Sunday, November 26, 2017

Drakoloid Review: November 25, 2017 ARTic, High Schooled & Are You Ready To Scream?

Hello fellow readers of the internet, your reviewer for internet shows Retrograv is back. My apologies for not writing reviews these past few months but I am back now.

Today I will be reviewing the new fall premieres on Drakoloid from Saturday November 25, 2017 ARTic, High Schooled and Are You Ready To Scream? season premieres. This night by judging all three of these shows it seems like Drakoloid was capturing on its "shock value" where plots were left open ended and character development sky rocketed in different roots. Don't know if this theme of "shock" was intentional or not either way it would of worked. Drakoloid's annual fall premieres began later but better late than never. November 26, 2017 will be premiering The Selina Mckay Show, Videotrek and the new season of Rock The Basement  I believe so I will review those separately, So lets begin.



First up is the ARTic season 4 premiere "Transition" part 1 of 2. This is described as the "revamped" show where ARTic seems to be taking a satirical direction with its show in plot, character and lines. Previously ARTic would deal with its topics in a more serious manner, in this premiere they deal with it in a humorous way. Now since this is a complete revamped show three main characters were removed which was Amy Rogers, Bradley Berkowitz and Samantha Vegas taking out of three of the original characters from the beginning. This usually causes a rift when a show removes tons of characters in this case so far so good. Drake Vegas prepared for this because he had already lined up Jennifer, Blake, Kyle and Principal Willy as main characters in the previous season, so it doesn't look like too much of a loss. These characters were mentioned on where their heading mostly hinting out the upcoming "ARTic University" spin off next year.



The plot for this episode was top secret until the very last minute because rumour has it Drake knew Youtube would take it down immediately because it deals with the topic of "gender fluidity". The LGBTQ+ topics are controversial with this audience because it is younger and the parents aren't always open to the idea of their kids learning about diverse sexuality and gender. Smart motive on Drakoloid behalf, leaving a mystery for the audience which resulted as it being ranked as the most watched ARTic above Mixed Masks on the live stream for Drakoloid of all time. It was about how Jennifer wants to change into who she truly is and that is having a flat chest with a breast reduction. Throughout this episode there was plenty of adult humour especially between Jennifer and Blake. Both of them establish that they want to be just friends because Blake has become the Amy replacement in Jennifer's friendship circle, which is the direction the writers want to go. I think they also want to get rid of the shippings because this is now a satire show but I am not 100 percent sure.

Then we have new character Alexa Silver who is a white girl that is planning to be student body president of the school since Bradley Berkowitz left and was the president before (even though we had no plots outside that one episode that revolved around his presidency or even mentions). I feel they are following the footsteps of High Schooled. She is portrayed by Christina Birdsall who is a solid actress already, it seems Drake has hired people that seem experienced did some research she has done of acting experience. I hope she will be in many more episodes and looking forward to see where her characters head. It seems like she's going to be the antagonist of the show since Samantha left.



Another character development aspect in this episode is that there seems to be plot sets up for Kyle where he's going to transform into his own artist, hopefully in part two we see more of that. I also strongly believe there should be a spin off show with Principal Willy and Kyle. Jack Ripoff says that there is more lines in the second part of this episode that he gets than he does in the whole previous season.



My prediction for part two of Transition is that Jennifer will either decide to go through the sex change or not, hopefully she does so its not a waste of an episode. I think the next episode will deal with the school election too Jennifer vs. Alexa which we will probably see more Alexa. Overall this first part of the episode has set everything in place I will give it 9.5/10. Solid superb episode. The acting by Sarah Kellysen, Christina Birdsall, Andrew Bouchahine, Jack Ripoff and Paul Petroskey is solid here too.



Now onto High Schooled "Money Problems" this is the second season premiere and part 1 of 2 for this episode. This is obvious the season premiere their is a lot of growth and maturity shown just in the actors themselves. Derek de Jong has a deeper voice and looks taller than he did in the previous season. This is set in their later years of High School which Derek and Ryan go through. So lets begin.

This episode is based after the first season finale where Derek and Ryan are part of the student council since Derek Lipton is president of the school now. This episode also introduces new characters with Lauren played by Alyssa Russell who is also on the student council seems to be antagonist to this show while before it was Sean who departured in "The Traitor". The direction the show takes in the school is not just the general academic part but the extra curricular's of High School. We only start delving into the shows true premise mid way through the first season and now in the second season its trying to find its ground. There also seems to be more character development on Kenny done by Nikhil Patel where he plays a main part in this plot and seems to be more so the comedic relief in the shows new era.



The summary of this episode is about when the financial state of the school's budget is low from Principal Pearson and Derek and Ryan can't use Lauren's ideas for student council. Lauren then recalls for a vote which causes a rift in Derek and Ryan's places on the board. The episode then ends up saying "to be continued". I have to say High Schooled really took notes from ARTic by focusing on plot more here than character, just like how ARTic focused on character this time instead of plot, a reverse role in the Drakoloid show universe.




My prediction for part two of "Money Problems" is that Derek and Ryan may start a fundraiser in order to stop Lauren from having a recall vote but we will see what happens coming up. Overall this episode I would says ranks as 8.5/10 pretty solid and everything seems set up well. The acting by Derek de Jong, Nicholas Merchant, Nikhil Patel, Alyssa Russell and Jason Merchant was well done.

Now onto the final part of the night with Are You Ready To Scream? "A Story About A Cabin Killer" this episode was the season 6 premiere marking it as the longest Drakoloid show to date. It seems like Rocky Palmer has left the writing crew for Are You Ready To Scream, she is no longer the producer or executive producer of the show, now it is Drake Vegas full time.

In the season premiere we see how the direction takes with Drake Vegas as the full time show producer. Drake Vegas shows off that he can still write shows in any genre and in this case the horror in the episode is evident. The episode is about this couple who goes to their grandpa's cabin for the weekend but people start to disappear. It turns out to be a paranormal activity type of filming and incidents that occur. At the end the demon monster jumps out at the camera guy and thats where the story ends after a long time of running.

I think after sixth seasons the show is becoming watered down especially with one of its original creators leaving. I was wondering if this was going to be the last season of the show but maybe with these high ratings it may live on much longer. Overall I give this episode a 7.5/10 could of been longer but still well done.

Thank you for reading my reviews more will be coming soon!

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