Reflecting on the season, for the time we had it, there are certain things I wish they'd done differently, but I was fairly pleased overall. I thought the cast was a bunch of duds, but as they got more comfortable with each other, I came to like each and every one of those retards, in their own way. I know people didn't really care much for Dan or Ellie, but they had their own subtle moments.
If I had to single out any one particular thing that I think production needs to think about, it's the level of obfuscation and gaslighting that goes on around the structure of the show. Only a chaos agent like Freddy thrives in that environment. Direnc and Aryeh, who were both game to do pretty much any challenge, routinely started crashing out as it became apparent to them that there really weren't any rules in place. I'm not saying they should drop the gaslighting and other shenanigans, they're Fishtank DNA. But Direnc correctly pointed out that with no semblance of structure whatsoever and an anything goes environment, it's pretty demoralizing for the broader scope of the show and unmotivating for the more intense challenges. This season's cell was absolutely wild, but it's hard to want to endure something like that if someone can just steal your money while you're sleeping, and you have absolutely no idea whether you'll be paid whatsoever in the first place.
"You can steal fishbucks" was a bad idea. "You can shove people out of the house" was a bad idea. Having said that, these bad ideas generated good content, but I think unless they dial it back a bit, in the greater scope of the show, I don't think I could deal with 4 weeks of Aryeh and Direnc (somewhat rightfully) bitching about the rules and not wanting to participate.
