Lotta bad posts in the thread the past few hours. Think people should stop doomposting and just fucking wait, this isn't a normal reality tv show where the contestants drop and that's that, freeloaders can be introduced at any time as true wildcards to ruffle up the fishes uhh...gills. Just fucking wait, especially when it hasn't even been 24 hours since Cole jet. Remember peoples initial reactions when Jon left, so many people swore the show was completely over and it wouldn't be entertaining.
I also hope the show recovers as I find it entertaining and I have the time of my life when the show hits high levels of kino, however I would argue that the show has never been in a worse spot.
Season one at least had other content besides Jon and characters you could attach on to after he took his leave. Vance had his weird scheming plots and was easy to hate on for his ego, Josie talked to the camera and attracted all the TTS and fish toys. Letty was made into an underdog that everyone could root for (although it was uncommon outside of this thread at the time). Damiel, while annoying, at least provided some sense of purpose in messing with the fish and being a wigger. Hell even Sylvia had more soul then the current contestants.
Even more important is the dynamics these fish had. How they bounced off of each other. Vance in a vacuum is boring but Vance with Letty is a seething rivalry. Damiel in a vacuum is boring but Damiel in the presence of Sylvia, Vance, and Josie is a team united against Letty.
The remaining fish do not have this in my opinion. Brian was the head of a movement against Cole and a serious rival, now without Cole he’s a self pitying druggy loser. TJ while “innocent” is boring and had no conflict except when plotting against Cole with everyone else. Tay is also nontent but she sometimes talks to the camera and has nowhere near the support Josie had. Trish is content but only when paid to do something, other than that she is completely unlikable. Jimmy makes content but is also severely unlikable and gets on people’s nerves. He doesn’t get on people nerves in a fun way like Vance having an ego either, he’s just annoying. Shinji, while likable lacks any type of inspiration to fight against his fellow contestants. He is too nice.
How do the fish bounce off of each other now? There’s no hatred or true contempt. No desire to screw over your fellow contestant because you dislike them. It is the definition of the criticism that is “Jet’s friend simulator”. Whether you like Cole or not (personally outside of the show he seems to be an ass) inside the show post Summer and JC eliminations he was content. That content just got kicked out the door.
When you remove one fish, especially one that the rest of the house relies on for their own character and arcs it destroys everything. You could argue that happened during season one sure, but the contestants didn’t solely rely on Jon himself for what they did, and as a result it made a recovery in some sense. It’s just hard to conceive how they can recover at the moment. A freeloader would be nice, but it will be difficult to return to the same level we were at during the start of day 10 or day 5.
