Board Thread:Season Rankings/@comment-24899664-20141222121159/@comment-26485526-20170415042432

20) Borneo - Borneo for me is a very difficult season to rank, mostly because I personally don’t think it’s quite fair to rank it “apples to apples” as it were against every other season. I’m not saying that because of nostalgia, don’t get me wrong. That being said though, due to the fact that this is the very first season of a show that really ventured into mostly uncharted territory in May of 2000. The people cast in Borneo were all guinea pigs, and the crew, the editors, and even Jeff Probst and Mark Burnett were not quite sure what to expect or how it would play out. I recall an interview with Jeff on YouTube in which he basically says that the reason Tribal Council is so poorly lit in Borneo is because it was literally just the centre fire giving off the light! So, unlike many seasons, Borneo was not about strategy, or deception, or #BigMovez, or whatever. In Borneo, Survivor simply was meant to be a social experiment to see how 16 Americans from all walks of life would interact with each other on an island and during a game where they are forced to vote each other out in the quest for a million dollars. In the same interview I referenced (I have the links at the bottom of this write up, the whole interview was separated into a bunch of parts), Jeff says that the moment he knew Survivor would be great was when Tagi was scurrying around trying to gather stuff to build a shelter as Richard Hatch sits in a tree yelling “I just think we should talk about this”, and Sue Hawk yells at Richard “Where I’m from, we work while we talk!” That seems quite petty by today’s standards, especially looking at the 33 seasons that have come since. But in the year 2000, it was simply about that clash of personalities. So yeah, while there isn’t a whole lot of strategy or blindsides, I don’t think it’s fair to take points away from Borneo because of that since even the castaways are unsure of how to play the game! Instead, I’m personally ranking this season on the cast and how they interacted with each other.

All that being said, do I think Borneo had the greatest cast ever? No, not by a long shot. I admit, there were some fantastic characters in that first season! The entire final 4, as well as Colleen and Greg immediately come to mind. In fact, my first memory of watching Survivor was Greg fake crying after he was voted out, for some reason. Colleen was both hilarious and adorable, I mean seriously, she had a confessional where she said that Richard needed to get a liposuction in the most sassy, but almost polite tone possible! In addition, anything with Rudy was TV gold. Further, as stupid as Sean’s alphabet strategy was, I do find it really interesting how far Sean was willing to go in an effort to not hurt people’s feelings by casting a vote for them, even though they all knew they were playing a game to begin with. Then there’s Kelly’s moral dilemma about even being in an alliance to begin with, as well as her friendship turned rivalry with Sue Hawk. Even more interesting in my opinion is the debate about whether or not having an alliance is ethical (Cambodia says “Hi!”). Finally, you can’t talk about Borneo without talking about the Final Tribal Council and Sue’s speech about rats and snakes. Although Sue’s speech is quite tame compared to a lot of speeches we’ve seen on Survivor, up until that point, it was so unusual to see such bitterness directed at another person on TV! What makes the speech even more iconic in my opinion is the fact that Sue said to Kelly “I hope that is the one vote that makes you lose the money” … then Kelly lost to Richard in a 4-3 vote.

Despite all the good that the Borneo cast gave us however, the pre-merge is fairly boring and uneventful in the grand scheme of things. I think it says quite a bit that my first ever tangible memory from watching Survivor has nothing to do with the pre-merge (as I said earlier, it was Greg’s elimination). Even the post-merge, although it does pick up a little bit and I wouldn’t consider the episodes “boring” per se, looking at most of the seasons remaining on this list, they could put you to sleep by comparison. Looking strictly at the cast, I do feel as though there is enough to keep you entertained. However, despite the precedent this season set, I can’t deny that there are quite a few seasons that have simply managed to raise the bar. As I put a lot of thought into how I rank these season, I think it’s awesome that I don’t feel like I can put Borneo at number 1, or even in the top 10. I think that if I got it stuck in my mind that there’s never going to be a season that I would consider better than Borneo, why would I even consider coming back to watch the show every season? Although I do think it’s important to acknowledge the importance of Borneo in regards to the franchise, I do think it’s great that the show continues to stay fresh and continues to put out fantastic seasons that leave you wanting more.

As promised, here’s the two links to the interview with Probst I was referring to in the first paragraph:

About the Tribal Council: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOB5p4m2Dvk

About the first season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3JR0KssmYU

19) Millennials vs. Gen-X - I have to admit, once this season ended, I really did think that it was one of the better seasons overall. But once the recency bias wore off and I took off my rose-tinted glasses, I began to realize that, all things considered, Millennials vs. Gen-X is not that great of a season after all.

