31st- Redemption Island (season 22)
This season gets ranked as one of the most God awful abortion of a Survivor season that was ever a misfortune to grace our televisions. There are plenty of reasons why people rank is so poorly: it was the introduction of the worst twist to the game ever; it was the start of the very long trend of 'veterans against newcomers' gimmick (excluding Guatemala and Fans vs Favorites as it didn't have that whole desperation stench the producers gave this one); and it had the most predictable ending since the sun rising in the morning. And you know, I could forgive all of that if it didn't also give us the most disgusting piece of trash in the history of the show: Phillip Sheppard. Every producer, editor, and caster who is patting themselves on the back for this atrocity should be punched in the stomach underwater.
30th- Fans vs Favorites (season 16)
I can understand why many consider Fans vs Favorites as one of the 'best seasons evaaaaaarrrrrr' with its string of blindsides and women getting a rare feature as something other than 'the vagina who is the weakest member of the tribe'. Me? I can't remember being more annoyed, disappointed, and enraged at the crap that occurred this season. First, does anyone find it odd that half of the 'fans' of this show are nominees for making some of the most absurd, shittiest moves in the history of the show. And I'm not just talking about 'giving-away-immunity-might-get-me-laid' Leif Garrett. Jason thought a carved stick was an immunity idol. Chet and Kathy overcame tremendous odds at Tribal Councils before eventually deciding shit was getting too real and calling it quits. And I still think half the decisions Joel made were far more damaging to his team than any amount of socks Russell burned. And the Favorites weren't any better. Anyone I didn't despise were either booted early or completely destroyed everything I liked about them by episode 3 (I'm looking at you Cirie and Ozzy). And I don't know when Miss Shallow became likable winner because her voice alone is enough to make me want her buried up to her mouth in dirt. She honestly shouldn't of been back at all but I suppose it pays to be BFFs with someone in the casting department, eh Parvati?
29th- China (season 15)
Another popular season that I dislike. I know the hardcore fans have this wet dream of a 'back to basics' season and deep in their sad subconscious they know it's never gonna happen and this season was as close as they're gonna get, but that's hardly a reason to put it on a pedestal. China's main issue is it's weak cast. There wasn't a single person I felt anything past 'meh' for aside from Courtney, Peih-Gee, and (yeah, I'm serious) Chicken. And if anyone didn't see a Todd victory past episode 3, then you probably didn't see the 'Jesus dying at the end' twist in Passion of the Christ.
28th- Borneo (season 1)
Chances are if I haven't pissed off the hardcore fans with my rankings yet, this will be the one that puts them over the edge. Look, I get that we all have this special place in our hearts of our first time and sitting down in front of the TV to watch people survive off coconuts and rats was considered different and new. I'm not even arguing that Borneo wasn't a perfect first season. But facts are facts people. Borneo is aged. Survivor has evolved well past what it used to be and it has mostly been for the better. Sadly, the only thing the original has going for it is it's the original. That doesn't make it any less of a chore to watch and the characters that we loved so much then pale in comparison to the personalities we've acquired now. Thank you for the good times Borneo, but I'll take 'Call Terry a whambulance!' or Micheal falling into a fire over Super Pole 2000 and the Snake and Rat speech any day.
I don't blame CBS for taking a popular season idea and recycling it for a second time. But Jesus, it takes a lot of talent to take the already poor cast of Micronesia and somehow finding an even worse group of people to top it. I may not of cared for the first group of favorites, but I could at least see where the producers were coming from when they picked most of them. Caramoan on the other hand seemed more like a group of Survivor producers got baked during an idea session, said 'fuck it, lets recycle that popular season' and they all picked a bunch of names off the tops of their heads. With the exception of Cochran, Dawn, and Malcolm I can't for the life of me figure out where the these favorites fanbases are hiding. The fans weren't much better with half of them being irrelevant and/or filled with enough douche juice to drown a small nation. However, the few moments when Caramoan does shine, it becomes freaken FANTASTIC! Sherri, Michael, and Brenda were all surprisingly enjoyable to watch; Dawn, Cochran, and Malcolm were just as fun to watch the second time around (a rarity for returning players); and I've seen the Phillip blindside ten times now and I'm still nowhere close to bored with it. This season may have some of the worst moments in the shows history (mainly due to Phillip and Brandon), but it was more fun to watch then the seasons ranked before it.
