I felt like Count the Rice was around the same point as Drinking Game and it was! both season 7 and 8 were the only GC seasons I’ve watched as episodes release and I think watching week to week makes the weaker episodes less memorable and the strong ones hit even harder! (especially not knowing the premises when watching live like I had going into many previous GC eps from watching clips) but is there a formula to how they layout the seasons, with a SUPER strong game changer-y at its core episode at the Ep5 spot? like at its core, Count the Rice follows the “the only way to learn is by playing, the only way to win is by learn, and the only way to begin is by beginning” without the premise being revealed to both the players and viewers until more than halfway thru the episode, just as the Secret Sober wasn’t revealed until the end.
maybe this is really obvious that it’s formulaic, like one year later kicking off season 7 and bookending with samalamadingdong, start and end strong. but it seems so much more obvious comparing 7 and 8 versus looking at season 6, which imo arguably has more of my all time favs throughout the whole season, not just in certain episode slots. like Bingo is S6Ep5, but followed by Deja Vu, Beat the Buzzer, and Ratfish
