Total Drama Review Week 28: Alien Resurr-eggtion

It’s the big change that changes the course of the entire season. The idea to pit Gwen versus Trent is great, and the slow build of her getting along better with Duncan shows the commitment to the long game that this show has. Also, a double elimination! It’s the first one in this show’s history, and it has lasting impact. First, let’s talk about the episode’s genre.

Aliens! I love the Alien franchise (well some of them) and this episode did a great job parodying everything from Alien to Independence Day. The three rules were fairly accurate, and gave them great set piece moments. Beth standing up and running into Geoff and Bridgette was one of my favorite moments, as well as Chris dropping the goop bomb on everyone. The E-Scope and Chef fight though might be the best moment of all. Between the bigger guns, the bullet time, and the “oh no, not again,” it was one of the show’s best scenes.

It’s crazy to think we still have 22 episodes left, and only 12 contestants, or castmates rather. This season we get to spend a lot more time on plot stuff, as we’ve already seen between Owen’s constipation, and the developing Gwen and Trent stuff. There’s no rush this season, and the decision to wait until the third episode to make the teams shows a commitment to the season’s slower pace. This has the distinction of being the only pre-merge episode to not have any teams in the entire episode. It’s a very different feel from most episodes, and I wish they would have played with it more.

Finally, let’s talk that about that elimination. Geoff and Bridgette, gone in two episodes. The fact that we started the season by getting rid of two contestants who made it to the merge last season shows that this isn’t just a repeat of last time, it’s a whole new show. Geoff and Bridgette aren’t gone for good though, we’ll see them soon enough. Till then, we have great new dynamics set up, with Beth, Justin, Harold, and even E-Scope feeling like they have a bigger role and more character. Gwen, Trent, and all the other established characters like Heather and Duncan still feel great, but we’re used to seeing them at this point.

I give the episode an 8.5/10, it’s a solid, fun episode with a lot of setup for the season. So we’re down to twelve, and I’ll see you all next week for “Riot on Set!”

Tags: total drama