User blog:Curshburger/Total Drama Island Review

Please note: This review is a work in progress.

Introduction
After watching Jayempee react to Total Drama, I thought it would be fun if I reviewed every season out there, and what better way to start than with this one? I’ve binged the entire season, and with all the episodes fresh in my mind, I’ll be able to cover every single episode, every single character, my personal ranking of each episode, and other random thoughts! I hope you enjoy!

'''WARNING: This review contains major spoilers. If you haven’t seen the season yet, and you are uncomfortable with spoilers, I would suggest watching the season before reading this reviews.'''

Not So Happy Campers - Part 1
Episode Number: 1

The episode in a nutshell: 22 16-year-olds arrive on the setting of Total Drama, and find out that they’ll be at a crappy summer camp for (at the maximum,) eight weeks, and will all be competing for a check for $100000. Chris splits the kids into two teams: The Screaming Gophers and the Killer Bass. Once they meet the chef, Chris announces that the first challenge is to jump off of a cliff.

Fun Fact: Chris is 25 as of this episode.

My favorite part: Chef’s attitude

Quote: “Who will crumble under the pressure?” -Chris

My thoughts: There isn’t a whole lot to comment on here. I mean, it’s the series premiere. There’s no challenge, no elimination, no nothing. We spend the entire episode getting a glimpse at the characters’ personalities, and while some get more screen-time than others, this episode does a decent job at introducing 22 characters. We know Beth’s pretty much a geek, DJ’s a strong yet gentle guy, Gwen’s an impatient goth girl who has no desire to be on the island, Geoff’s a super chill dude who uses the word “man” in every sentence, Lindsay’s your typical hot chick, Heather’s the mean girl who means business, Duncan’s a dangerous man whose path you don’t want to cross, Tyler’s a clumsy jock, Harold’s a nerd kinda like Beth, Trent’s the normal guy, Bridgette’s a surfer chick, Noah’s a monotone dude who’s kind of a smart-aleck, Leshawna’s a girl that wants to be friends but also isn’t afraid to get violent, Katie and Sadie are the inseparable BFFFFFFs (and I used six Fs for a reason), Ezekiel’s an incredibly sheltered kid, Cody’s a flirtatious dude, Eva’s a ridiculously strong chick, Owen’s the funnest guy around, Courtney’s a very polite girl, Justin’s the very quiet yet attractive boy, and Izzy’s a quirky, talkative girl. Since the episode doesn’t really do anything wrong, but there also isn’t exactly anything to write home about, this is, in my opinion, an average episode.

Not So Happy Campers - Part 2


Episode Number: 2

The episode in a nutshell: The Screaming Gophers and the Killer Bass face off against each other in the first ever challenge: jumping off of a thousand-foot cliff into shark-infested waters, and then building a hot tub out of wood. Since the Gophers were able to cooperate well, and the Bass fell way behind, the latter ended up losing. Courtney’s refusal to jump as well as her annoying reminders of her C.I.T experience almost got her eliminated, but it was Ezekiel that ended up getting voted off instead thanks to his misogyny.

Fun Fact: This episode and episode 27 are the only episodes in which all 22 of these campers are competing.

My favorite part: The contrasts in the ways the team functioned

Quote: “They can enjoy their little party all they want, but I am gonna win this competition! And no one is gonna stop me!” -Courtney

My thoughts: Heh, it’s funny how DJ jinxed everybody the way that he did...especially considering this episode features one of the most insane challenges in the season (maybe not in the series, but definitely in the season). There isn’t much to say about this episode either, considering it was focused on the teams being pitted against each other and not the characters within the teams. Like I said, I did like how the teams were participating in such different ways: having one team do well and the other one suck. The only thing I would’ve done differently is I would’ve spared Ezekiel and voted off Courtney instead. Yes, Ezekiel was sexist, but in a way, it’s not 100% his fault, and he did prove to be more competent in the challenge, as Duncan pointed out. Although, after watching episode 12, it does make sense why Courtney stuck around. Anyway, I consider this an average episode.

