Let's jump right in, Kay? Season 10 brought us the wonderful paradise of Palau, a great location for an honestly memorable cast. I was so happy after the DISASTER that was Vanuata that my mom got to see an actually DECENT season without past players.
Let's talk pre-merge. Right off the bat shit started when all 20 players had to share ONE FUCKING BEACH. I was not sure what was happening, only that a few people were VERY stand-outish including Jolanda, James, Bobby John, Colby, Tom, and Ian. It seemed like the heavy editing of past seasons was NOT needed with this cast because so much shit went down in the first fucking episode.
When Colby IMMEDIATELY put a target on Johnathan's back, it was a smart move, but it was also just very underhanded and sneaky. Me and my mom both wanted it to work and yet at the same time didn't. When it was announced they'd be picking teams and they chose the old and decrepit Willard over the young and powerful Johnathan, sending him out with Wanda right out of the gate, we were shocked beyond shocked.
If you watch the first challenge (I believe it was reward) and see Tom shoot out of the gate ahead and beyond anybody else … Yeah the winner was revealed early. I mean seriously me and my mom just sat there shouting and screaming 'WHAT THE HECK!?!?' watching him literally SHOOT through every obstacle despite being one of the oldest people there.
I don't know what else to say about the pre-merge besides … Ulong was horrible. Like I do feel bad. A lot of their members ie Jolanda, James, Stephanie, Bobby John, and Ibrehem worked their asses off and got zilch for it. Jolanda being kicked out first MAY have destroyed their tribe, as my mom pointed out without her telling them what to do (albeit annoyingly) the tribe just... existed. Like some hard workers kept them afloat, but besides that the tribe suffered terribly from a lack of a leader.
Ulong losing challenge after challenge does not have to be gone into. The fact of the matter is (to those who don't know) they never won an immunity challenge. It literally got down to one person from their tribe, who was absorbed into the other tribe. There was no merge. Stephanie became the final person in the tribe by default of a fire-making challenge. It kinda sucked.
I will say they had some highlights. When the guys kept losing the challenges (even the physical ones) while the women dominated (like when James lost a fighting challenge against Colby and was like 'I got beat by a homosexual' we lost it we fucking lost it we were laughing so hard). Then when they TORE APART THEIR BATHROOM TO MAKE A BONFIRE AND STILL FAILED TO SECURE THE REWARD!!!!!! It was painful but enjoyable to watch.
Still, watching Koror make it so fucking far into the game without turning on one another, it was a shock beyond shocks (not really) that Colby was voted out first. Not only had he been vocal against the OBVIOUS main alliance in the Tribe of Tom, Gregg, Jenn, Katie, and Ian, but he had been underhanded and downright rude to several castmates, which put him on the outs of their first tribal and sent him out before even Stephanie.
Janu quitting was ………………… a fucking godsend. I cannot believe they were going to vote out Stephanie over someone who literally wanted to leave from pre-merge …
When the main alliance of Tom, Ian, Jenn, and Katie turned on Gregg (one of their allies) it was a shock to me. I mean seriously he was good in challenges yes. And it was around this time Caryn actually became a serious ally of Tom's and I thought she'd go so much further.
This is where Ian comes in... Poor confused sweet betraying little shit Ian. Not only was he promising final 2s left and right with Caryn, Katie, and Tom, but he was systematically wiping those alliances out and telling everybody else the people with him were lying instead of admitting to his gameplay. Not to mention the whole issue between him and Katie regarding the reward challenges (a long fucking story smh).
Anyway, because of this the path for Tom's victory to the end was just fucking out there. Caryn was taken out by Ian's lies, Ian was put in the hot seat by his remaining allies but won a fire-making challenge, and then he gave up in the Final Immunity Challenge and voluntarily was going to leave the game if Tom didn't vote him out … I … I … I … I …
ANYWAY
Tom won EASILY against Katie thanks to her treating pretty much everybody like shit all game long and doing NOTHING around camp, and the only vote that went to him was the bitchy gay hairdresser from Texas named Colby. … Yeah. A fantastic season, but a very very very very very very VERY obvious winner.
