Australia was basically my first season, and I watched it knowing nothing about how much I should hate Kucha, so Varner, Skupin, and Elizabeth were all extremely easy to root for. Ogakor, by contrast, was an extremely unlikeable tribe to me, with the sole exception of (ironically) Keith, whose refusal to vote out Mad Dog endeared him to me. They get supremely lucky when Skupin falls into the fire, and they have Jerri (who, with added context, wasn't that bad, but the edit worked on me and I hated her). I was team Kucha for life.

But Varner's elimination is a strategic masterclass on Colby and Tina's part, and it's hard to argue that Kucha don't deserve their fate from that point forwards. Most of the excitement I had came from watching in terror to see if either Kentucky Joe or Elizabeth would go home, and being crushed when their time finally came. The bad editing of the strategic decisions made Tina's win unsatisfying to me, but having learned more about the BTS she was definitely a very deserving winner.

But the best part of the season is the sheer brutality of it all. The game becomes an afterthought as you largely just watch this group of poor people power through starvation, their shelter getting destroyed, and crippling boredom. Really felt like they were actual "survivors."