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I won't rank, but I'll give my take on eeach season:



Borneo: As in any movie franchise, you just can't compare the first one with its sequels. Now I'm not one of those "the first one is always the best, period." people, because I think that's entire objectional. The first one presents the franchise to the public and thus sets the tone and guidelines. Wether or not you appreciate it, you have to acknowledge that. I honestly never found the Borneo cast all that likable, but yeah, they were probably the most "real" we ever and will ever had. Back then when Probst said 16 people from all walks of life and backgrounds, he actually meant it.



Outback: This is when Survivor started turning a little more Hollywood. Like a movie producer who stumbles an indepeant film and presents it mainstream with a big budget. According to most Survivor fans, this season was the most epic and the reason they are now hooked on Survivor, and I mostly agree. Never has a season had so many big characters that all got a decent edit, no matter when they were getting booted. There was defnitely this theme of good vs. evil which made it look like a movie. Granted watching it now, you do realize how predictable it was and how over the top the editing was. Jerri wasn't the spawn of Satan as they portrayed her, in fact we've seen MUCH more vile than her over the years. And of course since The View, we've realized that Elisabeth isn't the saint she was portrayed to be. But the franchise was new back then and we bought the biased editing hook, line and sinker. In retrospect you realize how much propaganda there was in that season but at the same time, it's what made it feel so epic back then so I can't really fault the producers for it.



Africa: Keeping with the movie theme, Africa was like a crappy remake of Australia. The character developement was really good, but unlike Outback, there were no distinct heroes or vilains. It seemed like the playing field was leveled in terms of editing. Which I did appreciate, but it didn't make it more interesting. Some say it's the arid location, but I think it was overall just an underwhelming cast after the over the top cast of Outback. Not to mention the final 2 was composed of two coattail riders. Not saying there weren't anything good in that season, it still definitely kicks the ass of most recent seasons. It just felt like a bit of a letdown after watching the Outback.



Marquesas: Marquesas felt to me like the sequel to the Outback. Just like the latter it was mostly filled with type A personalities with 1 or 2 people who bombed. We were once again treated with heroes and vilains and witnessed for the time time in Survivor history, a total power shift. However, other than the power shift, Marquesas didn't really bring us anything that the first 3 seasons hadn't already offered us and most viewers weren't really thrilled with how it ended. I guess it was a bit overshadowed, but I still find it to be one of the best seasons ever.


Thailand: To this day it still caries the stigma of being the first bad season. In fact, many irrational people dub it the worst season ever. It's once again entirely objectional, but IMO it wasn't. Thailand probably had the most genuine cast since the first season, it had tons of potential with the young tribe vs. the old tribe. The main problem was that it never took off. People just seemed too scared to make move in that season and that caused predictability to set in in the worst kind of way. They did succesfully dupe the tribes with a fake merge and though that has shaken up things, it ultimately went back to being predictable the second it was done. Much like shaking a snow globe, a couple of minutes later, the snow has settled to where it was. Then we were forced to watch one of the longest Pagonings ever and a very unlikable final 4 where evil did prevail. For people like me, we actually enjoyed watching Brian's total strategic dominance of the game, but obviously watching a trashy, sociopathic used car salesmen making idiots of everyone on the show did not please the audience.