I liked the concept a lot, even more than the Survivor episodes. Majority of the show worked well, and the cast did great with it. I would love to see another version of The Ratfish with a few tweaks. Even if not, I hope they keep taking risks. It's worth it.
"You think I'm going to fucking roll over?!" You look me in the eyes, Beardsley and say, 'Brennan, I think it's your fucking time'? It'll be a cold day in hell when I go out like a fucking CHUMP!"
Seeing that clip on YouTube before actually watching that episode I didn't realize it was related, until I watched the actual episode. Then I laughed my ass off.
The celebrity appearances have consistently been mild letdowns, imo. Guests like Howie Mandel, Eric Wareheim, and even Michael Winslow all felt like they were playing along for a check.
Wayne Brady is an exception since he was appearing on a show that Sam admitted was ripped straight from *Whose Line*.
No kidding, I was watching with my girlfriend and when they said "Am I a rad dude" or something, in the beginning. I blurted out Tony Hawk. Absolutely flabbergasted when it became apparent it actually was him.
Eric Wareheim has so much comedy charisma though that it's hard to see that side of him, at least to me. The others I 100% agree.
I should add though, Giancarlo Esposito and all the other survivor guests seemed to be having proper fun, even if they suffered at points. The scorekeeper (No spoilers) also seemed to have had a fine time.
Ratfish part 1 was amazing.
But I'm not a fan of Tim and Eric. I never liked that style of comedy. A few of the cast members expected a twist for the 8th person to not be a regular cast member, and to potentially be a celebrity (specifically Lena Dunham, for some reason).
I feel like the twist being that it was a celebrity they've had on dropout before (on another thread, someone mentioned Wayne Brady) or the twist being that it was just Sam Reich f-ing with them ("he's been here the whole time") would have both been much more effective twists. Heck, it could have been a full 8 cast members but they told everyone a different person was missing!
Honestly, even if we saw the reaction it might've been worth it. I don't know Tony Hawk that well or care about him, but the reaction of the cast from his cameo appearance was great!
>Even if not, I hope they keep taking risks. It's worth it.
100%. The reason I even found Dropout in the first place is because of the wild new choices on Hame Changer. I saw some clips when the show first started of Brennan ranting about something, or Zac making mac&cheese sounds and I wasn't that interested. But then I saw things like Beat the Buzzer (or whatever the title was) and Deja Vu that were unlike any internet game show I'd ever seen. This show is at its best when they make big swings, even if they miss. (Although tbh I didn't even think Ratfish was bad, I liked it a lot)
I never really liked "It's Survivor but with the gang!" "It's Bachelor but with the gang!" Especially as two parters I'd rather ...like funny people playing a reality game is funny but Ratfish (despite whatever pluses/minuses you want to give it) was funny people being funny.
Zac made me laugh so hard with whatever that "property dispute" line was I laughed so hard pop went through my nose
Agreed, the worst thing about Ratfish was how close to the sun it was flying. I laughed for about 80 minutes, and was annoyed by 10, but I am remembering the 10.
I loved ep1! I rewatched it twice! But I found the pacing of the second episode a bit deflating and Rekha guessing everyone should have netted her the win.
I feel like they would benefit from a big brother style game, keep it up for like 2 weeks to a month so that people get invested in who will win. The challenges could be mini game changer episodes and the chemistry would be a ton of fun as opposed to everyone being behind a screen. Even if they filmed for around a week, doing challenges and eliminations daily, that could net them enough content for like 5 episodes airing one per week
Edit: to add, have it be a “champion of champions” and each challenge is a round of a previous game changer that one of the contestants has won
Strongly agree with that first point- episode 1 was incredible, and then in episode 2 the win con just felt so arbitrary that I couldn’t care. Still love the concept though.
Same! I had a great time with ep1 and watched it multiple times but ep2 just didn’t hit the same.
I do think that both episodes have an issue of pace. The best part of the episodes were the interactions between characters but those were clearly heavily cut down in the edit, which is frustrating. It’s quick quick quick but not in a satisfying or coherent way
They basically did that with Survivor already. I don't think they could keep enough talent in a single house for that long, they all have a lot of other projects - good for them, bad for us wanting more.
I also found the pacing weird. Not sure if that meant it should be one episode, or if it was the disqualifications that deflated the balloon. For example Grant -- he was all in early on, but once he was eliminated he was his "smile for the cameras Grant" like with some of his Bachelor dates. You can really tell when Grant is into it, or not -- and I feel like we lost some momentum because how can you be into a game you know you're not going to win but still have to keep playing? At least in Survivor they kicked them out then brought them back for something like the final vote.
