User blog:Sunshineandravioli/Sunshine Talks About TD:WT Premiere (Why? Because She Can!)

'''WARNING! This blog post contains spoilers about the recently aired series premeire of Total Drama: World Tour. If you haven't seen the episode and don't wish to be spoiled, don't read! Thanks! -Sunshine'''

Well, I have to admit, before watching the first episode of the long-awaited third Total Drama season, I was prepared for the worst. After all, we all know how last season was... so, as I turned on Cartoon Network last night, I conceded that there was a decent chance I was going to be disappointed with the new season.

Thankfully, I was wrong.

As far as I can tell from this first episode, Walk Like An Egyptian- Part 1, TD:WT is a far cry from its predecessor (in particular the second half of the season, as IMO it was okay up to "3:10 to Crazytown" or so). The writing is smart and funny, most of the cast is far more likable and believable than it was last time around, and in all honesty, the musical number wasn't half bad. It's certainly not at the same level as the first season (I doubt any of the predecessors will be, but who knows, I could be wrong), but if it keeps up this kind of quality throughout and doesn't degrade as TDA did, I'll be pleased.

(ONE LAST WARNING, major spoilers start here! Turn back if you don't want to know what happened!)

As with any new Total Drama season, the episode starts with Chris re-introducing all our favorite characters! (Well, they may not be your favorite characters, but how am I supposed to know?) Right then and there we get some nice interactions going on between the characters, like some familiar squabbling between Gwen and Heather (would you expect anything less?), and a funny scene where DJ has to drag the aerophobic Owen off the bus (much appreciated nod to season 1 acheived!). Noah and Harold have a nice verbal conflict going on, with Harold off spouting his usual trivial knowledge and Noah characteristically responding with a sarcastic quip. Right from the second he stepped off that bus, I was glad to have Noah back on the show; it's obvious a lot of thought goes into writing his lines and the results are great. Gwen shares a mutual grin with Duncan and recieves a death glare from our favorite CIT in response... you just know that's going to lead to some bad stuff goin' down later in the season. Then... Ezekiel steps off the bus. "Yo, yo, yo! This year's winner is in the house... eh, bus... I mean.... runwayyyy!" The minute he said that, I knew that this season was going to be a good one for our homeschooled friend in terms of character development. No longer is he just the home-schooled sexist no one really cares about- he's flippin' ANNOYING. But in a really hilarious way, which I can only assume is going to be milked for humor throughout the season. I seriously hope they don't go and kick him off early again, as keeping him around would be great for both him and for the show (though honestly, I can see why his fellow contestants would want to eliminate him the first chance they get...).

As I'm sure y'all know by now, we also have two new contestants on the show this time around. The first one to step off the bus and into potential reality-show fame was none other than Alejandro, whom at first glance seems to be Justin, but Spanish. But there is a difference between our old and new Total Drama man-candies: Alejandro is smart. Justin, as I'm sure you remember, got the girls to follow his epic looks and paid no attention to the guys' jealous stares, and was subsequently helpless when his allure faded away. Alejandro steps off the bus and treats both girls and guys with equal respect and kindness (which subsequently led to my favorite line from the returning Tyler: as Alejandro helped him up from the ground, he hastily insisted, "I like girls!" Man, am I glad to have him back; it's obvious he's going to be a chief source of humor this time around, and a very good one at that). Furthermore, he keeps his implied antagonistic intent well-hidden, only even hinting at it in his Spanish rant in the confessional towards the episode's closure. If he keeps this up, he could very well be the most dangerous contenstant in Total Drama history.

Then... there's Sierra. I know I'm going out on a limb here and am probably alone in this opinion, but... I really like her. Yes, seriously. I adore this girl. Yes, her voice can get annoying and her character is probably going to grate on my nerves a little bit as the show goes on, but I think she's honestly hilarious. She's probably what you'd get if you took everything on this wiki, mixed it together in a blender, made it a human girl, and gave it a purple braid. The minute she steps off the bus, squealing and hyperventilating and talking about dreams she had about seeing Cody shirtless (...), you can't help but think, "Dear God, this girl is insane!" But if you ask me, I think we're going to love her and laugh at her anyways, because, well, that's us up there! The queen of all us Total Drama superfans! She's there to represent us, who have Duncan posters on our walls and scour the internet for new clips and who sit here at their computers writing fanfictions about these characters! (On that note, if she ends up talking about writing Total Drama fics, I am going to die laughing and love her forever.) It's that connection she has with the fandom, that bit of ourselves we see in her rabid rambles, that I feel is going to make us warm to her in the end, as I already have.

