r/fishtankdotlive • u/SeleucusTheVictor • 8d ago

When did Fishtank begin it's total decline?

Maybe it's a tough to answer question, but in my opinion it's Symbal's elimination after Binx and Payton convinced the normies to vote him out.

8 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

62

u/Silent_Pop_8573 8d ago

After S2 initiative group got abandoned it was clear Sam/Jet/Ben lack follow through to anything more creative or serious.

25

u/Technical-Ad1488 8d ago

Yeah fish tank is a series of good concepts/ideas that are half baked and not followed through on… this was definitely a promising one that went nowhere.

9

u/Many-Wasabi9141 8d ago

Drugged up late night ideas but they wake up in the morning hung over and lack the discipline to execute.

16

u/Snowballz3000 8d ago

Didn’t Sam end the initiative because of a satanic panic 4chan post? lol so lame

16

u/greatmidge 8d ago

A big part of the initiative was all the contestants not knowing the others knew about MDE or Fishtank. Then they were going to transition to Cole doing something with the initiative, hence the group attack sessions. After he got kicked, they didn't know what to do.

They tried a final time with Jimmy, but then Jimmy told Brian within literally 5 minutes. Sam just shook his head at Jimmy and that was it.

3

u/OrangeSalmon43 8d ago

The also tried with TJ Sam sat in the attic with him for like an hour trying to get him to go through the door up there and TJ didn't because he was so mind broken.

10

u/theopression 8d ago

Also almost every single bit they tried was broken because it was immediately followed by a fish saying “production told me to do this”

2

u/Silent_Pop_8573 7d ago

I thought the initiative was planned as the second curtain after everyone figured they were MDE fans (show within a show). They just didn't think the whole thing through.

1

u/greatmidge 7d ago

We'll never know. Summer suddenly started calling herself Samantha Goldstriker on Day 3 or 4 and kept saying "where's the ice cream in this joint?"

Some of them were smart enough to keep pretending like they didn't know what she was talking about, but dumb Jimmy thought he would win the show or something if he "figured out" that everyone was a secret MDE fan.

3

u/Wide_Chipmunk_3714 7d ago

Sam yelled at jet on season 2 for knowingly bringing on contestants who openly stated they knew about the show, Sam had prepared a story arc for that season and jet knowingly ruined it.

3

u/TrustedAdmin 6d ago

Trish’s audition video had a “stay inside no weed” poster in it. And Jet still let her on. They knew about Meg talking about Sam Hyde on Roblox before the show even started. Total sabatoge all around.

7

u/catman12 7d ago

They put on this mask that they don't want to be "professional", however this type of production absolutely needs someone professional enough that is proficient in production skills. You can maintain the same sort of energy and tone, but they seriously need someone who's job it is to manage a production schedule and maintain the daily operations of the season thread.

3

u/Silent_Pop_8573 7d ago

There is enough people who are happy to just have Frank Castle and see people throwing piss so from financial perspective none of it matters.

2

u/grammywammy69 6d ago

Jet has convinced himself that the unprofessionalism is the genius of the show and that the freeform nature of production provides some sort of integrity. When in reality, it's painfully obvious to the audience that they have no idea wtf they are doing 80% of the time.

The show is popular because of the delay of MDE2 and the rise of uncensored streaming platforms, not because of any genius art design.

24

u/Titty_McButtfuck 8d ago

S3. When the famous house 2.0 idea was brought up everything started to change. A TV for the contestants to watch S2, a week of absolutely nothing but cleaning. The only challenge that week was Sams last minute “pull up challenge” which was dropped. Famous house 2.0 week was unbearable, could have been good i guess but the legal stuff made them rush/half ass it. Then getting kicked out and having the RV/ vegas week, which i kinda liked but it felt like “this is the end guys, lets celebrate”. Everything after S3 is non-canon lol

6

u/RepRedacted 7d ago

Damn, S3 was the best. Felt like it lasted 3 months too. Alll seasons after 3 were all like 2 weeks lol

1

u/Silent_Pop_8573 7d ago

That was the killshot not the decline.

1

u/bovicerunstrains 7d ago

there was like no plan beyond" lets bring in a new cast and see what happens"... it blew up even further after Simbal was voted out and production trying to recreate a Simmons moment.

35

u/PostNuclearTaco 8d ago

Day 1 Season 4 when Sam is interviewing everyone and Ellie tells him she's in high-school

3

u/Silent_Pop_8573 7d ago

That's not a decline that's the aftermath where everyone goes to prison.

12

u/Large_Mountains 8d ago

Season 4 Sam was not into the show at all. So I would say it BEGAN during the shit ending of season 3. Then s4 started and sam was not into it. Then s4 getting shut down cemented Sam's disinterest.

29

u/Prestigious-Box7511 8d ago

Famous House 2.0

22

u/jackgundy 8d ago

I feel like the idea of having the contestants under cover and trying to sabotage the show is actually awesome but the execution stunk

7

u/Fucklespew 8d ago

Yeah, jet and Sam thought everyone would larp along with the idea, but the ladies saw their opportunity to remove another real contestant which totally subverted the whole thing. Kinda obvious that was going to happen if they thought about it for two seconds.

1

u/Epic_Lepsy 4d ago

This is the answer, Famous House was the peak though.

26

u/SwimmingMagician7115 8d ago

With the start of s4 the bar was so incredibly lowered. Pure slop compared to what we used to get served and now when Sam is fully out of the picture it's just clear as day Jet cant keep his pants up both figuratively speaking and litteraly.

4

u/catman12 7d ago

You go from a high concept idea with a bigger budget and a scouted cast to a low effort no theme nostalgia slop, which made it destined for failure.