I feel as though Tozza above said a lot of things about this season that I do agree with. I do think that the pre-merge was absolutely fantastic! Both the millennials and the Gen-X tribes have their fair share of drama and amazing moments! That very first episode made me hate my own generation when the millennials decided not to build a shelter despite a storm coming, but I still found it hilarious that they could collectively be so stupid! Then on the Gen-X tribe, Paul became sort of the de facto leader because he was liked and respected, but people like Rachel got jealous anyway, and her idiocy got her booted. Also, that first Gen-X vote was insane, you think it’s going to be the majority splitting between Rachel and David, but a vote for Sunday, and 3 for CeCe come from out of nowhere! Mari’s downfall was entertaining and iconic. Then back on Gen-X, Lucy, Sunday, and Jessica all agree that Paul is too big of a threat and collectively flip to take him out in a great blindside. Then, despite being in a great position to dictate the game with Jessica and Sunday, Lucy decides to completely run Jessica over with a double decker bus (for some reason). Then (for some reason) David plays his idol on Jessica and send Lucy home! Also, who can forget CeCe constantly being on the bottom and the one time she actually thinks she’s safe is when she goes home!? Even better were the blindsides of Figgy and Michaela! Much like Worlds Apart, the pre-merge for Millennials vs. Gen-X was amazing; however, it takes a steep nosedive from there.

As Tozza said though, despite the amazing pre-merge, all of the most entertaining characters were picked off one by one, leaving me with very few people to root for come the merge. Even in the first merge episode, although I kind of figured that someone between Michelle, Taylor, and Jay going home, it just HAD to be Michelle they got rid of, because she was literally the only one out of that trio that I actually liked at that point! As Tozza said, from that point the post-merge was dominated by Zeke, David, and Adam, and all of whom had forced storylines (although Adam at least had a good excuse). One thing that I will say though is that the post-merge of Millennials vs. Gen-X showed us both an underdog story done right, and an underdog story done wrong. David’s underdog story was the one they did wrong. For me, the longer the season went on, I felt that David was slowly becoming more and more cringeworthy, and when I say cringeworthy, I mean AITU F***ING FOUR levels of cringeworthy! David was in full control for much of the game and every time he went on and on about “feeling weak” and “wanting to prove himself”, I just wanted to puke! The worst of it had to be when David wanted to sit out of the challenge, and we had to endure his tribe mates encouraging him to compete! It was just awful! On the other hand though, the underdog story done right was Jay’s. I will say that pre-merge, I HATED Jay, I don’t know why, I just did. Something about him irked me. But since Taylor’s boot, I started to root for him more and more. I liked how he was able to relate with Adam and talk to him like a normal human despite Adam’s betrayals. I also liked how Jay LEGITIMATELY fought to stay in the game, as well as his sense of humour about his position. When he misplayed his idol, he laughed about it. When Jeff was about to snuff his torch, he laughed saying “Take it away, Jeff!” (or something like that). I really like it when people are able to look at a situation and make fun of themselves, and he was able to do that. So for me, Jay was one of the few highlights of the post-merge. Another person I rooted for post-merge was Sunday. During the merge feast, she had an amazing line when she said “Hi, I’m Sunday. I’m older than all of you.” She clearly had a great personality and was an underrated strategist, but because they decided to give her the purple edit over many less interesting people, viewers never got the chance to invest in Sunday as a character.

The only other main highlight of the post-merge for me was Jessica drawing the rock. I love how they edited that, and I loved how they showed the turmoil on Jessica’s face as she had to choose whether or not to flip, then of course she picks the rock! I also loved that Tribal Council during the lead up. SUNDAY (yes, Sunday, re-watch the episode) bluffed the other alliance by saying out loud that Ken was the target, and David not only believed her, but WASTED HIS IDOL (I’m telling you, Sunday is underrated). I just loved seeing David stand up with his nose in the air, like the almighty king that he thought he was like “HA! I fooled all of you!”, then it was Hannah that got the votes! Things only would have been better that episode if it was David that drew the rock, but I guess I have to take what I can get sometimes.

All in all, this was a good season, it had its moments, but the post-merge was sub-par, and I also hated that they had 2 double elimination episodes and a 6-person finale. As Tozza said, #getridofsixpersonfinales, let’s get this trending! Either way, I just can’t bring myself to put it any higher.

18) Palau - Palau for me was another fairly difficult season to place. I think that there were quite a few great characters this season, especially on Ulong (Jolanda, Stephenie, Bobby Jon, James, Angie). Post-merge as well, the season had some great moments, such as Katie’s “Caryn sucks” line, the final immunity challenge, Janu’s quit, among others. That being said, Koror was an absolute snooze pre-merge, with the only real developed characters being Tom and Ian. But of course, Ulong was entertaining enough that the episodes weren’t boring. In fact, I don’t think I could call any of the episodes in Palau that boring. I just think that my one main issue with Palau is that the season is very predictable. After a while, you just get the feeling that Ulong is going to lose every immunity challenge, and the season just kind of goes on from there. Also, the more the post merge went on, the more you just knew that Tom was going to win, and I also feel like you could always tell who was going home, with of course Janu’s quit being basically the only thing to break that mold. So yeah, for me Palau is a solid season, nothing more, nothing less. Ultimately, it lands at number 18 because from my perspective, the remaining seasons were simply better.

Alright, so with that, the “Good, but not great” seasons are now done. Up next are great seasons that I have fairly minor issues with overall.