I've already documented my MANY issues with this season so let me start off with something good: the finale is fun and holds up well even on rewatch! Lots of fun with Natalie and Michele making an unexpected underdog run to the F3, Ben saying yes to feminism and falling on his sword in the spirit of friendship is an inspired arc for one of the true great characters of the season, and Lacina was just a constellation
That being said, the editing was still a mess this season and the Ben/Sarah thing would have been even more powerful if they actually traced their relationship throughout the season. Same with the Ben/Denise relationship that apparently was super tight and important but came into thin air during the double boot. All the advantages are extremely suffocating and this show is just..... not Survivor anymore. Remember when the final six and the final five used to be their own epic episodes? Like, imagine the Christy Smith boot getting rushed into the first half hour of a finale. Or the Burton boot getting squeezed into the middle of a rushed finale. There's just no focus on relationships or characters, it's all mindless strategy solely for the sake of Big Movez, to the point where the Final TC format is literally broken up into "how was your social game," "how did you navigate all the twists and advantages," and "give us a closing statement." The entire endgame is just so bastardized with everyone hoarding onto their advantages and Idols until F6 or F5 so that there are only one or two boot options, fire-making at F4 which is a complete death knell to the show and has eliminated the social politicking of the F4 vote (aka the premise of this ****ing show in the first place), and it's understated just how bad the F3 is because we're so used to it.
It's just a shame how predictable it is for Survivor to fall apart at the merge. And for a season whose theme is WINNERS AT WAR, COMING FOR MORE, this season didn't really feel like much of a war at all. There weren't really any moments that were engaging because each vote just turned into TC whispering because Nobody Can Make Up Their Minds Because The Game Moves That Quickly And That's How You Play Survivor and it's just repetitive and ****ing lame and literally dead airtime. None of the players have any motives we can truly get behind and there's no soul or context behind anything that happens. It's all flash but no substance.
I'll do my cast ranking and season ranking tomorrow goodbye!