Rewatching S4 in this content drought, it's funnier than I remembered. Freddy is likeable (holy fuck has he degenerated), Areyeh is actually funny as fuck, Direnc is interesting and a strong competitor. Rachel is a head case, literally the most insane fish of all time bar none. Kino ad included.
Fishtank - Education Connection (Uncensored).mp4
He's likeable until you realize it's a complete facade. He runs a completely fabricated character that reveals his true self when he's not sober. I'm sorry but it's not that he's a bad drunk but that he no longer holds back his true intentions when he's not sober.
Aryeh is funny in the sense that you can point and laugh at him in a zoo situation. He is not a type of funny where you think I want to be around this guy to hear some insane shit he'll come up with. He's the type of guy you gawk at from the other side of the classroom and think yea that guy is not moving up anytime in life.
Rachel would be one of the most insane fish if it weren't for the fact she's extremely annoying and took time to be an investment in to work. I'd argue any "insane" fish we've had COULD COMPLETELY function on their own insanity and run with that. Rachel relied heavily on the fact that she was constantly AND I MEANT CONSTANTLY threatening to leave and just putting complete bull shit statements in the air that just ticked me the wrong way.
S4 had a cast that were essentially all lesser forms of character types we've had in previous seasons or even were demolished in S5 in terms of actual interest. Rather have real normie Drake than fake normie Freddy who puts up a literal character act to be liked. We all know he does that because we all know his real personality is god awful that's why he's a horrible drunk. He literally can't help himself but be himself when he's drunk and that shows how fake he is. All those words he says are nothing when your actions always seemingly contradict those words. In some sense he often shows self-awareness but always seemingly in moments lack it or forgets how he's aware of his issues. He's likeable to easily manipulated people. It's a facade.
The only thing I will agree on is that Direnc was a fucking female warrior. A truly more woken form than Tay in S2. She legit wasn't pure schizo or even when she was, she acted upon it with a strong will. Direnc was wasted on S4 just like Drake likely wouldn't have hit full potential on S3. I feel bad Direnc couldn't have been the exception to the fake buy back clause (as in Direnc should've been given opportunity to be on S5 unlike the other contestants I don't care for), because I am confident Direnc would've been a far better contender to the top 3 of Bashir, Drake, and then herself. No offense to the twins who are insanely loveable but competitively Direnc, Bashir, and Drake would've been the equivalent of S2's Tay, TJ, and Shinji but on roids.
This is speaking as someone who could afford to spend that summer break watching the live and on top of that I've watched the recaps as well. My consensus is that I don't believe S4 will ever be liked compared to the current set of seasons we have for the majority of the audience. Certain individuals will enjoy it of course, but I mean more power to you. The reality is that season getting cut short and on top of that ruining whatever sentiment people had for that season with the horrible production of the Fallout Bunker after they lost the ability to stream from within the house just left an extremely bad taste in my mouth as someone who committed to watching the lives and recaps (recap for anything that happened past 9PM I had to watch the recaps).