Seasons:
=== Best ===
Pearl Islands (S7)
Australian Outback (S2)
Palau (S10)
Borneo (S1)
The Amazon (S6)
Marquesas (S4)
Thailand (S5)
Africa (S3)
Vanuata (S9)
=== Worst ===
Winners:
=== Best ===
Tina Wesson (S2)
Sandra Diaz-Twine (S7)
Jenna Morasca (S6)
Tom Westman (S10)
Brian Heidik (S5)
Richard Hatch (S1)
Vecepia Towery (S4)
Ethan Zohn (S3)
Chris Daugherty (S9)
=== Worst ===
Kay, let's jump right in shall we? This season... Was trash...
When they first started the season and announced it was men vs women again, I was thinking "okay this could be fun" until I saw the cast... Like... I had to go look up who was even on this Season it was that bad, that boring, and that just un-fucking-eventful.
Unlike in the Amazon, where it was OBVIOUSLY men vs women, this game started off with a tribe of half-prissy women and half-masc women who honestly made it seem like a normal average tribe. I'm not knocking masculine women, but it felt like CBS was trying to even out the much more feminine tribe of seasons past.
Now... I would talk about the guys... Chris sucked. I'm sorry but it's just the truth. The guy was a target from week fucking one and that was because he couldn't fucking balance. And he never. got. better. Then you had the amputee... woohoo... let's give him a gold star...
All around the casting just felt like CBS just wanted to make up for something, but IDK what it was. It made the cast EXTREMELY forgettable, and the only thing I do remember about the cast that was different was that open lesbians were cast for the first time in the show's history.
Both tribes doing the old vs young crap all over again which we've seen in so many seasons also did not help this season stand out. The fact some guys like Travis and Chris managed to work their way into the women's alliances to make it further in the game was interesting to watch, both men coming from the bottom and working their way up with serious mental strategy.
Then we hit merge...
8 women
2 men
… And the women turned on each other... … … … …
It was so fucking incredible to watch a team of 8 women who literally wanted to ELIMINATE the men just turn on each other without any qualms... Between Twila's outbursts, Scout's wishy-washy attitude, and Chris just stirring the pot constantly, it was boring and even painful to watch.
And that's the story of how a guy who was targeted day 1 managed to make it to a merge with 80% of the team gunning to take him out and still make it to the finale and win... Bravo CBS bravo...
Seasons:
=== Best ===
Pearl Islands (S7)
Australian Outback (S2)
Borneo (S1)
The Amazon (S6)
Marquesas (S4)
Thailand (S5)
Africa (S3)
Vanuata (S9)
=== Worst ===
Winners:
=== Best ===
Tina Wesson (S2)
Sandra Diaz-Twine (S7)
Jenna Morasca (S6)
Brian Heidik (S5)
Richard Hatch (S1)
Vecepia Towery (S4)
Ethan Zohn (S3)
Chris Daugherty (S9)
=== Worst ===
Kay. Let's start off with me saying that this was a fucking roller coaster which literally blew its way into the number 1 spot for me hands down! I loved this season so much and I cannot stress how entertaining it was! By comparison, most of the seasons we've watched since could not even hold a fucking candle to this group.
All-Stars started off with an obvious rift between past winners and those who hadn't won the money, and they had NO QUALMS about saying they wanted to vote out past winners for that one simple reason. "They got the money already." I fucking hated Jenna (not Amazon) for starting the Game like that, especially since it sent MY FUCKING GODESS TINA WESSON out with the first damn vote.
The whole pre-merge seemed like one giant shit-fest on past winners, but there were a lot of heartfelt moments too. Rudy being voted out over his health was a huge kick in the crotch. Jenna quitting the game for her mother's sake only to lose her like two weeks later.
I can say the most entertaining aspect was the constant bickering between some people. Jerri and Rupert. (though when he built the underground house for them for that challenge he lost points with me smh…). Jenna and the winners. Richard and Sue. It was crazy!!!