The Big Sleep


Episode Number: 3

The episode in a nutshell: The Screaming Gophers and the Killer Bass both run a 20k and then eat a huge, delicious meal, only to find out those were both set-ups by Chris to make the challenge (staying awake longer than any other camper) even harder. Gwen and Trent connect while Heather makes the first alliance with Lindsay and Beth. Afterwards, Eva is manipulated by Heather and the Bass vote off the former thanks to her impatience.

Fun Fact: This is the only episode that shows Owen’s butt uncensored.

My favorite part: Heather’s role in the episode

Quote: “Oh gross, it works! Dude peed his pants!” -Duncan

My thoughts: As I mentioned before, the first two episodes were mainly introductory. This is where things really start to get interesting. Not only do we get to witness a cool challenge, but we’re introduced to arguably the most iconic Total Drama villain ever, Heather. She manages to swing over both Lindsay and Beth and neither of them have any objections (well, at least not for now). Not only this, but we witness just how much of a force Heather is to be reckoned with when she exploits Eva’s anger issues, and in turn, is the direct cause of her elimination. It’s a nice way to give us a taste of what exactly we’re in for. I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with me and say that Gwent’s bonding is the highlight of this episode, but personally, I can’t say I’m a fan of Gwent. I have nothing against it, but there’s another guy I’d much rather ship with Gwen. Before I go off on a tangent, I’m going to rate this a good episode. The challenge was cool, Heather’s schemes were cool, and Owen’s farting around (pun intended) was cool.

Dodgebrawl


Episode Number: 4

The episode in a nutshell: The Screaming Gophers and the Killer Bass both compete in a best of five game of dodgeball. The Gophers win the first two rounds, mainly due to Owen and Cody’s respective skills. However, when Duncan is awakened, he uses a strategy to completely turn the tables of the game. In the tiebreaker, Harold manages to give the Bass their very first win, much to everyone’s surprise. This leads to Noah being eliminated due to being too lazy.

Fun Fact: Noah is the third camper to never receive a marshmallow, with the first two being Eva and Ezekiel.

My favorite part: The challenge

Quote: “I’m glad someone is trying today.” -Heather

My thoughts: This is another episode that’s pretty uneventful. If you’re not a fan of Lyler or dodgeball, you’re likely not gonna find this episode to be all too interesting. Guess it’s a good thing I’m a dodgeball fan. This episode is one that brought development to both Duncan and Harold, and I find that to be pretty neat. However, this is essentially the only note-worthy thing I could find here, so I rate this an average episode.

Not Quite Famous


Episode Number: 5

The episode in a nutshell: The Screaming Gophers and the Killer Bass compete in a talent show and a conflict ignites between Gwen and Heather after Heather reads Gwen’s diary to the entire world. After two good performances from the Gophers and two painful ones from the Bass, victory seems impossible until Harold amazingly beatboxes his team to the win. In order to avoid elimination, Heather convinces Beth, Izzy, Lindsay, and Owen to vote off Justin.

Fun Fact: Even after Harold’s beatboxing, the Gophers were still in the lead with 14-13. The Bass were given the win anyway.

My favorite part: Harold’s beatboxing

Quote: “Going home won’t be so bad...I could always work at the Surf Shack.” -Bridgette

My thoughts: There’s a lot to like about this episode. It’s this episode that turned Gwen and Heather into bitter enemies, which is a classic conflict that would go on to continue for the first two seasons. This is also the second consecutive time that the Bass end up winning because of Harold, which I think makes for another nice “underdog wins” ending. It’s not entirely perfect, though, because the writers seemed to forget how to do math in this episode. A good example of this is in the fun Fact I mentioned above, but there’s another goof that can be noticed. When Heather says she only needed to persuade four people to vote off Justin, then she would have five votes in hand. However, the Gophers had 10 members at the time, so if everybody else voted for her (which is pretty dang likely considering what she did), there would’ve been a tie. I guess there was somebody else that voted against Heather. I am pretty glad that Justin was eliminated here, seeing as how he didn’t say a single word since the first episode. Ignoring the writers’ bizarre math, I’d rate this a good episode.

