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The Good Ones:

1) Pearl Islands
No surprises here. The best theme Survivor has done, a lot of great characters and the best villain story in the story of the show, complete with an epic downfall and all. The premiere is amazing, the Outcast twist is severely unappreciated (I really don't care if it's fair or not, the season would be worse without it) and every episode was unpredictable.

2) Australia
For me this is probably the season with the best characters if you look at the history of the show. Also, while its post merge may be boring, its premerge is among the best. The Skupin Falls In The Fire and the Flood episodes are amongst my top 5-6 episodes of all time, Jerri was at the time the first Survivor villain and in my book Tina is as good a winner as Hatch.

3) Borneo
It may feel "slow" compared to recent seasons but that feeling will never be matched. Every character was memorable and complex. The Alliance and the chemistry between those 4 is my favorite part of a generally excellent season.

4) Amazon
Rob Cesternino is still to this day the best narrator in the history of the show. Maybe the funniest season overall, with a series of completely unpredictable episodes starting with Dave's boot. If they didn't have to paint Christie as positive -and thus making Jenna's victory seem inexplicable- this would be a top 2 season for me

5) Micronesia - Fans vs Favorites
While there is very little to none character development and thus is almost impossible to watch a 2nd and a 3rd time, this is still one of the top seasons for me, for entertainment value. The fans, while being a pretty much boring tribe and a bad idea as a whole, managed to provide with 2-3 interesting characters and made the post-merge even more interesting. A post merge, which is probably the best ever, having a seires of amazing unpredictable episodes starting with Ozzy's boot. If Fairplay had lasted longer, this would also be a top3 season for me.

6) Heroes vs Villains
While I support the idea of bringing new players and really hate it when they mix returning players and newbies, I really look forward to All Star seasons. One thing that helped here, was that -with the exception of FvF which was half All Stars anyway- we hadn't seen an All Star season for 6 years. Just seeing players like Jerri, Tom, Sandra -along with some good recent choices like Randy and Coach- would make me happy, but the fact that this was accompanied with an AMAZING premiere, made me very positive towards this season. The rest of the premerge helped to with a string of great episodes. Post merge there were a lot of flaws and a lot of Russell, and that's why this isn't higher.

7) Palau
While I wouldn't want to see a tribe get Ulonged again, the first time was awesome. That said, exactly because they were going to Tribal every ep, we were given time to learn about the characters in Ulong and there were some good ones: James Miller, Bobby Jon and obviously Stephenie, the first woman that recieved such a heroic edit. Post merge didn't disappoint either, with Gregg trying constantly to change things but not managing to, Tom dominating everything and some other very good characters like Caryn, Ian and Katie provided entertainment

8) China
An interesting location, a 16 person cast and a limited use of the HII hinted early that a great season was in the making, and it lived up to the hype. Fei Long is an amazing tribe, probably one of the best ever, Courtney Yates is one of the top Survivor characters post-All Stars, Todd was a great winner, Jean-Robert was good in the slimy role and Denise and Amanada, despide being boring, offered some good funny moments. Zhan Hu wasn't ignored either, Peih-Gee was a very well-crafted character and players like Dave and Sherea got more time than early boots in other seasons have. Bring back 16 player seasons.

9) Africa
Big Tom, Lex, Ethan, Silas, Teresa, Linsday etc were all unique characters, each one with their stories. Especially the Young vs Old storyline is one of the most amazing stories Survivor has ever told. Also, amazing rewards, probably the best the show has ever done, the village, the hospital, the hot air balloon, all amazing. Also something I found out with the years, one of the seasons which is a joy to rewatch again and again.

10) Panama - Exile Island
The first 4-5 episodes are almost unwatchable, but then, oh my god, Cassaya, what a glorious tribe. I couldn't believe it at the time, every character of that tribe being so unique. The chemistry between Shane and Courtney, Cirie and her strategies, Bob fuckin Dawg, socially inept Danielle, Bruce and his obsession with her, even bland Aras had its moments. Also Terry winning everything and then losing the final challenge contributed to this season's greatness

11) Marquesas
I have said it before and I stand by it, Marquesas Boston Rob is by far the best Boston Rob. A true Survivor villain, providing -along with Sean- some amazing pre merge episodes, culminating in the fall of Hunter, something that seemed unbelievable at the time. Also, the fall of John Carroll is great as well as the evolution of Kathy's character throughout the season. It isn't higher because it felt a bit boring at times, and also because the F4 seemed a bit anticlimatic to me.

12) Vanuatu
Like Panama, this season started awfully and stayed pretty bland until right before the merge. That's were the wheels started spinning though. The women vs men theme, despite being forced, actually worked very well this time and offered the birth of Queen Ami, one of the greatest female characters this show has ever seen. That was not the end however, with Chris managing an amazing comeback and ending up screwing everyone that screwed him. His FTC performance is a sight to behold.

13) Thailand
The only pre-ASS season that I think is well below the others. Brian's dominance was interesting but it made the season somewhat boring. Also, the location was bad and the casting was a step back from the previous seasons, actually I think it's the only pre ASS season where I can't name the whole cast. However, Robb made the premerge a bit interesting, the Penny-Jake storyline had a satisfying ending and Clay was really underrated.

