Taskmaster and Ms Marvel
Things have been happening!
- I went to work for the first time in 2.25 years (to clear out my cube in preparation for going officially hybrid)
- O is home from uni for the summer and B is bringing L home for a week before she returns to her newly rented apartment / research (now with semi-gainful employment) for the rest of June and July
- we finalized summer plans and they will hopefully involve ikel89/cafemassolit
I need to get around to making a RL post about that, but this is not that post. This is about all the way I've been distracting my brain from all the things I have to do and the general *waves hand at the state of things*, which is to say, what I've been watching:
Taskmaster: Only 1 episode left, and it's been such a dramatic series! spoilers from here!
Episode 8: I feel a bit bad for Chris, who had started out so strong and has now slipped into third place (only by like 2 points, but still), but wow, Sophie is sure having an amazing trajectory! And, really, while some of Chris's earlier setbacks were due to bad luck (like not even getting to go in the live task, or sloshing just a bit of water in the fishtank task), really there was no-one to blame but him for this episode's disasters. At least he seemed to be taking it in stride...
So after a couple of really great prize tasks in this series, ep 8's was a lackluster one; the only entry I enjoyed at all was Bridget's lace parasol, which seemed to even fit her general Old West aesthetic. Sophie's way of selling the tiny trophy was pretty adorable, but I wasn't entirely sold, and I was just kind of meh on the rest.
It had been so long since a Fred the Swede task! (I actually didn't realize HOW long it's been -- apparently since series 4!) -- I'm glad they are still finding ways to use him 'remotely'. This was a hard task, and I'm glad that, mostly through random coincidence, it led to some very interesting scenarios, from poor Chris blanking completely and pretending to go to sleep, to Sophie swotting up properly, with notes, and then weirdly going for an "I'm pregnant" announcement in accusatory tones, to Bridget phoning up her brother who happens to live in Sweden (which was counted as a suitable demonstration of the Swedish language, even though her own contribution to it were minimal, but that's fair to the wording of the task), to Ardal's amazing song (and like Ed on the podcast, I'm impressed he remembered so clearly something that he learned awhile ago while being drunk). I think this was actually the first time on the series when Ardal got a high score and I wholeheartedly agreed with the scoring (OK, maybe there were a couple of prize tasks where I thought he also deserved 5 points, but mostly because I didn't think much of the other entries).
The licking things task, oh god. I wonder if they would've shown it at all if not for Sophie's amazing performance, because Alex sure did seem apologetic about it, not just to the contestants but to the viewers as well. And I don't consider myself particularly sensitive about saliva, but I had to look away for most of that, which hasn't happened since I think series 1 (Romesh and the watermelon and Romesh and the hot sauce) -- and has definitely not happened to me for the ENTIRETY of the task. Sooo, from the glimpses I did see, it was interesting the different approaches people had to this -- Bridget pretending her tongue was very short and just sticking out the tip, Chris doing the quickest possible licks (which seems to work as a strategy), and Sophie's, I dunno, superpowers or something. That's amazing that she finished everything! And didn't stop even when Alex was hinting that maybe she could stop now. And her silently pointing back at Alex when he asked her "which is the worst one" was a great moment as well -- she kept her sense of humour and quick wit! (I did wonder the same thing the podcast did, if whether her having a tongue piercing helps with this task in some weird way, like making that area less sensitive or just the fact that she's used to something being "on" that part of her tongue continuously, so she's used to the sensation.) Anyway, what a command performance from Sophie; now let's never do anything like that again.
I thought Sophie was underscored in the longest shoes/biggest hat task -- her shoes were definitely longer that anyone's, even if not as bulky as Bridget's, and I liked that she had a theme going, too. But I probably do agree that Ardal deserved the bonus point for style, as he kind of pulled together that clown look with the baby bath on his head. And poor Chris, of course, who completely misunderstood the task. He rocked that cowboy hat, though, it must be said! (On the podcast, where the special guest for this episode was Chris's wife Rosie, she revealed the behind-the-scenes info that when Chris was walking around searching for a large hat/shoes, he passed by the table with the various arts and crafts thing laid out on it, and was like, "the fuck is all that for?" XD Ah well, we all have those days.)
At least Chris was redeemed somewhat by the live team task of coming up with the same answers to a word category as your partner and aoiding overlap with the other team. Getting 3 words to the girls' 1 was pretty impressive! -- and according to Rosie, Chris had been actively trying to channel Arlon for that (which it didn't seem like at least some of the other team players were even attempting Judi. At first I thought that the girls team getting 3 points for getting 1 word in common (total) when the boys got 5 points for 3 words was not fair, but actually, I do think this is one task where having a team of 3 gives you a significant handicap, because it was a different pair trying to mindmeld each time, so now I think that's probably pretty reasonable.