26th- Thailand (season 5)
See? There are a couple of popular opinions I can agree with. Thailand suffers from having arguably the worst cast the show has ever had and this is back when editing was even and everyone had a role and/or backstory. The only one who walked out of this mess with any amount of recognition was Shii Ann and I'm pretty sure 80% of that likability stems from being the only one to talk about the moronic tool that was Robb in the large amount of disdain we all had for him. Also, the whole season of Thailand just makes you feel like you went to a friends house for a good time and all they wanted to do was play on their Ipads. There just isn't much excitement or moments worth recollecting. Did you know this was the first season to have a mutiny? That the food auction was divided by tribe, not individually? Chuay Gahn lost there boat? Helen and Jan got lost in the ocean? There was a juror named Erin? If there is one thing to take away from this season, it's watching Brian play such a smooth, near perfect game. He is the Redemption Island Rob without the 4th attempt.
I remember how excited I was when All Stars was first announced. The thought of seeing some of my favorites like Ethan, Rupert, Tina, and Shii Ann all playing together seemed like a dream come true. I expected this season to have awesome alliance combos, fun moments, and interesting new relationships. Instead we got the uncomfortable sexual harassment fiasco (on Sue of all people), the worst winner ever in Survivors existence, and a clown car full of the biggest sore losers I have ever seen (LEX!). What should of been a fun game among friends turned into an uncomfortable battle to rectify friendships (LEX!). That's a headache to deal with whenever two of my female friends get together. I don't need to watch it on my favorite TV show. What's worse is this is the season that taught me that nothing good can come from seeing your favorite players return for a second time as they almost always get voted out early by dumb people (LEX!) or become obnoxious, jack wads (LEX!).
24th- San Juan del Sur (season 29)
CBS was pretty eager to milk the entertaining utter that was Blood vs Water. After a whole one season, casting department decided it was time yet again to have loved ones compete against loved ones. Admittedly, I wasn't exactly thrilled they were so quick to go back to this formula, but when I found out the entire cast would be all new players I went into it with a more open mind. The results were....dull. San Juan del Sur's (fuck that name -_-) main issue is it's terrible cast. Aside from Keith, everyone either had the personality of a half empty tube of toothpaste or wanted to give Rocker a run for his money for the 'shit stain of the season' award. And why the hell do I have dumb couples arguing over dumb stuff on my favorite show? If you want to have your relationship issues exploited on television, Dr Phil is the man you wanna call. Not Survivor.
23rd- South Pacific (season 23)
...or as I like to call it: 'Redemption Island with a better cast.' Semhar, Whitney, Keith, and Brandon were the only original Survivors I didn't care for. But no matter how you slice it, a Redemption Island twist is still a Redemption Island twist and Ozzy was too close to breaking the show by winning it all despite being voted out twice by doing nothing but winning a bunch of challenges. Also, if Ozzy and Coach weren't in this season, I could see it easily sliding into my top ten, but alas, it became a full season of two tribes revolving their entire strategies around the veterans which means we got to see tons of footage of Coach being Coach and Ozzy being Ozzy. That might not of been so bad if it wasn't the third freaken time we'd seen it.
22nd- Vanuatu (season 9)
So this one might be a little hard to understand, but I'll try to explain it as best I can. Most Survivor fans saw some season, also called 'Vanuatu: Islands of Fire,' where the winner, coincidentally also called Chris Daughtry, was some sort of crazy, awesome, mastermind strategist who outplayed 6 women and there were two castaways called Ami and Eliza who were very likable and smart players. As hard as I've looked, all I could find was this season under the same name where this version of Chris won after another castaway, Twila, had to spell out for him what he needed to do and this version of Ami and Eliza was a belittling, drama queen and an immature, motor mouth respectively. This cast could've all died in a volcano blast and all I would've thought is 'I bet Sarge screamed the loudest' followed by 'poor Twila' a good 10 seconds later.