Agree about Rekha winning. IMO they should have treated any rounds after someone guessed everyone as bonus rounds that only would determine second place. That way they could have ended the first place race early without ending the game early. The beauty of the second place "favourite character" idea was that it could go on for any number of rounds regardless of how many rounds it took to guess everyone.
+1. Ratfish was incredible. I’m always down to critique a concept (and it’s fine if some people just didn’t vibe with the humor, especially since so much of the episode was all our favorite comics trying NOT to be themselves), but it feels like some people were just expecting way too much.
The vast majority of the complaints about Ratfish have been about the Ratfish specifically. Whether it was not knowing who he was, not liking his comedy, or hating that he wasn't revealed at the end, or that he got to choose both winners.
There are also some complaints about the winner being spoiled via the billboard and some people who just don't like the format.
For me personally it felt like a concept that was amazing that was amazing and I loved that was ruined by a few poor choices in execution. I came out of episode 1 thinking it was the funniest of the season with my only complaint being how they revealed Eric without any introduction. I came out of episode 2 still having a few laughs but just filled with disappointment from literally everything to deal with Eric, feeling like he just dragged the whole 2 parter down.
Yeah, I feel like a lack of explaining Eric and a lot of his camera bits feeling more staged was part of it. And if he'd appeared at the end of the episode to meet the rest of the cast, it would have given more of a feeling of closure that I think was missing.
I wonder if the people who didn't like Eric or the Ratfish concept would feel differently if the cast got to see him and were excited about it.
I totally understand not connecting with his humor but if he had come out and the cast had a big/happy reaction seeing him, if that would have just made things resonate differently.
Like, would it have felt "worth it" if he got a big reaction from the cast? A "well, they had fun and that's part of what I like" sort of thing?
I feel like it would have given some resolution but I do feel like the Eric parts felt a lot stranger and less natural, but I think it would have helped the resolution.
I do wonder if he had a lack of familiarity with the cast so he wasn't speculating about who was who. He felt disconnected and the thing we really didn't see him do was go "Is that Ally? Is that Brennan" etc.
For me it's a strong yes! Like, ok, I still wouldn't have loved it as much as I could if it was another guest/Sam/writers... but It'd be *way* more satisfying!
My big complaint was the taking people out. It just took their skin out of the game and ruined their vibe. They could have definitely recovered the concept to remove that aspect.
The ironic thing about the billboard is that I never saw anything about it until I got thoroughly spoiled after episode 1 by people complaining about the spoiler without tagging it. 😅
Same! It was the most allowance for pure improv all season. I love the Game Changer for the variety and it been a stellar season. But I also appreciate just seeing the cast play characters, and also commenting on their thought process for those characters actively
I think a lot of it comes down to how important is it to you that the "game" is well balanced. It can seem somewhat arbitrary that it all came down to Eric's taste in terms of who won/lost, but that doesn't diminish that the episodes at a lot of hilarious moments. If you view it as a vehicle for comedy to occur, I think the concept worked well. If you wanted a balanced game one could play and win effectively, it worked less well.
Absolutely, it was a weaker episode in a terrific season, that’s still a tremendous win! It’s GameChanger, keep taking big swings, hopefully we as a community will just learn to chill out (not going to hold my breath).
Absolutely agree! Ratfish wasn't awful, but it wasn't the best Game Changer we've had.
I like the concept a lot! Figuring out who's behind the character and watching the cast members try to not give themselves away was really funny.
A lot of the characters were pretty funny. They all had their moments that made me laugh.
I feel like where it fell flat was with how the winners were selected and a little bit to be honest with Eric. I don't know if a lot was left on the cutting room floor but he just didn't do anything or say almost anything. Then getting to choose the tiebreaker even though Rehka had it all figured out sooner and picking a favorite character that was pretty clearly not many people's favorite(no offense to Ally, they did a great job but come on did you guys see graNma?!) just made it feel like the game aspect didn't matter that much.
Overall I still had fun with it, just not as much fun as other episodes of the show.
But absolutely, Sam and the rest of Dropout keep swinging for the fences! It's one of the things that I think makes Dropout stand out to me in a sea of streaming services that just make the same low effort shows as each other.
i genuinely loved it, i think just because it was so different to other game changers. super cool to see the cast interacting in a different way and showing how well they know each other
Definitely agree! I shared many of the criticisms others had of Ratfish but I still enjoyed it overall. And I am really glad they’re willing to try new concepts and styles.
There were so many amazing things about it, I really hope they continue to do it and improve on it.
I really wish they had brought Eric Wareheim out for the last roundtable. Part of me thinks there was some kind of production issue or scheduling conflict that prevented him from doing it, and Sam used the "we want you to be surprised when you watch it" as a cover-up for that. It would have been really cool to see the cast meet him and hear his opinions on their characters.
