#22- All Stars (8): The word of the day is UNCOMFORTABLE! I think it's fair to say that All Stars is one of the most polarizing seasons amongst the Survivor fan base. Some people love it for the fact that eighteen (well fourteen) of the biggest characters from the first seven seasons are fighting it out and for the fact that it's the season where Boston Rob undeniably becomes one of the bigger characters in the annals of Survivor history, and some people absolutely hate it.
I myself am incredibly split, of course the idea of the biggest characters from the original seven seasons of Survivor playing together sounds appealing, at the beginning it's like holy shit, I'm seeing COLBY DONALDSON AND RICHARD HATCH exchange playful jabs! or Im seeing RUPERT FUCKING BONEHAM AND RUDY FUCKING BOESCH FORM AN ALLIANCE! But all of this luster fades away pretty quickly once the harsh reality of an All Stars season settles in.
The bigger players, the winners, your favorites, will all be picked off early due to their huge targets and pretty soon you'll have your final three be made up of two alternates and your wild card pick.
Not only this, but due to the nature of pre-made alliances found in every single All Stars season, the seasons gets incredibly bitter. I don't mean bitter in a 'BOSTON ROB WAS ROBBED!' kind of way, but in a genuinely uncomfortable way, the final tribal council of this season is one of the worst and most uncomfortable moments in the history of Survivor.
But, to be fair, the beginning of the season almost lives up to its name, it's fun, epic and important until Richard is booted, even though the boots are all big names, we have interactions that you could have never even imagined before this season and people like Hatch (who totally proved his worth as a character and not just as the grandaddy of strategy in this season by the way), who clearly realized they were screwed and just decided to have fun, made it entertaining.
But even in these five episodes, you have the destruction of legacies, Rob Cesternino is blindsided in an embarrassing way that tarnishes his gameplay on his original season and Tina Wesson is voted off first which tarnishes her win and puts her more on the side of forgotten winners.
Still, overall the first five episodes are a lot of fun and if the season had been like that the whole way, it most likely would've been much higher up. After that however, things get ugly, and it starts off right away.
Sue Hawk's quit is the most uncomfortable moment in Survivor history (if you're keeping count that's two moments in this season that can be considered top 10 or even five in the most uncomfortable moments in Survivor history, hell even Rob C.'s face after being blindsided was and the way Jenna's tribe talked about her quit are up there ) sure it gave us the fun to use quote, but her yelling at Jeff on the beach is absolutely brutal, and accusing Richard of sexual harassment is the ugliest thing I have ever seen in Survivor, whether it was the truth or not.
After that, we get Lex blindsiding two of the most popular players ever, Ethan and Colby in a completely disheartening way (and later events of the season make it even more hatable, seeing as he essentially did the same thing to Ethan that Rob did to him) and a lot of Romber.
Which leads up to the next votes, I am actually going to admit that I find the Boston Rob/Lex saga fascinating, although it wasn't too fun to watch, it seemed like a real moment out of the Godfather series (You take her, I'll take care of you) and was absolutely one of the most cutthroat vote offs in the shows history. However, the affect it has on the season and the way it paints out the atmosphere the rest of it will have, lowers it's effect on me quite a bit.
After that it's just a straight pagonging with Boston Rob continuing to heartlessly slay his friends, and keep his girlfriend around and the jury to keep getting more and more bitter in an actual, outside of the game way.
The post-merge of the season is predictable with bitterness and pointless blindsides sprinkled throughout.
One might want to root for Boston Rob during this season because he comes off as a badass, but when you remember that he has talked to all of these people outside of the game and was real friends with them, before backstabbing them in a completely heartless manner, it makes it a much more harder argument, and even more uncomfortable, as you don't know who to root for.
The season becomes about pre-game alliances and friendships, and that theme and the inherently ugly atmosphere behind it tarnishes the season
So yeah, a fun and interesting season at some points and at others, a bitter, disheartening, disappointing, uncomfortable mess.
~highlight~ Richard Hatch, the first five episodes, and maybe taken at face value, the Lex boot.
Cast Ranking
18th: Susan Hawk (Just to see how bad the season is and how much it ruins legendary players, she would be up there in my overall favorites based on Borneo alone)
17th: Kathy Vavrick O'Brien (Same as Sue)
16th: Jenna Lewis
15th: Rupert Boneham (Same as Sue)
14th: Lex van den Berghe
13th: Tom Buchanan
12th: Rob Cesternino :(
11th: Alicia Calaway
10th: Tina Wesson :(
9th: Amber Brkich
8th: Rudy Boesch :(
7th: Colby Donaldson :(
6th: Jenna Morasca :( (maybe should've been lower)
5th: Rob Mariano
4th: Jerri Manthey
3rd: Shii Ann Huang
2nd: Ethan Zohn (he was really awesome and sarcastic this season, Zohn 2.0)
1st: Richard Hatch (of course)
Yerg I'm glad to see that another of these is up, I thought that you'd stopped doing it since you put up the previous one so long ago. I liked All-Stars, but I thought it sucked that bad players (Rupert, Jenna, Big Tom, Alicia, Amber) all got deep into the game and players like Hatch, Cesternino, Colby and Lex left too soon.
Yerg I love Kathy! The whole Sue thing was awesome. I think if Hatch would have kept his clothes on All-stars wouldn't have been so uncomfortable. Also I LOVED the go fish type challenge when they interacted with each other. HILARIOUS!
I like All Stars, but your right, the first five episodes where amazing. I liked the challenges that went back to previous season knowledges like the trivia and the word search.
Wasn't Brob an alternate for Heidik. yerg its also funny the Romber alliance, they actually hated each other before all stars.
