SPOILERS
Despite having "All Stars 3" in Season 31, producers managed to quickly flip around and do an "All Stars 4" just three seasons later. As someone that is always a sucker for all stars, I definitely enjoyed the season, but it was quite the letdown when compared to Season 20: Heroes vs Villains (All Stars 2) and Season 31: Second Chance (All Stars 3). A large part of this is due to perennial fan favorites Tony, Sandra, JT, Malcolm, and Ozzy getting swift exits, and Cirie getting screwed in epic fashion out of a place at the end. The aforementioned three winners and two big time challenge threats were 5 of the first 9 out, and that's not really what any fans wanted to see. That's not to take away from the players that made it far, especially Sarah, who played a masterful game, it's just a slightly bitter taste when realizing what this season could have been. Instead we got wishy washy gameplay from the majority of the players, and a rather undeserving final 5. Of the 5 it was only ever gonna be Sarah or Culpepper, and as we saw in Season 33, the old school Survivor method of winning challenges and helping around camp is not gonna win any more. So despite being in the elite few players of winning five individual immunity idols, the odds of Culpepper winning were slim if anyone with a decent social and strategic game made it with him. And the fact that he didn't acknowledge that at final four is all that needs to be said on his social awareness.
Anyways, I digress, it is a quality season that is obviously incredibly enjoyable, there is just a lacking element that prevents it from being a must see Survivor season. I would still recommend to anyone that likes the show to check out this season because there is plenty of faces to see that you are familiar with and a bunch of solid gameplay.
Rating: 8.5/10
Shout by pntjrBlockedParentSpoilers2020-05-19T21:40:29Z
This was such a misguided season, they wanted to do an all-returnee cast after the success of Cambodia, but they just couldn't pull together the legendary cast they wanted. Caleb? Culpepper? Sierra Dawn Thomas? ugh. And then just the fact that all the big names that we wanted to see besides like Cirie and Aubry went out pre-merge was just tragic.
I thought the pre-merge was pretty decent, sans Varnergate, and while Sarah played a really masterful game in the post-merge, it wasn't that fun to watch. I feel like she wasn't having enough fun with it, despite the fact that she was playing her ass off. This season has no story, no narrative throughline, besides Sarah saying "i'm playing like a criminal", but barely leaning in on it.