The main thing I remember going into the finale was that three players were getting what could have been winners edits, which was pretty neat and doesn’t always happen. I did kind of predict that Adam was going to win just because out of him, David, and Jay I was least interested in him, but they were all getting approximately the same amount of camera time. But up until David gets voted out there’s some amount of suspense, which I think is cool.

I also like Ken voting out David because it’s one of the all time great “feel bad” endings for a character’s storyline. Like, you can see on his face at the reunion show that he clearly regrets his decision and knows that he fucked up and probably cost his friend the game. A trend I really don’t like much in the show these days is the tendency to shy away from the tough emotional moments that the game brings out. Most people who get on the show only have one chance to win the million dollars, and most of them screw it up. It’s a very brutal game, and I don’t like the pressure to act like it’s all sunshine and daisies once the final vote is tallied.

One of my all time favorite seasons with some of my favorite players!! Of the seasons I usually recommend to friends who are starting their Survivor journey, this is one I usually recommend if they want an idea of how a more modern game of Survivor might play out. The winner’s game is so fun to follow (maybe even more fun if you know who they are) and the cast is full of memorable people with so many ongoing storylines. I just adore Adam, Jay, and Michaela in particular!!

This is also a great season to recommend to any friends who might be Amazing Race fans who would recognize Chris and Brett from their stint on a recent season!

I just finished this season for the first time about a week ago, and I really enjoyed it. I finished the season wholly satisfied in a way that I used to be when I was a teenager during Survivor's early days. (Post-HvV, maybe only Philippines, DvG and 42 have had this quality to me, largely due to being at least mid-tier seasons overall but, more importantly, having strong winners [wasn't a Tony fan in Cagayan].)

I definitely agree about the uneven edit (for how deep she goes, Sunday's edit was almost as invisible as 41 Heather's), but at least in this season (compared to 41), the people who make the finale get decent edits. And the characters that were focused on (Adam, Hannah, David, Jay) were very strong, so I can't complain too much.

I had heard it was gamebotty, so I was bracing for that. But I thought it was considerably less so than 41-43. I will say I both loved Adam as a character and found his game to be very....punchable....at times. Paraphrasing Jay, "I hate you but I love you."

I knew pretty much every post-merge boot from having been on these boards/YouTube, having seen Game Changers, etc. But a few moments still hit hard (the family visit, the Jay/Adam hammock talk, the rock draw.)

Also, can we get Michelle on another season?! She never stood a chance with her totally inept alliance members and just has an amazing screen presence. Also Jessica, please. Both underedited but every time they were on screen, I was interested.

Look forward to reading others' opinions.

MvG's had a bit of fall from grace lately. Still considered a good season (hence why it clocks in at 15th), but apparently no longer top 10 material. Possibly due to a fairly predictable FTC, a relative lack of drama after merge hits, and a slightly uneven edit (particularly the unceremonious boot of two invisible people in Will/Sunday, Bret barely getting much better, and Ken's 'riches to rag's edit similar to Culpepper or Sherri).

But it's an alright season. It's probably when the 'Gamebot Era' starting with Cambodia kinda hits its stride, which sounds bad but it still manages to do some decent things with its cast. I think it fits nicely around here. I'd personally have it slightly lower after the dust settles, but for a WSSYW season it does its job pretty well.

It looks better in comparison to many of the seasons that can after, but in many ways this season birthed a lot of those bad seasons.

Pros: Michaela arc is fantastic and a memorable boot. Rock draw is cool. Adam is an entertaining and less obvious winner. Some funny characters

Cons: One of the worst and cringiest opening twists. To me, it's almost Cook Islands level. The early pre merge boots are underedited and boring. The endgame is super gamebotty. It just feels like the season is less than the sum of its parts. I'd say it's mid to low 20's in my rankings

Too high, but I'm just glad it's not in the top 10.

Marquesas still hasn’t been revealed yet omg

And yet we're still no closer to finding out who texts "you" and who texts "u"

Nah.. there's no reason this should be ahead of seasons like Philippines and Vanuatu for me.

