Board Thread:Season Rankings/@comment-24899664-20141222121159/@comment-25629305-20160628205729

21) Survivor: Tocantins

Some people seem to really hate Tocantins, like, with a PASSION, and I never got it. It's not like Tocantins is my favorite season, but it had some good moments and there's no one in the cast that I really dislike. However, it's going this low because it's just sort of... average. I don't really remember much from the pre-merge tbh, since Jalapao was the tribe that was going to tribal most of the time and they're just a boring tribe. Really, the only thing I remember is Taj cackling evilly in the rain and then getting annoyed and shrieking, "I'M HOT!!!!!!" at a bewildered Joe. Pre-merge Taj really is the STAR of Tocantins <3333. But, other than that, I don't remember much. Post-merge is where things really being to go down. The early post-merge isn't actually bad for me, Timbira's implosion was really fun for me to watch early on, and the back-to-back blindsides of Brendan and Tyson were really fun. However, the endgame really slows down for me and basically becomes the JT-show, and everyone pretty much rolls over and dies to let JT win the game. That's just kind of boring and JT's stroll to victory is meh for me. But, Tocantins is this high because it does have some absolute stars, like pre-merge Taj, Sierra Reed, Tyson 1.0, Debbie Beebe and her ICONIC intro shot, and of course, ERINN <3. I don't really mind post-merge Taj or Stephen, either, and JT was pretty good, it's just that his inclusion in the season makes it really boring because this entire cast was basically playing for him to win. Oh, one last thing that bothers me about Tocantins is Coach. I'm not as big of a fan of Tocantins Coach as others, in fact, the only season where I really enjoy Coach is HvV. In Tocantins, it seems like they're building Coach up for a fall but everyone really just goes along with his "Dragonslayer" bullshit until he finally leaves at 5 (admittedly, his boot episode is the best of the season and definitely a top 10 episode of all time, but besides that they treat Coach pretty seriously, and Coach isn't meant to be taken seriously, so that sort of spoils his character for me). Anyways, Tocantins is a pretty good season overall but it becomes all about JT waltzing to victory and that's pretty boring, so that is why I'm putting it this low.

20) Survivor: Blood vs. Water

Blood vs. Water is a pretty "meh" season. There's not much to say about it. The cast was alright, nothing special, but okay. It was pretty much a pagonging, but not, like, a BAD pagonging, just a "meh" pagonging. The season didn't really explore the whole BvW twist like I had hoped that it would, but what can you expect from modern Survivor? Overall, there just isn't much to say. BvW brought us Badass Candice 3.0 and the iconic ~journeys~ of Monica Culpepper, Laura B., and Ciera 1.0, but other than that it wasn't anything special. Also, they turned TYSON into a CP4 gamebot. How the hell do you do that?!

19) Survivor: Guatemala

Guatemala is better than BvW but still kind of "meh" to me. It's a solid season with interesting gameplay and a worthy winner, as well as a strong central cast (Danni <3 Stepheme <3 Lydia <3 Cindy <3 Judd <3 Gary <3) that kept things interesting throughout the season. Idol 1.0 was a good twist at the time and was generally an interesting idea that brought some fun moments to the season, and I can't really blame it for the mess that is modern Survivor's idol system, that wouldn't be fair. The only thing that puts Guatemala this low is that the pre-merge starts off really slowly, and overall, Guatemala just doesn't stand out all that much. It's a good season, but not good enough to get any higher than 19th.

18) Survivor: The Australian Outback

Unpopular opinion time: The Australian Outback is the worst season out of the first four. *gasp* "Hudson, how could you say that?! The Australian Outback is THE classic season of Survivor!!!!!!".

Yes, I know. And yet I think it is highly overrated and so it falls at 18th place. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the Australian Outback. The cast was pleasant and overall there were a lot of contestants with STAR POWER in the outback (Debb, Mad Dog, Kimmi, Varner, Jerri, Colby, Tina, Elisabeth <333333). It's no wonder so many castaways from Australia have returned to play again! The season was incredible throughout the pre-merge and early merge, and I will express time and time again how impressed I am with Tina's victory this season, and how nuanced and smart I think her game was.

However, my issue with The Australian Outback is that Jerri was really the one thing keeping the season afloat. Everyone in Australia wanted to come off good on TV, so they were generally nice and affable and there wasn't any drama... other than Jerri. Jerri was an abrasive HBIC and also the proto black-widow who controlled her tribe with an iron fist during the early days, and then when her empire was toppled she stuck around to annoy the rest of the castaways all the way until day 27 <3. She is THE reality TV villainess and an absolute legend. However, without her, Australia ended up becoming very bland. There were way too many scenes of everyone just sitting around talking about how starving they were, which ended up getting very boring. So, while The Australian Outback has a strong cast overall and a VERY strong beginning, it gets very very boring near the end of the season, and so, I have to put it this low.