TDRR has been really good so far. It's too early for me to rate the series as a whole but, so far, I think it's easily better than TDROTI, TDAS, and TDPI and has felt like a true successor to the first three seasons. After a trio of mediocre seasons following TDWT, I think Fresh TV is finally finding its footing again. I would love to see them continue this level of quality in future "Total Drama" productions. Here's what I personally would like to see for the next season of the show.
1) 26 episodes - 13 episode seasons need to die and hopefully TDRR has buried them once and for all. All the character development in these half-seasons feel rushed as hell. 13 episodes work in other shows but not "Total Drama". Part of the problem is (most of the time, anyway) that the characters are just meeting each other for the first time and have absolutely no prior history. In real life, it can take a long time to warm up to people. You don't just suddenly go from meeting someone to sticking your tongue in their mouth in a matter of a few days. Even 26 episodes is honestly too short for something like this but it's certainly a lot better than 13.
2) Around 17 to 22 contestants - The more characters, the better. It's pretty weird how Fresh TV seems MUCH better at handling casts of 20+ characters than they are at casts of 13 or so. Sure, you'll get episodes where not everyone has a line but I don't mind that. It's better to have silent characters than have characters who talk all the time and whose dialogue is clumsy and unnatural (i.e. Mike and Zoey).
3) Just old characters for the next season - By "old", I mean characters who already exist in the TD universe. If the next season is a mixture of TDI, TDROTI, TDPI, and even (if possible) some "Ridoncolous Race" contestants, that would be great. As it stands right now, all the emphasis lately on new characters has resulted in a ton of flat, one-dimensional non-entities. Fresh seriously needs to work with the 80-something characters they already have rather than create even more characters that they'll do absolutely nothing interesting with.
Oh, and if the next season is all veterans, I'd like to see it a cast NOT composed of all screenhoggers like TDAS was and it certainly doesn't need to be an "all-star" season. For the former point, TDRR has brought back Noah and Geoff as contestants for the first time in ages. I have no doubt that this was done in response to the criticisms that characters from the first generation like Gwen, Duncan, Heather, and Courtney have gotten WAY too much focus from the series and it's come at the expense of screen time for the other contestants. Aside from that, the four characters I mentioned have become heavily flanderized so it's nice that Fresh finally seems to be taking a break from them. For the latter point, one of the MANY things that TDAS did wrong was the theme of the season itself. The focus of the season was some first and second generation contestants meeting each other for the first time and that was it. It had zero pull aside from that.
4) Please don't set in on an island - I'm getting seriously sick of that theme. Not much to say other than that.
What do you think? What is your personal wish list for the next season of the show?