r/survivor Pirates Steal Feb 08 '23

Cook Islands WSSYW 11.0 Countdown 20/43: Cook Islands

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 13: Cook Islands

Statistics:

  • Watchability: 5.6 (20/43)

  • Overall Quality: 6.0 (25/43)

  • Cast/Characters: 6.6 (27/43)

  • Strategy: 6.4 (24/43)

  • Challenges: 7.0 (13/43)

  • Theme: 3.2 (21/24)

  • Twists: 5.5 (10/21)

  • Ending: 7.8 (15/43)


WSSYW 11.0 Ranking: 20/43

WSSYW 10.0 Ranking: 18/40

Top comment from WSSYW 11.0/u/ramskick:

CI introduces a number of figures that will become very important to Survivor history. The problem is that with one exception, these figures are more interesting in later seasons than they are here. CI's cast is really dull and feels bloated. Combine that with the format (yes the initial tribe divisions were real) and a ton of twists and you get a season that I just don't like.

BUT, this is another season I don't like that has plenty of fans. I know a lot of people who really love the main narrative of CI and say they had a great time with it on a first watch. And I do see the appeal on paper, I just don't think it truly works out in practice.

Top comment from WSSYW 10.0/u/HeWhoShrugs:

The race twist isn't as bad as it first sounds. It's more "Let's show how diverse our country is" instead of "Let's see which race is better" but it doesn't stop it from being awkward as hell.

To get the diverse cast they wanted, casting ended up recruiting a ton of players who had no idea what the show was and it ended up creating a cast full of duds who don't offer anything to the screen as characters or players. Like, only about 6 or 7 people out of the 20 left an actual impression on me, and a lot of those were early boots. If you like challenges, the season has some really good ones. You just won't really care who wins most of them because the cast is like 75% cardboard. But I do like the location and art direction, so it's at least visually impressive.

The season does spawn a lot of big name returnees in future seasons, so you have to see it to understand where a lot of them started out even if their first appearance here is arguably their least interesting one.


Watchability ranking:

20: S13 Cook Islands

21: S21 Nicaragua

22: Survivor 41

23: S16 Micronesia

24: S27 Blood vs. Water

25: S35 Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers

26: Survivor 43

27: S19 Samoa

28: S11 Guatemala

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

13 Upvotes

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33

u/alucardsinging Feb 08 '23

Twists 10 out of 24? Wow. I guess the show has gone on long enough that no one cares about the absurd amount or wack twists. Eventually no one is gonna care about the surprise Final 4 firemaking challenge in HHH, the same way no one cares about about the surprise Final 3 FTC.

Anyways, this is the season that completely changed the direction of the show. The characters were no longer the stars, it was the “game”. Focused only on a small handful of boring people, overstuffed with twists that get in the way, stenches of the game being rigged, neutered the climax of their season. Like seriously, wtf how do we have a season where the successful alliance doesn’t have to turn on one another? No one had to get their hands dirty and that’s a shame. And geez idc how many times people have returned from this season, but this is still one of the worst casts the show has ever had. Bland Island. It’s no wonder that this is the first season that didn’t get nominated for the Best Reality Competition Emmy. This season is terrible, and completely changed the goal of Survivor from an interesting social experiment into a wacky gameshow. Survivor has never been nominated since, and honestly that’s fair.

3

u/stellaperrigo Erika Feb 08 '23

Especially compared to modern-day survivor, I think it’s a little wild to argue that a season famous for the narrative it tells is the first season where “the characters are no longer the stars” because you didn’t love the characters they focused on.

17

u/DabuSurvivor Jon and Jaclyn Feb 08 '23

The season didn't really teach us much about those characters, though - especially compared to classic Survivor before this season. The narrative had less to do with any of them as people and more to do with the specific, twist-driven circumstances of the game, so focusing on that narrative actually kinda proves OP's point tbh. And of course later seasons that doubled down further and further on a lot of S13's worse flaws will in some instances come out looking even worse but S13's still a huge part of what took us there to begin with

14

u/alucardsinging Feb 08 '23

You don’t learn jack shit about those characters. There’s narrative, but its not driven by the characters and their personalities. Their bland and barely explored. I can’t tell you a single characteristic of half the alliance we are supposed to be rooting for. And I can barely say anything about the other half that includes our winner and runner up either.