As I've been binging Survivor, I've been watching seasons outlined in this article here - https://www.theringer.com/tv/2020/3/25/21193405/how-to-catch-up-on-survivor-best-seasons-guide

The article skips over the Dark Ages except for Philippines, but seeing how this sub talked about Kim and her gameplay, I decided to take a look at her winning season (I got her winning spoiled for me already before watching) and I have some thoughts:

​

Theme: I never care for men vs women themes, I think it gives way to a lot of sexism on the men's side of things and they always do a tribe swap after a few episodes. However, the One World twist I actually found really interesting and I think it worked well. I've always thought it should be the norm for Survivor to have both tribes live on the same beach and be allowed to have contact (I think it would reduce Pagongings and create more interesting scenarios and dynamics between characters). So I was pleased by the inclusion of this twist and think it lead to a lot of great things in the pre-merge of this season like Colton annoying the girls and the girls constantly asking the guys for fire. I didn't like how the tribe swap did away with this twist and I think that the season immediately takes a dip in quality after the tribe swap as the old dynamics are completely flipped on their head and we have only two episodes to get used to this before the merge is shoved in our faces.

​

Cast: I think most of the Survivor fandom agrees that this season had a very weak cast. Pre-merge was dominated by Colton's personality, while the post-merge inched along with Kim as the main narrator. Most of the contestants were unfortunately forgettable and didn't seem very charismatic so there weren't any crazy or super entertaining moments post merge. I think the season suffers from Colton's medevac 6 episodes in as he was definitely being set up to be the main villain of the season and I think at least a few more episodes of him would've added some much needed life to this season (I know everyone hates him but you gotta admit he made some good TV). Some standouts from the cast are definitely Kim, Kat, Tarzan, Colton, and Alicia (for better or for worse). Besides them the cast sadly fell flat. I think Kourtney would've been a fun character but of course she got medevaced in the first episode.

​

Storylines: I think this season has a pretty decent storyline that flows from the tribal to individual portion of the game. The women are awful at challenges yet are able to come back from this and utilize the team swap to get the first ever all female top 5. This storyline is awesome (even if the way it pans out isn't very interesting). Colton gets a mini-arc pre-merge where he's shown being as awful to everyone as possible and gets his comeuppance by being taken out of the game prematurely in a weird karmic sense. Christina outlasts everyone who bullied her and pulled a decent UTR game in the last few episodes (she lacked strategy but she was fun to root for). Alicia and Kat think they have the game in the bag but get blindsided. The storylines of this season I think are quite strong, but the flatness of the characters definitely bogs it down.

​

Strategy: Kim dominates. Post-merge it seems as if no one else is even playing the game. That being said, she was absolutely a target and had to work her way out of some scary situations in the early merge. Her move to take out Mike was sneaky and worked really well. I think the strategy to stick to her alliance with Sabrina and Chelsea was smart because everyone knew Kim was the mastermind behind it all so she was secure she'd win anyway, even though Sabrina and Chelsea were very likable as well. Kim's idea to flush Troy's idol and get Jay out was a great move (thank u CaoBoi). Besides Kim, this season seriously lacked any strategy post-merge. Pre-merge however had it's moments. The boys giving up immunity was hilarious and an incredibly stupid decision but was definitely... strategy? I also don't understand why Colton thought he could just switch to the girls side like he wouldn't immediately be on the bottom of their girls alliance lol.

​

Winner: Kim is a great winner. Well rounded and deserved. As good as her strategy was this season, she also lacked any serious competition. I don't think anyone would've been able to beat her in the finale and that makes her win extremely predictable. Her 4 immunity wins help too lol. I don't think she's a bad character post-merge but I do think that some cooky characters were definitely needed in the post-merge to liven things up as Kim being the sole narrator got dull.

​

Conclusion: This is definitely the weakest survivor season I've seen but it's not as bad as I see a lot of people say it is. The cast suffers from not being very interesting on TV and it's quite predictable but there's nothing too abhorrent about this season, it's just very typical and a bit boring (outside of the men giving up immunity that whole episode was wild). Colton was definitely an asshat this season but I do think it would've been a much better season had we gotten more of him post-merge. Ultimately, this isn't a season I'd recommend as there are many better Survivor seasons, but it doesn't deserve the hate it gets.

​

Season ranking (so far):

1. Pearl Islands (7) - 9.8/10
2. Micronesia (16) - 9.2/10
3. China (15) - 9/10
4. Gabon (17) - 8.7/10
5. Heroes vs Villains (20) - 8.3/10
6. Philippines (25) - 8/10
7. Amazon (6) - 7.7/10
8. Borneo (1) - 7.5/10
9. Cook Islands (13) - 7.2/10
10. Panama (12) - 7/10
11. All-Stars (8) - 6.9/10
12. Tocantins (18) - 6.7/10
13. Samoa (19) - 6.2/10
14. One World (24) - 5.8/10

Cagayan is next and I'm super excited for that!