21st- One World (season 24)
Just the simple fact that this is the only season out of the past 6 to not contain any veterans is enough to knock it up a couple notches. But despite the new roster of players, the cast was decent at best and suffers from one of the most predictable outcomes ever. Good moments include Christina, Kim being the smoothest player since Heidik, Tarzen (sometimes), Christina, Kat blindside, Christina, Colton suffering, and Christina. Bad moments include Tarzen (sometimes), Alicia, the men giving up immunity, Troyzan delusion, Colton making it past the intro of episode 1, and not having enough Christina.
20th- Nicaragua (season 21)
Eh....Nicaragua wasn't exactly terrible for me, but it's difficult to rate it any higher. I mean 'the teams were divided by age and in the end, the final three were young, buff, pretty men' doesn't exactly strike me as epic story arc gold. Oh sure, the journey Sash, Chase, and Fabio all took was pretty incredible and I'll even go so far to say that I think it's pretty amazing that all three men had to take very different roads to get there despite starting in the same tribe. But that's the thing, the entire editing of the story arc just feels like one big, giant clusterfuck. Sash was an ally of Brenda's, but then voted out Brenda and then he was a swing vote and then he fumbled his way to finals just to get yelled at by everyone cause of.....reasons? Chase was also Brenda's ally, but then he became Jane and Holly's ally and then Marty was a douche nozzle to him out of nowhere and some people liked him and some people really didn't like him? And somehow Fabio drooled his way to a million dollars.
19th- Tocantins (season 18)
I previously mentioned that many Survivor fans have a hard on for a 'back to basic' season because apparently they have the same logic as senior citizens who think society is going to hell because there isn't nearly as much racism going on today. What I mean is, all these new twists that have been added to the game throughout the years (hidden immunity idols, larger casts and juries, final 2 being changed to final 3, exile island, multiple tribes, ect.) isn't 'pure' enough for these fans and they think it needs to return to its original format. Tocantins is the perfect example on why these people need to shut their faces. It went back to the original 16 player cast, 7 people jury, and a 2 person Final Tribal Council and all the season had to show for it at the end of the day was a pile of average. Except for JT being the only player to use black magic hypnosis to get players to play for him, there really wasn't anything special about it, but nothing generally wrong with it either. Just an average group of castaways playing an average game (kudos on the location though).
Yet another season that many regard as one of the best seasons of all time, but I can't even put in my top 10. It's a genuine belief that the cast of Pearl Islands contained one of the biggest groups of hardcore strategists ever to hit one beach. And you know what? I don't think that's an unfair statement. Everyone who showed up was there with a plan in their heads and used every ounce of strategy they could muster to get themselves as far as they could (with the exception of the quitter). Hell, the first person voted out was kicked off BECAUSE she was playing so hard and it freaked everyone out. The problem is the cast also contains the biggest group of unlikable shits to ever hit one beach as well. Count them: Andrew, Osten, Christa, Shawn, Burton, Lillian, Michelle, and fuckin 'you-know-I'm-a-douche-just-listen-to-the-nickname-I-picked-for-myself-on-purpose' Jonny Fairplay. That's half the cast I despised horribly. It didn't help that the first half of the season was watching Morgan become one of the biggest failures of a tribe ever, so yeah. No amount of Rupert being a cross-dresser was enough to erase all the other awful things these people did and said. All the same, it's still an okay season.
After three seasons of seeing one team gaining the advantage at merge and picking off the other side, we finally saw what true Survivor was when Neleh and Paschal got a clue that they weren't going anywhere near the finals by choosing to stay with their original Rotu tribemates and decided it was time to play a game. I don't think I could love that moment more than I could love my own children. But it takes more than a single awesome moment to get on spot 15 on the rank list and Marquesas did deliver on some great moments (some involve urine!). A good cast, an underdog winner, and a great story arc. Its only flaw is being a good season, not a great season.
