User blog:Raised By Wolves/Total Dramarama Review – Episode 2: Duck Duck Juice

Hello, I'm Raised By Wolves and welcome to my Total Dramarama Reviews! Today, we'll be reviewing the second episode of the show. The episode just came out, so needless to say...

Plot
The episode starts off with everyone playing outside, when Chef Hatchet announces that story time is beginning. This was really cute, I loved story time as a kid. Meanwhile, Duncan is still at his antics from the previous episode, trying out escape plans. This time, his plot is a little less complex than last time with the vents. He's put in-universe version of Pop Rocks candy onto clay, and he's planning on using it to make the gate of the daycare explode. Izzy, in her normal adorable fashion, is fascinated by Duncan's creation (a possible allusion to Up the Creek?). Story time starts after Courtney viciously twists up Noah's legs, and we get to see the main object of this episode: Rainbow Juice, which is a clear reference to the Unicorn Frappuccino that Starbucks had for a limited time.

Chef steps out for a moment, leaving Courtney in charge. In that time, Izzy and Jude dare each other to drink the entire cup of Rainbow Juice, resulting in both of them having extremely intense sugar highs. Everyone realizes that they need to get more before Chef realizes what happened. Courtney and Duncan go to get more, while everyone else tries to keep Izzy and Jude (who have become child rockets at this point) under control. For the first time, we see the characters go outside the daycare, which was interesting. Courtney and Duncan make it back in time, while Izzy ends up swinging on a decoration and Jude gets naked, goes on a slide, and gets...butt burn. Sigh. Anyway, Chef gets his Rainbow Juice, and there's a happy ending...yeah, this is Total Drama. So that's not happening. Duncan's clay ends up exploding prematurely, causing Chef to lose his drink and go insane, as the episode ends there.

Characters
The characters who played a role in this episode are:
 * Chef Hatchet: Chef had a really funny role in this episode. We get to see more of his "daycare teacher" side, as he organizes story time and seems to genuinely care about his job. His addiction to Rainbow Juice was pretty funny, too.
 * Courtney: Courtney was a treasure in this episode. We get to see her bossy, mean side when she forces Noah to sit "criss-cross applesauce", along with the way she bosses around Duncan, forcing him to return to the daycare.
 * Duncan: Duncan's pretty much the same as the last episode, so I'd like to see some more variety rather than just escape plans (and still being a main character).
 * Harold: Harold had a minor role pointing out what happened to Izzy and Jude, remarking their sugar highs and giving some Nerd Statistics (TM) about how much sugar four-year-olds should be having.
 * Izzy: Izzy is definitely one of the stars of this episode. Her fascination for everything is so childlike, she really is the spirit of this show. She's actually quite relatable to children, I definitely would've related to her if this show came out when I was younger.
 * Jude: Once again, I'm not...exactly sure why Jude is there. Really, all they do is not-so funny gags. Someone said that he's there because they wanted Christian Potenza to be able to play a role in the show, which seems about right.
 * MacArthur: MacArthur had a small role in this episode as the employee at the Juice Bar, adding to the Starbucks reference gag (since the employees hated making that Unicorn drink). That was interesting to see.
 * Nikki: Though it's not confirmed that it's the same Nikki, it's pretty obvious. In the flashback of what happened last time Chef didn't get his Rainbow Juice, they show a girl who looks and has the same name as 6teen's Nikki. That was cool.
 * Noah: I just want to say that Dramarama Noah is so much better than Noah in the main series. He's witty, cute, and overall just works so much better in this format. He works as a good foil to Owen, and his interactions with Izzy and Courtney seem very promising.
 * Owen: Owen continues to work much better in this format. He was shifted a bit to the side in this episode, which I think benefitted his character. At least, I enjoyed him in this episode. He had just the right amount of screentime, along with finding a good balance for goofiness with Noah.

Favorite Character: Izzy Least Favorite Character: Jude

Favorite Moments

 * Izzy's hallucination after being Triple Dog Dared.
 * Courtney twisting Noah's legs into criss-cross.
 * Chef Hatchet's confessional when he slams the phone.
 * Literally every time Chef broke something.
 * Izzy swinging on the cloud decoration and saying she wants to live there.

Overall Rating: 7/10

This episode was a pretty solid episode overall. It worked well off the first episode which established the dynamic well, this episode expands on those same dynamics. However, that strength is also what holds this episode back from being better than it could've been. Mainly, the same characters that got screentime in episode 1 are the same ones that got all the attention in this one as well (with the exception of Gwen). I'd like to see some more variety, especially since Beth, Cody, and Bridgette have been shown but haven't done anything, aside from Beth having one line in this episode. That's all for this episode – see you all next week!