My Favorite Seasons of Survivor: My Guide for Survivor Newbies

My love for Survivor has been well-documented on my blog in the past, and I’m happy to hear that other people are getting into it thanks to Netflix adding two seasons (two of the best!) to its catalog.

In the spirit of sharing the love, I’m recommending a few more seasons that Survivor newbies should definitely check out! As far as I know, all seasons up to 34 are available on Hulu, while every season is available on CBS All Access and for individual purchase on iTunes.

A few important notes for these picks:

I am personally drawn to Survivor primarily for interesting characters and storylines, with great gameplay coming in as a close second. Because of this, I’ve split my picks up into two separate lists: all-around great seasons, and seasons with great characters where the gameplay isn’t quite top tier. I enjoy seasons in the second camp just as much as those in the first camp, but I think it’s helpful to know if the gameplay will be sub-par going in, just to know what kind of ride it’ll be!
My recommendations for newbies purposely do not include returnee seasons! I am a big proponent of watching as many first-timer seasons before jumping into returnee seasons for the sole reason that a lot of the players’ chemistries, reputations, and storylines rely heavily on their past seasons. While I’m sure it’s still possible to enjoy a season without watching the preceding ones – I’ve heard of people enjoying Heroes vs. Villains as their first season ever, which is baffling to me! – I’m almost positive that they don’t hit as hard!
- I am happy to give suggestions for returnee seasons, though! Some of my actual favorite seasons are returnee seasons but, as I mentioned before, part of their appeal is following individual characters’ arcs. I can even suggest seasons-to-watch-before-you-watch-another-returnee-season if you want!
I am going to keep these summaries pretty spoiler-free, which unfortunately means that there’s not a lot to say! I’ll try to include as much as I can without giving away too much, but my preference is to not spoil anything about the season – even my favorite characters! – before letting you jump in.

To the picks!

All-Around Great Seasons

The first two seasons that came to mind to recommend were Kaoh Rong (32) and Millennials vs. Gen X (33). These were actually two of the first seasons that I watched live, and they did not disappoint! There are fun moments, great villains, spicy drama, and a handful of players that return for future seasons.

*This is also one of my favorite challenges ever! (image from truedorktimes.com)*

Digging a bit deeper back, my older recommendations are Cook Islands (13) and Tocantins (18). It was tough to narrow this list down, but I feel like I can stand by these two! Again, these two seasons include some of my favorite characters, many of whom return for future seasons, and have some really great overarching storylines, both heroic and villainous, that unfold over the entire seasons.

(I will concede that some themes – Cook Islands’s race-based tribes and Millennials vs. Gen X’s eponymous theme – are kind of cringeworthy! A lot of Survivor themes are! I encourage you to simply push through, as the theme never really carries past the first couple of episodes anyway.)

Finally, I do love recommending Borneo (1), The Australian Outback (2), and Africa (3) to newbies after they’ve watched a few seasons. I loved going back to these to see just how different things were in so many different ways – production-wise, gameplay-wise, even player-wise! The latter two are especially interesting to watch because the show hasn’t revisited them as locations, so they’re worth watching even if just for change of scenery.

Great Character Seasons

I included the disclaimer about embarrassing themes above because one of my favorite seasons ever, Amazon (6), is originally organized as a men’s tribe vs. a women’s tribe. The men’s tribe talks a lot of trash and ends up losing the first (very physical) challenge! It’s great! There are some great characters (emphasis on the character), funny moments, and the setting is definitely unique. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it as someone’s first season, as the gameplay is fairly standard and nothing to write home about, but it’s a ride!

*See! Sandra **can** do a challenge! (image from facebook.com)*

My final three recommendations – Pearl Islands (9), China (15), and Gabon (17) – are grouped together because, in my opinion, they are completely character-driven. I could talk your ear off about specific contestants on these seasons, but I am currently completely blanking on any specific strategic moves, especially ones that are purely strategic and not personally-motivated. Not that the winners don’t deserve their wins! This is just how I remember them, and I don’t think anything less of them because of that. (China and Gabon were also not set on beaches, and are both beautiful to watch in their own unique ways!)

Anyway, hit me up when you’ve watched – I’m dying for more people to talk with about Survivor!

(Maybe I will dust off my very old, never published love letter to my favorite player of all time…)

2020 Gratitude: Weekly Hot Pot

One of my favorite meals in the “before times” was all-you-can-eat hot pot. One of our favorite chains was Spring Shabu, which has two locations in two of my most-frequented locations – Boston and New York – and has one of my favorite formats – all you can eat noodles, vegetables, dipping sauces, etc. with an extra charge for meat, which I used very sparingly anyway. My mouth is watering just thinking about going back! I can smell the broth, feel the warmth of it on my face, and even hear my friends chattering around me while we shuffle back and forth with plates piled high with more food.

One of the very! low-level! worries I have about life post-quarantine is the future of self-serve restaurants and buffets. I sincerely enjoy(ed) them a lot and am worried that they won’t survive in a culture that is more aware of spreading germs.

In the meantime, during a trip to H-Mart earlier this year, we decided to impulse buy an at-home hot pot so that we could recreate some of those happy memories at home.

We have since turned hot pot into a weekly tradition, trekking to a local Asian grocery store to get the goodies (which, it turns out, is a great excuse to leave the house). After a few weeks, we have settled into a pretty set menu of our favorites – a plate of meat, soy puffs, lots and lots of vegetables, including bok choy and napa cabbage. I love some well-cooked taro in my bowl, while my boyfriend indulges in udon noodles with his.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, rituals and habits have been the saving grace of my quarantine, and weekly hot pot is just one of many that keep me on track. I look forward to going to the grocery store to pick out our meal every week, then sharing that time with my boyfriend to talk and catch up on any TV shows or movies that we want to watch together.

Unlike ordering take-out, I am hoping that our regular hot pot dinners continue well past quarantine times, and I look forward to having them… for the rest of my life, hopefully!

2020 Gratitude: A Car

*Our now-local grocery store (image from bostonmagazine.com)*

At the end of August, my boyfriend’s parents passed their old car to him. We had never had a car to ourselves up until this point, and therefore spent almost all of our quarantine within a 3-mile radius of our apartment. Thankfully, everything we needed was within that radius, including two grocery stores within a 5-minute walk, and a Target less than a mile away.

However, I didn’t realize how “trapped” I felt in my bubble until we were finally given the freedom to break free from it! I became excited about doing trivial things, like going to the “big” grocery store to buy a big bag of rice and not having to carry it home. Even a normal Costco run has become a fun excursion!

*My new favorite state park, Borderland – Knives Out was filmed here! (image from mass.gov)*

A lot of the other things I’ve written about so far wouldn’t be possible without the car, including going for long walks and hikes by myself .(For context, I cannot drive, but my boyfriend has been driving to different disc golf courses throughout the state. I’ve been using many of those drives as an opportunity to check out hiking trails!)

Finally, having a car has given us the opportunity to try new date ideas, like drive-in movies and going to a nearby sculpture park.

I had been feeling pretty cooped-up throughout the spring and summer, so the car came at the perfect time. Now, I can’t imagine how I made it through so many months without the freedom of being able to drive outside of my bubble!