Well, once all the characters are introduced and re-introduced, Chris takes us on a little tour of the very unsafe-looking Total Drama Jumbo Jet (piloted by Chef, which I'm pretty sure sets this plane way below safety standards). There's no pretty sparkly Makeup Confessional this time around, as LeShawna quickly discovers- yup, the confessional cam has been moved to the plane's bathroom. Lovely. LeShawna, of course, has no qualms about putting into words what I'm sure all of us were thinking at that time- "There's a camera in the potty... AGAIN?!" Meanwhile, Owen has been knocked out by Chris to avoid his aerophobic panic attacks (something I'm sure came as a relief to the surprisingly many of you here who dislike the 296-pound bundle of joy), the contestants learn that they'll be forced to sing this season (oh Chris, you sadist), Alejandro gets Lindsay fooled, for the third season in a row (will she ever learn?) by his charms (and Tyler subsequently makes an effort to get himself back in his girl's good graces, which unsuprisingly backfires and gets him hurt), Heather complains about Alejandro's "transparency" in the other confessional present in the cockpit (where Chef points out that Alejandro is "deliciously seductive", a statement that Heather hastily denies thinking and makes me giggle at the thought of what an awesome pairing Alejandro x Heather would be) and decides to befriend Sierra for strategic reasons, and Ezekiel prattles on... and on... and on (yeah, starting to grate on all of our nerves by this point, I'll assume; I still stand by my "this is good character development for him" speech, though). Chris decides to resolve this issue in a creative way... he chucks Zeke out of the moving plane and declares him eliminated. Oh noes! Don't worry; offscreen, our homeschooled hillbilly worms his way back on the plane by climbing the plane's landing gear and hiding in the cargo hold. Pretty crafty for someone who's probably never seen a plane before.

So, the contenstants sit in the lunch cabin as the TDJJ soars across the ocean towards lands unknown, when all of a sudden... ding ding! A cute little bell sounds, and in pops Chris clad in tuxedo and top hat, explaining that whenever they hear that sound they'll have to perform a musical number that they make up on the spot, and that failing to do so means instant elimination. Now, I'll admit, at this point I cringed away from the TV and anticipated something similar to the Drama Brothers' "When I Cry" (oh God, it burns!!! Make it go away!!!). Thankfully, I was wrong once again. The musical number, "Come Fly With Us", was actually pretty cute and catchy, with some memorable lines and surprising singing talent thrown in. Izzy's brief, rap-styled interjection faintly reminds me of Little Shop of Horrors for whatever reason, Duncan's deadbeat, monotone line was hilarious, and Courtney, of course, tries to steal the show (as much as I love Ms. Barlow's voice and concede she's an excellent singer, having her sing as Courtney- who attempts to hog all the limelight she can in her performances- is seriously going to grate on my nerves in the future). The interjection from Heather and Chef (Heather, clinging to co-pilot seat in cockpit for dear life: "Do you know how to steer this thing?!" Chef, feet propped up on the dashboard and hands behind his head, staring into space disinterestedly: "I try.") made me crack up laughing. Then we cut to the cargo hold where Zekie rises out of a duffle bag dramatically, complete with a random spotlight shining down, which leads to what IMO was the biggest surprise of the episode: he actually has a really great singing voice. Seriously, if you ask me, he's probably the best singer out of all the male contestants. Right after this shocker, we have what may very well be the most memorable, hilarious line of the episode- Noah singing, "Come fly with us... come die with us!" I will forever adore that line, as I'm sure most people will. I'm not sure what to think of his singing yet, as it's not amazing yet it's definately above average. It's definately distinct, though, since Noah has such a distinct tone to his voice. After being reminded that not singing will result in elimination, Gwen and Duncan reluctantly do their part. Gwen, I can see why she wouldn't want to sing, as her voice is average at best. Duncan, however, actually sang pretty well, and I can honestly say seeing him in the center of all the other contestants as he dramatically belted out, "This sucks!" was a highlight of the episode for me. So, everyone passes for singing and the plane lands in our first location of the new series- Egypt!