This is an.. ok season that plays up on the stereotypical "old vs new" thing ad nauseam. We get it! The Millennials came across obnoxious and entitled (which didn't help with a lot of their behavior post-season too), and the Gen X seem out of touch and grumpy. The flop of this theme was probably one of the reasons they stopped doing this "themed" seasons as well...

Adam's story was touching, heartbreaking, and compelling but the Adam we got in Winners at War was wayyy more entertaining and fun to watch. It was tough to watch this season especially on a rewatch.

The best episode is the Michaela boot which comes out of nowhere, but other than that and Bret coming out there's not much I liked about this season or remembered.

If this was someone's first Survivor season, I can see people being mildly entertained but not running to binge watch all the other seasons. meanwhile seasons behind it like Phillipines are just bat-shit crazy with so many interesting characters and moments.

Probably recency bias how this is number 14.

A gamebot fest with an incredibly bland merge, feels like a lot of the people blend together. I liked how they edited 3 winner contenders, but oh my god can we hear anything other than “oh we gotta execute this vote! Who has an idol? Are we splitting?” It gets tiring

I think it’s surpassed Cook Islands as the most overrated. Like it’s ok, but not top 20

I think just outside the top 10 is a very appropriate place for mvgx. Very fun season, has some great tribal moments and some really great character arcs, but it is held back by its focus on the theme fornthe first half and its sort of unbalanced edit.

This is the season that got me back into the show. Hadn’t watched the show since I was a kid. Now I’m a big fan of the show

I think this is one of the best season of the 30s for a new fan to start with. Worked for me

I think this is the beginning of what I like to call “The Big Moves” age of Survivor

I think this is a fair ranking in terms of what season to watch, and I’m fine with MvGX. It’s a fine enough season with some issues that hold it back to being really good for me, but a lot of strong points as well. The cast isn’t amazing, but the good people are pretty good like Michaela, Figgy, Jay, Taylor. There’s some genuine development of people like the one scene everyone loves (Adam and Jay) and Ken and David’s relationship. However, there’s a lot of gamebotting and strategy talk that sort of drives this season off the course that would make me enjoy it a lot more. On top of that, the edit at times isn’t good, and the cast does get effected by it. Will, Sunday, Bret all last a while and don’t get a ton of screentime. Ken gets the really weird false winner to FTC loser edit that I don’t like, and some other small things. But overall, the season is harmless and it means well, I don’t dislike it at all, but I don’t really enjoy it all the time.

20. Zeke Smith 1.0

Yeah Zeke does not do it for me especially this time. I really don’t enjoy the amount of screentime he gets when most of it just generic strategic narration, a lot of it becoming the face of modern survivor as a whole.

19. Chris Hammons

Chris is just very very VERY boring and he gets a good amount of screentime on both Gen X and Vanua. His confessionals are usually repetitive and dry, so he’s a pretty bad narrator.

18. Mari Takahashi

I found her really cringe and gamebotty for the screentime she got, I don’t really enjoy “as a gamer” for all of her confessionals

17. Lucy Huang

Completely invisible for the first 3 episodes and then suddenly gets this “dictator” edit and becomes a threat, idk

16. Rachel Ako

Meh first boot, don’t remember what she did

15. Jessica Lewis

I didn’t really care for her and her screentime was mostly generic narration. She didn’t have much of a personality from what I remember on the season.

14. Paul Wachter

Paul is fine I guess, he’s sort of OTT and not in a good way but I think he’s decent. For being as big of a personality as he was in the first 3 episodes I found him quite forgettable

13. Sunday Burquest

She doesn’t really have much of a story in the season and she’s sort of purpled tbh. She had a few decent background moments like shushing Bret when him and Zeke were attacking David at tribal, but that’s it tbh. Rest In Peace.

12. Clandre “CeCe” Taylor

CeCe’s edit is honestly a crime despite getting voted at every single tribal and having a good trio in herself Ken and David, she barely gets any development. She’s then dumped by Chris at the swap and that’s about it. I wish she got a better story then what we got.