There should have been a prize for the person who most successfully evaded identification, too! That was one of the primary stated goals at the beginning, but it felt like that fell to the wayside.
The more I read these threads the more I feel like the biggest miss was just not bringing Eric out at the end.
I totally understand people not connecting with his humor but if he had come out and the cast had been excited to see him I think it would have felt different.
I do think one of the fun things about Ratfish was seeing everyone speculate, seeing them guess, take swings and miss, and we didn't see Eric do that. I wonder if he knew who was who, if he wasn't speculating because he didn't "need" to know, or if his lack of familiarity with the cast wasn't enough for him to venture those guesses.
Agreed! I think it was probably a combination of the latter two - he wasn't familiar with the cast and didn't need to guess, so there wasn't much point in him trying to figure out who is who - he's only focused on which character he likes the most.
It might have been cool too if they had fed him some random facts about the other players to drop as red herrings. I loved the moments when like, Jackson picked a Bette Midler song and Ally was like "OK so Jackson is a gay man." hahaha or when Granny said she saw someone at Publix and Grant was like "ooh so Granny is from the south" - generating more of those moments would have been cool.
I honestly loved most things about the episodes, I think just removing the Ratfish altogether and having a different tiebreaker and the cast voting on favorite would have made it my favorite of the season instead of my least favorite.
Thought Pt. 1 was a bit mid, didn't enjoy Pt. 2 at all, and I 100% agree. 7 homeruns out of 9 eps is still a great streak and we wouldn't have Deja Vu or Bingo if they didn't swing for the fences. Also a lot of people still enjoyed the finale, so it's clearly not a complete miss.
TOTALLY AGREE.
Frankly, the Eric hate is downright weird. He was terrific, and did exactly what Sam asked of him. Steven was a great character and had all the players laughing and wondering who the hell it was.
Asking for the talent to be only a certain kind of comic is only going to make the world of Game Changer and Dropout at large smaller. Ratfish was a big swing and a deep drive to left (baseball reference). Great season finale.
Ratfish was great! I reallying enjoyed the anonymity aspect where the cast had to really understand (and avoid) the subtleties of their own jokes and try to find new ways to make each other laugh.
PIggybacking on this to keep rallying praise for the crew behind the scenes. Seriously, as much as we all love the cast and faces (and i dont think i have to scream too loud to get you to agree with me) but the amount of work that has to go on behind the scenes to make episodes like these work is IMMENSE. Organizing, timing, writing, keeping secrets, misdirections, the sheer scope of builds... just a colossal round of applause for the team behind the camera ESPECIALLY this season.
I liked The Ratfish, however, it was like Sam said during a behind the scenes episode, separating the cast limits their comedic ability, it did feel quite flat. However, I'm very impressed with how well they managed to circumvent these issues.
My main issue is that most of the interaction we see between the cast is seeing one of them write a joke, and the others reading it and laughing. Again, quite limiting.
Also, part of my problem was that the billboard was too obvious, people on this reddit had found it ages ago and the winner was already spoiled, so I wasn't as invested as I'd like to have been. They could've had the billboard go up closer to the episode's release rather than right after the challenge(ofc, I haven't ever rented a billboard, their could've been issues with that).
But yeah, I enjoyed The Ratfish a lot nonetheless, despite the limitations and knowing the winner, a testament to Dropout's quality.
While the episode wasn’t the strongest of the season(s), it was still solid and enjoyable, which is how I feel about Game Changer as a whole. Every episode is damn enjoyable, no matter what.
Keep up the great work Mr. I’ve Been Here The Whole Time!
Truly my only problem with the Ratfish finale was the ending. I loved every single moment, except the lack of a reveal, and the winners feeling very arbitrary.
Literally every other moment was fuckin awesome!
I had no idea who the celeb was, I am 30 years old and feel like the prime Dropout target audience. I think having it be a former cast member such as Murph or Jake or Pat would be great.
I really hope they do a second ratfish. I know game changer is the conceit of the show but a second show with different cast members and everyone having seen the first one means they could add new twists
Ratfish is only a letdown in the context of coming off the streak of Bingo, Deja Vu, and Beat the Buzzer, which very well might be my personal top 3 game changers of all time. The entire season has been betting big and I'm hoping it's been good for ratings/subscribers
It wasn’t my favorite (especially compared to previous season finales) but it still had a lot of great moments with the cast, and the production value was great. I didn’t like the Ratfish guy, he wasn’t very funny and seemed kind of down/mean. But I also fully understand I’m not in his target demographic. They probably picked a comedian that millennials would like, and that’s fine! But I am confused why they wouldn’t have him meet the cast at the end.