16th- Worlds Apart (season 30)
Usually a season with a cast as terrible as this one wouldn't have a chance at making it this high up. Max, Shirin, and Dan were all horrible representatives of the 'superfan' who tried waaaaaay too hard to be like-able, funny, and memorable. Rodney and Joaquin bonded over their douchiness that they labeled as 'bro love.' Vince attempted to try and give a bigger rape-y vibe then Brandon Hantz. Lindsey was an opinionated loud mouth who has horrible taste in where to get tattoos. Will's verbal attack on Shirin was only matched by her equally ugly retaliation back at him. Mike almost used the casts desire to hear from their loved ones for his own game benefit (a move that cost him every ally he had). And Dan....just....hopefully he'll learn to shut the hell up one day. That's a lot of fucked up ugliness to occur in a single season. And yet, I couldn't help but find all the little bits in between enjoyable to watch. The white/blue/no collar twist was awesome and despite their shittiness, this was one of the most hard playing casts we've had. Oh and that down to the wire fire making challenge? Badass.
15th- Samoa (season 19)
I love Samoa. Everything in it was awesome. The cast was incredible, the blindsides were crazy, the uprising of the Foa Foa 4 was unbelievable, a great final Tribal Council, Russell Swan's medivac was the scariest thing to happen next to Michael's fall in the fire, and I'm not even joking when I say Natalie is one of the best winners to ever play the game (the amount of people who rank her as one of the worst is disgusting). As a whole, Samoa has all the key components to easily slide in my top 5. Maybe even top 3. So why 14? Well apparently someone in the editing room got a letter from a child with some sort of fatal disease that read 'Dear CBS, I love the show Survivor but trying to keep track of all those players can be really confusing. Can you please grant me my dying wish and instead focus the entire upcoming season on the most annoying, piece of scum of a player you can hunt down? Signed, Michael McDumbass.' That's the only reason I can think of that would cause the editors to completely scrap all the ingredients they had for a great season and instead focus on Russell Hantz talking about Russell being the best Russell player in Russell history and everyone not Russell is Russell's plaything and Russell will Russell them out of the game with Russell, Russell, Russell, Russell, Russell, Russell. Look, I can understand why Russell can seem like an appealing character to show a lot of, but you clearly don't understand what it is that makes your show great if you think what the audience wants to see is a troll masturbating to himself in his interviews. It's the only flaw with Samoa, but it's a big one and I hope the editor that did it is begging for work in between his time of begging for food.
Believe it or not, there was once a time when Survivor put people into harsh conditions and would leave them in the hot sun for weeks when they weren't getting water out of a mudpit (seriously, each of these cast members should be given medals for being in arguably the most difficult survival environment yet). There really isn't too much to say about Africa other then it was a fun ride. It's fun to be reminded why I liked Big Tom and Lex in the first place before they ruined their self-image in All Stars and if you didn't get at least a little satisfaction from seeing Ethan the Saint win, then you might as well pop on a Hitler 'stache you Jew hater.
13th - Blood vs. Water (season 27)
Huh. If you would've told me Blood vs Water would nearly make it in my top 10, I would've mistaken you for an escaped mental patient. The first 15 minutes in the premiere was not promising. First, casting got even lazier and decided to just scrap the entire applicant process all together by having a group of veterans (like KKKolton) invite a buddy to play the game with (like one of those tools who won Big Brother). Strike one. Which meant that once again we'd have yet another season of vets playing against the disadvantaged noobs. Strike two. And all of our jaws hit the floor when Jeff announced that producers don't even give a shit about the existence of the show anymore and make the suicide of Survivor ratings as painful and messy as possible with the return of Redemption Island. BIG strike three. But Blood vs Water was surprisingly fun to watch. Having a loved one in the game put an interesting layer in strategy and caused interesting, good drama rather than uncomfortable, bad drama; the cast was mostly enjoyable to watch; an interesting FTC; and the infamous tie-breaking rock draw made a comeback for the first time in over 20 seasons. What could've easily been a mass pile of digested Taco Bell turned into an overall very fun season.
