Survivor Season V -Thailand (2002)

I have always thought Africa was the most underrated Survivor season. Its location was beautiful, unique and interesting. Not that islands are bad, but they all seem more or less the same. I'm disappointed that Mark Burnett has said and seems to be sticking to his vow that they would not return to Africa. While all the locations the show has filmed have been "dangerous" in their own way, the African savannah is one of the few environments on earth where you will literally and definitely die if you don't show respect for the land and wildlife. The casting wasn't as good as some of the other seasons, but it wasn't as bad as some people are saying. There was very much a "good vs evil" feel to the 2 tribes, which may have been intentional or maybe just coincidence. Either way it gave us somebody to cheer for. (or at least against) And of course Africa brought the debut of the tribe switch twist.Regarding the product itself I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised. After reading several reviews complaining of dirty, scratched, non-working discs, I wasn't expecting a lot but still wanted to have the show on DVD even if the quality wasn't perfect. While it isn't a "box set" in the sense that it doesn't come with a cardboard slipcover to hold the cases together, that really didn't matter to me. To be honest I find those covers to be more annoying than useful and often throw them away anyway. And yes, the cover art is the same on all 3 cases but that didn't bother me at all. I suppose some people just like to complain. The discs themselves are good quality and all work in both my Samsung blu-ray player and the DVD drive on my computer. None arrived dirty or scratched. I don't doubt the truthfulness of those complaints, but Amazon seems to have greatly improved their production techniques to the point that those complaints should not influence your purchasing decision. The discs are not like the DVD-Rs that you would buy at the store; they are laser printed with the Survivor Africa logo, disc number and episode names. They look like mass produced commercial DVDs. While I have not watched every episode yet, the picture and sound quality on those I have watched is perfectly acceptable. It is in SD so if you're used to watching stuff in HD you will definitely notice a difference and might find the picture quality disappointing but this season was shot in 2001, well before HD was widely adopted. Not a ton of extra features but it does include stuff like the full exit interview of each contestant after they got voted off as well as their Early Show interview.In all, the negative reviews here seem to be either nitpicking non-issues for the sake of complaining, or factually inaccurate. (or the problems cited have since been fixed) I definitely recommend this set to any fan of the show. On a side note, the on demand production process had no negative effect on shipping time. I ordered with 2 day free Prime shipping, and the product shipped within hours and arrived the next day.

I saw other reviews where people were complaining of packaging and picture quality??? I have to disagree with them because the picture quality was EXCELLENT and I love the slimmer packaging....5 discs in one case. That is so much better than the packaging of season 1 & 2 (each disc was in a separate case and kept together by a box/sleeve).I've enjoyed going back through the beginning seasons to see how this show all started. I never watched it back then, but I sure am enjoying watching it now. No commercials and can watch whenever I feel like it. I am able to watch one entire season in a week's time. Season 3 so far is my favorite season of all. I LOVED the views of Africa and of all the wild animals running around. I actually liked the contestants better too. At first Big Tom kind of rubbed me the wrong way, but as the show went on, I became a fan of him.After viewing each season, I find myself going online and searching the contestants to see how they are doing today and to see how they've aged, or have starred in any other shows since being on Survivor. I found out that Ethan Zohn was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma in 2009 and went through two stem-cell transplants. How awful. He was my favorite contestant on season 3.I really think you will enjoy this season and don't let the negative reviews scare you away about the packaging and the picture quality. I think that if you purchase it new on Amazon (like I did), that the packaging has been improved! They must have gotten the complaints about it.

This product far exceeded my expectations. After reading some of the other reviews I became a bit skeptical, because of the lack of case, the quality issues people had talked about, the fact that they looked pirated, etc. After receiving my Survivor: Africa DVD, I can say that not one of those complaints rang true. The three DVDs are packaged individually, which I agree that I would definitely prefer them to come in a box set like the others, but that is far from a deal breaker for me. The DVDs are packaged with artwork on each case, every disc itself has the Survivor DVD logo on it, the quality is superb, there are tons of bonus features, literally no different from the retail box sets such as Australia, Borneo, All-Stars, or Pearl Islands. The only other complaint I would have is that I wish there were more than two episodes per disc, simply because I tend to have Survivor marathons and watch several episodes at once, and it can be a pain having to change the disc out after every other episode, but that is one small and trivial problem compared to all of the great things this DVD has to offer. I would tell anyone who is considering buying this item to not listen to any of the negativity and buy it, you certainly will not be disappointed.

I recently became a collector of Survivor Seasons, starting with my favorites, all the All Star Seasons, then branching out to include seasons that had the most compelling characters. I wasn't sure I even remembered Boston Rob in this one, so it was enjoyable watching him cut his teeth. Most of the great seasons seem to include blindsides, brilliant stratagems and great characters. Early Survivor seasons had a lot more struggling with morality and moral choices. Over time, it has become more acceptable to lie and deceive and reverse alliances because the show has been around a long time. The main feature of Marquesas is a lot of hugging and pathos and characters you end up caring about. I really liked all of them and usually, there's one or two who are annoying. But I got a serious man crush on Kathy, admired Vecepia's quiet and deep faith, felt a lot for Pascal and the General and Shawn, with all his bravado and early laziness. Shawn had a great arc. By the end of the season I felt something that many on the show said. I am going to miss them. This must be why I like all-star shows.

Product as advertised

Fantastic series and no damage through the postage handling - great work Amazon UK ! A BIG thumbs up !!

One of the best Survivors, absolutely loved it. There's everything: physical extreme challenges, throwed challenges (!!), strategy and paranoia, wildlife, emotion, splits in the tribes, twists and turns, and a very deserving winner. I felt like we really got to know the contestants and feel for them, more so than most other seasons. We really get to understand and care about the players. Also, there were no horrendously stupid moves made, and the game was very well played from Day 1.

First season I saw of Survivor, memorable scenery, a worthy winner & overall a great season.

Discs have no scratches on it, fast shipping and overall just a well made set. Survivor is amazing and im happy I now have Marquesas to the collection. The only problem I had was the case being completely different with each disc stacked on top of each other. Although, it didnt scratch the discs so I dont care. Definitely worth it.