The podcast episode was also really fun. Ed said that they did no specifically invite Rosie Ramsey for an episode where her husband had done badly, but it was very funny that it worked out that way, and I have to agree. It was very cute to get additional info on Chris, before the show, during the show, and now that he's watching it back -- apparently, he not only never watched Taskmaster himself, in boycott of the fact that he hadn't been invited to participate before this, but he wouldn't let his loved ones watch it either! My favorite detail that Rosie shared is of course that Chris keeps remarking every week as they watch the show together that he and Sophie have a very similar approach to tasks (which I've noticed as well) and then says, "She went to Oxford, you know." Man, I would have so loved to see more Chris and Sophie dynamic on the show... Ed also asked Rosie who her favorite contestant was, not an awkward question at all XD, and she said Judi, with zero hesitation, lol.
Episode 9: Man, what a nailbiter that was! And also, I think the most subdued reaction to an episode winner announcer, because it was quite clear they were all rooting for Judi, even I think Chris, who really needed a win after last week's disaster. But alas, it was not to be... I wonder if Judi will finally win the last episode -- it will be so narratively unsatisfying if she does not, after the two times she came so close, with the shoe/TP bowling one a couple of eps ago and even closer with this one -- where, as Alex said, she could've written down 0 and zipped up the empty bag and she would've won (but of course no-one thinks like that). But OK, on to the play-by-play!
From the department of continuing to enjoy Sophie's outfits: aww, the dress with the mice/rats on the shoulders!
Another kind of meh prize task this week; I guess they really are runing out of ideas. Ardal's chess piece with a random handle did deserve 5 points, I agree for once, but mostly because everyone else's prizes were so generic and unfunny -- a door? a kettle? a bike? (though Judi's "who can handle that" pun did sell the bike as well as possible). Sophie's mysterious spinny thing did at least yield a couple of funny moments, Alex's reaction to Sophie's description of the wheel as "like a Rubik's cube but flat", Sophie's rejoinder about how many things Ardal can expect in his life, and the following exchange, which of course I really enjoyed, because the Chris and Sophie rivalry continues to be one of my favorite things about this series:
Chris: I put it to you that that'll land in the same place every time because that handle will weigh it down.
Sophie: I didn't really expect my fortune to be combatted with science.
The deliver something surprising task was so neat from start to finish! First, the task envelope delivery via floating umbrella, and everyone's absolute delight in that, and then Greg's fond glow at their delight, and then Ardal's crack about Stockholm Syndrome. And of all the people on the show, Judi was the last I expected to call Greg "daddy", lol. The actual task execution was also fun! Bridget's was very confusing, even with the hints from Alex, but that she spent 6 hours researching Greg and calling up his friends (and GP! XD) and only managed to discover this very random collection of facts was pretty hilarious. (On the podcast Ed revealed that he was one of the people Bridget tried to contact, via Alex, and that he was very confused at the time, and watching the result did not unconfuse him any.) And Greg did get very defensive about his Welsh royalty lineage, lol! The top 3 entries I enjoyed were Sophie's worms in a pretty basket, though, as the podcast pointed out, this wasn't too surprising knowing that Sophie on the show has been all about death and being horrible to Alex. But the way she delivered them as a present to Alex was very funny: "I thought you could relate to them, in a way. They are very busy. They have no spine." Alex reassuring that the worms are happily crawling around in the Taskmaster garden was also very cute, although the podcast correctly pointed out that the Taskmaster garden is hardly a restful place (Ed Gamble for a hypothetical task for next series: "Most worms eaten wins.") And I can't really quibble with the five-pointers for Judi and Chris. The fish heads on a skateboard were definitely surprising on their own, but then we also got Judi impersonating a dead fish (during the task AND at the studio! XD) and I love that the crew actually made a stew with the horrible fish heads and it was delicious. And Chris and the baby! I don't know what the podcast is grousing about -- getting a baby delivered is pretty surprising, and even more so when it was not (apparently) his baby. Though, yeah, part of the appeal to me and maybe also partly motivating Greg's high points was also just how adorable Chris looks walking across the yard with a newborn; it definitely evoked some Darwinian "this man is good genetic material" feelings in me, LOL; not sure about Greg XD Stellar task all around, and even Ardal's low-scoring owl was cute if not surprising.
Cup snake task! This got so tense that I stopped taking detailed notes, LOL. Ed on the podcast made the interesting point that if Bridget hadn't gone in this weird log direction, this might've never been shown, or this might be a promoted tie-breaker task, because other than Bridget's entry, this was pretty straightforward. I did enjoy the little moments like Chris's cup snake technique of stacking them in the barn and pushing out the whole assembled snake, Judi putting Alex to work and then reclining on the blanket while saying "Cup Queen" (she di ALSO work hard, for a change, so I don't mind her winning even though Alex was helping her), and Bridget's honest "I stepped out of the barn and fucked myself" about her stick approach (though the podcast is correct that actually stepping out of the barn once doesn't actually create a problem -- I'm not sure any of the others needed to be in the barn more than once, so Bridget would've been fine too if she'd just gotten on with the task.)
