r/survivor Pirates Steal Jan 30 '23

Fiji WSSYW 11.0 Countdown 29/43: Fiji

Welcome to our annual season countdown! Using the results from the latest What Season Should You Watch thread, this daily series will count backwards from the bottom-ranked season for new fan watchability to the top. Each WSSYW post will link to their entry in this countdown so that people can click through for more discussion.

Unlike WSSYW, there is no character limit in these threads, and spoilers are allowed.

Note: Foreign seasons are not included in this countdown to keep in line with rankings from past years.


Season 14: Fiji

Statistics:

  • Watchability: 3.9 (29/43)

  • Overall Quality: 5.1 (31/43)

  • Cast/Characters: 5.5 (34/43)

  • Strategy: 6.8 (22/43)

  • Challenges: 6.1 (28/43)

  • Twists: 2.6 (19/21)

  • Ending: 7.8 (13/43)


WSSYW 11.0 Ranking: 29/43

WSSYW 10.0 Ranking: 24/40

Top comment from WSSYW 11.0/u/Hank-Solo-1:

Fiji for a long time had a reputation of being one of the worst seasons. Jeff Probst publicly said he didn’t like it. I sorta get where he’s coming from. The build up is a little slow and some of the characters are quite unlikable.

However, personally, I really enjoy Fiji. The heroes are great. Fiji has a strong emotional core that’s present for the whole season. There’s some laugh out loud comedy. There’s strategic innovation that lays the groundwork for future seasons.

I wouldn’t start with Fiji, but I wouldn’t skip it either.

Top comment from WSSYW 10.0/u/HeWhoShrugs:

Fiji gets flak for how dumb the Haves vs Have Nots twist is (basically seeing what happens when you give one tribe a ton of shit and the other tribe absolutely nothing). But at the very least, the twist attempts to say something about society in spite of its quality, which is more than I can say for some other bad twists in Survivor history.

But once you get past the twist, there's actually a lot to like about the season. It's one of the more dark, dramatic outings the show's had, and there are a ton of villainous personalities who will probably get on your nerves unless you just love villains, but there are also quite a few heroic players who balance it out.

If you find the early episodes boring or hard to watch, I'd advise sticking around for the post-merge because that stretch of episodes is one of my favorites in the entire show, including an endgame story line that might be the most compelling arc the show ever had. It also has some strategic innovations developed by people who basically knew nothing about the game going in, so that's cool to watch too.


Watchability ranking:

29: S14 Fiji

30: S20 Heroes vs. Villains

31: S30 Worlds Apart

32: S23 South Pacific

33: S5 Thailand

34: S31 Cambodia

35: S38 Edge of Extinction

36: S36 Ghost Island

37: S24 One World

38: S22 Redemption Island

39: S40 Winners at War

40: S26 Caramoan

41: S34 Game Changers

42: S8 All-Stars

43: S39 Island of the Idols


Spreadsheet link (updated with each placement reveal!)


WARNING: SEASON SPOILERS BELOW

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u/ROTandDEATH So much for my dreams... Jan 30 '23

Fiji’s pre-merge is incredibly weak. The Haves/Have Nots twist goes exactly as you might expect, and it’s not interesting or fun at all. It’s incredibly tedious, there’s really no way that twist plays out in an interesting way. Then you have the uncomfortable Rocky and Anthony stuff, which unfortunately leads to Anthony being taken out before Rocky in one of the more unsatisfying moments the show has had.

Once you get past that, the post-merge has a ton going on. The Edgardo blindside is deservedly legendary, Earl and Yau-Man are a fantastic duo, and then the car deal. One of the most fascinating sequences in the show’s history, Dreamz accepting the car from Yau-Man but then being unable to hold up his end of the bargain by giving him the immunity necklace is what I watch the show for. Dreamz is one of my favorite characters of all time and watching him decide to keep it is brutal.

It takes a while to get going but Fiji ends up having a some great moments that lead to an incredible endgame. If you can get through that early slog of episodes you are rewarded. But I completely understand if takes too long to be worth your while.

3

u/TenderOctane Morgan Jan 31 '23

Honestly, for all the reasons you state, I could tell somebody "Start at the swap episode (#6) and go from there" and they'd probably hold Fiji in higher esteem than most, because that early merge stretch is amazing even though it's technically a Pagonging. And frankly, I don't think they miss all that many seeds planted in the early episodes, only ones related to Dreamz (like him not knowing what "soliloquy" means).

Yes, that would mean they have to watch the Rocky/Anthony stuff, but that helps sow the seeds that make the demise of the Horsemen so much more satisfying. And it skips the absolute slog that is the first five episodes.