There are many people who think that Survivor has been rigging the outcomes in favor of producer favorites like Rob in Redemption Island, Coach in South Pacific, or Russell in Heroes vs Villains. But I think these idiots should also consider putting Exile Island on that list because the mixture of people that all ended up together is almost too perfect to not of been thought up ahead of time. At one point in the show, the teams randomly pick members to form new tribes. On one team you have all the forgetful gym models (and Dan) who's most memorable moments are getting sick from beans and whispering secrets to one another ("Hey new BFF, I'm an astronaut. Pinky swear not to tell?"). On the other team you got Aras, a genuinely good-hearted yoga trainer who isn't afraid to tell you to STFU and stop being a sore loser; Bruce, a Japanese American art teacher who enjoys making zen gardens and purifying water with his magical zen powers; Danielle, a lazy medical sales rep who replicated her teeth like Mr. Eds and has a Boston accent that makes wallpaper shrivel and babies cry; Cirie, a sweetheart nurse with a smile that can make even the coldest of people feel warm and fuzzy inside; Bobdawg, a badass, cool motherfucker who will take your wine and apologize about it but won't; Courtney, an annoying fire dancer who's so much of a hippy I'm pretty sure she's the only one who smelt exactly the same from the time she landed on the beach til the time she was voted out; and Shane, a psychopath. Not even exaggerating a little bit. The fact that the latter tribe made it to the end was just too much of a treat and none of these people could go an episode without giving us a moment of entertainment gold.
11th- Australian Outback (season 2)
I admit, I did not see Borneo when it originally aired. I bought the DVD and watched the season start to finish for the first time around Tocantins. When I ranked it so low, I took that factor into account because it certainly seemed plausible that I found it so boring because I already knew the outcome before I'd even seen it. Then I watched Australian Outback for the first time since 2001 and I instantly disregarded that idea because despite being the 2nd season, Australia is still fucking awesome. It has arguably the strongest cast the show has ever had in which everyone played an essential role to the overall story arc. The season had everything: heroes, villains, bitches, sweethearts, jocks, trash talkers, strategists, survivalists, disappointments, love, hate, music, art, and some kid called Nick. The only reason this doesn't get any higher is the pagonging of Kucha whom I would've much rather seen go further. Nevertheless, the season is wonderful and made the perfect transition from Borneo.
Gabon gets a pretty mixed reaction from the fanbase. Some people say it had too many tribe swaps and Sugar issues for any type of real strategy to be played. Some people are real dumbasses. I'm in the camp that thinks Gabon is a lot of fun. For starters, it's refreshing to see Survivor get played somewhere other than a beach. I also love the fact that we finally got an older player win the prize mainly because I love the idea that Survivor is a game that can be won by anyone and you can't always use the same strategy twice. A lot of people chastise Bob for doing nothing other than filling in for Sugars dead daddy to win, but I think those people are crazy. From the solid cast to the new gameplay methods to the close Final Tribal Council finish (with Susie getting three whole votes!), Gabon is a season that never slowed down.
9th- Heroes vs Villains (season 20)
Heroes vs Villains is a season most stick in their top 3. Many as their top season. And if it didn't have the Heroes pagong and the Russell being a tool I'd join the herd. Still, it's a great season to watch with tons of moments that make you jab your fist in the air in happiness or punch your wife in the face in frustration. After the first All Stars and Fans vs Favorites, I pretty much accepted the fact that this cast was going to have a lot of players I couldn't stand get further than the ones I actually liked and the ones I liked the best were going to go home early or turn into obnoxious assholes after spending one too many times googling themselves. While this was still the case with Heroes vs Villains, I still love most of this cast and the overall story arc. And really, it's just pure awesome seeing Sandra wiping her sandals on that sore loser of a reality show whore Russell on her way to cashing her second Survivor check.