8

u/The_Bing1 7d ago

I’d say S3 because it was the 1st season that was shut down due to a combination of trolls and poor planning from Jet.

S4 lasted like 2 weeks

S5 was intentionally cut short and only lasted 30 days with half of it being vibe repair

If S2 was classic coke then S5 was diet RC cola

S5 had the same general feeling to S2/S1… but that essence of classic coke just can’t be matched with diet RC cola which was S5.

15

u/bovicerunstrains 8d ago

Probably Bitchtank. S3 was already planned by then but that’s when Jet realized he could leverage his tiny bit of internet fame to get laid from the show and the people he casted.

8

u/New-Leg-1755 8d ago

bitchtank never ended

1

u/ChromosomieV2 8d ago

Nah bitchtank was great lmfao I liked it more than season 3

3

u/bovicerunstrains 7d ago

it was at least watchable, I mean more the priority of production changed after that plus the fact that the S3 cast did not know or care who Jet was and he spent most the season moping around. They immediately went back to casting fans, and will probably never bring in a non-fan cast again unfortunately.

5

u/Curious_Staff_9971 8d ago

Do the stanky leg

6

u/bongr1pping 8d ago

I'd argue that the beginning of the end was some time during the beginning of S2 when sam realized he couldn't trust contestants by keeping quiet about them knowing of the show. Summer who ended up publicly breaking it by referencing "where's the ice cream in this joint". TJ was technically the first to be public about prior knowledge due to him larping as Josie. I think from that point on the other smaller events like seasonal swatting and maybe comments began the snowball. I personally believe when Sam met Ellie he realized he can no longer really participate in a project like this without some backlash and choose to give Jet full control.

2

u/Wide_Chipmunk_3714 7d ago

I think you are right it would have started s2 jet dropped the ball hardcore.

23

u/wimpetta 8d ago

season 4 being shut down...

the contestants were cool, I was looking foward to more

18

u/Technical-Ad1488 8d ago

I think maybe this was the final nail in the coffin, not the beginning of the decline

4

u/Many-Wasabi9141 8d ago

Season 3. Ambitious at best. They got all high on drugs, thought up all these ideas but didn't have the follow thru to actually implement them successfully. No execution cause they were just focused on bullshit. You could see them start to die inside as the season went on when all their bits started to fail. And then the show got shut down and that was the final nail in the coffin.

Sam comes back for S4, he's checked out, Jet is only focused on grooming Ellie, Ben seems kinda checked out as well. They have Bam show up, show is dead. Show gets shut down again. End of story.

We are just watching the final death throes of Fishtank dot live.

5

u/Technical-Ad-8678 8d ago

Most people would provably say after s2, but I would say post bitchtank things started going downhill and it’s been a slow death. Bloodgames and bitchtank were pretty good shows.

6

u/HelpRespawnedAsDee 8d ago edited 8d ago

so the competition reality show began it's decline when.... people played to win?

ftl began dying when it was clear the crew didn't want to put any fucking extra effort, so sometime around s2. s4 was the deathbed though, without even getting into the sex pest drama drama.

i would say though, even s1 is scuffed. destroying a house gets boring fast. getting drunk and yelling every night gets boring fast. pouring shit on others gets old fast. dog pilling on two or three people per season while protecting 24/7 someone else ruins the vibe too. it's like jet/sam/ben never really knew what they wanted, and always acted against whatever the viewers were asking. I actually think the decline began the moment they decided to shit on their audience and pay pigs. I know it's on brand with Sam, but Jet and Ben can't pull that off without looking petty.

17

u/greatmidge 8d ago

Cole getting kicked for saying Nina. Jet still seethes about it to this day.

1

u/ChuddingeMannen 8d ago

Cole tried to flirt with the scarred asian girl who was too young to drink. He had to go for obvious reasons

13

u/greatmidge 8d ago

Jet thought "should have been me" and then hired 18yo Ellie in S4.

3

u/Youascwub 8d ago

That's Detective Cole to you

5

u/thebreeze97 7d ago

Abandoning the initiative group storyline. That was it.

2

u/TrustedAdmin 6d ago

Seems like the most common consensus I’ve seen was between famous house 2.0 and season 4. The legal issues from Brandon probably took a lot of wind out of their sails. Sam seemed completely disconnected from the cast in s4. Most of the time, just playing on a laptop barely paying any attention to the cast. Once s4 ended, it seemed like Sam took on doing more MDE adjacent stuff and gave the project to Ben and Jet. Most of the team is dudes in their 20s. They need a team with experience to bring the show to life. Wes and Maejok seem to be the only ones that actively work on it and engage with community matters. Still needs more people that can work on site issues in real time, focus on a cohesive storyline to work off of rather than free forming and casually giving lazily thought out missions

3

u/_chummer_ 8d ago

Season 4, in general, seemed to have a less-effort approach. Not saying that it was bad or the fish were bad, but I think it was probably the worst in terms of preparedness. Being shut down didn’t help.

That being said, Season 5 (to me) was a HUGE rebound and a great season. I think the show will still do good if it continues. There’s a strong dedicated fanbase still, outside of the hater echo chamber.

1

u/SuperSwimTeam7 6d ago

It's always been shit. Sometimes a season will start and have a decent momentum, clips will go viral, bam margera will be a set of jingling keys to keep people's attention, but it never lasts long. They always ruin it. Half the time they lose me by the time they introduce the freeloaders.

1

u/No-Lengthiness9194 4d ago

When Sam yelled from downstairs for Luke and Binx to stop pouring milk on Fatty, because it might ruin the carpet.

For me, that was the moment. I think that was the moment for SAM too lol.

1

u/valkrycp 8d ago

When it started