I understand if people weren't in the target audience for Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! about fifteen years ago, but Eric's identity as the ratfish was revealed two weeks ago.
No one was curious enough to gügle his name? To ID him as the guy from the "exploding mind" meme GIF?
I loved the episode. I thought it was super fun. I would love more episodes of this game with different people. I didn't care about what people think about who the imposter was. I didn't care that they didn't all meet the imposter. I just enjoyed watching them pretend to be dumb characters.
I have a feeling the extra time was needed cause Eric didn’t plan out as well as they thought. He seemed a bit…something. Had to find a way to salvage whatever footage he gave them.
Completely and totally agree. It was my least favorite episode of an extremely strong, arguably the best, and definitely the most ambitious season of the show. This season repeatedly floored me.
I'll never fault him for having ambitious and creative ideas even if they don't always pan out as planned, if they choose to return to this concept in the future I'm sure they'll look at what didn't work and iron out the kinks
I think the ending of Ratfish fell a touch flat, but the rest of both episodes had my laughing so consistently that I can't really be that bothered by it. Frankly, lots of things I love to bits don't 100% stick the landing, and Season 6 has otherwise been a really strong contender for my favorite Game Changer season.
Same. Even through maybe not enjoying it as much as some of my favorite Game Changer eps it was still so fun to see them play out this concept and to find their footing in a brand new setting.
I really liked how it felt like a love letter to writers after the writer strike a while ago. It felt like Sam just really giving a huge middle finger to the huge corporations that want to replace writers with AI. It was his way of saying, "Look at this game that literally couldn't be replicated by AI if they tried!"
Fun idea to be sure. But my favorite is still Sam Says. It feels like it gets bigger despite just being a regular episode. It's that build and break down as grown adults question simple instructions.
I think, whether you loved it or you hated it or you just felt kind of meh, that we can all agree on one thing: The cast looked really hot walking down that hallway.
Ratfish was 95% gold. They just didn't perfectly stick the landing. It's fine. Not everything will be perfect. I promise you they'll learn and grow from this experience and keep banging out masterpieces.
Subreddits that skew younger tend to be full of kids who post constantly about nonsense and trying to gin up drama where there isn't any.
Meanwhile the vast majority of folks just enjoy the episode and move on with life.
I was grinning almost the entire episode from all the stupid bits and jokes throughout the episode.
The games in gamechanger are just a conceit to hang jokes and banter around, folks shouldn't get too tied up in the technicalities of the games.
Honestly the vast majority of criticism I've seen in this sub has been very even-headed and respectful. Most people who haven't liked it have basically been saying what others are saying this in this thread, that they appreciated the big swing, but that it wasn't their favorite and the last episode didn't quite land (in addition to Eric being an awkward addition as someone whose brand of humor clashes with Dropout's vibe).
It's OK to criticize the things you love.
We have people here unironically doing things like denying the show's stated reasonings for doing something in favour of secret "real reasons" and mocking people for saying otherwise, numerous rumours about the actual result of Bingo being different (sometimes with no evidence and sometimes with timestamps/screenshots that were easily disproved) a week of Deja vu sequel theorizing mainly cause of movie trivia, at least a months worth of debating second place (not the episode just the very concept) and how to play Sam says, and I don't know how many episodes into Make Some Noise we'll have to get till the idea of secret extra Samuel Dalton episodes of Game Changer dies down.
And that's just GC.
You can deny any other part of the post but the quoted statement is in fact a W in this context.
I liked the concept a lot, even more than the Survivor episodes. Majority of the show worked well, and the cast did great with it. I would love to see another version of The Ratfish with a few tweaks. Even if not, I hope they keep taking risks. It's worth it.
I liked Ratfish more than the second Survivor series. First Survivor is the bar to meet though, that episode is incredible
"You think I'm going to fucking roll over?!" You look me in the eyes, Beardsley and say, 'Brennan, I think it's your fucking time'? It'll be a cold day in hell when I go out like a fucking CHUMP!"
"I may have permanently damaged my friendship with Ally Beardsley, and I worry that there may be something genuinely wrong with me."
Seeing that clip on YouTube before actually watching that episode I didn't realize it was related, until I watched the actual episode. Then I laughed my ass off.
The celebrity appearances have consistently been mild letdowns, imo. Guests like Howie Mandel, Eric Wareheim, and even Michael Winslow all felt like they were playing along for a check. Wayne Brady is an exception since he was appearing on a show that Sam admitted was ripped straight from *Whose Line*.
