now!! finally time to talk about the caddicarus show itself rather than branding!

so last night, i finally finished my rewatch of the original caddicarus show! it had been years since i’d seen a lot of these episodes, and i saw seasons 12 and 13 for the first time. and man this was definitely an experience. some opinions changed, and some opinions stayed.

it’s been really cool to see this dude grow up and change his style over time.

i’ve put together a tier list that sums up my thoughts, and below the cut i’ll give a rundown of my thoughts on each season!

(heads up: this post is LONG. like, VERY long. open the readmore at your own risk.)

season 1!

the season that started it all! i remember watching these for the first time in 2014 as i began watching through all of caddy’s backlog. at the time, the episodes weren’t that old, but even then the newer episodes felt so different. the jump in quality from season 1 to even mid-season 2 was spectacular.

these episodes were serviceable at the time, and they gave me lots of laughs and entertainment. however, as time went on, these episodes have aged just a little too much for my enjoyment these days. it has its moments, but ultimately it’s a product of its time.

favorite episode: santa claus saves the earth
rating: 6/10

season 2!

i still enjoyed this season a lot upon rewatching it! it’s also aged, but it still gave me so many nostalgic flashbacks. it had been years since i heard the salvaging noise, so when it came on in the voluptuous raider episode i had quite the nostalgic reaction.

i rewatched the grinch doesn’t know where things are and the worst thing ever (coronation street) episodes so many damn times, i pretty much know them by heart. so it was great fun rewatching those.

other episodes i loved were destruction derby, croc, the fifth element, and south park.

favorite episode: coronation street
rating: 7/10

season 3!

this was a pretty iconic season back when i came along because it was the season with:

1. the first collab videos, which made up the first two episodes - those being with scarfulhu and the completionist respectively
2. the lucrative dalmatians 3 video aptly titled “THE WORST GAME EVER MADE”, - which was the first caddicarus video to reach a million views and the most viewed video on the channel for over 6 years…and the video that created a whole generation of beautiful people - me included!
3. the first appearances of the mackay family, specifically in the 200,000 subscriber special formerly titled “bratz: the splatty ratz that are gnatz covered in shatz”…which is still the greatest old caddicarus video title in my opinion.

it’s aged, but damn i’d be lying if i said i didn’t still love it. all the hidden block stuff, caddy as an adorable little lad just before he moved out of his parents’ house, that echoey mic quality before he had the pop filter, the silly game reviewer gimmicks and overarching plot…it’s all just too charming and nostalgic for me not to love.

do i prefer it to the videos now? HELL NO. was it fun for the time, and fun to look back on now? HELL YES.

favorite episode: dalmatians 3 (duh)
rating: 9/10

season 4!

ah yes…this was the current season when i came! in august 2014, at the age of 12, i became the caddicarus connoisseur i still am today! of course, i just mentioned that dalmatians 3 was my first episode, but i came five months after its release…which means when i clicked on the most recent episode at the time, i saw a nearly-bald caddy in a totally different house. now THAT was jarring.

but yeah this was the first season after he’d gone to SGC and met hidden block and moved out of his parent’s house. with this season we had gems such as the vib ribbon and LSD dream emulator episodes. vib ribbon in particular was my favorite caddicarus episode for years!

i was such a huge defender for this season in particular because of my extreme nostalgic connection to it. it was my favorite for so long. these days that’s changed, but i really honed in on that “buzzcut-era caddicarus fan” identity LOL. but that’s another topic for another day.

but yeah this season is still very fun! i love it for the same reasons i love season 3.

favorite episode: no one can stop mr. domino
rating: 8/10

season 5!

this season lasted a whole year, and that’s because episodes started becoming more sparce due to the other side shows caddy had going on at the time. there were also these “easter egg hunting” videos caddy would do for didyouknowgaming between retrospectives installments, and…yeah this was an interesting time.

the episode quality didn’t suffer as much though, or maybe that’s just my nostalgic view lol. i still loved this season looking back! playstation cheats was basically the blueprint for caddy’s content nowadays. cheesy, snow white and the seven clever boys, top 10 games that scared me as a kid, rascal, and legoland were bangers. there was the first month of terrarrrr (arr) with the casper 2-parter! caddy moved in with cerys and the girls! stanley came along! and it was also when the polarizing mohawk came into the picture. but i personally LOVED the mohawk and its variations. ┐(︶▽︶)┌

favorite episode: snow white and the seven clever boys
rating: 8/10

season 6!

the first weekly season, and the first season in which the caddicarus intro had a backing track and a melody!

and oh boy…it’s DEFINITELY early-mid 2016 in nature. IHE collab, references to stuff like daddy derek and gradeAunderA, the word “cringe” is said a lot…man i kinda miss that era and don’t miss it at the same time.

but i still loved this season looking back! i still remember when it started with the 50th episode…that’s no longer the 50th episode anymore, but we’ll talk about that another day.

this season had the april fools “sonic the fighters” episode, the notification of which woke me up at 6 in the morning. there was the scooby doo and the cyber chase saga, rosco “god’s precious water!” mcqueen, caddy reacting to his rascal racers video on his 22nd birthday, and the net yaroze games video that capped off 500,000 subs! ….before they were purged, that is.

favorite episode: 66 net yaroze games
rating: 9/10

season 7!

