User blog:Epic~00/Mid season Review of Total Drama All-Stars Take 2

Well, VUF said anyone was free to do a mid-season review. Seeing as how the merge is tomorrow, I thought I would go over the first 9 episodess of Total Drama All-Stars Take 2. After the radioactive abomination that was Total Drama Toxic Brawl, full of no drama, floaters, a hit and miss cast, and one of the worst elimination orders, this season had a lot to make up for, and thankfully it did. It's been the first half, and unless the second half turns out to be really horrible by having another bad merged elimination order, then otherwise, this could be a good season.

Episodes
Brains vs. Brawns vs. Beauty

For once, we had a pilot that was actually good. I mean, Trials and Triva-lations was boring, A Wild Western Introduction had incredibly forced moments, Let's Have a World Tour! was disorganized, and A Radioactive Beginning was just... there.

This was a decent introduction to the season. I mean, nothing bad was really in the episode, while it only had moderately good things about it. It was full of drama for once though. Heather interacted with everyone in fun ways, Duncan and Sky had some interesting tension, and the Beauty.... uh.......... Heather and Scarlett is also my favorite interaction ever just for how well they perform together. The eliminated character was Noah, which makes sense since he kept getting far all the time and had no plot.

Final Score: 8/10

The Returning Record Holders

The challenge for this episode was amazing. In this episode, all teams shined with all of their performances.

The Brains had great ideas created that lead to Chris and Chef sucking up that was acted really well, it developed Heather and Scarlett, it brought up the Cody/Heather/Alejandro love triangle. The Beauty were deserving winners of the challenge. I mean, does that even need much explanation? The Brawns had a performance that was bad, but it was very funny to see Duncan struggle to compliment Chris.

As for the characters, Heather was queen of perfection as always, Tyler was funny, Sky was sympathetic, Scott shown off his likable friendship with Sky, Scarlett's vocabulary is always a joy, and Alejandro stirred things up. As their team lost, Duncan was eliminated. While he certainly had some good potential, he's just dull at this point.

Final Score: 8/10

The Rake-age

It was nice for me to do a change of pace with Heather and have her be much more affectionate than mean, in this case being Cody. It affected plenty of player's perception on her, and made for some fun moments.

The Brains were amazing as always. Heather as mean to everyone but HOT CODY and Scarlett, Cody was funny in his cluelessness to Heather, Cameron had SASS, and Beth had funny snarkiness to Heather.

Brawns had some drama thanks to Alejandro. Lightning hated everybody, Scott and Tyler were bummed, Sky was likable, and Katie was ok i guess.

Beauty.... uh.

Eliminated in this episode was Beth, and while I don't really agree with that since had she lasted slightly longer this would be her best season, but it was a good twist to see Heather take her down like that.

Final Score: 8/10

Brawn Within a Beauty

Wow. I raged a lot about this episode when it ended. But actually, it wasn't as bad as I remember it. Yeah. It's a major stepback from the first three episodes, but it wasn't too terrible. I think the main problem with the episode is the challenge. Everyone must work in twos, and at a time like this in the season, that sort of limits what kind of storylines you can even do in the episode. I mean sure, most pairs were pretty fun to watch, and the team switch had a point and wasn't nearly as bad as the TB switches, but it's just a mediocre episode. Cody was eliminated, which I... heh, made clear I didn't like. But actually, it was okay that Cody was eliminated. As always, Cody was middle of the road for me. But I realized that if he lasted much longer, the love triangle would most likely overstay its welcome. It's much funnier as a shortlived gag that delivered pretty well. Heather also kissing Cody while covered in barf is symbolic.

Final Score: 6/10

Thoughts 'N Dumb-Dumbs

Well... uh... bleh. The challenge was another dull one, and although I was the randomizer, contestants left this challenge in such anti-climactic ways. The episode isn't too long so there isn't much character development either. I can't remember much from the episode to be frank. Amy was eliminated, which is good because she's not as good as she used to be. But yeah, this episode is... an episode.

Final Score: 3/10

Contestants Meet Insanity

Another pretty bad episode. It's trivia, yuck. Challenge is anti-climactic as ever, but unlike Thoughts 'N Dumb-Dumbs, this episode seemed like it was building up to something huge. Izzy is in a forest and then... a trivia challenge about her. If there isn't a challenge in the future involving tracking Izzy down, then all that explanation was worth NOTHING. Lindsay was eliminated, and not much changed cause she's also decreased in quality. It's just not a good episode.

Final Score: 4/10

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater

Ah. Scott makes everything better (troll). This episode is fantastic. It's a boxing challenge, which madefor some intense action. Samey vs Sky? Lightning vs Scott? Heather and Scarlett vs Katie and Sadie? The whole concept of the episode already makes it really good. But all the fights are excellent in their own regard.

Samey vs Sky is an amazing fight where you don't even know who the victor will be. They fight because of Dullcan, but they fight hard. It causes Sky to be flawed yet likable, and shows some protagonist-ness of Samey.