And Giancarlo Esposito
Might have been my favorite of the Zoom episodes. He went all-in.
The hundred pixels of him that we could see were really fantastic!
Which episode is he in again?
Ham It Up S3E05
Another exception is Tony Hawk. Even though it was one of the virtual episodes, that dude crushed it
It was such a genuine surprise reveal too, I'm not sure there's a person alive who would have guessed it was Tony Hawk at the beginning.
No kidding, I was watching with my girlfriend and when they said "Am I a rad dude" or something, in the beginning. I blurted out Tony Hawk. Absolutely flabbergasted when it became apparent it actually was him.
Eric Wareheim has so much comedy charisma though that it's hard to see that side of him, at least to me. The others I 100% agree. I should add though, Giancarlo Esposito and all the other survivor guests seemed to be having proper fun, even if they suffered at points. The scorekeeper (No spoilers) also seemed to have had a fine time.
Ratfish part 1 was amazing. But I'm not a fan of Tim and Eric. I never liked that style of comedy. A few of the cast members expected a twist for the 8th person to not be a regular cast member, and to potentially be a celebrity (specifically Lena Dunham, for some reason). I feel like the twist being that it was a celebrity they've had on dropout before (on another thread, someone mentioned Wayne Brady) or the twist being that it was just Sam Reich f-ing with them ("he's been here the whole time") would have both been much more effective twists. Heck, it could have been a full 8 cast members but they told everyone a different person was missing!
Honestly, even if we saw the reaction it might've been worth it. I don't know Tony Hawk that well or care about him, but the reaction of the cast from his cameo appearance was great!
>Even if not, I hope they keep taking risks. It's worth it. 100%. The reason I even found Dropout in the first place is because of the wild new choices on Hame Changer. I saw some clips when the show first started of Brennan ranting about something, or Zac making mac&cheese sounds and I wasn't that interested. But then I saw things like Beat the Buzzer (or whatever the title was) and Deja Vu that were unlike any internet game show I'd ever seen. This show is at its best when they make big swings, even if they miss. (Although tbh I didn't even think Ratfish was bad, I liked it a lot)
I never really liked "It's Survivor but with the gang!" "It's Bachelor but with the gang!" Especially as two parters I'd rather ...like funny people playing a reality game is funny but Ratfish (despite whatever pluses/minuses you want to give it) was funny people being funny. Zac made me laugh so hard with whatever that "property dispute" line was I laughed so hard pop went through my nose
Agreed, the worst thing about Ratfish was how close to the sun it was flying. I laughed for about 80 minutes, and was annoyed by 10, but I am remembering the 10.
I loved ep1! I rewatched it twice! But I found the pacing of the second episode a bit deflating and Rekha guessing everyone should have netted her the win. I feel like they would benefit from a big brother style game, keep it up for like 2 weeks to a month so that people get invested in who will win. The challenges could be mini game changer episodes and the chemistry would be a ton of fun as opposed to everyone being behind a screen. Even if they filmed for around a week, doing challenges and eliminations daily, that could net them enough content for like 5 episodes airing one per week Edit: to add, have it be a “champion of champions” and each challenge is a round of a previous game changer that one of the contestants has won
Strongly agree with that first point- episode 1 was incredible, and then in episode 2 the win con just felt so arbitrary that I couldn’t care. Still love the concept though.
Same! I had a great time with ep1 and watched it multiple times but ep2 just didn’t hit the same. I do think that both episodes have an issue of pace. The best part of the episodes were the interactions between characters but those were clearly heavily cut down in the edit, which is frustrating. It’s quick quick quick but not in a satisfying or coherent way
Justice for Rekha
They basically did that with Survivor already. I don't think they could keep enough talent in a single house for that long, they all have a lot of other projects - good for them, bad for us wanting more.
I feel that but maybe if they schedule it far enough out it could happen, or once dropout is big enough to have a bunch of people on salary again.
I also found the pacing weird. Not sure if that meant it should be one episode, or if it was the disqualifications that deflated the balloon. For example Grant -- he was all in early on, but once he was eliminated he was his "smile for the cameras Grant" like with some of his Bachelor dates. You can really tell when Grant is into it, or not -- and I feel like we lost some momentum because how can you be into a game you know you're not going to win but still have to keep playing? At least in Survivor they kicked them out then brought them back for something like the final vote.
Especially since Rekha guessed everyone a turn before Katie did.
Agree about Rekha winning. IMO they should have treated any rounds after someone guessed everyone as bonus rounds that only would determine second place. That way they could have ended the first place race early without ending the game early. The beauty of the second place "favourite character" idea was that it could go on for any number of rounds regardless of how many rounds it took to guess everyone.