man i liked this season a WHOLE lot more upon rewatching. back then i thought it didn’t live up to season 6 but i love it a lot more now. there was the crash bandicoot trilogy videos and the R/C stunt copter and hercules vids that started up the miluk joke…which honestly grated on me after a while, but others seemed to love. each to their own i guess. oh yeah…that month of terrarr was GOD TIER. it was so god tier that it drug on into november.

and man i laughed so HARD at the spice world episode. it aged so damn well, it’s on par with his content nowadays!

favorite episode: spice world
rating: 9/10

season 8!

the first season in the now-iconic current house! it also started out with the artificially created naturally reached 101st episode on ape escape.

i have a lot of personal baggage and emotional trauma that occurred during the first couple months or so of episodes of this season, so that taints them a bit for me, but i was able to look past that stuff and they’re better now on rewatch.

the season was brilliant, although not one of my favorites. we had the episodes on the tweenies, the lion king, parappa the rapper, shadow-man, and experimental videos such as the ones on nursery rhymes and TV shows that scared caddy as a kid. there was the iconic peppa pig episode which created another new generation of caddicarus fans. and caddy sported a beanie for the whole season until the spider-man episode…where he revealed that he had a full head of hair! we hadn’t seen him like that for 3 years at the time!

overall this season was great. better than i remembered - i thought it was pretty meh when it was new.

favorite episode: pappy rappy
rating: 8/10

season 9!

i thought this was a very, VERY meh season when it came out. i considered it the worst season of the series - 15-year-old me will gladly rant to you about how i thought mega man 8 was the worst episode of the entire series. i lamented my criticisms in an unreleased video i made about the problems with modern caddicarus - again, another topic for another day.

but these days? i like it! i don’t love it, but i like it. like season 8, it’s not one of my favorites, but it’s better than i remember. although i will say it wasn’t as memorable as season 8. we still had gems like crash on GBA, phoenix games pinnochio, and abe’s exoddus.

i think this is definitely when the flaws of the weekly schedule began to show. as caddy said himself in that arlo podcast episode: “there’s only so much you can do in a week”. and that’s the exact concern i had at the time.

favorite episode: toilet duck
rating: 7/10

season 10!

now this is a season i mostly thought was meh. it was pretty forgettable, lots of jokes fell flat and it relied a lot on reference humor (especially that rugrats studio tour episode uuuugh). and as i said before, i could REALLY see the formulaic structure and weekly schedule grating on the show. there was the first bandicoot month, but honestly? i think it’s the weakest bandicoot month by far.

i DID remember loving and rewatching the aladdin episode a lot when it came out because it reminded me of older episodes. and man…i remember when caddy said “you miss videos coming out at least every two weeks?” and i audibly said “….YES??”

again…another topic for another day!

favorite episode (or the least mid one in this case): spyro orange
rating: 6/10

season 11!

this was the season caddy got rid of the slaughter/salvage gimmick, and that was such a big deal at the time because that’s what we were accustomed to for so long. but it’s exactly what this show NEEDED.

the show had so much more breathing room! there were experimental episodes, episodes on modern games, one of which clocked in at 40 minutes which was INSANE back then. honestly, i always preferred episodes on older games but that’s just me.
┐( ˘ ､ ˘ )┌

…although there was still one glaring problem…the weekly upload schedule.

but this season is still one of my favorites looking back!

favorite episode: a gaming magazine for babies
rating: 9/10

season 12!

in all honesty, i thought this season started out pretty eh (with the exceptions of the playstation classic, klonoa and breakout episodes), but it started gaining momentum around bandicoot month. i dunno what it is but something changed between the borderlands and crash butts episodes. yeah the camera angle changed, but it was something else as well. maybe the humor was becoming more refined? i dunno but i was starting to see the TCS revival’s DNA forming with this season.

favorite episode: crash twinsanity
rating: 7/10

season 13!

and here we are…the final season of the original series. the season that introduced the now-iconic brick wall and the unexpected mid-roll sponsors. and boy…was it a wonderful sneak peek of things to come.

i think that this season - although being one of my favorites - is the biggest offender of caddy’s “i wanted to do serious reviews while also wanting to do monty python shit” comment in his behind-the-scenes vid. it especially showed with his videos on yooka laylee, death stranding, and star wars. and those were honestly my least favorites of the season.

my favorite episodes from this season were the ones on gaming opinions, that beautifully chaotic “top 10 sads in video games”, peppa pig’s album, and thomas PS1. i was laughing so damn hard at those.

favorite episode: thomas PS1
rating: 9/10

 

and of course, this caps off the original caddicarus show - and come 2020, we were blessed with the almost-perfect masterpiece that is the 2020-present caddicarus show. it’s so inspiring seeing how this show evolved over the years - i’ll be doing separate entries on the different eras of the channel where i’ll be going into much more depth on these seasons.

so how would i rate this show? well, let me calculate my ratings for each separate season…

the original caddicarus show gets…

a 7.8 out of 10!

this is a very solid, nostalgic, and fun show that holds a special place in my heart. there were some points where the show slipped in quality - and had some of those seasons/episodes more time to cook, they could’ve been amazing. however, this series pales in comparison to the current caddicarus show, which i will root for until the end of time LMAO. there is a reason why those old videos are tagged as such. that’s probably an unpopular opinion amongst other fellow caddicarus fans from my era but eh. to each their own.

in the next journal, i’ll be going over the criticisms teenage me had for the series - and how caddy seemingly addressed all of them.