Board Thread:Season Rankings/@comment-24899664-20141222121159/@comment-26485526-20170422221711

15) Vanuatu (9) - I think Vanuatu is a great season without a doubt, which is why I had absolutely no problems moving it straight into my top 15. The introduction to this season was one of the best ever, if not THE best ever (the Tribal ceremony where the castaways had no idea what was going on). I mean, just the looks on their faces when they were made to drink the pig blood was enough to get me laughing! That being said, I’ve never had such polar opposite reactions to two tribes in the same season before or since. The women of Yasur were absolutely amazing and really hit the ground running in terms of providing entertainment. From the time they began their long trek to camp and began to argue about whether or not to continue or stop for the night, you just knew that this tribe was going to provide us with endless drama, and it certainly delivered! The tribe instantly became divided by age with the young women & Lisa, who were led by Mia, vs the older women, who were led by Twila, with Dolly in the middle. I also love how despite their constant bickering, the tribe also tried to focus on strategy, which made Yasur even more of a mess when it came to Tribal! Dolly’s indecisive ways eventually led to her being targeted, and despite Eliza hating the older women with a passion, and vice versa, Eliza flipped to the older women to vote out Dolly! It was also incredibly amusing to watch Eliza pretty much instantly regret the move as well, especially when John Kenney came to Yasur to give one of the women immunity saying “People who voted for Dolly over here, people who did not, over there.” Then Eliza pipes up “Ummm…. I’m not with these people!” XD

Then of course, at the very next Tribal, Lisa of ALL people flips to the old women to get rid of Mia, now pissing Eliza off!! Honestly, Yasur was amazing and just kept getting better and better! Then of course, there’s Yasur after the tribe swap, with Bubba making the one of the dumbest moves in the history of the game when he tried to signal to Chris to have Lopevi throw the challenge, making it extremely obvious what he was doing in the process as Ami was looking straight at him! Yeah… buh-bye, Bubba! Then, just as everything looks bleak for Rory at post-swap Yasur, Lisa gets completely paranoid and Ami has enough, which causes Ami to take Lisa out back and put her down like she was Old Yeller.

Then of course, you have the men of Lopevi. From day 1 they were literally just the most boring tribe you could imagine! I wonder if the producers intentionally decided to cast the most boring group of men they could find alongside the most exciting group of women. But anyway, the only blindside on Lopevi was Brook’s, which wasn’t even that great in the grand scheme of things. From there, it seemed like the younger men just gave up and let themselves get picked off as Lopevi’s portions of the episode dragged on more and more. Even post-swap Lopevi managed to suck all the fun out of Julie and Twila as characters! The one time post-swap Lopevi went to Tribal, John Kenney was eliminated in one of the more boring and predictable episodes yet.

I admit, the merge episode itself was fun to watch, and it was interesting to see if all these catty women who hated each other pre-swap would actually get along. But once Rory was eliminated, we get another two boring, and extremely predictable episodes before the women get fed up and turn on each other as LeAnn is shockingly blindsided. I admit, the drama following LeAnn’s blindside was interesting to watch, but the Tribal Councils themselves were kind of predictable (if you thought Twila and Ami were ever going to work together again, you were just lying to yourself). Also, of ALL people that could have made the heroic underdog comeback, it just HAD to be the biggest game-bot on the island, Chris. The finale was pretty good as well, and looking back, I do think it was hilarious how Chris managed to convince Twila that he wasn’t going to kiss the jury’s asses, even though that’s exactly what he did! I also admit, the Final Tribal Council was great, but it was also one of the most predictable in history. I’m sorry, but although Vanuatu was a fun and dramatic season, the fact that it was overall pretty predictable forces me to knock it down a few notches in my rankings. So yeah, while I do admit that Vanuatu is overall fairly underrated and underappreciated, those minor, but glaring issues that I stated force it down to number 15.

14) Guatemala (11) - Number 14 might be a little high for Guatemala, but it’s my list. Besides, I think that Guatemala is severely underrated. While Guatemala may have had its fair share of fairly predictable episodes, unlike Vanuatu where an entire tribe was consistently boring, and even managed to suck the life out of TWILA, of ALL people (yes, I’m talking about Lopevi); Guatemala did a great job of giving us great characters on both tribes! Yaxha gave us Amy, Brian, Jamie, Gary, Lydia, and evil Steph; while Nakum gave us the awesome (and severely underrated) rivalry of Judd and Margaret, as well as Cindy, and even Blake and Bobby Jon had their moments! This season started out with a bang as the 11-mile-hike absolutely murdered the Nakum men (while the women shook their heads, almost in disgust). Call me a horrible person, but COME ON, that was hilarious! Also, back then it was not often that the middle of a challenge was an excellent source of drama, but it was fascinating to watch the Nakum men continue to fall apart. Then, even though the elimination was pretty predictable, the Tribal Council was still very entertaining when Judd was insisting that he’s not weak and offering to do a back-flip to prove otherwise. Speaking of Judd, he provided constant entertainment and kept each and every episode interesting. He and Margaret both would have been great characters separately, but they were just the perfect clash of personalities, and it was just a blast to watch the two of them. Also, say what you will about Guatemala’s pre-merge being predictable, but it was impossible not to root for people like Lydia and Amy, especially when Amy got injured! It was also fun to watch Blake (aka, the original Drew Christy) dig his own grave after Brian handed him the shovel.