As Chris demonstrates upon landing, this show isn't going to be focused solely on music; the contestants will still be competing in familiar deadly challenges, and it seems the musical numbers are just an added obstacle to keep them away from the million. This episode's challenge: Pyramid Over Under, where the contenstants have to get to the other side of the pyramid by going ever over or under it. Since there aren't any teams at this point, most of them split off into small groups semi-unconsiously, more or less following their comrades or people they think might help them win. The Duncan-Courtney pair is joined by Gwen in going over, which leads to our two girls snapping at each other throughout, much to Dunc's annoyance. Alejandro, Bridgette, Lindsay, and Tyler (though Tyler is more or less on his own thanks to our man-candy) go over as well, leading to Lindsay's hilarious description of Alejandro being "the super cutest mountain goat in the world!" (Tyler, hilariously, tries to gain Lindsay's attention by saying, "Wait! I can be a goat!" "Lindsay! I'm a goat! Bahhh!") Owen, Izzy, and Noah venture through the pyramid, leading to some hilarious interactions between the group, almost more so when Izzy ventures off and leaves Owen and Noah to bounce off each other, leading to some great straight guy-dumb guy humor and some funny sarcastic comments from Noah ("She made us walk in circles because she 'smelled something lucky'!") DJ, LeShawna, and Harold group together and go through the pyramid, which was probably one of the less interesting groups (Harold was much funnier before the challenge with his aluminum foil hat to defend from mind-reading aliens, and when they got out of the pyramid and he was translating numbers into Egyptian for Chris, much to everyone's dismay). Heather and Sierra go off through the pyramid together as Heather struggles not to lose her temper with her annoying potential alliance member, and they're joined by Cody later on. Finally, Ezekiel (who demanded Chris still let him compete) wanders off into the pyramid on his own.

After much chaos, including but not limited to various Tyler mishaps where he falls down the pyramid repeatedly, Bridgette using a sign to "surf" down the pyramid with Lindsay and Alejandro, Owen inadvertantly hitting on a mummified Ezekiel- he believes it's Izzy, who requested that he and Noah "mummy [her]" earlier- and subsequently fleeing in terror with Noah as they assume he's a real mummy, and Mummy Izzy attempting to sing again (she actually has a good singing voice, which faintly reminds me of Broadway musicals for some reason; I really have to give Katie Crown immense respect for being able to do so much awesome stuff with Izzy's voice), we end up with Gwen, Courtney, and Duncan atop the pyramid and our two "mummies" still inside. Everyone else has completed the challenge and is divided into three teams- Team 1 consists of LeShawna, Harold, DJ, Bridgette, and Lindsay; Team 2 is made up of Alejandro, Noah, Owen, Tyler and Sierra; Team 3 currently has only Heather and Cody. As Courtney and Gwen debate over the best way to get down the pyramid and Duncan looks on in aggrivation, obviously on his last nerve... ding ding! Chris calls for another song, in spite of claiming earlier that there would only be one song per episode (he insists that this one is a "reprise", not a whole other song). Well, that's the last straw for Duncan. He charges down the pyramid, dragging Courtney and Gwen behind him in humerous fashion, and informs Chris that he is fed up and thus quitting the game! Gaspeth! NOOO! Well, at least as consilation for Dunky's loss, Chris allows Ezekiel to be an official contestant again. Honestly, I prefer Duncan go and Ezekiel stay than the other way around. We know who Duncan is already, I want to see who Ezekiel turns out to be with this chance at character development. Besides, based on previews for future episodes of the series, CN's all but stating outright that we haven't seen the last of Duncan.

So we end up with our final three teams: Team 1 (LeShawna, Harold, DJ, Bridgette, Lindsay and Ezekiel), Team 2 (Alejandro, Noah, Owen, Tyler and Sierra), and Team 3 (Courtney, Gwen, Heather, Izzy and Cody), all of whom Chris gives the opportunity to name themselves. Team 1 quickly decides to dub themselves "Team Victory", with their logo being a stylized trophy. Team 3 settles on the title "Team Amazon" (apparently a reference to the female Amazon warriors, since the team is all girls minus an unfortunate- or fortunate, depending on your viewpoint- Cody), with their logo being a pink ♀ sign. Team 2 has more difficulty in choosing, debating quietly amongst themselves, before they're unfortunate enough to have Sierra blurt out the name "Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Hot" (which, of course, becomes their name, sporting a logo with Chris' face). They then recieve their awards for the previous challenge- Team Amazon gets a camel, Team CIRRRRH recieves a goat, and Team Victory ends up with a stick. The purpose of these prizes is to be explained in the next installment...

So, overall, the episode surprised me in all positive ways. The writing was much better than in TDA, the characters finally acting more like themselves, the musical numbers better than I expected, and overall much more redeeming than most of us thought it would be. If the show keeps this up, I just might be willing to forget TDA ever happened.