Then there was Richard Fucking Hatch. Not only did the man act like he was God's gift to CBS, he just acted like such an arrogant sob to everybody. When he literally BIT A MOTHER FING SHARK I was impressed. But I was NOT shocked that he left.
This, however, brings us to the biggest shit-fest on Survivor up to this point. Richard rubbing his naked genitals on Sue during a challenge. . . What? I was not shocked Sue took offense to it, but the fact she stayed quiet until the following day instead of just voicing her frustrations then and there I think led to her spiraling the way she did. She should've twisted his grapefruits until the man begged for mercy...
So after Sue left, it became the game of Rob. I mean up to this point Rob and Amber were OBVIOUSLY becoming a power couple. And the funny part was it started out as nothing more than a game maneuver from Amber, and yet they wound up ACTUALLY falling in love. Wow. <3
Then we had Lex and Kathy … TBH I get where Lex was coming from with the 'friendship' bit, however he LITERALLY turned on his allies just a few votes BEFORE Rob voted him and Kathy off, and the major issue I take with that did NOT end with the game portion, but CONTINUED into the Reunion because the two of them could NOT separate the game and the friendship, when LEX was the person who tried to manipulate Rob using it.
This was a poor showing of sportsmanship from both Lex and Kathy, and I think Lex's rankings just plummeted in my eyes and my whole damn family's when it happened. WHICH SAYS A LOT!!! My mom and dad LOATHE liars and backstabbers, which was a vast majority of Boston Rob's gameplay, but even THEY thought Lex and Kathy were in the wrong both in the Game, and in the Jury, and even on into the Reunion.
Shii Ann and Rupert were the only two of any real merit after that portion of the game, and both left under pretty plain circumstances, so I won't delve into that. The game was Rob's to win or lose, and it was kind of a boring post-merge besides the friendship drama.
I will say the Jury portion was the most bitter, most self-absorbed, most straight-up annoying segment I've seen in the whole time I've been watching this show. And I've seen some shitty FTC people... In the end, I was happy with Amber as a winner, but she doesn't take the top spot as Boston Rob rightfully deserved that position.
At the Reunion, Rupert winning that award kinda made up for some of the season's shittier moments, wiping even the sexual misconduct away like a soft gentle wave LOL
I do not remember much about the environment on this one, and in fact it seemed like the Tribes lived a bit more luxuriously than most of their previous castmates had. I do remember Rupert's shitty shack... that was so damn stupid... So the place did have bad storms and flooding so there was a very survivalist aspect to it that I honestly did enjoy a lot!
Seasons:
=== Best ===
All-Stars (S8)
Pearl Islands (S7)
Australian Outback (S2)
Borneo (S1)
The Amazon (S6)
Marquesas (S4)
Thailand (S5)
Africa (S3)
=== Worst ===
Winners:
=== Best ===
Tina Wesson (S2)
Sandra Diaz-Twine (S7)
Jenna Morasca (S6)
Amber Brkich (S8)
Brian Heidik (S5)
Richard Hatch (S1)
Vecepia Towery (S4)
Ethan Zohn (S3)
=== Worst ===
Kay. We already jumped right in. Cause Sandra is fucking amazing. BUT let's get into the tribes and shit...… The beginning of the game was AWESOME. Forcing them to scavenge the town with limited money and resources for stuff to take to their camps.
As far as the game goes, Drake tribe dominated. Morgan tribe sucked. Literally. So bad. The Pre-Merge was just a giant shit on the Morgan tribe. Loss after loss after loss, they just sucked. People threatening to quit, dissension, and bitter tribe members. The first competition (I KID YOU NOT) the Morgan Tribe literally had three guys strip naked to … I dunno... distract the ladies? Best part of it was I think ?Sandra? saying it was 'unimpressive'. The Drake tribe LITERALLY tossed one challenge to get someone voted out, which sent them into a spiral that did not end until both teams were even steven number wise.