Lightning vs Scott has a great twist at the end of Scott cheating. As it stands, it's a cringe-worthy yet funny fight.

The double battle...wow. Heather slayed but Sadie slayed harder.

Up until this point, Scott wasn't really doing much. But this episode changed that. Not only did he have depth added to him with that whole Samey conversation, but he also left with a bang. I don't need to go into too much explanation with him in this regard.

Final Score: 9/10

You're A Dirty, Vicious Rat!

Flippin' internet problems. If not for them, Scarlett would be safe, but she was eliminated. But the elimination of a significant and fantastic character didn't fully spoil the episode though. Now granted the challenge didn't actually offer too much, not to mention it's eerily similar to Thoughts 'N Dumb-Dumbs. But it had fun reunions, and is just a pretty pleasant episode. Scarlett's elimination was actually good, even if she was an amazing character. Cameron taking her down is great character development for the little guy, and the fact that Owen Lightning didn't go home is just so awful you have to laugh.

Final Score: 6/10

Blood's Downpour

Pretty good episode. Heather was mad at everyone even though only a few of her team took out Scarlett, and plus, Katie shown Heather was BALD. That's incredibly significant for Katie. It was pretty much an episode where a bunch of people interacted with Heather. But besides that, just about everyone (except Lightning) were pretty good. There was a lot of tension throughout the episode, including the exciting challenge. Definitely solid.

Final Score: 8/10

Eliminees
Noah was OOC... in his only episode. Noah should be smarter to realize how to do an f ing cliff dive challenge. He was predictable fodder, contributed nothing, and was the same old same old. Maybe if Flurry was present for most of the episode, but otherwise, Noah being gone was obvious.

Ugh. I remember when this guy was good. Duncan was boring. Sure he caused some great conflicts, but as a character himself? He sucked. There was nothing likable about him like there was in the first two seasons, and the only time I remember him shining was in the challenge.

Like I said, Beth would've been so much better had she lasted longer. In the past, Beth has been criticized for not really doing or saying much. But she really improved that in this season with interactions with people like Cameron and Heather. It's a shame she didn't last longer, but I guess pre-merge elimination is what happens when you last long all the time.

Cody is in a similar boat to Beth. Like every other season, Cody was middle of the road for me. His reactions to Lovey-Dovey Heather were cool, but besides that, Cody actually really didn't do much. It was the right time for Cody to be eliminated, but he was fun while he was around.

Ugh. I remember when Amy was good. In this season, she wasn't. Her plot with Samey barely resolved itself so if anything, she was eliminated too early. But in the time she had, what much did she really do?

I'm sorry, Tyler. But RP Lindsay is extremely overrated. She barely ever has a plot to speak of, and in this season, I disliked her cause she always stated the obvious. She barely ever contributed to anything I can think of, so it was fitting for her to go at this time.

Scott was good. But since I was so pre-occupied with Heathy, I couldn't really do much with the guy until his elimination episode. He was complimented after that episode, which I like. He was moderately good, but I am glad he was eliminated at this time, because... come on. He needs to end soon with Scugourtney and all that.

Oh, Scarlett. You were, as always a good RP character. Sadly, Scarlett didn't shine as much as in TB for the simple fact that she didn't last as long. She should've stayed instead of that insignificant comic relief of a RP floater. She had an amazing frenemy interaction with Heather, her vocabulary is awesome, and her usage of vermin is a pleasure.

Anne Maria was okay. Sadly, due to the team she was on for most of the game, she didn't really develop too much. She was always mean, sometimes unjustifiably (even to Heather :O). If there's one thing I did like about her though, it's her development with Lightning. She seems to really care about making things up with him, so it's interesting to see where things will go from there.

People Who Have Made It Past First Half
Alejandro? Freddie wants Sky to last longer than him. Alejandro is pretty much 9th already. He's been an amazing character to watch, but I know of the hardship of playing two characters at the same time.

Cameron is an entertaining character. But he was a finalist. So him being in the finale is pretty slim.

HEATHER!! Dem haters sayin she's going first. I like showing this main antagonist stuff from Heather. Y'all just jealous that you ain't fabulous like this bae.

Katie is neutral for me. I love her interactions with Heather, but she has no real plot to speak of.

Lightning should just get 8th already and get his goodbyes over with.

Sadie is pretty good, however, she hasn't really changed much or developed. Izzy is good at roleplaying though and with twists, so maybe she can be better.

Samey had a slow start, but lately, she's been pretty good. I like her going through all this sh** she has to fight back, and her interaction with Sky is magnifiquo or however you spell it.

Sky is a good character. But like Cameron, it's unlikely she'll make the finale. She's been having good interactions with... well, pretty much everybody. Once Al goes, Sky will definitely stand out more and show her goodness.

Tyler improved majorly from TB. He's sort of like TDI Lindsay in a way, but with even more shocking developments. He also is a Trademark brand name all over the merge and how could you not love this guy?

Well, there is my thoughts. As you can see, I think of this season as mostly good. A few pitfalls here and there, but nothing to complain about. Hopefully the second half is just as good. Chaow.