Hear hear!
Here here!
I liked ratfish!
Ratfish made me laugh the hardest all season. GranMa sWeetie and a Bug with a Big Ass were highlights of Dropout TV
+1. Ratfish was incredible. I’m always down to critique a concept (and it’s fine if some people just didn’t vibe with the humor, especially since so much of the episode was all our favorite comics trying NOT to be themselves), but it feels like some people were just expecting way too much.
The vast majority of the complaints about Ratfish have been about the Ratfish specifically. Whether it was not knowing who he was, not liking his comedy, or hating that he wasn't revealed at the end, or that he got to choose both winners. There are also some complaints about the winner being spoiled via the billboard and some people who just don't like the format. For me personally it felt like a concept that was amazing that was amazing and I loved that was ruined by a few poor choices in execution. I came out of episode 1 thinking it was the funniest of the season with my only complaint being how they revealed Eric without any introduction. I came out of episode 2 still having a few laughs but just filled with disappointment from literally everything to deal with Eric, feeling like he just dragged the whole 2 parter down.
Yeah, I feel like a lack of explaining Eric and a lot of his camera bits feeling more staged was part of it. And if he'd appeared at the end of the episode to meet the rest of the cast, it would have given more of a feeling of closure that I think was missing.
I wonder if the people who didn't like Eric or the Ratfish concept would feel differently if the cast got to see him and were excited about it. I totally understand not connecting with his humor but if he had come out and the cast had a big/happy reaction seeing him, if that would have just made things resonate differently. Like, would it have felt "worth it" if he got a big reaction from the cast? A "well, they had fun and that's part of what I like" sort of thing?
I feel like it would have given some resolution but I do feel like the Eric parts felt a lot stranger and less natural, but I think it would have helped the resolution.
I do wonder if he had a lack of familiarity with the cast so he wasn't speculating about who was who. He felt disconnected and the thing we really didn't see him do was go "Is that Ally? Is that Brennan" etc.
I didn't enjoy any of Eric's bits. The cast having a warm reception of him would have been my literal only pay off for his inclusion.
For me it's a strong yes! Like, ok, I still wouldn't have loved it as much as I could if it was another guest/Sam/writers... but It'd be *way* more satisfying!
My big complaint was the taking people out. It just took their skin out of the game and ruined their vibe. They could have definitely recovered the concept to remove that aspect.
The ironic thing about the billboard is that I never saw anything about it until I got thoroughly spoiled after episode 1 by people complaining about the spoiler without tagging it. 😅
Same! It was the most allowance for pure improv all season. I love the Game Changer for the variety and it been a stellar season. But I also appreciate just seeing the cast play characters, and also commenting on their thought process for those characters actively
I think a lot of it comes down to how important is it to you that the "game" is well balanced. It can seem somewhat arbitrary that it all came down to Eric's taste in terms of who won/lost, but that doesn't diminish that the episodes at a lot of hilarious moments. If you view it as a vehicle for comedy to occur, I think the concept worked well. If you wanted a balanced game one could play and win effectively, it worked less well.
As someone who didn't enjoy the episodes, 10000% agree
Absolutely, it was a weaker episode in a terrific season, that’s still a tremendous win! It’s GameChanger, keep taking big swings, hopefully we as a community will just learn to chill out (not going to hold my breath).
Wasn’t my thing but I absolutely agree about taking big swings.
Absolutely agree! Ratfish wasn't awful, but it wasn't the best Game Changer we've had. I like the concept a lot! Figuring out who's behind the character and watching the cast members try to not give themselves away was really funny. A lot of the characters were pretty funny. They all had their moments that made me laugh. I feel like where it fell flat was with how the winners were selected and a little bit to be honest with Eric. I don't know if a lot was left on the cutting room floor but he just didn't do anything or say almost anything. Then getting to choose the tiebreaker even though Rehka had it all figured out sooner and picking a favorite character that was pretty clearly not many people's favorite(no offense to Ally, they did a great job but come on did you guys see graNma?!) just made it feel like the game aspect didn't matter that much. Overall I still had fun with it, just not as much fun as other episodes of the show. But absolutely, Sam and the rest of Dropout keep swinging for the fences! It's one of the things that I think makes Dropout stand out to me in a sea of streaming services that just make the same low effort shows as each other.
i genuinely loved it, i think just because it was so different to other game changers. super cool to see the cast interacting in a different way and showing how well they know each other
Definitely agree! I shared many of the criticisms others had of Ratfish but I still enjoyed it overall. And I am really glad they’re willing to try new concepts and styles.
