next day.

I'm loving it. You can catch his latest, Episode 12, here. But even better, go back and start with Week 1, and work your way through the season chronologically. It'll take some time, but it'll be well worth the effort. Seriously.

P.S. It's worth noting that Jeff is an adopted Texan (a recovering Louisianan).