Disguising/waggling body part task with the shower curtain sounded baffling when described, but the results were fun to watch. I love that both Sophie and Chris got 5 points, because they both committed hard, Chris getting on top of the cow so his leg could come out at a very weird height of the shower curtain, and Sophie's whole genius idea of using her hair as the body part to disguise. Judi going to the (relative) trouble of putting her hand in her shoe, banking that Greg would assume she went for the minimum effort and just stuck out her foot, which is exactly how it happened -- but Judi also FORGETTING that she hadn't actually done that -- amazing! And the fails were also entertaining fails, Bridget in her Cousin Itt mode and Ardal doing.... whatever that was (Sophie to Ardal: "Why aren't you wearing trousers? You didn't need to not wear trousers!" and Ardal not having any answers for her, or to Greg's question about what he had been planning to do with a wooden spoon and yogurt, or doing in there, or thinking, or anything).
And then the live task with the cans, and Judi yet again managing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, even with Sophie helping her (Sophie seems to generally like helping her -- it's very sweet!) I wonder if splitting between two fronts is what cost Sophie a disqualification in this pretty straightforward task, but given that she'd written down the lowest number anyway, all she could've gotten was 1 point.
Anyway, Chris doing well this episode and Sophie's live task disqualification means that after what was looking like a difficult to overcome gap between him and Sophie last week, they are now heading into the final with Sophie only leading by 2 points! (In a way I wish it wasn't this close, because I would be happy if either of them won, but also disappointed for the other person, and this is the kind of tension where I'd like to "skip to the last page" and just know how it shakes out already so I could focus on being happy for the winner. Bridget and Ardal are now 12 and 13 points behind the leader, so I don't think there's any way they could win, even if one of them has another amazing episode and Chris and Sophie both have a disastrous one, unless there is another task that subtracts points or is not bounded by 5 points, like the horse-or-laminator one -- but I don't think they'd put that in the finale.
I was glad to have Jack back as the special guest on the podcast, because this has been such an interesting series stats-wise! He shared some more fascinating stats facts, like that Chris Ramsey is the best person ever on filmed tasks (but his performance on prize tasks and on live studio tasks -- but a lot of that is just bad luck I feel -- is dragging him down), and that Bridget has come either first or last in 61% (or 63%? some ridiculous % in the sixties) of her tasks, which is just WILD. Like, looking at her 1 or 0 point scores, she is the fourth worst in the history of the series, after Paul Chowdhry, Roisin, and I think Katherine Parkinson was the last one? Not surprised that statistics back how bimodal Bridget has appeared on the show.
Can't wait to see how the whole thing ends!
Also, Champion of Champions II date has been announced, and it's going to be airing the week after series 13 wraps up, June 23 -- way sooner than I'd expected! Everyone looks to be having a blast, but especially Liza, which, yay! Bummed that it's only going to be the one episode, though.
And in further Taskmaster content, stashing this amazing fanart tapestry thing here for future reference. (Some contestants/moments were instantly recognizable -- spoilers if you want to look yourself? I mean, Phil and Daisy and Mawan's task outfits are pretty hard to miss, for starters, even more so than Katie's hi-vis vest, and Aisling's lime green outfit is also pretty noticeable, but others are recognizable by their signature moments -- Lou in the bin, Joe painting while smiling, Joe Wilkinson and the potato throw, Sally with the water cooler, Tim Key in the bath, the dong and the gong, Rob Beckett with the hose, Romesh and the carnage of watermelon, but others took me a little longer to spot/identify.)
**
I also watched the first episode of Ms Marvel, after watching some YouTube reviews that made it sound more interesting to me than the trailer had. The trailer from two months ago had actually the opposite effect on me -- it made the show look stylistically 'quirky' in a way I don't really care for (like, I like the quirky elements in the background, but because they are background elements; the trailer was really leaning into them), and thematically I didn't get anything from the trailer other than kind of generic 'wokeness' (by which I mean feeling like it was emphasizing the 'wokeness' and not the story, which tends to really not work for me in fiction) -- the things I ended up liking about Kamala and her family and the premise of the show did not come through in the trailer at all, so I was actually planning on skipping it until hearing how much some YouTube folks I follow liked it. And the first episode was really fun! I liked it quite a lot, actually, and am looking forward to watching the rest of it unfold, and told O (who had been similarly turned off by the trailer) to check it out as well.
