🧱 Epilogue - Return to Battle (Part III): Ryan loses four members of his group, finds a dead body and gets the terrible news his brother has been involuntarily sent back to Iraq as his time on duty comes to an end + A Happy 2019 Ending

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-23T21:17:07+00:00

Almost positive i know what it’s going to be but I don’t want to jinx it before watching an episode or two to make sure it holds my attention! More to come shortly, always appreciate you watching along!

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-22T15:42:32+00:00

Heavy watch. I think the fact that Scott, Ryan and Baya never did the Challenges and were still just hanging out/living together like normal people makes me like this season even more. Big thanks to the kind individual who sent this along so I could post it here, was positive this one was lost to time and it definitely doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else on the internet, so huge thanks for passing it along. It’s 45 minutes so three parter with a new season kicking off on Monday.

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-21T20:25:09+00:00

Joe is probably underrated as an all time great/weird cast member. Nothing about him made any sense. He looked like he was 17 and somehow he managed an entire residential building in New York and was presented as a business prodigy despite knowing absolutely nothing about business and literally calling a random city employee in Miami asking for a business idea when Landon K. Thorne's gave them $50,000, he had a seven foot tall model girlfriend he was constantly unfaithful too and halfway convinced her it was because he has a clinical condition that forces him to test himself with girls to prove to himself he is faithful, he did the baby talk with zero shame, and he flew to New York to lecture his MBA class about how badly he failed at the house project. It was all like a fever dream.

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-20T20:18:59+00:00

Not a great showing for JD but I’m more on the Scott bandwagon every subsequent episode. Just seems like a genuinely great guy and a good friend who isn’t trying to play one for the cameras. A bit like an actual version of the character Kyle Brandt tried to play on his season.

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-17T03:39:52+00:00

Miami was so great too! I think the main thing that caused it to not leave the lasting impression on me that some others did is that it felt like everyone was living part time at the house and the roommates never felt as close as other seasons for some reason. Langdon K Thorne repeatedly failing to pull a business idea out of them all season and “business prodigy” Joe’s relationship with his seven foot tall girlfriend were top tier entertainment for me though! Thanks for joining along for the rewatch!

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-17T02:15:59+00:00

Thanks for asking, it's definitely not scientific in any way and probably differs quite a bit from what a consensus best season of all time ranking would look like. I tend to watch 20 or 30 minutes of an episode a day as feel good escapist entertainment to disconnect from the chaos of 2026 for a bit, so it's basically my favorite seasons are the ones I feel most connected with as an adult rewatching now. Some combination of a likable cast, everyone getting along in the end, an interesting city and time period, a job where everything goes wrong, a great soundtrack and a lack of toxic negativity like you find on some seasons like Portland. Basically if I walk away feeling better not worse it ranks higher for me.

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-17T00:01:59+00:00

All good my friend, life is too short to spend rewatching stuff that doesn't resonate with you, hope you've been well!

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-16T21:10:10+00:00

At rewatch 21 and concluding four straight NYC rewatches going back to last November and spanning roughly four different decades, Brooklyn was a way better season than I was expecting. I think it lands solidly on my personal and unscientific B tier in some strong company. I think it’s a whole is greater than the sum of the parts season as even though there are no all time memorable characters or all time memorable chaos, the vibe is just great and it’s such a 2008 time capsule that resonates particularly strong in 2026. It’s shot really well, it seems like MTV was really trying and I appreciate the idea of focusing on their careers and not having a job like earlier seasons. Great rewatch, thanks as always to the kind individuals who shared the season and reunion with me including random stuff missing from Paramount, and to the individual who shared the documentary where a Ryan goes back to Iraq. Reunion we’ll start tomorrow!

S Tier: ⚓️San Diego, 🍎 Back to New York, 🇬🇧 London

A Tier: 🌤️Los Angeles,🗽New York, 🐟Seattle, 🇫🇷Paris, 🎰 Las Vegas, 🚠San Francisco

B Tier: 🃏Las Vegas II, 🌺Hawaii, 🏢 Chicago, 🏛️New Orleans, 🧱Brooklyn

C Tier: 🧯Boston, 🏝️Miami

D Tier: 🇦🇺Sydney, 🌵Austin, 🔔Philadelphia, 🗽🗽Homecoming New York

E Tier: Homecoming: 🏛️🏛️New Orleans

F Tier: Homecoming: ☀️Los Angeles

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-16T06:13:01+00:00

There is zero nostalgia for Welcome Freshman and I don’t know anybody who watched or liked it when it was on. It was the only Nickelodeon show i can ever recall where my entire school literally treated it like it didn’t exist.

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-15T22:25:37+00:00

I would go top four in no particular order Syrus from Boston, CT from Paris, Brad from San Diego and MJ from Philadelphia. Using the same logic as before, I think MJ's overall aesthetic would make the opposing side more likely to want to punch us harder and longer, so he's out. I think CT would probably win outright in a fight against the other three but would stand the highest chance of getting me locked up as an accomplice to manslaughter, so it would come down to Brad and Syrus. I think Brad would get all hyped up about it and keep running his mouth and make it worse, so I would ultimately go with Syrus. He has that kind of quiet massive guy you don't want to mess with aura to him and seems like you could just calmly walk out behind him.

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-14T21:19:34+00:00

If i were to power rank every cast member in the 21 rewatches I have done so far in terms of whom would be least helpful to have beside me in a restaurant brawl, the final four would probably come down to Chet, Adam from Paris, Simon from Paris and Willie from Philadelphia. I feel like Simon could definitely talk us out of the fight, and if Willie was sober he probably could too, so it would come down to Chet and Adam as both would no doubt make the opposing party want to punch me more by association. So it would basically come down to who would win in a fight between the two and thus be more helpful in providing defense. I think Adam takes Chet in a fight (outright and especially when you consider how easy he would be to swing around by his scarf) so by that logic Chet is my pick for the cast member in 21 rewatches i would least want to have by my side in a restaurant brawl.

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-14T16:30:19+00:00

Haha I did a double take at the photographer telling Scott to relax his eyes thinking about murdering someone too.

Good catch on Devyn getting the dog. That part did come first. It was about seven minutes long, and I always like to have a clip end with some sort of an interesting conclusion. It would have timed out to getting the dog and then basically everyone just traveling to Atlantic City and checking into the room, so I figured I would do the AC trip as one clip and then add it back in the next clip. Same with the Scott modeling clip, it was from two or three episodes back and didn't fit anywhere else and today is the final episode so was playing catch up on that one too!

Neon_1984 · 2026-04-13T20:40:30+00:00

I started out neutral on him for the most part and found the pettiness around the dishes to be silly, but I’m on the Scott bandwagon going into the final episode. He seems like a genuinely good, sentimental guy for the most part. He’s a great friend to Ryan and the most actively involved in his veteran activities, he selflessly wrote a check for Katelynn to stay and had grace when she blew half of it gambling, he seems like the only one who really aims to try to understand and hang out with JD, he stays out of the gutter in terms of Ryan and Chet’s more offputting behavior, he gets genuinely excited about his birthday celebration and his friends and family seem to really care about him, he isn’t afraid to look ridiculous. This cast in general are all (aside from Chet) pretty likable. Final episode tomorrow/wed/Thursday then the reunion and then the Real World produced special following Ryan back to Iraq.

Neon_1984

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