Board Thread:Season Rankings/@comment-24899664-20141222121159/@comment-25629305-20160629025945

TIED for #1) Survivor: Borneo

A lot of people have criticized me for putting Borneo this high up. They'll probably say, "oh, you're letting the nostalgia factor get to you!" But that's not true at all. I wasn't even born when Borneo was airing, and the first time I saw it was 3 months ago, so nostalgia can't be the reason.

But then why is Borneo this high up? The answer is simple. Borneo is the best season out there because it tells a complex story. Borneo doesn't just tell simple stories of good vs. evil, or dysfunctional tribes. Borneo deals with complex questions about human nature, corporate America, morality, and how our different perceptions on what is right and wrong affect the way we live our lives.

Borneo weaves complex narratives for each of the contestants, using similes and metaphors like snakes vs. rats to tell a story of 16 Americans from all different walks of life learning to live together, despite their many different personalities and views on the world. Another example of Borneo weaving complex story arcs would be Gretchen being canned at the merge. It would seem like a simple blindside, but for the story of Borneo, it meant the end of innocence, and the moment the game crossed over from being a game about surviving in the wilderness, to a show of darwinian principles where only those who could adapt could survive.

The story of Borneo is one of how these 16 people come together and decide on what their values are, and no season is more like a microcosm of the real world than Borneo.

Besides the complex storylines that Borneo builds, it has the best cast in Survivor history, without a doubt. They're all diverse, complex, charismatic, camera-ready individuals and were the PERECT cast for the first season.

The editing is balanced, everyone plays an important role in the story, and sure, there aren't any "power shifts", but in a season like Borneo, you don't need any! In the pagongings that I've complained about before, none of the players really got any characterization, and the episodes mostly built up a possible flip only to crush our dreams later on at tribal. The later pagongings were all focused on strategy when nothing came out of it in the end. The pagonging in Borneo was different; In Borneo, every single character was crafted a storyline, whether it be Sue's vulnerability being exposed through her friendship with Kelly, or Kelly's moral dilemma, or Colleen's underdog story with her being the last of the Pagong tribe, or Richard's story about how someone with a different perception on the world, an outsider in life, was able to win the game despite everyone telling him his way of playing was "immoral".

In a season like Borneo, a pagonging isn't a negative thing.

Overall, Borneo was able to weave complex narratives into the story of the season, exposing truths about human nature and morality. Not only that, but Borneo's cast was ready-made for TV, and overall, created a season worth viewing again and again.