The Challenge Retrospective Part 2: Battle of the Seasons 2002

Season 5 is a much better season than the first 4, I'd say it's actually a pretty decent season of the show overall. Episode 1 was really good, but the boots are quite unfortunate as we take out probably the best characters of the first 4 seasons (Veronica and Beth) off the bat, which was a huge loss to the show for me. Beth is amazing for her one episode run, Jon Brennan is so forgettable and boring, nothing about him is interesting aside from the fact he was a two-time first boot, as we will get to for a later part of this retrospective. Yes and Veronica had basically nothing to do, with Beth being probably the biggest star of the episode to me. Episode MVP: Beth by a longshot Episode 2 (or I guess episodes 3/4) is interesting, with drama about booting the weakest links or biggest threats being a decent bit of strategy that we just didn't see on the earlier seasons. The Hurricane episode despite being challenge-less, is not boring somehow? We got drama about the baby, a bunch of fighting amongst the teams and a toga party out of it. The Real World ends up agreeing to boot their weakest links, but some of them would rather boot Steven regardless because of the slap on his real-world season, which is kinda funny as I watched that season and my god, what a moment. Lindsay keeps trying to justify the slap, which is a bit weird and came off like she was trying to gaslight herself more than anyone in the audience. Sharon and Mike are voted off alongside Chadwick and Piggy. Honestly, to talk about the boots, Chadwick made some good drama despite being only there for 2 episodes with him being cutthroat. Piggy was entertaining but didn't last long. Sharon was fun at the toga party but mostly just boring and the same for Mike. Episode MVP: It was close between a couple people, but I went with Chadwick since he didn't have the icky side like some of the Stephen content. Episode 3 (5/6) is a bit more boring of a season, I really don't like the comment from Stephen about Coral not being a real black woman, that comment is icky and God Steven is just so unlikeable from every standpoint. I like Coral a lot this episode with her not taking Stephen's comments lightly and calling him out on it. I hate Stephen immensely, and him going home was so deserved, I don't care if he was a good performer, his comments and his attitude and the slap on his real-world season make him not fun to root against even. He's not like other villains where he makes somewhat icky comments but you moreso root against them like an Amanda for example or Beth, he just constantly says hateful stuff. He's just uncomfortable to watch. Poor Lindsay deserved better, she seems like a nice person but was attached to Stephen. Belou was interesting, but mostly for the baby stuff. Chris was boring, I can't remember anything about him. Episode MVP: Coral Episode 4 (6) is a boring episode. The challenge was kinda funny but was mostly bland bc nobody except Theo and Holly could even do it right. Mike and Flora basically didn't exist in the edit. Mike was forgettable. Flora just didn't do anything and pissed off the producers with a pay dispute which is kinda interesting but not show related. Jisela was a fun personality and had a good dynamic with Adam, I liked that Adam was not as much of a jerk as he'd become in his later seasons, he was decently likeable but mostly just alright. Episode MVP: Theo Episode 5 (7/8) is alright, it has a showmance buildup with the Miz and Tara I believe. It's interesting to see Mike show his persona before he became Mike the Miz on WWE. This is the last episode with a proper elimination, the two pairs going home being Holly and Josh and Becky and Norman. Norman had drama with Beth in episode 1 but then becomes forgettable after. Josh seems fun but didn't have much to do on the show. Holly was likeable but kinda forgettable. Becky was boring. Episode MVP: Mike The Miz Episodes 9-15 all have no elims and honestly I found them boring. Road Rules cut all their strong players so Real World is winning the final from very early on, let's talk about the finalists. Finalists: Holly was good, better than the other holly and had a huge move. Theo is probably the standout of the whole cast at least competitively and had a ton of personality. Timmy was funny, I've always liked Timmy. Emily is interesting with a lot of good drama and her fights with Holly and Chadwick were fun. I liked her a lot more on this season. Dan was fine but nothing special. Tara didn't leave a mark aside from I guess the thing with Mike. Danny and Kelly are forgettable and boring, I forgot they were even on the season but were strong performers. Mike and Coral are the stars of this season, the best part of it by far. and honestly, I think they carried a lot of this season, got into drama, had a lot of personality, had smart strategy, etc. Sean and Elka were not very memorable, Sean was probably more memorable on his first season to me. Elka was a little more memorable to me but didn't do all too much. That concludes my retrospective on Battle of the Seasons 2002, I think it was far better than the first four seasons. Cast: 4/10 (way too many boring or unlikeable figures unfortunately) Gameplay: 3/10 (More interesting than anything before it but really boils down to just: Do we keep the strong or cut people we hate?) Challenges: 3/10 (Still not quite as good as they'll become later on, but better than the challenges in the first four seasons) Drama: 4/10 (The biggest problem with it is how icky a lot of it is, aside from like the Beth drama and the Veronica drama and Emily's drama, a lot of the drama was focused on someone I just find uncomfortable to watch, that being Stephen. There was enough good here to be above a lot of other seasons, but I doubt it'll remain the best season for long.) FINAL RATING: 14/40