Usually, a story arc like Palau wouldn't even make it past the 20th marker. 'One tribe beats the other tribe mercilessly in every immunity challenge and the biggest challenge dominator wins the game' isn't going to cause anyone's head to spin. I originally didn't think too much of Palau, but upon rewatch I can't help but find the whole season fascinating to watch. The first half you have Ulong doing their impression of the 2008 Detroit Lions and in the second half you have Tom Westman doing his impression of Tom Brady (don't worry Survivor fans who are frightened by football talk AKA 95% of you, I'm done). Much like Heidik, Tom's relationship building, business like negotiations, and careful choice in words were mesmerizing to watch. Unfortunately, the season also suffers from completely fizzling out at the very end with a FTC where Tom had to go against perhaps the biggest joke of a player that season: Katie where the biggest surprise was somebody actually telling Katie to her face just how badly she sucked (I know many people say it was mean and uncalled for, but after all the crap this woman pulled, I call it fair and justified). Nevertheless, this season is one of a kind.
7th- The Amazon (season 6)
Now this was a season, old school style and perhaps the first season where the gloves were truly off. No tribe lines or one or two people switching sides. This was every Survivor (mostly Rob) for themselves and it was awesome. The only flaw with it is the winner is sooooooooooooo baaaaaaaaaaaaad! I've seen bits and pieces of news regarding Jenna and her former relationship with Ethan and she's grown into a mature, lovely young woman, but in Amazon? She's terrible! I tried! I really tried hard to find anything other than a bitchy, nasty spoiled snot and she just kept one up-ing herself by flashing her ta-ta's for a candy bar or complaining how horrible her life has been cause she was born hot. So of course, she ends up being the spoil sport of the party by winning the whole damned season, but nearly every moment that didn't include her or her blond bimbo of a companion was awesome. Fun fact: this is the only season that has a contestant from my hometown. Way to represent Ryan. -_-
6th- Philippines (season 25)
Finally, after the long trudge through Redemption Island, South Pacific, and One World it was nice to have a season of Survivor that felt like a game of Survivor. Maybe I'm too kind to this season because I was so eager for something that felt somewhat decent, but if you spend a year eating nothing but scrapple, that doesn't make a steak any less delicious when you eventually get it. Yes, it had the stupid 'veterans against noobs' twist that needs to die like a misbehaving toddler, but like Guatemala and Fans vs Favorites it didn't feel so forced or in the way. In fact, Philippines was more focused on new, more interesting players like Malcolm and Abi. And lets not forget this is the season that gave us Denise, a 42 year old woman (awesome) who is a sex therapist (awesome) that attended every Tribal Council before eventually winning (awesome). Now that is a story arc.
After a pretty interesting premerge, Guatemala started to hit in the feels when Brandon, Bobby Jon, and Gary got their torches snuffed. So tuning in to wait for Danni's turn was like waiting for the test results to come back after sleeping with a $15 prostitute: a futile hope. But then she wins an individual immunity challenge and the alliance is forced to vote out one of their own. OK, that was nice. Thanks for giving us that at least Danni. Then she started planting seeds of doubt that unstable Judd is out for blood against the rest of them and actually pulls off getting the fucker kicked off (the fact that the hypocritical 'get eaten by a crocodile you scumbags' statement was said mere minutes after 'its not personal! See ya later man!' was only the icing on the cake). And before you know it, Danni's sitting in the final two, smirking at a jury as Stephanie does everything in her power to fuck everything up for herself! It was just beautiful watching Steph blabber on like a politician trying to explain why he's on camera sucking face with someone who isn't his wife. Despite seeing all the mopey Cindy, the rage-roid Jaime, the self-entitled Rafe, the sore loser Stephanie and the naked (and loud and obnoxious and stupid and spiteful) Judd, it was all worth it to see Danni beat every single one of them. Thank you for the awesome fun Danni and good work.
4th- Cagayan (season 28)
Where to start? Garrett doing everything wrong to screw himself over? Spencer having an uphill battle due to the mistakes of everyone else and still making it in the top 4? Swing vote Sarah demanding the respect of her alliance members only to have it blow up in her face? The awesome-ness of Tasha? Chaos Kass? The amount of blindsides? J'Tia loses a challenge to a team trying to lose on purpose? The debatable best cast of all time? Luzon being the tribe that made me finally decide to get a buff after 28 seasons? This season was just pure fun from start all the way to......well Tony winning a million dollars. It was the one thing that kept this season from becoming my new favorite, but breaking into the top 5 is not a bad achievement Cagayan.
