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I've recently re-watched Borneo, Thailand, Marquesas, and Pearl Islands (and am about to watch Australia). I havent seen any season post-ASS except China. So here are my revised rankings


1. Pearl Islands--This one is now my unanimous #1. This season probably had the best cast, even though several of them seemed to be recruits. People love to hate Rupert, but watching the season when it happened and now watching it years later, it's hard to argue with the energy he brought to the show--and how well he worked the pirate motif into the show. I bet that was all a coincidence..... Jon was one of the rare villains who I was thoroughly entertained by, even though I'm tired of all the reality/wrestling success he's had since this season ended. Most of the people who were booted early were people who were not going to be that interesting to follow anyway from a gameplay perspective (Nicole, Michelle and Osten, specifically). So we got extended looks at players who were either really likable/hateable (Rupert, Christa, JFP, Lill, Burton) and good looks and insight into the middle of the road players (Sandra, Ryno, Tijuana). Frankly, I'm glad Darrah got the invisible edit because I dont know if we would have liked her if she got more air time and I think we would have hated her (not in a positive-for-the-show way) if they played more of her interviews. Long story short, the cast and location were great, the challenges were pretty solid except for having like 4 or 5 puzzle related ones in a row and the one that directly "played into Darrah's hands", and the Outcast Twist (although somewhat unfair) provided us with the perfect amount of strategic twists to where the season avoided any sort of real Pagong-ing. The boot order and final 4 are very surprising if you havent seen this season before.

2. Borneo--This season has always been one of my favorites just because it's the first. On the surface, the cast isnt that great in that it's easy not to like a lot of them (Hatch, Sue, Kelly, Sean--all of whom got significant airtime), but the good thing about the cast is that you could relate to almost all of them in some way. I dont know if that is just because it's the first season and we got to see real people and personalities for a while instead of over-the-top scheming and character roles from the beginning or not, but I really got the feeling that the cast was a nice slice of "real" people. This season is also nice because there werent any ridiculous twists designed to screw a player over, or mess up an entire strategic plan. That sort of thing became necessary to keep the same thing from happening every season, but it's nice to look back at the first two or three seasons and see the game for what it originally was supposed to be.

3. China--The only thing that bothered me about this season were some of the recruits. Jean-Robert and Ashley really didnt need to be in this season, although J.R. at least was really playing the game rather than using it as a way to get his mug on TV, so I kinda respect that. The cool thing about this season is how the editing really made you hate a player, then like them, then hate them, then like them, etc. So they did a good job of keeping the cast likable week in and week out despite who got the boot. I was a little annoyed by how they seemed to just want to overwhelm us with the "James is awesome!" storyline, but the more I think about it, the more I'm glad they edited him the way they did. They made him likable, but pretty stupid, so everyone should have known from the beginning that he coulda/woulda/shoulda won but never had the strategy or social skills to pull it off. I went from hating Courtney, Peih Gee, Jean Robert and Denise in the very beginning, to liking all 3 of them at the end....and visa versa with Todd, Amanda, Frosti, and Jamie. I also liked how this season went back closer to the roots of the beginning seasons--16 castaways, 2 tribes, fairly minimal plot twists (I dont mind the H.I.I. and the capturing a tribe member for a day as much as I mind complete tribal shuffles and twists that throw one player under the bus)

4. Australia--I'm about to re-watch this season, and I have a feeling I'm not going to like it as much. For a long time, it was my favorite season, but now that I think about it, most of the characters and editing wasnt that great. The Rodger/Elisabeth thing seems pretty sappy (especially since they've repeated it in several ensuing seasons) and they largely ignored some potentially intriguing characters (Tina and Nick) in order to further shove Colby, Jerri and Rodger/Elisabeth down our throats. The location was great though...but I'll have to review this season before I comment on the challenges. Even though there were several characters that were over the top or who got a lot of screen-time, a lot of the minor characters were very forgettable (Mitchell, Kel, Amber--until she came back for ASS, Nick, etc) so I cant give them a lot of credit on this season for casting and editing.

5. Thailand--This season takes a lot of heat, and some of it is deserved. Mainly, the cast was too old and they shouldnt have let Jake/Jan select the tribes. There were a lot of just unlikable characters, but a lot of those got picked off early (Ghandia specifically was one that would have made the entire season unwatchable if she stuck around any longer.) The cast was a bit too old overall, and a lot of the younger characters were pretty one dimensional and bland (Penny, Ken, Erin, Tanya). The "player on a journey to discover their self" edit was waaaaaaaaay over the top with Robb to the point where I hate that guy. I remember watching this season when it aired and liking Brian, but I watched it again and I really dont like him anymore. He really didnt have to do a whole lot to win this game except for maybe win one key immunity challenge.....but Helen, Ted and Clay just followed whatever he said without making and executing any strategy of their own--which was a smart move for Clay, but dumb for Ted and Helen. I also remember hating Clay when the season aired, but now that I've watched it all again, I actually kind of like the little bastard. Lots of people on this board seem to like Helen from what I've read in the 'favorite survivors' thread, but as far as I'm concerned, she's one of the dumbest players ever to make it past the merge. She let Brian win that game, and even though Brian deserves a lot of credit for his strategy and execution, you can take a lot of credit away from him for just how stupid the other people in his tribe were. Brian almost blew his easy win in the last couple tribal councils and in the final jury questioning. But there's something interesting about this season that I cant quite put my finger on, but I definitely liked it much much more the second time around then when it initially aired. And good God Jan is annoying.

6. Africa---I'm gonna have to re-watch this one before I can say it is of the quality of the top 4 seasons or better than Thailand...I suspect it wont go higher than 5 or lower than 6 on this list just because I remember not liking most of the cast or the location.

7. All-Stars. This season wasnt much more than a novelty for me. I thought some of the cast selections were just odd (Rob M, Shii Ann, Alicia, specifically), and they really should have seen the winners being picked off early before even designing the tribes and challenges, so it made it kind of uninteresting knowing that none of the winners were going to come close to pulling it off again. The problem for me was that it was fun to watch most of these players the first time around, but I wasnt interested in seeing any of them again, especially because of the "everyone knows how you played the game the first time around" thing kind of took away from the intrigue, at least for me. I'm also not looking forward to S16 for the same reason, and I may not watch any of it.

8. Marquesas--terrible season. I hated most of the cast, and ALL OF THE MARAAMU TRIBE except maybe Gina. Perhaps I'm supposed to feel that way because of editing, but I still think Rob M and Sean are just douches who arent alpha-males but want to be sooo badly that they had to completely screw over their entire tribe just so that they could be in control. The Rotu tribe wasnt much more interesting. The Paschal/Neleh thing just wreaked of Elisabeth/Roger all over again, so it wasnt cute this time around. The Rotu 4 were composed of people who werent especially interesting or likable. Zoe seems to be famous for being completely invisible during the entire run of the show. Vecepia won by basically being invisible as well. There just wasnt ANYONE for me to root for or like in this season except perhaps Gina, but she got victimized by idiots.