Survivor: Season 28

Survivor: Season 28, 2014. A reality game in the Philippines.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: This cast is a weird group. There are a lot of people playing hard, which makes for an excitingly unpredictable season. But there are also almost no likable people, and a lot of bitterness and fighting. Overall, as annoyed as I often was with it, I suppose it had me hooked in. B

GPA: 2.3/4

Survivor: Season 27

Survivor: Season 27, 2013. A reality game in the Philippines.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: D
Enjoyment: One of the series' better seasons. The majority of the contestants are seriously playing, and the gimmick of playing in pairs adds a lot of new complexity to the strategy. B

GPA: 2.4/4

Survivor: Season 26

Survivor: Season 26, 2013. A reality game in the Philippines.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: The first half of the season is stressful and intense in the worst way: one of the players is apparently not just crazy in the usual reality TV contestant way, but genuinely psychotic - abusive and dangerous. It's a shame, since he renders unwatchable what might otherwise have been a good season. And then another player is pulled from the game because he was starving. This is not entertainment. D

GPA: 2.0/4

Survivor: Season 25

Survivor: Season 25, 2012. A reality game in the Philippines.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: A pretty good season, despite a relatively unremarkable group of players. Things just happen to fall out in a way that generates a good story. B

GPA: 2.3/4

Survivor: Season 20

Survivor: Season 20, 2010. A reality game on a Samoan island.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: A solidly good season, despite having a couple of the show's more unpleasant to watch contestants. It's an "all-stars" season; experienced players are so much better at this game (and there are so many of them by this point), it's a wonder they ever bother casting new players. B

GPA: 2.2/4

Survivor: Season 19

Survivor: Season 19, 2009. A reality game on a Samoan island.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: There's no one to root for, and only one player who seems to know what he's doing. C

GPA: 2.0/4

Survivor: Season 18

Survivor: Season 18, 2009. A reality game in the South American wilderness.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: There are a couple good characters, but they don't really get to play much. Most of the season is just watching people in positions to do well self destruct, week after week, which gets old pretty fast. And there's "Coach," who is absolutely insufferable. C

GPA: 2.1/4

Survivor: Season 17

Survivor: Season 17, 2008. A reality game in the African wilderness.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: A disaster of a season. Not only is there no one to root for, there isn't even a single player that knows what they're doing. C

GPA: 1.8/4

Survivor: Season 16

Survivor: Season 16, 2008. A reality game on South Pacific islands.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: The internet tells me this is considered the best season (next to season 1, which just gets credit for its historical importance). I've seen less than a third of the show so far, but I'm confident that I can go ahead and agree with that assessment. It takes a few episodes to get going, but once the great players (so many great players) find their footing, it's pretty much as good as this show could possibly get. B

GPA: 2.4/4

Survivor: Season 15

Survivor: Season 15, 2007. A reality game in rural China.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: Pretty boring. The likable people are bad players, and the good players are assholes. C

GPA: 2.0/4

Survivor: Season 14

Survivor: Season 14, 2007. A reality game on Fijian islands.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: Only one tribe is playing Survivor, the other is just competing in challenges. How is that a show? F
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: Weird season, a little too desperate to be unpredictable. The first half is terrible. Just pure crap. The second half picks up a lot, though (once the producers back off and let people play the game), to the point where it's some of the best of the show that I've seen. C

GPA: 2.0/4

Survivor: Season 13

Survivor: Season 13, 2006. A reality game on South Pacific islands.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: Of the six seasons I've seen so far, this one stands out as easily the best. There are lots of great players (half of them, on other seasons, could have run the game), and the competition stayed strong right through the end of the game. B

GPA: 2.4/4

Survivor: Season 12

Survivor: Season 12, 2006. A reality game on Panamanian islands.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: There are a couple great strategy moments, but a lot of the season goes by without anything happening. There are only two or three contestants to root for, and all but one of them is out of the game by the halfway point. C

GPA: 2.0/4

Survivor: Season 24

Survivor: Season 24, 2012. A reality game on a South Pacific island.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: The first half of the season is dominated by an asshole who was thoroughly unpleasant to watch. The second half was a good game, but there still wasn't really anyone to root for. C

GPA: 2.1/4

Survivor: Season 23

Survivor: Season 23, 2011. A reality game on a South Pacific island.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: Most of the contestants played a pretty solid game, and a good handful of them were fun to root for. The requisite crazy people were more cringe-inducing than entertaining, though. B

GPA: 2.3/4

Survivor: Season 22

Survivor: Season 22, 2011. A reality game in the Nicaraguan rain forest.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: n/a
Music: C
Enjoyment: Only one or two people know what they're doing, and everyone else seems to be complete idiots, which makes for a pretty boring and frustrating game to watch. I've only seen two seasons of this show so far, but I'd be surprised if this isn't one of the worst of the series. C

GPA: 1.8/4

Survivor: Season 21

Survivor: Season 21, 2010. A reality game in the Nicaraguan rain forest.

Created by Charlie Parsons. Starring Jeff Probst.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: n/a
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). I've always hated reality shows, and had never seen a single episode (including the occasional episode of earlier Survivor seasons) that I would call good. I'm not sure why we started watching this, but it sure took me by surprise. There's no bullshit, no stalling, no manufactured drama. It's just a bunch of people playing a strategy game. I might be hooked.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)