Kamala is ADORABLE, in a similar way that Tom Holland's Peter is adorable -- she's a dork, she's a nerd, she is passionate about things out of proportion, she is awkward in dealing with both peers and adults -- and these are normal teenage things, in addition to the cultural stuff. And I really liked how the cultural stuff was handled in the show -- the code-mixing of pet names, the food and shopping, the way Kamala talks when imitating her parents, the way Kamala's parents and the various aunties talk -- it's done in a fun in-group way that I can absolutely appreciate even though it's not my culture. And I even like the way the "microinequities" are handled -- there are little incidents Kamala runs into, and they are not intentionally discriminatory, but they are Othering in tiny ways, like: spoilers from here Kamala fails her driving test very clearly not because the examiner is prejudiced against her but because she backs into his car -- but there's that great little moment where she whispers "bismillah" (like her brother advised her) before starting the car and he says, "Bless you". Or random students at school mispronouncing her ethnic name -- not because racism, necessarily; in the montage scene it's in, it just underscores that she's out of step with the cool kids, like the scene where she tries to get to her locker by getting between two girls who appear to be flirting -- but it's there. Or the exchange with Zoe, where Kamala starts to explain that the necklace she wears is her name in Arabic after Zoe compliments it -- it's awkward not because anyone has a negative reaction to it, but because Kamala is trying to continue a conversation which was actually never intended to be a conversation, because she's a dork. But she is a dork with this added dimension of being from a different cultural background than most of the people she interacts with, and that's also a thing. I think the only person who has anything negative to say about any of the Pakistani cultural stuff / reacts overtly negatively to any manifestation of it is Kamala herself -- understandably pushing back on her mother's Little Hulk costume and the ideas that a girl going off to travel Europe instead of getting married is a scandal -- which is more interesting and nuanced than outgroup prejudice. And I also just liked how vibrant and diverse her school's student body looked, including a hijabi girl playing volleyball in PE.
The things I really liked in the first episode were all things the trailer had in no way led me to expect: Kamala's family (the trailer shows the stern disappointed mother, and a brief scene with her brother, not any of the fun aspects), Kamala's very cute friendship with Bruno, and Kamala the Avengers fangirl. (Rewatching the trailer, I guess you can see the stuff in there, but that wasn't the narrative that jumped out at me when watching the trailer without the benefit of the episode.) The family stuff was great! I liked both of her parents a lot; her father gets to be the cute fluffy comic relief person, at least so far, and he is adorable, but I also liked her mother, because I think it's a role that's very easy to just make into an antagonistic one, and she is definitely not right, but I feel like the show so far has succeeded in selling me on it being a personality and priorities clash rather than Kamala's mother being Wrong and Bad -- she definitely needs to lighten up, if only because this is clearly not the way to get her daughter to modify her behavior the way she wants to, the oppsoite if anything, but I do believe that it comes from a place of love. I like that Kamala has her own "guy in the chair" in Bruno the gadget guy, and I especially liked the way in just a quick scene we saw just how integrated into Kamala's family he was. I had to laugh that when he said he wasn't staying for dinner, Kamala's mom packed him a bunch of to-go boxes without asking -- and that she knows the spice level preferences of his relatives! And the fangirl stuff was just a lot of fun on MCU worldbuilding level -- of course there would be a con with T-shirts and cosplay contests! of course there's a podcast (Luis talked Scott into it, Y/Y?) And Kamala's YouTube stuff was fun.
I'd found the overlaid speech bubbles in the trailer overdone and distracting, but I did actually like the way those quirky stylistic elements were integrated into the show -- sketches and fantasy sequences melding together worked for me as long as it didn't last too long, especially the background grafitti things, and the texted emoji showing up as street and shop signs was also cute. The YouTube people who made me interested in watching the show made the comparison to The Mitchells vs the Machines and Into the Spider-Verse (only, you know, melded with live-action) and I can totally see why. I could see this sort of thing getting on my nerves if overused, but at the current level I do find it a feature rather than a bug.
Other than Kamala and her parents, and Bruno to some extent (though other than being gadget guy and supportive friend, I'm not sure how much of his personality we've seen) I haven't gotten much of a feel for other characters, but I'm amused by Mr Wilson the guidance counsellor and by the friend who bet Bruno that Kamala would fail her driving test, so looking forward to seeing more of them.
OK, and so actually I have not said anything about the superhero stuff yet? Which, granted, only came in late in the episode. The superpowers is never what I'm there for in MCU anyway, unless it's something really neat like Ant-Man. I'm not sold on... whatever this is, which appears to be roughly rendered special effects while Kamala looks like she's about to barf. But, like, that's the part I care least about, so fine, whatever. I just hope the balance of "dorky teen buddies", "quirky immigrant family", and "superhero stuff" remains firmly shifted in favor of the former.
