User blog comment:Rhonda the stalker fan!/Total Drama 30 Day Challenge: Day 8/Happy Anniversary Total Drama!/@comment-1815989-20180710003023

Most of my thoughts have been told there. I don't think I've ever got hooked on a show as I got with TDI back then. First, I loved the whole "social experiment" from every reality shows, but this time with 22 different teenage drama stereotypes. I don't think there was a cartoon like that, and it was interesting to see how they'd interact and compete against each other. As well as the development, like watching Duncan being the tough guy but slowly showing a kinder side, or the Gwen and Leshawna friendship naturally evolving despite the fact they were complete mismatches, and Heather's reign of horror and continuous survival all the way to her downfall.

There was also the whole continuity aspect. Most of the cartoons I watched as a child didn't have that, the ones I can think of right now are all animes, or quasi-anime like The Last Airbender (another show I got addicted to as a child). After every episode, I couldn't wait for the next week to see what would happen next, who would get voted off, I remember one day I missed an episode and got PISSED (reminder that reruns aired on the very next day, which I did watch then, so yeah I got pissed for watching it a day later). The sense of unpredictability, you never knew what could happen, it was exciting.

So yeah, there were many revolutionary, different, unique cartoons when I was growing up, but TDI was perhaps the one that was the most different from anything I'd seen before.