If you’re a fellow fan of Survivor, then you probably agree on the nearly universal opinion that the best seasons of the show are Heroes v. Villains and Cagayan. Recently put on Netflix, we decided to watch both of these with a fresh set of eyes, and the twists and turns that took place throughout both seasons made it riveting, and quite frankly, addictive. In this SPOILER-HEAVY article, we give our opinions on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains and Survivor: Cagayan!

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains (Season 20)

In this captivating season, Survivor brought back twenty of the most memorable personalities including Rupert, Boston Rob, Parvati, and Sandra, making it a season full of drama. These contestants were split up into 2 tribes of 10: Heroes and Villains. 

From the beginning, the Villains took the lead, and the Heroes’ Tribe began to dwindle until episode 7, when the Heroes Tribe, who had narrowed down from 10 members to 5, won their first challenge, winning them immunity. The game continued until Russell, Parvati, and Sandra were left, leaving the jury to decide the winner (it was Sandra).

There were many risky, bold choices made by certain players in this season that completely changed the course of the show. The first was when Tyson flipped his vote for Parvati instead of Russell, resulting in a member from his own alliance being voted out. From there it went downhill and his alliance quickly was outnumbered.

Another shocking event from the season was when JT gave his idol to Russell with a very personal note because he was so sure that there was a girl’s alliance and wanted to save Russell, which would give the heroes a huge advantage if this was true. Unfortunately, because he couldn’t see the dynamics of the other tribe, his trust was misplaced and this event is seen by many viewers as the biggest mistake of the season. Remember JT, they are on the Villains for a reason…

Our opinions on the season:

It was disappointing to see that many of the characters who were so amazing in previous seasons, such as Cirie and Tom, got voted out so early in the season. While we understand that this had to happen since the people on this episode were all fan favorites, we wish that some of the people who had a very impressive outing in previous seasons were able to stay a bit longer.

One flaw we saw with the season was that Russell, a player who proved to be incredibly strategic and intelligent, had only played in Season 19 before competing in Season 20. This meant that the other returning players never got the chance to see how Russell played because he was in back-to-back seasons, thus making them unaware of Russell’s gameplay. 

we also found it beyond impressive that with all the injuries that took place this season, the players continued to fight through it. This included Rupert, who had a broken toe from one of the first episodes, continuing to persevere through the season, as well as James, who tried to convince his tribe that he was still a valuable asset even with his broken leg.

My favorite moment of the season is related to “banana etiquette” when the other players got mad at James for eating too many bananas and not bringing bananas for the rest of them. We found this hilarious as Survivor is typically so tense and there is real drama, yet the other player got mad at James for eating bananas, bananas! Who knew banana etiquette existed in the first place?

One critique that we have is that the players from previous seasons were not evenly dispersed, meaning that some players had an advantage at the beginning as they had a stronger relationship with other players, giving them an alliance from the beginning.

Overall, this season was great, but we really wish that Parvati won instead of Sandra, because of how amazing of a player she was. Unlike Russell, she was a strategic genius while still being courteous and kind towards the other players. She made so many great moves, like getting JT out, and was also a huge physical threat, having won almost all of the immunity challenges this season. While Sandra is also very likable and had a great strategy by not remaining a threat and dragging behind everyone else, we still feel like Parvati should have won because of how much effort she put into the game. 

Survivor: Cagayan (Season 28)

This season divided the characters into three different tribes: Brains, Beauty, and Brawn, as all of these are characteristics that many viewers think are needed to win Survivor. While many didn’t expect the Beauty tribe to have a chance, they had a strong showing at the beginning of the season and were able to hang on to the end of the season. This season also featured Cliff, a former NBA player, who made strong relationships with other characters but he was quickly voted out because of his domineering nature. The final three characters in this season were Kass, Tony, and Woo, with Tony eventually clinching the title of Sole Survivor. 

One of the most surprising moments of the season for me was when a team intentionally tried to throw a challenge because they wanted to vote off Cliff. We didn’t think this would ever happen in Survivor since the stakes are so high, but the team wanted to vote Cliff off so badly that they purposefully tried to lose a challenge. This plan, however, was not successful as the brains tribe was so uncoordinated that they made it difficult for the Brawn tribe to lose, which was hilarious for viewers.

Our opinions on the season:

Tony was by far the most interesting character to watch because of his scatterbrained, funny, yet strategic demeanor. The fact that he found three Immunity Idols and always thought many steps in front of the others just proves that he deserved to win. He even managed to find the Special Immunity Idol without a clue, which is unfathomable to me. Whenever the Brawn Tribe returned home with a reward or when he was eating at a restaurant from a reward challenge, he always knew that there was a clue to an idol when nobody else even considered the possibility. This proves that watching seasons of Survivor to prepare for the show really pays off.

A lot of viewers think that Woo made the worst mistake by choosing Tony over Kass to go to the Final Two with him, as Tony was far more strategic and deserving of winning the million dollars, but we don’t see that as the case. Both Kass and Tony were strategic, witty, and did well in the challenges, while Woo rarely contributed to the game. Woo was often the swing vote in a lot of episodes but other than that, he went along with whoever Tony wanted out. Even if Woo picked Kass, he probably would have still lost because Kass was so much more deserving of the win than he was, proving herself worthy after multiple wins and comebacks in the immunity challenges. 

Well, there you have it! Our opinions on the two universally agreed upon best seasons of Survivor! While these were on another level of amazing, there are still many other seasons that are nearly as enjoyable and addicting to watch, such as Micronesia, China, and Tocantis. If after reading this your gut is telling you to rewatch these seasons, you should definitely follow your gut.