14) Samoa
I think the general opinion about this season is greatly affected by the editors jerking off to Russell. While this is true and ended up getting very annoying near the end, I didn't have a problem with him in the beginning, I actually thought of him as a fresh kind of character. The editing was not good but I think the characters kinda made up for it, with Galu being a modern day Cassaya with Laura, Dave Ball, Erik and Shambo making good use of the -little- screentime they were given. Also a comeback story is always good, especially when it is accompanied by 3 consecutive great TCs.

15) Gabon
This was a mess in a good way. Fang was obvsiously the tribe to watch with all the craziness going on, but Kota was interesting also. The Onion alliance, pretty easy in explaining but also very complex, offered anticipation in the pre-merge and then made their Pagonging not boring. To that also contributed some well crafted characters that were original -even after 16 seasons of the show- like Kenny, Randy and Sugar -even though I hate her-.

16) South Pacific
I think this season benefited from the fact that going in, I had absolutely zero expectations. RI is the 2nd worst thing to ever happen in the show, the 1st being bringing back 2 returning players among newbies. Also, there were a lot of ignored edits, the location didn't offer anything because it is overused and there were 2 strings of completely predictable episodes, one pre merge and one postmerge. So why isn't it lower? 2 reasons: First of all, the cast was the best in a new season since Gabon/China. Cochran, despite his ridiculously high visibility offered something new to the show and was a great narrator and other players that didn't play a huge role in the season were given very good edits, like Jim and Dawn. The 2nd reason is that it had 3 great episodes with memorable moments, the merge with the flip being explained carefully, the Brandon boot episode which was very well crafted with all the arguments in the beach etc and of course the finale, with Coach ending his Survivor legacy by crowning a new Dragonslayer, Ozzy (even though I don't like him) being applaued as he is voted out and ultimately the best player winning.

17) Fiji
While I don't consider Fiji a bad season at all, I think there were some ways it could have been even better. The producers screwed up with all those twists, and especially with the main one. Despite that, the Four Horsemen story and especially their downfall was a great story, one of the best ever probably. The Yau Man - Dreamz deal was also unprecedented. However, the whole season was a bit bland and there were a lot completely boring episodes.

18) Cook Islands
It's completely unrewatchable, the casting -apart from a few bright selections- was horrid and the Nate-Adam-Candice alliance is one of the worst ever. However, a season with Jonathan Penner in it can never be considered a bad season, he did an awesome job narrating, was the voice of reason at all times, was -intentionally and unintentionally- funny and made the decision that saved the season. A comeback also is always good but the problem here was a) it was obvious that it was going to be between Ozzy and Yul and b) I didn't care much for either of them. I guess though that the decision between those 2 is the heart of the game really, strategy vs challenge domination, and that's why it at least made for an interesting FTC.

The Not-so-Good Ones:

19) All Stars
This was kinda the opposite of South Pacific for me. I went into it with expectations as high as they can get, and while the first episode -and the scene at the beach especially, with the tribes seeing each other- was awesome, I quickly started to dislike the season. There were 2 reasons for it I think. First of all, most of my favorites were out early. Tina-Hatch-Cesternino-Jerri were all premerge, and while there were a some people still left that I liked -mainly the Marquesas duo- they seemed more serious and less relaxed this time, which for me was a negative thing. Which brings me to the second reason, which is the general awkwardness this season had. First with the 2 people quitting and then with most of the jury getting very mad with Rob and taking it (imo) way too seriously. The FTC especially is something that I almost can't bring myself to rewatch.

20) Tocantins
This one is a mystery for me, because on paper, -like China- it should have been good. Less people, final 2, not too many twists. However, unlike China, it failed to deliver. You realize that something has gone horrible wrong with the editing, when the main pre merge focus is given on an Exile Island that in the end doesn't play a desicive factor in the game. Also, for some reason, the post merge seemed pretty boring to me, and especially when it became clear that nobody was gonna do anything to get JT out. However, Stephen was a good narrator and Coach funny as hell, a truly great character.


21) Guatemala
Worst location ever. Judd was one of the funniest villains and Steph's downfall was interesting to watch, but I that's it with the positives. Rafe is probably the most boring person ever cast, most of the boots where predictable and made for boring episodes and generally, to me at least, had a general boring tone.

22) Nicaragua
Balanced editing != good editing. Or to say it better, a balanced editing is required, but is not the only thing needed. That's what Nicaragua showed imo. After 2 consecutive Russell-filled seasons, at least this time most of the people got significant air time. However, the problem was that their editing was one-toned and most of them weren't really interesting to begin with. Also, there was not much happening and the ending -and especially the winner- felt really anticlimatic to me. Finally, never in Survivor history have i hated any contestant of any season as much I hated Jane. Forget everyone else, her editing is trully the most disgusting editing that has happened on Survivor.

23) Redemption Island
It's already been mentioned by many people how bad it is, so I 'll just add two things. First, I think that even with a fair editing, the cast is still horrible. I seriously cannot remember a more boring tribe than post-merge Zapatera and the few interesting Ometebe people were not edited correctly. Also, for me it completely destroyed Rob M's Survivor story (yeah, he won, whatever) whom until then I didn't dislike at all.