Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here at Pop Culture Happy Hour, we watch a lot of movies, so we have some opinions about movie theaters. I'm Linda Holmes. On the latest Pop Culture Happy Hour bonus episode, Aisha Harris and I talk about our favorite local cinemas and what makes them great. You can listen to all our Plus bonus episodes by signing up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org slash happyhour.
When Survivor premiered in 2000, it was an instant sensation that helped usher in a new era of reality television. Now it's an institution that's airing its 50th season.
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.
You sure are. I'm Linda Holmes. It's just the two of us today here at NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Now, Stephen Thompson, before we get to your ranking, for those who have remained unaware of Survivor's core concept, it's a reality competition in which a bunch of people are marooned in a theoretically exotic location where they vote each other out one by one until a single winner remains.
But the game has evolved substantially from From its roots as a survival competition, now it involves complex social strategy, ever-shifting alliances, and so many twists, gimmicks, immunity idols, advantages. This is sort of what has alienated me from this show, which I'm sure we will talk about. Survivor is currently airing an all-star season. It's called Survivor 50 In the Hands of the Fans.
Okay.
That's the last thing we need. It's the last thing we need. Stephen, you used this round number milestone as an excuse. And I want to stress, I didn't make you do this. Nobody made you do this. This was voluntary, I promise. This was voluntary. You used this milestone as an excuse to write a full exhaustive ranking of all 50 seasons that will go up on NPR.org later this month.
But we thought it would be fun to talk about the five best seasons as you ranked them.
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Chapter 2: What historical impact did Survivor have on reality television?
They are all available right now via Paramount+. Let's kick it off with the season that you have at number five.
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.
Chapter 3: What are the criteria for ranking the best Survivor seasons?
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.
It's very interesting that this is the first one we're talking about because I cannot stand this season. Wow. I thought this season was so not my speed for this show. Interesting. You know that I do not like Rupert. You know that I find Rupert's entire shtick exhausting. I find Johnny Fairplay's shtick exhausting.
To me, this is the season where the show begins to circle the, we're going to make it all about self-defined bad guys and self-defined heroes. And... That, to me, has always been deeply and profoundly boring. And I will say the episode that you are praising, the opening episode, where Rupert, I think it is, decides to steal everyone's shoes. Like, what? Why? Why? It's like a pirate-themed season.
And he takes being a pirate like very seriously in this kind of self-important, I'm a pirate now. I can't stand this season. Wow. Can't stand it. Well, listen, I may not agree with you, but maybe I'll agree with you on something later in the list. Let's go to your number four season of Survivor. What is your number four?
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.
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Chapter 4: Which Survivor season is ranked fifth and why?
And so you have a bunch of people who are playing a hard game.
strategic kind of sophisticated game they're assessing all the game theory stuff and the alliances are shifting constantly but it's easy to follow it's good natured you don't have the kind of viciousness that i think undercuts the enjoyment of a lot of the earlier seasons it is one of my favorite kind of new era new school seasons of survivor
You know, I will tell you the truth. I know I've seen this season. And yet I don't know a thing about it. I don't remember any of these people. I mean, that's not true. I remember a couple of them. But I do not remember very much about this season. This is one that I have to admit sort of rolled right off me.
It's possible that that's because of how goofy I found the conceit of it, the millennials versus Gen X thing. I find generational warfare completely boring. Yes. So I don't remember a gosh darn thing about this season. So I can't take issue with anything that you've said.
So we're on a roll that is very interesting in the sense that we have one that I don't like at all, one that I really love, and one that I don't really remember. So we're kind of covering the full range of Survivor seasons here. Let's move on to your number two. What is your number two pick?
So my number two pick is season 31. It is Survivor Cambodia Second Chance.
It is an all-star season, as the title suggests, but it is, I think, one of the best ways to do an all-star season, which is to specifically bring back players who have not won and who have not played three, four, five times the way some of these all-star seasons kind of keep bringing the same players back over and over and over again.
I think often with all-star players, all-star players are typically kind of their most interesting, their most hungry, and their most sophisticated as players in their second go-round. And I think this season really demonstrates that. I think also the structure of how they brought people back really proved beneficial in terms of who wound up on this cast.
They picked 32 former players who had never won the game. threw it open to a fan poll. And I know we were joking about how in the hands of the fans is always a bad idea. But they had a fan poll where they whittled 32 people down to 20.
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Chapter 5: What makes Survivor Cook Islands a controversial yet great season?
Oh, the first half of that show is impossible to watch.
I hear you, bud. But there is some very good material in that. See? Comeuppance. Comeuppance is fun. Also... Great winner. Great winner. Also, some hilarious... I mean, speaking of face planting, there's a classic face plant by a person I did not like. She was fine. And so that is one that almost nobody likes. And there is some stuff late in that season that I don't like.
There's some weird... There's some stuff with dreams in the truck. There's some stuff with dreams in the truck and all that that I really don't like. I'm uncomfortable with how that all gets talked about from a couple of different angles. But... I am a defender of that season as containing a lot of good elements that I enjoy and having a winner that I very much enjoyed.
I'm a defender of that season, even though I'm well aware of many problems with it.
The bullying in the first half of that season is like unwatchable. If you're going to try that season, start at the merge.
Yeah, I think that's perfectly fair. And I suspect, you know, one thing that happens is when you do what you did and you go back and you insist upon rewatching the entire thing in every case, which I'm not trying to harp on it, buddy, but my goodness, what a thing to decide to do with your precious life. I think you did an amazing job with this list despite picking some of your choices apart.
You are definitely picking seasons here that I think you have made a very good case for. And I – despite the fact that I find this entire endeavor somewhat – Quixotic on your part? Holmesy, it's my favorite sport. Somewhat Sisyphean?
Survivor is my favorite sport. I don't know if that's true, man. Why not wallow in your favorite sport? And it's just interesting. It's interesting to watch the way the show has evolved, the way society has evolved around the show, the way the show has and hasn't reflected that society. I find it super, super interesting.
Well, I'm glad. It sounds like you put in the work. Definitely put in the work. I cannot wait to read the entire thing.
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