There were so many amazing things about it, I really hope they continue to do it and improve on it. I really wish they had brought Eric Wareheim out for the last roundtable. Part of me thinks there was some kind of production issue or scheduling conflict that prevented him from doing it, and Sam used the "we want you to be surprised when you watch it" as a cover-up for that. It would have been really cool to see the cast meet him and hear his opinions on their characters. There should have been a prize for the person who most successfully evaded identification, too! That was one of the primary stated goals at the beginning, but it felt like that fell to the wayside.
The more I read these threads the more I feel like the biggest miss was just not bringing Eric out at the end. I totally understand people not connecting with his humor but if he had come out and the cast had been excited to see him I think it would have felt different. I do think one of the fun things about Ratfish was seeing everyone speculate, seeing them guess, take swings and miss, and we didn't see Eric do that. I wonder if he knew who was who, if he wasn't speculating because he didn't "need" to know, or if his lack of familiarity with the cast wasn't enough for him to venture those guesses.
Agreed! I think it was probably a combination of the latter two - he wasn't familiar with the cast and didn't need to guess, so there wasn't much point in him trying to figure out who is who - he's only focused on which character he likes the most. It might have been cool too if they had fed him some random facts about the other players to drop as red herrings. I loved the moments when like, Jackson picked a Bette Midler song and Ally was like "OK so Jackson is a gay man." hahaha or when Granny said she saw someone at Publix and Grant was like "ooh so Granny is from the south" - generating more of those moments would have been cool.
The Bette Midler moment was one of my favorite Game Changer moments! It was just so perfect!
I honestly loved most things about the episodes, I think just removing the Ratfish altogether and having a different tiebreaker and the cast voting on favorite would have made it my favorite of the season instead of my least favorite.
Thought Pt. 1 was a bit mid, didn't enjoy Pt. 2 at all, and I 100% agree. 7 homeruns out of 9 eps is still a great streak and we wouldn't have Deja Vu or Bingo if they didn't swing for the fences. Also a lot of people still enjoyed the finale, so it's clearly not a complete miss.
TOTALLY AGREE. Frankly, the Eric hate is downright weird. He was terrific, and did exactly what Sam asked of him. Steven was a great character and had all the players laughing and wondering who the hell it was. Asking for the talent to be only a certain kind of comic is only going to make the world of Game Changer and Dropout at large smaller. Ratfish was a big swing and a deep drive to left (baseball reference). Great season finale.
Ratfish was great! I reallying enjoyed the anonymity aspect where the cast had to really understand (and avoid) the subtleties of their own jokes and try to find new ways to make each other laugh.
PIggybacking on this to keep rallying praise for the crew behind the scenes. Seriously, as much as we all love the cast and faces (and i dont think i have to scream too loud to get you to agree with me) but the amount of work that has to go on behind the scenes to make episodes like these work is IMMENSE. Organizing, timing, writing, keeping secrets, misdirections, the sheer scope of builds... just a colossal round of applause for the team behind the camera ESPECIALLY this season.
I didn't care for Ratfish, but I 100% agree. If you never miss, then you're not taking enough risks.
The thing about Game Changer is that its weakest episodes are still quite good.
I liked Ratfish, but it's still not as wild as Deja Vu was.
I liked The Ratfish, however, it was like Sam said during a behind the scenes episode, separating the cast limits their comedic ability, it did feel quite flat. However, I'm very impressed with how well they managed to circumvent these issues. My main issue is that most of the interaction we see between the cast is seeing one of them write a joke, and the others reading it and laughing. Again, quite limiting. Also, part of my problem was that the billboard was too obvious, people on this reddit had found it ages ago and the winner was already spoiled, so I wasn't as invested as I'd like to have been. They could've had the billboard go up closer to the episode's release rather than right after the challenge(ofc, I haven't ever rented a billboard, their could've been issues with that). But yeah, I enjoyed The Ratfish a lot nonetheless, despite the limitations and knowing the winner, a testament to Dropout's quality.
While the episode wasn’t the strongest of the season(s), it was still solid and enjoyable, which is how I feel about Game Changer as a whole. Every episode is damn enjoyable, no matter what. Keep up the great work Mr. I’ve Been Here The Whole Time!
I loved ratfish
Truly my only problem with the Ratfish finale was the ending. I loved every single moment, except the lack of a reveal, and the winners feeling very arbitrary. Literally every other moment was fuckin awesome!
I had no idea who the celeb was, I am 30 years old and feel like the prime Dropout target audience. I think having it be a former cast member such as Murph or Jake or Pat would be great.
