User blog:Gogogadget831/Every Episode of Total Drama Reviewed - Episode 31: Beach Blanket Bogus

Episode 31: Beach Blanket Bogus

Premise: The contestants participate in a beach-themed challenge. Meanwhile, something is up with Trent...

Challenge: Balancing on a surf board, building a sand castle, and a dance-off

Winner(s): Screaming Gaffers

Eliminated: None

Reward: Beach party

My Favorite Part: Trent accidentally throwing salt and pepper at Heather after Duncan's prank

This episode was pretty bad, though not as infuriating as the next episode. Trent's sudden obsessions with the number 9 and Gwen come right out of nowhere. In the previous episode, we have Trent actually regret his actions and apologize to Gwen for it. In this case, he is COMPLETELY UNAWARE that what he is doing is wrong and uncalled for. His insanity throughout the whole episode is very character-damaging. Unfortunately, this is another instance of one of the biggest problems of this season - character derailment. It happened with Geoff and Bridgette with them being dumbed-down to the point of being a make-out couple rather than individual characters who knew when to be serious (though they do become better characters in World Tour and I do give them credit that their make-out sessions are actually pretty funny and they have pretty good chemistry). But it's even more severe in Trent's case. I thought he was over Gwen and Duncan becoming friends and them being on opposite teams. And in the end, it's SO obvious that he threw a challenge for Gwen intentionally for her team to win. And unfortunately, that's an irritating running gag in the next episode. Next, the humor. This episode is really not that funny. Some of the gags are SO repetitive; not just Trent's 9 obsession, but also the running gag with Beth and her friendship bracelets. I like Beth as a character, but her friendship bracelet gag is way too repetitive and not very clever nor funny. Some of Harold's moments did make me laugh, like him being over-protective of his buttox, him boasting about his ten-pack abs to Leshawna, and his Taj Ma-Harold and dance moves. And I also laughed a bit at Beth for loudly crashing to the floor with Justin winked at her and when she chokes on a piece of her broken friendship bracelet. Leshawna's teammates insulting her horrifying dance moves was pretty funny ("La-Bamba" and "Prima Balleri-no!"). And the "morning assault" got a hearty laugh out of me as well as Owen and DJ failing the surfing challenge (c'mon, the human body is such a beautiful thing!). But other than that, there weren't that many funny jokes and the episode wasn't very investing. I mean, yeah, the idea of Justin forming an alliance with Beth is interesting, but we'll have to see how it's played later in the season. This episode has a lot of problems and it's very dull. But be prepared for the next episode. We'll get into the TRUE badness.