- I went to work for the first time in 2.25 years (to clear out my cube in preparation for going officially hybrid)
- O is home from uni for the summer and B is bringing L home for a week before she returns to her newly rented apartment / research (now with semi-gainful employment) for the rest of June and July
- we finalized summer plans and they will hopefully involve ikel89/cafemassolit
I need to get around to making a RL post about that, but this is not that post. This is about all the way I've been distracting my brain from all the things I have to do and the general *waves hand at the state of things*, which is to say, what I've been watching:
Taskmaster: Only 1 episode left, and it's been such a dramatic series! spoilers from here!
Episode 8: I feel a bit bad for Chris, who had started out so strong and has now slipped into third place (only by like 2 points, but still), but wow, Sophie is sure having an amazing trajectory! And, really, while some of Chris's earlier setbacks were due to bad luck (like not even getting to go in the live task, or sloshing just a bit of water in the fishtank task), really there was no-one to blame but him for this episode's disasters. At least he seemed to be taking it in stride...
So after a couple of really great prize tasks in this series, ep 8's was a lackluster one; the only entry I enjoyed at all was Bridget's lace parasol, which seemed to even fit her general Old West aesthetic. Sophie's way of selling the tiny trophy was pretty adorable, but I wasn't entirely sold, and I was just kind of meh on the rest.
It had been so long since a Fred the Swede task! (I actually didn't realize HOW long it's been -- apparently since series 4!) -- I'm glad they are still finding ways to use him 'remotely'. This was a hard task, and I'm glad that, mostly through random coincidence, it led to some very interesting scenarios, from poor Chris blanking completely and pretending to go to sleep, to Sophie swotting up properly, with notes, and then weirdly going for an "I'm pregnant" announcement in accusatory tones, to Bridget phoning up her brother who happens to live in Sweden (which was counted as a suitable demonstration of the Swedish language, even though her own contribution to it were minimal, but that's fair to the wording of the task), to Ardal's amazing song (and like Ed on the podcast, I'm impressed he remembered so clearly something that he learned awhile ago while being drunk). I think this was actually the first time on the series when Ardal got a high score and I wholeheartedly agreed with the scoring (OK, maybe there were a couple of prize tasks where I thought he also deserved 5 points, but mostly because I didn't think much of the other entries).
The licking things task, oh god. I wonder if they would've shown it at all if not for Sophie's amazing performance, because Alex sure did seem apologetic about it, not just to the contestants but to the viewers as well. And I don't consider myself particularly sensitive about saliva, but I had to look away for most of that, which hasn't happened since I think series 1 (Romesh and the watermelon and Romesh and the hot sauce) -- and has definitely not happened to me for the ENTIRETY of the task. Sooo, from the glimpses I did see, it was interesting the different approaches people had to this -- Bridget pretending her tongue was very short and just sticking out the tip, Chris doing the quickest possible licks (which seems to work as a strategy), and Sophie's, I dunno, superpowers or something. That's amazing that she finished everything! And didn't stop even when Alex was hinting that maybe she could stop now. And her silently pointing back at Alex when he asked her "which is the worst one" was a great moment as well -- she kept her sense of humour and quick wit! (I did wonder the same thing the podcast did, if whether her having a tongue piercing helps with this task in some weird way, like making that area less sensitive or just the fact that she's used to something being "on" that part of her tongue continuously, so she's used to the sensation.) Anyway, what a command performance from Sophie; now let's never do anything like that again.
I thought Sophie was underscored in the longest shoes/biggest hat task -- her shoes were definitely longer that anyone's, even if not as bulky as Bridget's, and I liked that she had a theme going, too. But I probably do agree that Ardal deserved the bonus point for style, as he kind of pulled together that clown look with the baby bath on his head. And poor Chris, of course, who completely misunderstood the task. He rocked that cowboy hat, though, it must be said! (On the podcast, where the special guest for this episode was Chris's wife Rosie, she revealed the behind-the-scenes info that when Chris was walking around searching for a large hat/shoes, he passed by the table with the various arts and crafts thing laid out on it, and was like, "the fuck is all that for?" XD Ah well, we all have those days.)
At least Chris was redeemed somewhat by the live team task of coming up with the same answers to a word category as your partner and aoiding overlap with the other team. Getting 3 words to the girls' 1 was pretty impressive! -- and according to Rosie, Chris had been actively trying to channel Arlon for that (which it didn't seem like at least some of the other team players were even attempting Judi. At first I thought that the girls team getting 3 points for getting 1 word in common (total) when the boys got 5 points for 3 words was not fair, but actually, I do think this is one task where having a team of 3 gives you a significant handicap, because it was a different pair trying to mindmeld each time, so now I think that's probably pretty reasonable.
