Stephen Thompson

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So we thought this was a good time to look back on the show's five greatest seasons as chosen by some weird nerd.

It's me.

I'm that weird nerd.

Well, I didn't intend the ranking to work this way, but it has worked this way.

That in fifth place is a season where I think if you were Survivor curious, but maybe you haven't watched Survivor since that first season, maybe the first couple of seasons,

The first episode of this season, I think, is a perfect place to start.

In fifth place, I picked Survivor Pearl Islands, which is the seventh season of the show.

It is, I think, the best of the kind of early iterations of Survivor, kind of old school Survivor.

You get several iconic scenes.

Yeah, absolutely.

You have a kind of all-time survivor villain in this guy who calls himself Johnny Fairplay and envisions himself as kind of a pro-wrestling style heel.

Some very notorious gameplay.

One of the first major season-altering twists happens in this season, so it's kind of setting the table for a lot of Survivor to come.

And it really does kick off with, I think, one of the best individual episodes of Survivor ever.

The stage setting that goes on in this season, I think, is really excellent.