Through my rewatch (and for some seasons re-rewatch) of seasons, I started ranking seasons based on keeping points of how much I hated (-3) or loved (+3) episodes and the cast of each episode, Thailand was the first season I decided to rewatch, wanting to get it out of the way early. After each season, I ranked the cast from hated to loved.
16th - Brian (Hated) Now I get that people like him as a villain in the 'he's a literal psychopath' kinda way, but he is just too disgusting as a person for me to enjoy him in the slightest. From the continuous sexist comments, to how he/Helen handled the Ghandia situation, and his just overall arrogance despite hardly winning the season against the biggest goat to that point in survivor, I just hated Brian the entire way through.
15th - Clay (Hated) Basically the same that I said for Brian goes for Clay, added in with Clay's admitting to whooping his kid (I think he said it for a joke, but it still seemed as though he really did it.) He did have some good one-liners but when you really hate someone, it's hard to find the humor in what they are saying.
14th - Ted (Really Dislike) Grindgate really ruined the season for me. The men all looked horrible, even Helen had a bad look, and these are the people who would then run the game. I think Ted handled grindgate badly, but honestly not as horribly as Helen/Brian by spreading rumors of a serious action. I believe Ted was honestly shocked by what was being said, and although I was against him dismissing Ghandia's claims, at least I could understand it. Plus I did like drunk Ted.
13th - Stephanie (Dislike) She was useless, and not even in the villain fun way, she just didn't add anything and complained a lot.
12th - Jed (Dislike) Basically the same as Steph, just had to deal with him 2 less episodes.
11th - John (Neutral) Now if I factored in post-game, he would be in the running for the lowest but he didn't really do anything bad in the game. I did like the lulzy making people swim then being like 'lolz we don't know where the water is!!!' Despite that, he was just a standard first boot.
10th - Erin (Neutral) Made it really far yet was a non-factor, she had some good moments when her tribe started getting destroyed post-fake-merge though. However, she was part of isolating Shii-Ann which wasn't a great look.
9th - Penny (Neutral) I guess in another season I would appreciate her as a villain, but this season had too many already. She just tried to throw Jake under the bus despite him being her only ally, and didn't really get that much development.
8th - Tanya (Neutral) Felt bad for her, but was just there and sick.
7th - Ken (Liked) Boring but was part of the less-awful tribe and at least was part of the excellent Robb moment and was the one person who didn't seem to isolate Shii-Ann other than Jake.
6th - Ghandia (Really Liked) Ghandia, Ghandia, Ghandia, grindgate was uncomfy af, but it's not her fault ofc. She had every right to feel violated as a rape victim in the past, unfortunately the tribe handled it horribly and it really just ruined the entire season for me. She was fun regardless, and I felt bad for her throughout.
5th - Jake (Really Liked) The strategic underdog of the season, Jake actually had some fun moments, and was probably the nicest person out there. He was boring, but I'd much rather see him than a good portion of the cast I despised.
4th - Jan (Really Liked) Jan was a fun character, but I was surprised how little airtime she got. Probably a good thing because she was the only one not involved in grindgate in her tribe, but she had some great moments nonetheless.
3rd - Robb (Loved) Robb was the most entertaining character the first 4 episodes, and his conflict with Shii-Ann, although ugly at times, didn't look as bad thanks to grindgate. I really didn't like him when he hated on Shii-Ann and was sexist at times, but then his final episode was probably the best episode of Thailand. His development was the highlight of the season, and really made him one of the few complete characters of the season.
2nd - Shii-Ann (Loved) It really sucks that the first Asian was completely outcasted, but her story was the best underdog story of the season. She got screwed by the fake merge (although she was probably done for had it not happened either way) and she was unapologetically herself. One of the few unproblematic characters, while still being entertaining, it makes a lot more sense to me why they brought her back for All-Stars with a ton of stupid, stupid players.
1st - Helen (Loved) To get it out of the way, she was one of the main issues with grindgate. She said she was familiar with rape victims, yet resided to playing telephone with Brian about the whole mess. She contributed, in my eyes, the most to why it was so miscommunicated and turned into such an ordeal. That being said, I don't think that reflects on her as a person, and she ended up taking Ghandia's side. Plus, she had the most one-liners of the season. It was hard to tell if she was joking at times or unintentionally funny, but she was a great confessional giver nonetheless.
Overall wasn't a fan of Thailand, it even ended up with a negative score in my scoring system.
Ranked rewatched seasons
1.) MvGX ( 2.71 avg score per ep, 37.97 total score)
2.) Thailand (-.44 avg score per ep, -5.74 total score)
Comments
im glad Robb gets some appreciation, he's a funnier character than I think most people remember.
Dude fucking brought a skateboard to an island