The podcast episode was also really fun. Ed said that they did no specifically invite Rosie Ramsey for an episode where her husband had done badly, but it was very funny that it worked out that way, and I have to agree. It was very cute to get additional info on Chris, before the show, during the show, and now that he's watching it back -- apparently, he not only never watched Taskmaster himself, in boycott of the fact that he hadn't been invited to participate before this, but he wouldn't let his loved ones watch it either! My favorite detail that Rosie shared is of course that Chris keeps remarking every week as they watch the show together that he and Sophie have a very similar approach to tasks (which I've noticed as well) and then says, "She went to Oxford, you know." Man, I would have so loved to see more Chris and Sophie dynamic on the show... Ed also asked Rosie who her favorite contestant was, not an awkward question at all XD, and she said Judi, with zero hesitation, lol.
Episode 9: Man, what a nailbiter that was! And also, I think the most subdued reaction to an episode winner announcer, because it was quite clear they were all rooting for Judi, even I think Chris, who really needed a win after last week's disaster. But alas, it was not to be... I wonder if Judi will finally win the last episode -- it will be so narratively unsatisfying if she does not, after the two times she came so close, with the shoe/TP bowling one a couple of eps ago and even closer with this one -- where, as Alex said, she could've written down 0 and zipped up the empty bag and she would've won (but of course no-one thinks like that). But OK, on to the play-by-play!
From the department of continuing to enjoy Sophie's outfits: aww, the dress with the mice/rats on the shoulders!
Another kind of meh prize task this week; I guess they really are runing out of ideas. Ardal's chess piece with a random handle did deserve 5 points, I agree for once, but mostly because everyone else's prizes were so generic and unfunny -- a door? a kettle? a bike? (though Judi's "who can handle that" pun did sell the bike as well as possible). Sophie's mysterious spinny thing did at least yield a couple of funny moments, Alex's reaction to Sophie's description of the wheel as "like a Rubik's cube but flat", Sophie's rejoinder about how many things Ardal can expect in his life, and the following exchange, which of course I really enjoyed, because the Chris and Sophie rivalry continues to be one of my favorite things about this series:
Chris: I put it to you that that'll land in the same place every time because that handle will weigh it down.
Sophie: I didn't really expect my fortune to be combatted with science.
The deliver something surprising task was so neat from start to finish! First, the task envelope delivery via floating umbrella, and everyone's absolute delight in that, and then Greg's fond glow at their delight, and then Ardal's crack about Stockholm Syndrome. And of all the people on the show, Judi was the last I expected to call Greg "daddy", lol. The actual task execution was also fun! Bridget's was very confusing, even with the hints from Alex, but that she spent 6 hours researching Greg and calling up his friends (and GP! XD) and only managed to discover this very random collection of facts was pretty hilarious. (On the podcast Ed revealed that he was one of the people Bridget tried to contact, via Alex, and that he was very confused at the time, and watching the result did not unconfuse him any.) And Greg did get very defensive about his Welsh royalty lineage, lol! The top 3 entries I enjoyed were Sophie's worms in a pretty basket, though, as the podcast pointed out, this wasn't too surprising knowing that Sophie on the show has been all about death and being horrible to Alex. But the way she delivered them as a present to Alex was very funny: "I thought you could relate to them, in a way. They are very busy. They have no spine." Alex reassuring that the worms are happily crawling around in the Taskmaster garden was also very cute, although the podcast correctly pointed out that the Taskmaster garden is hardly a restful place (Ed Gamble for a hypothetical task for next series: "Most worms eaten wins.") And I can't really quibble with the five-pointers for Judi and Chris. The fish heads on a skateboard were definitely surprising on their own, but then we also got Judi impersonating a dead fish (during the task AND at the studio! XD) and I love that the crew actually made a stew with the horrible fish heads and it was delicious. And Chris and the baby! I don't know what the podcast is grousing about -- getting a baby delivered is pretty surprising, and even more so when it was not (apparently) his baby. Though, yeah, part of the appeal to me and maybe also partly motivating Greg's high points was also just how adorable Chris looks walking across the yard with a newborn; it definitely evoked some Darwinian "this man is good genetic material" feelings in me, LOL; not sure about Greg XD Stellar task all around, and even Ardal's low-scoring owl was cute if not surprising.
Cup snake task! This got so tense that I stopped taking detailed notes, LOL. Ed on the podcast made the interesting point that if Bridget hadn't gone in this weird log direction, this might've never been shown, or this might be a promoted tie-breaker task, because other than Bridget's entry, this was pretty straightforward. I did enjoy the little moments like Chris's cup snake technique of stacking them in the barn and pushing out the whole assembled snake, Judi putting Alex to work and then reclining on the blanket while saying "Cup Queen" (she di ALSO work hard, for a change, so I don't mind her winning even though Alex was helping her), and Bridget's honest "I stepped out of the barn and fucked myself" about her stick approach (though the podcast is correct that actually stepping out of the barn once doesn't actually create a problem -- I'm not sure any of the others needed to be in the barn more than once, so Bridget would've been fine too if she'd just gotten on with the task.)