The Sucky Outdoors


Episode Number: 6

The episode in a nutshell: The Screaming Gophers and the Killer Bass are tasked with spending an entire night in the woods. Katie and Sadie get lost and end up in a quarrel, and Izzy manages to scare her entire team by dressing up as a bear. Both teams end up sleeping in the rain thanks to Izzy’s prank and Bridgette’s clumsiness. In the end, when the Bass vote off Katie, Sadie is left incredibly sad.

Fun Fact: The pizza delivery man looks very similar to Duncan’s original design.

My favorite part: Duncan’s evil laugh

Quote: “Hey, are you okay?” -Izzy

My thoughts: Sooooo this episode focuses a lot on Katie and Sadie and really not much else. There’s the Gophers’ plot with Izzy dressing up as a bear, but that’s pretty much it. Since the spotlight is on Katie and Sadie a lot and nobody else is around to contribute to their plot, a lot of this episode felt kinda boring to me. As a kid, I used to think their friendship was touching, but I now realize that since that’s essentially all they’re about, their characters are pretty one-dimensional. And having one-dimensional characters be the focus of an entire episode just doesn’t fare well. As classic of a reputation this season has, I’m afraid I’m gonna have to rate this a bad episode. This episode isn’t really all that bad, but it’s just not enough for me to consider it just another episode. At least Katie’s gone now.

Phobia Factor


Episode Number: 7

The episode in a nutshell: After Katie’s elimination, everyone gathers and states their worst fears, only to have to face them the next day. While some campers fare well, others (such as Courtney, Bridgette, and Tyler) don’t, to say the least. The Killer Bass end up voting off Tyler due to his ridiculous fear.

Fun Fact: Even if every camper had succeeded in this challenge, the Screaming Gophers still would’ve won with a score of 9-8.

My favorite part: Seeing each camper’s worst fear

Quote: “Actually, if you do the math, you can’t possibly win. The score’s 7-3.” -Cody

My thoughts: Another pretty uneventful episode in terms of plot. One thing that’s interesting to think about is how different campers were forced to face their fears for longer amounts of time than others, like how Bridgette was alone in the woods for six hours but Tyler only had to last three minutes with the chickens. You can definitely sense something’s up with the challenge. I also like the fact that Tyler’s going home. I know there are people who like Tyler, but truthfully, I just can’t recall him doing anything memorable at all. The way that he left was somewhat questionable, though. Courtney’s technically the one that lost the challenge for the Killer Bass, and yet she got spared, which didn’t make much sense because she didn’t make any friends after yelling at DJ. But that’s about it. I’m rating this an average episode.

Up The Creek


Episode Number: 8

The episode in a nutshell: The Screaming Gophers and the Killer Bass travel by canoe to Boney Island. Gwen and Trent grow closer thanks to Cody, and DJ literally pushes his team to victory. Meanwhile, Bridgette begins to appreciate Geoff more despite his bizarre gift. While on the island, Beth brings home a little something that ends up “cursing” her team, unaware of Chris’ warning. In the end, Izzy’s past comes back to haunt her, and she leaves the show of her own volition.

Fun Fact: This is the first episode that Chef Hatchet doesn’t appear in.

Quote: “You’ll never get me alive!” -Izzy

My thoughts: There’s a lot that happens in this episode, to say the least. First and foremost, it’s really nice to see Cody care so much about Gwen being happy that he’s willing to help her get close to Trent. It’s admirable, and it makes me like Cody more as a character. I should also admit I’m pretty neutral to Gidgette, so their plot I didn’t really pay much attention to. One thing I will say is that I didn’t find the gag with Geoff’s splinter to be funny at all. I get that the joke was that all of the Killer Bass were supposed to overreact to it, but the thing was barely visible on-screen, so it just made all of them look like huge wusses. Finally, there was Izzy’s elimination, which I guess was...something. If you ask me, she probably would’ve been gone either way. I can’t think of anything Lindsay did wrong this episode. I’ll rate this a <font color="Cyan">good episode, but honestly, that’s only because Gwen was able to tolerate and even appreciate Cody from here on out.