3rd- Fiji (season 14)
That's right. The season that many put in their afterbirth tier alongside Samoa and Redemption Island is my top 3. Most of the disdain it receives boils down to two things: haves vs have nots twist and one of the most unlikable casts ever. For the most part, I can see where these criticisms are coming from, but the good moments of Fiji are so awesome, it nearly makes up for all the terrible ones. Yes, Rocky, Alex, Mookie, and Lisi were such large dick weeds you could almost see the douche juice leaking from their ears. But what makes it all worth it is seeing pieces of garbage like that getting owned by smarter and more likable people like Michelle, Yauman, and Earl. Part of the reason I rate the Edgardo blindside as one of the best Tribal Councils in the history of the show (and to the cameramen who captured the facial reactions of that moment with such love and care, I hope you liked the flowers I sent you) is because of how badly I wanted to see the Four Horsemen fail. The fact that the went out looking like a group of shmucks just made it all the sweeter. And to everyone who classifies Earl as a boring winner, I suggest you stop watching episodes of the Bad Girls Club and Jersey Shore cause your IQ has dropped to a point of delusion. Earl had one of the strongest strategic games of all time
2nd- Cook Islands (season 13)
If the only thing that mattered to me was the strength of the cast, Australia would hold the number one spot. If it was about crazy moments and blindsides, it'd be Caramoan. If it was about the strongest season strategically, I'd give it to Pearl Islands or maybe Philippines. Cook Islands isn't the strongest contender on any of these aspects, but it earns its solid number two spot for having the best overall story arc the show has ever had. First, I'm gonna come out and say it: the race twist was awesome. I know many people shout foul because they consider the subject of race to be like giving someone with anorexia an insanity workout DVD. But it's been one of the few times I've been intrigued to find out how each tribe would interact with one another. Still, the season picked up steam when the mutiny occurred. Let's clear something up right now: I hate Candice, Parvati, and Adam. I know people like to throw in the edit card but I don't buy it. You could scratch your nails on a chalkboard for ten whole minutes and I still would not despise the noise any more than hearing the voices of those three. Cook Islands is also the first season in which an early favorite of mine actually won the game. Not only did Yul win it, but he actually came back from a disadvantage by using careful planning, perception, well-spoken arguments, and (whether you believe it or not) being a genuinely good-hearted person. You can spew your 'overpowered hidden immunity idol' crap all you want, it doesn't erase all the other things the guy did right. Cook Islands is near-perfect: interesting startup, good guys win, bad guys lose, and a nail-biting brains vs brawns photo finish.
1st- Second Chances (season 31)
We have a new winner!!!
Second Chances got to be my new favorite for so many reasons. Strong strategic gameplay from everybody, throwbacks to classic Survivor challenges from the very first season, experimentation with game twists with the idol placements (that I think are actual improvements to the game), and many people getting a 'Second Chance' character arc (Abi trying to change her attitude and giving up after 10 minutes; Kass getting tempted into her old 'Chaotic Kass' ways; Stephens fear of losing to the golden boy yet again).
We also got so many new moments we've never experienced before after 30 seasons. Even if you forget the big 'all votes eliminated' TC, we had the vote steal (winning an enormous advantage in front of the entire tribe at the risk of making yourself vulnerable? I want to see how that plays out) and 'old school vs new school' social interaction. Seeing players from over a decade ago mingling with players from just last season was super interesting to watch. And while we may hate it cause it's not Borneo in terms of character development, I think Keith and Abi nearly made up for that with nearly everything they said and did. I also feel the second chance theme mentioned previously helped with players like Spencer, Kass, Stephen, Jeff, Abi, Joe, Jeremy, and Kelly.
If there was a flaw in it, I'd say it peaks prematurely. Strong vibes of a Jeremy win came up since the start of the season and once he mentioned his upcoming baby to the jury, it was game over. But there is so much going on between the string of blindsides and scrambling, you can't even be that bothered by it. Anyone who made it to that FTC deserved to win. You'd be hard-pressed to get another season like this one. Just a great season.