Disguising/waggling body part task with the shower curtain sounded baffling when described, but the results were fun to watch. I love that both Sophie and Chris got 5 points, because they both committed hard, Chris getting on top of the cow so his leg could come out at a very weird height of the shower curtain, and Sophie's whole genius idea of using her hair as the body part to disguise. Judi going to the (relative) trouble of putting her hand in her shoe, banking that Greg would assume she went for the minimum effort and just stuck out her foot, which is exactly how it happened -- but Judi also FORGETTING that she hadn't actually done that -- amazing! And the fails were also entertaining fails, Bridget in her Cousin Itt mode and Ardal doing.... whatever that was (Sophie to Ardal: "Why aren't you wearing trousers? You didn't need to not wear trousers!" and Ardal not having any answers for her, or to Greg's question about what he had been planning to do with a wooden spoon and yogurt, or doing in there, or thinking, or anything).
And then the live task with the cans, and Judi yet again managing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, even with Sophie helping her (Sophie seems to generally like helping her -- it's very sweet!) I wonder if splitting between two fronts is what cost Sophie a disqualification in this pretty straightforward task, but given that she'd written down the lowest number anyway, all she could've gotten was 1 point.
Anyway, Chris doing well this episode and Sophie's live task disqualification means that after what was looking like a difficult to overcome gap between him and Sophie last week, they are now heading into the final with Sophie only leading by 2 points! (In a way I wish it wasn't this close, because I would be happy if either of them won, but also disappointed for the other person, and this is the kind of tension where I'd like to "skip to the last page" and just know how it shakes out already so I could focus on being happy for the winner. Bridget and Ardal are now 12 and 13 points behind the leader, so I don't think there's any way they could win, even if one of them has another amazing episode and Chris and Sophie both have a disastrous one, unless there is another task that subtracts points or is not bounded by 5 points, like the horse-or-laminator one -- but I don't think they'd put that in the finale.
I was glad to have Jack back as the special guest on the podcast, because this has been such an interesting series stats-wise! He shared some more fascinating stats facts, like that Chris Ramsey is the best person ever on filmed tasks (but his performance on prize tasks and on live studio tasks -- but a lot of that is just bad luck I feel -- is dragging him down), and that Bridget has come either first or last in 61% (or 63%? some ridiculous % in the sixties) of her tasks, which is just WILD. Like, looking at her 1 or 0 point scores, she is the fourth worst in the history of the series, after Paul Chowdhry, Roisin, and I think Katherine Parkinson was the last one? Not surprised that statistics back how bimodal Bridget has appeared on the show.
Can't wait to see how the whole thing ends!
Also, Champion of Champions II date has been announced, and it's going to be airing the week after series 13 wraps up, June 23 -- way sooner than I'd expected! Everyone looks to be having a blast, but especially Liza, which, yay! Bummed that it's only going to be the one episode, though.
And in further Taskmaster content, stashing this amazing fanart tapestry thing here for future reference. (Some contestants/moments were instantly recognizable -- spoilers if you want to look yourself? I mean, Phil and Daisy and Mawan's task outfits are pretty hard to miss, for starters, even more so than Katie's hi-vis vest, and Aisling's lime green outfit is also pretty noticeable, but others are recognizable by their signature moments -- Lou in the bin, Joe painting while smiling, Joe Wilkinson and the potato throw, Sally with the water cooler, Tim Key in the bath, the dong and the gong, Rob Beckett with the hose, Romesh and the carnage of watermelon, but others took me a little longer to spot/identify.)
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I also watched the first episode of Ms Marvel, after watching some YouTube reviews that made it sound more interesting to me than the trailer had. The trailer from two months ago had actually the opposite effect on me -- it made the show look stylistically 'quirky' in a way I don't really care for (like, I like the quirky elements in the background, but because they are background elements; the trailer was really leaning into them), and thematically I didn't get anything from the trailer other than kind of generic 'wokeness' (by which I mean feeling like it was emphasizing the 'wokeness' and not the story, which tends to really not work for me in fiction) -- the things I ended up liking about Kamala and her family and the premise of the show did not come through in the trailer at all, so I was actually planning on skipping it until hearing how much some YouTube folks I follow liked it. And the first episode was really fun! I liked it quite a lot, actually, and am looking forward to watching the rest of it unfold, and told O (who had been similarly turned off by the trailer) to check it out as well.