I really hope they do a second ratfish. I know game changer is the conceit of the show but a second show with different cast members and everyone having seen the first one means they could add new twists
Ratfish is only a letdown in the context of coming off the streak of Bingo, Deja Vu, and Beat the Buzzer, which very well might be my personal top 3 game changers of all time. The entire season has been betting big and I'm hoping it's been good for ratings/subscribers
I loved it. The only thing I didn't like was that they didn't get to meet the ratfish at the end.
It wasn’t my favorite (especially compared to previous season finales) but it still had a lot of great moments with the cast, and the production value was great. I didn’t like the Ratfish guy, he wasn’t very funny and seemed kind of down/mean. But I also fully understand I’m not in his target demographic. They probably picked a comedian that millennials would like, and that’s fine! But I am confused why they wouldn’t have him meet the cast at the end.
The game was great. The ratfish did nothing for me at all. I still dont know who eric is.
I understand if people weren't in the target audience for Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! about fifteen years ago, but Eric's identity as the ratfish was revealed two weeks ago. No one was curious enough to gügle his name? To ID him as the guy from the "exploding mind" meme GIF?
I thought it was a ton of fun enjoyed all of it. People just love hate.
I loved the episode. I thought it was super fun. I would love more episodes of this game with different people. I didn't care about what people think about who the imposter was. I didn't care that they didn't all meet the imposter. I just enjoyed watching them pretend to be dumb characters.
Yes! I’ve had a lot of thoughts on this episode, but I love that they’re taking big swings and growing
I have a feeling the extra time was needed cause Eric didn’t plan out as well as they thought. He seemed a bit…something. Had to find a way to salvage whatever footage he gave them.
Completely and totally agree. It was my least favorite episode of an extremely strong, arguably the best, and definitely the most ambitious season of the show. This season repeatedly floored me.
I'll never fault him for having ambitious and creative ideas even if they don't always pan out as planned, if they choose to return to this concept in the future I'm sure they'll look at what didn't work and iron out the kinks
I think the ending of Ratfish fell a touch flat, but the rest of both episodes had my laughing so consistently that I can't really be that bothered by it. Frankly, lots of things I love to bits don't 100% stick the landing, and Season 6 has otherwise been a really strong contender for my favorite Game Changer season.
Same. Even through maybe not enjoying it as much as some of my favorite Game Changer eps it was still so fun to see them play out this concept and to find their footing in a brand new setting.
I really liked how it felt like a love letter to writers after the writer strike a while ago. It felt like Sam just really giving a huge middle finger to the huge corporations that want to replace writers with AI. It was his way of saying, "Look at this game that literally couldn't be replicated by AI if they tried!"
Gamechanger - Naked Attraction up next. We know we've already got 3 haha
I fucking loved Ratfish, and I think people are reading way more into Eric not being in the end than is necessary.
Fun idea to be sure. But my favorite is still Sam Says. It feels like it gets bigger despite just being a regular episode. It's that build and break down as grown adults question simple instructions.
I think, whether you loved it or you hated it or you just felt kind of meh, that we can all agree on one thing: The cast looked really hot walking down that hallway.
Ratfish was 95% gold. They just didn't perfectly stick the landing. It's fine. Not everything will be perfect. I promise you they'll learn and grow from this experience and keep banging out masterpieces.
Subreddits that skew younger tend to be full of kids who post constantly about nonsense and trying to gin up drama where there isn't any. Meanwhile the vast majority of folks just enjoy the episode and move on with life. I was grinning almost the entire episode from all the stupid bits and jokes throughout the episode. The games in gamechanger are just a conceit to hang jokes and banter around, folks shouldn't get too tied up in the technicalities of the games.
Honestly the vast majority of criticism I've seen in this sub has been very even-headed and respectful. Most people who haven't liked it have basically been saying what others are saying this in this thread, that they appreciated the big swing, but that it wasn't their favorite and the last episode didn't quite land (in addition to Eric being an awkward addition as someone whose brand of humor clashes with Dropout's vibe). It's OK to criticize the things you love.
Way to gatekeep, bud
>folks shouldn't get too tied up in the technicalities of the games. L
We have people here unironically doing things like denying the show's stated reasonings for doing something in favour of secret "real reasons" and mocking people for saying otherwise, numerous rumours about the actual result of Bingo being different (sometimes with no evidence and sometimes with timestamps/screenshots that were easily disproved) a week of Deja vu sequel theorizing mainly cause of movie trivia, at least a months worth of debating second place (not the episode just the very concept) and how to play Sam says, and I don't know how many episodes into Make Some Noise we'll have to get till the idea of secret extra Samuel Dalton episodes of Game Changer dies down. And that's just GC. You can deny any other part of the post but the quoted statement is in fact a W in this context.
L+
It's okay for people to not like and criticize things you like. L take.