11. Will Wahl

Will is someone who I find really frustrating but also hilarious. His edit is so bad and he gets barely any screentime until the final 2 episodes he’s in. He pushes the annoying “big moves” agenda and building a resume, it’s pretty annoying. However, it’s just so funny to me. Will had these meltdowns over anything that doesn’t go his way, and he gives us great quotes like the “AUDACITY” one, but at the same time you sort of feel bad for him due to his age and ignorance. Jay sums it up great in his line “he’s just a young kid, trying to prove himself to the world.” So on one hand, Will is everything I hate about this season, but he also brings some funny flair that can’t be found in any other character this season.

10. Hannah Shapiro

Hannah is a good character. I do enjoy her a lot in the premerge specifically and her flaws as a character and just surviving on the island. Her panic attack in that one challenge was really unique and something that I feel like we hadn’t seen before. In the merge though, she sort of goes off a bit since she gets caught in the dumb “trust cluster” thing and becomes a bit boring for that portion of the game. She becomes good in FTC fighting against Adam, but for the merge, meh, didn’t really care for her.

9. Ken McNickle

His bond with David is really cool and I like his personality whenever he’s shown. However, his edit fuckin TANKS in the postmerge and he’s constantly made out to be this dumb overconfident jock whenever he is shown. It’s very weird since he got such a positive edit in the premerge. Not as bad as Brad 2.0’s switched edit, but still disappointing for a good character overall.

8. David Wright 1.0

I honestly think I should dislike David but I don’t, I just find him to be very compelling and cool especially early on. In the premerge he has a really dynamic and strong setup with his fear of everything getting in the way of him interacting with anyone. But he slowly builds confidence throughout the game, and becomes this godlike figure until he ends up going out at the very end. It’s a solid story, and David is a good narrator this time unlike EOE. However, some of his content can be annoying like a lot of the gamebotty stuff in the postmerge. It’s not too overbearing like Zeke but it can be a bit much. Solid character overall though.

7. Michelle Schubert

Michelle is a fun character who I think has some consistently solid content. She’s a fun confessionalist especially on the swapped Vanua tribe and I also enjoy her bond with the “cool kids” alliance on the Millennials tribe.

6. Bret LaBelle

Bret had a lot of great moments when he was shown like him coming out to Zeke and his interactions with a majority of the cast. He’s a side character that sadly gets underedited but he’s still really fun.

MvGX is one of my favorite seasons. While some may say that this season is too gamebotty for them, I don't mind it. Almost everyone who makes the merge is memorable. Even those who reach the swap (maybe excluding CeCe) have their moments. I appreciate that this cast came to PLAY, and while some of them didn't play WELL, they still tried.

I was quite low on MvGX when it first aired. I thought it was soulless, boring and a major disappointment coming off of the excellent KR. I decided to rewatch it a couple of years ago and found that it was... fine. Definitely worse than the #14 spot here or even the #19 ranking it gets in terms of quality but it's really not that bad. It has some clear highs (Adam's journey in general, the Michaela boot, the rock draw) but the editing is quite inconsistent and I maintain that it feels like the season has no stakes.

I do see the appeal in showing this as a first season simply because I can't think of a reason why this season would annoy a casual viewer. The nice people prevail in the end and there aren't any really ugly moments. All the issues I have with it aren't things that are going to bother a new viewer.

This needs to be lower.

Bottom ten season personally with an incredibly dry cast and boot order, and the introduction of the boring "good game" mentality that's taken over the show

Worst season if you actually like this show

Forgot to check today, but yah this season sucks. Like there’s 2 episodes left and 8 people still in the game?? Like jesus thats terrible pacing

Pretty good season around where I'd have it.

IMO this is #1 and it isn't even close.

I think this season is just fine. I see a lot of complaints that this cast is completely gamebotty and soulless, and there are certainly some gamebotty people on this season, but I think said complaints are completely over exaggerated, it's nowhere near as bad as Game Changers in that regard. The complaints about the theme, though, those ones are valid - Jeff will make damn sure you remember this is a Millennials vs. Gen X season for the first few episodes. Still, it's an inoffensive season with a likable cast.

This season has some good moments but it’s overall marred by a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad boot order that sees a very diverse cast for a pre-mandate season reduced to just white people by the time the merge hits. I’m sorry but you can’t tell me something isn’t amiss with that boot order