Thread:Fire Eater/@comment-25086035-20150310180804/@comment-25086035-20150310185345

Okay, here goes. 'Cracks fingers'

Once, in late 2008, I was introduced to a show called Total Drama Island. And I immediately liked its sometimes borderline inappropriate humor (A la Owen) and risqué moments (The well-known Heather-hooter incident). The characters were 'Real' teens as well (As in, teenagers you could run into everyday) and I found the approach of a unreal (Animated) reality show splendid and very original! The 2 following seasons, while naturally having a little less of the 'wow!'-factor, still appealed as well.

Then Total Drama Revenge Of The Island came:

The new cast was...A little outlandish at places, but were pleasant to watch and aside from the rather minor interactions (Courtesy of a shortened season), most of them were done well. In fact, I found Mike and Zoey, while already clingy to each other, tolerable. The setting however, was too outlandish for my tastes. Why did Wawanakwa had to be in a nuked state? TDI to WT regularly crossed the boundaries of what was realistic, but that was only for the gags or really minor breaches of realism. Leaving teenagers in a polluted dump was a little too much for my tastes. Other than that, the season was still very fun to watch aside from it's rising cruelty potential. I don't have to say much more if I say Dakota (Which was also related to the realism), Scott and with Chris showing the first hints of becoming really insufferable.

I don't have much to say anything All-Stars, we're on the same level with that (The best part were the post-elimination clips, and even then many of them were flawed). aside that it goes without saying that Total Drama's decline really began here, not just because, at this point, it didn't feel like a reality show anymore. If it wasn't for the confessional, we could've as well been looking at a version of the Hunger Games with a substitute death.

Then TDPI was there, airing in Italy on the greatest day in 2014 (For me at least) June the 13th. While it was something of a breath of air, the air was rather mouldy in hindsight. I do hope I won't spoil anything for you, but since you don't seem to care to watch, I think we're okay with that.

While not as bad as AS, Pahkitew Island felt fairly disappointing afterwards. The characters weren't 'Real' anymore (Aside from the twins and in a sense Scarlett) and many of them were either gratuitously overdone or mere gags, and it's not like it's that hard to think of realistic teenage stereotypes. I know I may be speaking for myself here, but I've thought of 16 alone already! The challenges felt flat (As opposed to the first 3 seasons) and the interactions even flatter. It furthermore slid even further down the scale of realism. A whole artificial island? Really? And, like I mentioned above, it didn't feel like a reality-show anymore.

What I also want to say with this is: It feels as if the creators aren't even trying to deliver a season with the same level of motivation as they seemed to had with TDI, you know what I mean? The first cast had 3 seasons dedicated to them and they managed to do that almost without many problems (Problems that are present left aside for now, but feel free to point out). And with the second cast, instead of letting them develop in another season (Which should've happened in the first place to clearly defy the 2nd-gen All-stars), they're thrown into what would become my first disappointment with a TV show (I have a pretty high tolerance). And something tells me that the TDPI cast are waiting a similar fate, in that they're replaced next season already. Also note that they are only drawn in their regular clothes (Aside from Samey), which evidences a certain laziness, inability or unwillingness to design them. Couple that with that Fresh seemingly forget characters, and I think I've made my point.

Also, I can't help but feel a little like Cartoon Network is somehow to blame for this decline, as I feel like they exert a lot of influence at Fresh (As CN in a sense can have more viewers in the US than Canada has people).

But here comes my question. Am I more wary of the faults of casts beyond the 1st-gen because of the nostalgia? Or because I really am less fond of them?

P.S. I really hope that RR returns to the more sane and reality show format that TDI great.

P.P.S. That was a writing of 30 minutes but it was worth it!