On the two sides, I have to say Morgan's top tier members were Lillian, Andrew, and Tijuana. Drake's top were definitely the Duo of Burton/Shawn, Sandra, Rupert, and Jon the crazy douche. Notice the difference in sizes of those lists? Yeah there's a reason. MORGAN SUCKED YALL. MORGAN SUCKED. Pirating between the tribes was funny as hell though. During the first 'thievery' someone mouthed off to Sandra and so she took their whole tarp, destroying their home in the process.
Anyway, once they got to the top ten, Jeff brings out a twist which brought back Lillian and Burton from the pre-jury, just before the two tribes merged into Balboa. And they dominated the game. Two former losers dominated the game. It was so freaking insane.
As the game went on, and alliances rose and fell, I felt really bad because it did seem like Sandra (one of my favs) was on the losing end of everything. And I do mean EVERYTHING. She had people backstabbing and betraying her the whole time, and every time she mouthed off, shouted, and cursed. She never backed down and yet won no competitions I can think of. (She sometimes snuck off after people to listen in on conversations, and even brought Tijuana with her to prove she wasn't lying about Jon/Burton)
By the time the finale came along, I was honestly so over the roller-coaster ride. It had so many twists and turns, with the final kicker being Lillian winning a fucking challenge and taking Sandra over Jon. During the Jury deliberations, it became apparent that Sandra had the majority of the votes due to her friends and allies on the tribe, as well as the respect her enemies had for her. A fantastic winner. An INCREDIBLE season. This was AWESOME and so close to the Survivor we have today. Strategy, chaos, and tyrannical reigns abounded, and in the end a fav won the game. Welcome to the top of the board, Pearl Islands. You deserve it.
Seasons:
=== Best ===
Pearl Islands (S7)
Australian Outback (S2)
Borneo (S1)
The Amazon (S6)
Marquesas (S4)
Thailand (S5)
Africa (S3)
=== Worst ===
Winners:
=== Best ===
Tina Wesson (S2)
Sandra Diaz-Twine (S7)
Jenna Morasca (S6)
Brian Heidik (S5)
Richard Hatch (S1)
Vecepia Towery (S4)
Ethan Zohn (S3)
=== Worst ===
Well... That threw a wrench in my plan. I honestly did NOT see the winner coming from a mile away, and spent most of my time watching the season and wishing she'd get voted out, but honey she played the game well.
First off, Amazon split men and women into two different tribes based on sex. Kinda cool. Also kinda weird. Watching the women and men compare who had what like a dick measuring contest was funny as hell. Men had shelter. Women had fish. It was funny. But... I'm just not sure why they voted the way they did. Both tribes were so fueled by testosterone or jealousy that they wound up taking out people who were legitimately working hard from both tribes, while leaving people they took issues with.
Alliances between young and old almost immediately put the women's tribe into disarray, and yet at first they kept winning challenges and sent the men into a depression spiral which was hilarious. SOME of them... were too horny. And dramatic. On both sides. I honestly took major issue with Shawna and Jenna from day 1. They were lazy and just overall pathetic, begging to leave at some points and making an alliance based on age and beauty.
As of merge, I started to see another side to it. Rob was a mastermind and a manipulator before and after the merge. Matthew was cunning and more intelligent than he let on, which helped him coast by. And Jenna jumped from alliance to alliance, making all kinds of allies (and enemies) on the Jury.
In the end, those three TOTALLY deserved to be in the finale. When Jenna took out Rob, despite their deal and her own statements of taking the most deserving, and then later revealed it was a ploy to get her more votes against Matthew, she showed how cunning and manipulative she could be. Total snake. Total diva. Totally deserved what happened. (Even though I hated her for taking out Christy) A side note, despite her betrayal of Rob, we saw her selflessness when she gave her Immunity to Heidi, her best friend and closest ally in the game. Really amazing of her.