Kamala is ADORABLE, in a similar way that Tom Holland's Peter is adorable -- she's a dork, she's a nerd, she is passionate about things out of proportion, she is awkward in dealing with both peers and adults -- and these are normal teenage things, in addition to the cultural stuff. And I really liked how the cultural stuff was handled in the show -- the code-mixing of pet names, the food and shopping, the way Kamala talks when imitating her parents, the way Kamala's parents and the various aunties talk -- it's done in a fun in-group way that I can absolutely appreciate even though it's not my culture. And I even like the way the "microinequities" are handled -- there are little incidents Kamala runs into, and they are not intentionally discriminatory, but they are Othering in tiny ways, like: spoilers from here Kamala fails her driving test very clearly not because the examiner is prejudiced against her but because she backs into his car -- but there's that great little moment where she whispers "bismillah" (like her brother advised her) before starting the car and he says, "Bless you". Or random students at school mispronouncing her ethnic name -- not because racism, necessarily; in the montage scene it's in, it just underscores that she's out of step with the cool kids, like the scene where she tries to get to her locker by getting between two girls who appear to be flirting -- but it's there. Or the exchange with Zoe, where Kamala starts to explain that the necklace she wears is her name in Arabic after Zoe compliments it -- it's awkward not because anyone has a negative reaction to it, but because Kamala is trying to continue a conversation which was actually never intended to be a conversation, because she's a dork. But she is a dork with this added dimension of being from a different cultural background than most of the people she interacts with, and that's also a thing. I think the only person who has anything negative to say about any of the Pakistani cultural stuff / reacts overtly negatively to any manifestation of it is Kamala herself -- understandably pushing back on her mother's Little Hulk costume and the ideas that a girl going off to travel Europe instead of getting married is a scandal -- which is more interesting and nuanced than outgroup prejudice. And I also just liked how vibrant and diverse her school's student body looked, including a hijabi girl playing volleyball in PE.
The things I really liked in the first episode were all things the trailer had in no way led me to expect: Kamala's family (the trailer shows the stern disappointed mother, and a brief scene with her brother, not any of the fun aspects), Kamala's very cute friendship with Bruno, and Kamala the Avengers fangirl. (Rewatching the trailer, I guess you can see the stuff in there, but that wasn't the narrative that jumped out at me when watching the trailer without the benefit of the episode.) The family stuff was great! I liked both of her parents a lot; her father gets to be the cute fluffy comic relief person, at least so far, and he is adorable, but I also liked her mother, because I think it's a role that's very easy to just make into an antagonistic one, and she is definitely not right, but I feel like the show so far has succeeded in selling me on it being a personality and priorities clash rather than Kamala's mother being Wrong and Bad -- she definitely needs to lighten up, if only because this is clearly not the way to get her daughter to modify her behavior the way she wants to, the oppsoite if anything, but I do believe that it comes from a place of love. I like that Kamala has her own "guy in the chair" in Bruno the gadget guy, and I especially liked the way in just a quick scene we saw just how integrated into Kamala's family he was. I had to laugh that when he said he wasn't staying for dinner, Kamala's mom packed him a bunch of to-go boxes without asking -- and that she knows the spice level preferences of his relatives! And the fangirl stuff was just a lot of fun on MCU worldbuilding level -- of course there would be a con with T-shirts and cosplay contests! of course there's a podcast (Luis talked Scott into it, Y/Y?) And Kamala's YouTube stuff was fun.
I'd found the overlaid speech bubbles in the trailer overdone and distracting, but I did actually like the way those quirky stylistic elements were integrated into the show -- sketches and fantasy sequences melding together worked for me as long as it didn't last too long, especially the background grafitti things, and the texted emoji showing up as street and shop signs was also cute. The YouTube people who made me interested in watching the show made the comparison to The Mitchells vs the Machines and Into the Spider-Verse (only, you know, melded with live-action) and I can totally see why. I could see this sort of thing getting on my nerves if overused, but at the current level I do find it a feature rather than a bug.
Other than Kamala and her parents, and Bruno to some extent (though other than being gadget guy and supportive friend, I'm not sure how much of his personality we've seen) I haven't gotten much of a feel for other characters, but I'm amused by Mr Wilson the guidance counsellor and by the friend who bet Bruno that Kamala would fail her driving test, so looking forward to seeing more of them.
OK, and so actually I have not said anything about the superhero stuff yet? Which, granted, only came in late in the episode. The superpowers is never what I'm there for in MCU anyway, unless it's something really neat like Ant-Man. I'm not sold on... whatever this is, which appears to be roughly rendered special effects while Kamala looks like she's about to barf. But, like, that's the part I care least about, so fine, whatever. I just hope the balance of "dorky teen buddies", "quirky immigrant family", and "superhero stuff" remains firmly shifted in favor of the former.