Drama wise, things only pick up come the merge! Speaking of the merge, I love how they did this one with Yaxha heading to Nakum’s camp during the night, IMMEDIATELY after voting out Amy. The major thing that drops Guatemala for me is the fact that it was made pretty clear early on that the original Yaxha’s were the ones in control, which made each episode pretty predictable. However, the cast was still as alive as ever between Judd being Judd, Jamie being paranoid, Stephenie scrambling to save Bobby Jon despite never letting him into their alliance, etc. The original Hidden Immunity Idol also provided fantastic drama with Judd showing to be the most terrible liar in Survivor history, which led to Gary finding the idol and producing an amazing reaction from the Yaxha majority, and crushing Stephenie’s dreams as Bobby Jon was sent to the jury. Jamie’s blindside was also great to watch as the fact that he was paranoid about being blindsided caused his elimination! I also loved Cindy’s car deal, where she basically orchestrated her own elimination. Finally, I also enjoyed watching Lydia calling Steph out at Tribal for running the show and always being picked to go on rewards, and Steph trying to deny it despite the fact that you might as well have renamed Lydia “Captain Obvious.” Finally, Danni was a good winner, and it is a shame that she didn’t get much of an edit. But I can’t really fault the editors for that however, since from what I read, Danni deliberately did not reveal her strategy (or much of anything for that matter) in her confessionals.

So, all in all, Guatemala was a great season, with a near flawless cast and some great moments. The only points that it does lose for me is because it got pretty predictable at times, especially after the merge. But to me, Guatemala is proof that no matter how predictable a season is, the right cast can still save it.

13) Cagayan (28) - Time to finally complete the trilogy of seasons with awesome pre-merges, followed by less than stellar post-merges (after Worlds Apart & Millennials vs. Gen-X). Cagayan was yet another season that absolutely hit the ground running as all 18 competitors provided something to the show! You had the excellent dynamic between the beauties, which unfortunately culminated in Brice’s elimination (although at least we still had the Morgan/Alexis rivalry). Appari was fantastic given the Lindsey & Cliff vs Trish rivalry! Tony was also extremely fun to watch, especially when Sarah told him that she knew he was a cop, and he tried to deny it. Then of course, there was Luzon, or “Lose On”. That tribe was just such a hot mess, and just couldn’t get it together! J’Tia played the game like she was a bad car accident (absolutely terrible, but you can’t take your eyes off it). Garrett’s “Open Forum” was hilariously stupid, and it was followed by the even more stupid decision to leave J’Tia (or as she called herself, the “mental patient”) alone at camp so she could burn down their rice. Oh yeah, and she still stayed in the game and helped provide one of the best blindsides ever after Garrett left his idol at camp! Not only that, but you also had the 4th immunity challenge that Appari were trying so hard to throw, and Luzon were trying so hard to win, but both were made impossible due to J’Tia’s total incompetence! Even the post-swap tribes were great as it allowed us to watch Cliff’s fantastic blindside, followed by Lindsey’s SHOCKING quit! Over on Appari, I also found it fun to watch the tables turn as the former Luzon stuck together and the former Solana completely turned on each other. Then came the merge episode where we witnessed “President Sarah’s” amazing and iconic blindside! Never before have we seen an entire alliance cheer upon someone’s elimination! I also love the moment when everyone realizes that Kass flipped and she smirks like “Yeah, I flipped. What are you butthurt bitches gonna do about it?!”

That being said though, the season goes way downhill from there as it focuses on two people, Tony and Spencer (aka “Team TV” (notice the quotation marks) and the boring, overrated game-bot). Each episode also seemed to get more and more predictable as whatever Tony wanted to happen happened. Much like Carolyn was the only bright spot of the Worlds Apart post-merge, Khaos Kass was pretty much the only bright spot of Cagayan’s post-merge. I will admit, Kass’s confessionals only got better and better as the season progressed and she developed into a more and more iconic villainess. All that being said, the finale was amazing! The fight between Khaos Kass and Shanniah Torres… er… I mean Khaos Kass and Trish Hegarty (sorry, the longer Cagayan went on, the harder it becomes to tell those two apart). Anyway, the fight between Kass and Trish was awesome, and it really showed Trish’s true colours. I also really enjoyed seeing Trish get blindsided and flipped off by Kass prior to walking out! Not only that, but I freaking lost it when Kass won immunity at the final four and sealed Mr. Boring Gamebot’s fate! If only Kass would have been that half-second faster and won final immunity as well! Sure, we would most likely have had a terrible winner in Woo, but just imagine what it would have been like to see Kass face the jury!

So yeah, although Cagayan is a fantastic season overall, I do think it’s pretty overrated for the most part, especially the post merge! At least we had Kass to save the season, as well as a fantastic show in both the final five episode and the finale! With all that being said, I feel satisfied enough with Cagayan to move it up to number 13, but not quite enough to move it any higher.