And then Jenna got 6/7 jury votes to win. Holy. Freaking. Heck. I loved that for her. In the end, I still rank Tina ahead of her, just because Jenna was lazy, wanted to give up several times, and generally acted like a spoiled child (WHICH she did admit at the reunion). Still, she's close to the top of my favs, and has beaten Brian for the #2 spot.
As for the area, the season in general, I have to say it did better than most. The theme was amazing, though the guys tribe was a bit too monotone for my liking casting wise. The area was dangerous. The weather was not as insane as Australian Outback, but was still pretty wild. Totally happy with this season. Recommend watching it 10/10.
Seasons:
=== Best ===
Australian Outback (S2)
Borneo (S1)
The Amazon (S6)
Marquesas (S4)
Thailand (S5)
Africa (S3)
=== Worst ===
Winners:
=== Best ===
Tina Wesson (S2)
Jenna Morasca (S6)
Brian Heidik (S5)
Richard Hatch (S1)
Vecepia Towery (S4)
Ethan Zohn (S3)
=== Worst ===
Alright. This is the first time the Season and the Winner will not be ranked at the same position, so everything is about to get flubbed up. XD Let's jump right in hoes!!!
First of all, let's jump into the area first. As far as the locations go, Thailand was beautiful, but not overly enjoyable. They boasted in the premiere about poisonous snakes like cobras and giant horrible monsters like the pythons, but unlike in Africa, none of those animals really made an appearance. AGAIN Food was relatively easy to find on both camps, water was a major issue for one tribe while shelter was an issue for the other. Honestly, it was well-rounded but not as much fun. Also despite being in the middle of the monsoon season, not a lot of weather-related issues to be honest.
Let's tackle pre-merge. It was amazing. I absolutely loved the old farts, Jake and Jan. Honestly I was happy they made it past the merge. Jan was the EPITOME of social gaming, whereas Jake tried his hardest to pick a good tribe. Making them choose their own tribes was a bit of a let-down because of that.
Jan (Chuay Ghan) chose second-stringers and people you wouldn't want, which I think automatically made their tribe more coherent because everybody had low expectations of them. Jake (Sook Jai) had young assholes like Robb, Jed, and Stephanie who weren't really doing anything besides fighting over who did the least work. Then there was the whole sexual harassment thing between Ted and Ghandia. Kinda nerfed their pre-merge fun for me.
The fake merge I hated so much. It screwed Shii Ann over so bad. If that merge had been legit, I really think it would've been like Marquesas in the end, with members of both tribes surviving till the finale. Instead, when they finally merged at final 8, we had Chuay Ghan taking the 3 remaining Sook Jai out one by one. All in all, it was a good idea, but not well executed.
Then we get to the final 5... they were a total cluster. Ted going 5th, IDK it just didn't sit right with me. Then Helen. Helen Helen Helen. I honestly thought she was going to win. She was SO FUCKING SMART and good in the challenges. And then she gets voted out because Jan misunderstood what she saw Helen and Ted doing in the sand (complaining about Clay's laziness) and got her tribemate taken out. Helen should have won the whole thing. Just saying.
The finale was one-sided in my opinion, but not the Jury's. People were mad at Brian for playing the game, which I get. And I will FOREVER love Helen's angry rant at him calling him the typical car salesman. But he did deserve the win SO SO SO MUCH MORE than Clay. Clay was a lazy, bitter, angry old man who couldn't take the truth when people pointed out his laziness. He was basically Jed 30 years into the future. Brian may have lost against Helen, we'll never know, but because of his smart moves and being so informed in his tribe, he was able to manipulate information and keep himself in the game. Definitely one of my favorite winners so far, even if he's from a rather bad season.
Seasons:
=== Best ===
Australian Outback (S2)
Borneo (S1)
Marquesas (S4)
Thailand (S5)
Africa (S3)
=== Worst ===
Winners:
=== Best ===
Tina Wesson (S2)
Brian Heidik (S5)
Richard Hatch (S1)
Vecepia Towery (S4)
Ethan Zohn (S3)
=== Worst ===
