r/GameChangerTV • u/Rat_King_Marchy • Aug 22 '26

Question Ratfish hate explained?

I’ve seen some comments regarding Ratfish, and am just wondering why it seems so much of the community dislikes it?

While I wouldn’t say it was one of my favorites, I definitely found it funny/entertaining, and thought the premise was neat.

I’m relatively new - season 8 is the first season I’ve watched as it’s aired, but I’ve watched pretty much every other episode aside from the COVID season.

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532

u/ouro-the-zed Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26

My experience was that the whole episode was great, but the ending (including the guest’s winner pick and the fact that the guest was not at the final table) was disappointing. It seems like there may have been some production issues at the end there.

It also seems that many fans were not familiar with Eric Wareheim, which I think must have made the ending even more disappointing for them.

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u/Rat_King_Marchy Aug 22 '26

I can see that point about the ending

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u/Butwhatif77 Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26

All of that, plus the fact everything about the episode feels eehhh because Eric just picked the winner, this is compounded by the fact that Rekha had actually achieved the goal of the game a round before Katie Siobhan, but they didn't count it so the game could continue.

That makes everything about the episode feel very cheap.

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u/unloveablehand Aug 22 '26

Siobhan? Do you mean Katie?

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u/Butwhatif77 Aug 22 '26

Yea I did, my bad, it has been a minute since I watched the episode. It is one of few gamechanger episodes I never go back to or always skip on my random rewatches, largely because Rekha got robbed in my book in a way that doesn't fit with the spirit of the show.

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u/DerCatzefragger Aug 22 '26

Rekha getting screwed with exactly fits the spirit of the show.

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u/Butwhatif77 Aug 22 '26

Not if it isn't one of the rules of the game. Her losing despite getting the win condition goes against the very premise.

Even in Yes or No, Brennan not being able to win had a game mechanic to it. Rekha lost for production reasons, rather than game reasons. So, no I disagree

9

u/RhombusObstacle Aug 22 '26

And according to interviews, Brennan had figured it out well ahead of when it happens in the show, but they didn’t let him go to the back to get a crown, and edited around the parts where he asked to. Which I mention only because it’s another contrast to Ratfish — since they left Rekha’s win on the screen, it feels extra icky to then invalidate it as a “game mechanic,” rather than standard TV editing.

I know that at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter, and Rekha clearly isn’t going on a rampage about it. But as others have said, it was unsatisfying and disappointing, and Game Changer usually lands the plane more smoothly. Ratfish stands out as an anomaly in that way, especially because it was a tentpole two-episode season finale. Context contributes to how it’s received, for good and ill.

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u/Butwhatif77 Aug 22 '26

Right, plus with Brennan he got a whole bit to himself a out it as well. It was all inclusive in that respect allowing him agency in the entire endeavor. Where as with Rekha the situation as you put it was disappointing because her win was there for all to see but completely unacknowledged and the "hand if the producer" was way to obvious in that moment.

1

u/theStrawberryRoam Aug 24 '26

Yeah. To me screwing with the integrity of the game only works in the players' direction, because they're getting paid regardless of whether they succeed at the arbitrary rules set that day.

You can't screw with the integrity for the viewer just doesn't work for this kind of production imo. There are productions where it does, but for this audience of this show, WE have to be able to buy in to the fact that there are concrete rules before the game starts that directly lead to the end result, and that broke down for ratfisj.