User blog:DCT0473/Reviewing Literally Every Season of Total Drama Part 1: Total Drama Island:

So... Total Drama is getting a new season this fall, and the first episode of said season has ended up online. To commemorate Total Drama's return, I will be going back and reviewing all 7 seasons of the show, and giving my thoughts on them. Anyways, let's begin, shall we?

Starting off this ongoing blog, we have the first season:'' Total Drama Island. ''Airing all the way back in 2007, Island set up the basic formula most seasons would follow. A sociopathic celeberty named Chris and his war-vet assistant Chef Hatchet convice a group of Canadian teens (Usually about 14-22 of them) to take a trip to an island where they compete in life threatening challenges to get one step closer to winning $100,000. Along the way, they make friends, enemies, get involved with drama, and may get voted off the show. It's basically a parody of gameshows like Survivor.

While this formula may seem genaric and outdated today, the writers at Fresh TV managed to make it work. Instead of focusing on story, Island is more character driven, with a colorful cast of characters for the viewer to watch grow (And potentially fall). Each character is built around one trope (i.e. Owen is fat, Gwen is a goth, Cody is a geek, Justin is the "hot one", Heather is the b****, you get the idea), but each character's trope is exagerrated to hell and or they have other traits to help make them interesting. For the most part, the characters are pretty good, but some of them are kind of bland and forgetablle. Thankfully, most of those contestants got better in future seasons. Chris and Chef are also pretty good characters, with Chris being a souless ego maniac and Chef being just downright insane.

Another thing that helps Island is its writing. Island (And most of Total Drama in general) has some pretty good writing, that sets up some pretty hilarious episodes and moments. Sure, the writing dips in quality in a couple of episodes (Looking at you, If You Can't Take the Heat), but for the most part it's fairly consistant.

Final Veridct:

Total Drama Island is a great start to the Total Drama series. Its got good and consistant writing, as well as a colorful cast of characters. While the writing dips in quality at some parts and couploe of episodes are real snores, its still a very good season. I'd give it a 5/5.

Favorite Character of the Season: Tough pick, there are a lot of characters from this season I like, and it's very hard to choose. I'll just go with Courtney, as I liked her arc from starting out as bossy control freak to being somewhat of a team leader who tried to help her teammates, plus her relationship with Duncan was cute. It's a shame that pretty much every season after Island that Courtney competed on managed squander or flat out destroy her arc in some way or another.

Favortie Challenge: Hook, Line, and Screamer was fairly creative, with it being a parody of horror movies and all, but it isn't my favorite episode.

Favorite Episode: Total Drama Drama Island: A very creative send off to season that leads perfectly into Total Drama Action. Not only that, but every character gets to shine in it, and it has tons of character interactions we'd otherwise never get to see.

Tune in next time when I go over Total Drama Action. Is it an upgrade from Island, or a failure too bad for the Lame-o-sine to contain?