Stephen Thompson

Well, I think this one is one of the most polarizing seasons because of its very unfortunate core concept.

But I think it is an all-time great season.

It is Survivor Cook Islands, which is the 13th season of the show.

This is famously known as the season of Survivor in which tribes were divided by race.

Now...

The notion of a season of Survivor where the core concept is essentially Survivor race wars does not seem like it would lend itself to particularly enjoyable television.

But the effect of it, first of all, they shuffle the tribes after two episodes.

So they kind of abandon that concept right away.

And they're not necessarily like wrestling over the course of the season with which race is best at Survivor.

The effect of it is you have one of the most diverse casts in the history of survivor and because survivor producers don't want viewers at home to be like, Ooh, I hate that Asian tribe.

They don't stack the cast with unlikable people.

So you have, it's not that everybody on the season is super likable as I'm sure you would agree with me there, but you just have a lot of people who are fun, who are interesting.

whose stories haven't been told on Survivor before, and this season happens to launch the kind of career Survivor arcs of some all-time famous, in some cases great, Survivor players.

It's your introduction to Parvati Shallow.

It is your introduction to Ozzy, who is in Survivor 50.

It is the introduction of Jonathan Penner, who, Linda, you and I, I think, agree that he is one of the all-time most enjoyable Survivor players ever.

There are like weird boots kind of throughout this season.

This has one of the most memorable second boots in the history of Survivor.

And so it's not that every single player on this season is super memorable, but there are a bunch scattered throughout.

And it also introduces Yul Kwon, who is another one of my favorite Survivor players.