User blog comment:Rhonda the stalker fan!/Total Drama 30 Day Challenge: Day 8/Happy Anniversary Total Drama!/@comment-1034367-20180709210529

When I look back on TDI, the first things that come to mind, if not memories of watching the show itself, are the conversations I had with friends in middle school about the show as it aired. Something I wish I'd gotten to experience in my lifetime is the societal phenomenon/boom of Survivor in its early days, but I guess I got to have that a little bit with TDI because I don't think anyone in my 5th grade class hadn't been keeping up with it that summer. Everyone wanted to play in the mock TDI game we'd orchestrate at recess/lunch – I got 4th out of some 20ish people but it was rigged both for and agiainst me! – and I remember the boom of excitement when someone found out that TDA was coming the following summer.

Aside from that, the season itself captures some kind of pure intrigue of 22 different (okay, 21 if you count Katie and Sadie as the same) teenage stereotypes and a hypothetical of how they'd interact. Like, yeah, to a certain extent you can't really call it a "social experiment" because it's not real people, but it's one of the more unique character studies of middle/high school-aged kids that you'll see on TV. (all this being said, it's a cartoon whose sole purpose is to entertain...so some of this might just be my warped perception)