#23- Cook Islands (13): Now we're out of the seasons I absolutely find abhorrent and painful, we're into the seasons that while I actively dislike, are either not inspiring in any single way at all, or have some parts of them that are just as bad as the previous three seasons.
Cook Islands is the former.
There are seasons that suck because of twists, editing, predictability etc., but the only season that I truly believe is singlehandedly bad because of the cast is Cook Islands. First of all it's the only season where I can't name every single cast member, in fact, I can only get 11/20, and out of those 11, 2 are painfully boring (Becky and Sundra) and are only memorable because they make it far and lol at that fire tie breaker, two are MOR to the max and don't inspire any feelings in me at all (Ozzy and Yul) and are only memorable because of their fan bases and the fact they got far. Another, (Parvati) is only memorable because of her future seasons, three of those (Sekou, Billy and Cao Boi) all leave pre-merge, and in fact Sekou and Billy are the first two boots of the season, and two (Candice and Nate) I don't even like or find particularly interesting.
That only leaves on person, who is Jonathan Penner, and Penner love forever, but I do admit that most of my love for him is compared to how painfully boring the rest of the cast is.
This season however has a fairly big fan base among the casuals and some others (which I do get, but will not defend), because of (I suppose) the Aitu 4 comeback. But let's be honest the Raros might be cliquey and unlikable but the Aitu 4 aren't much better, Becky and Sundra are plain and boring and Ozzy and Yul are both monotone and not exciting at all. For an underdog story to be good, the underdogs have to be likable and easy to root for, not completely uninspiring.
I barely remember this season, and I'm pretty sure it's not because I need a rewatch, because while I need to rewatch South Pacific and Guatemala, I still remember what went down, but this season to me, is just like the wikipedia page.
On another note, I actually like Yul's game, but I have to agree that the super powered idol and stuff like the bottle twist and random final three makes it hard to analyze it correctly.
This season is too uninspiring, so I'm just going to stop writing.
I do expect a few people to say this is too low, but maybe not.
~highlight~ Penner in general, and of course the final four tie breaker, because lol.
Cast Ranking (Today's theme is borewhores!)
20th: JP Calderon (Borewhore #1!)
19th: Nate Gonzalez (borewhore #2!)
18th-9th: Cecelia Mansilla, Stephannie Favor, Cristina Coria, Jessica Smith, Brad, Rebecca, Jenny, Sundra, Becky (9 WAY TIE!!!!!!!!! Borewhores #3-11)
9th: Adam Gentry (Borewhore #12)
8th: Candice Woodcock (You get the idea)
7th: Ozzy Lusth
6th: Sekou Bunch
5th: Yul Kwon
4th: Parvati Shallow
3rd: Billy Garcia
2nd: Anh-Tuan "Cao Boi" Bui
1st: Jonathan Penner
