Reading and Taskmaster roundup, fannish goals update
18. Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club -- I first heard about these books some years ago, when people on my flist were reading them (including cafemassolit -- before my Taskmaster rabbit hole, because the author's name didn't mean anything to me. And they sounded very much like something I would enjoy -- I like mysteries, I like old people in books -- but I guess it must've been at a time I wasn't reading much -- the first book came out in September 2020, so that checks out. Then I did fall down the Taskmaster rabbit hole, and a further Richard Osman rabbit hole with ROHOG and Pointless, and that made me want to read the series even more, but I wasn't taking any steps towards that because my library card wasn't working. And then I did fix my library card this year, but was trying to catch up on Hugos homework and stuff. But meanwhile I'd gotten into watching The Rest is Entertainment, Richard Osman and Marina Hyde's (video?) podcast on YouTube, and during one of the episodes this year, Osman announced that a movie was going to be made of the first book, and that Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, and Pierce Brosnan were going to star in it, and I was like, OK, it is time! And then it took a while for the library to cough up the book -- there are so many holds, and it was going slowly -- but finally I got ahold of it, and read it, and had a great time.
First of all, I have to comment on the movie piece, since it's what was my final impetus in picking up the book. Helen Mirren is SO perfect for Elizabeth -- was apparently the fancasting random people kept shouting at Osman -- that I'm with cafemassolit in thinking Osman must've had her in mind when writing the character. Spoilers from here, I guess? She does, after all, remind me quite a bit of Mirren's role in RED (where I also loved her). So, anyway, cannot wait to see her play Elizabeth. Ibrahim ended up, unsurprisingly, being my favorite of the main for, and I'm excited about Ben Kingsley, too. Pierce Brosnan is a weird bit of casting for Ron. Like, I'm not complaining -- I've had a crush on Pierce Brosnan since his James Bond days, and he has aged like a fine wine, so I'm very happy to have him as part of the cast -- I just did not think of Pierce Brosnan when reading about Ron, and also he seems a bit young compared to the rest? I don't know anything about the lady cast as Joyce. Mostly now I want to know who will be playing Bogdan, who ended up being one of my favorite characters along with Ibrahim and Elizabeth.
I liked Elizabeth a lot as the driving force that gets everyone involved and moving along; Elizabeth is awesome. Joyce on her own was less interesting to me, but I enjoy her as a foil for Elizabeth and as the POV character through whom to meet the others -- the conventional, silly old lady, who bakes and is interested in men and silly TV -- but is nevertheless unfazed by dangerous situations and gruesome death, and is good at reading people, and can keep up with Elizabeth just fine. I loved Ibrahim and his little vanities, his assertion that he looks six years younger because of Pilates and daily swimming (even when Donna guesses his age), that he would have made a great heroin smuggler, because "it's just logistics", with his algorithms and estimates and his role of local technology guru (because he knows what a Fitbit is, and can set up a WhatsApp group). Similarly, Ron on his own was not that interesting to me, but I love the odd couple he and Ibrahim make, the way they complement each other. I liked Bogdan pretty much from the moment he appeared, and was happy to see him stick around rather than end up being a victim or perpetrator. The way his relationship with Elizabeth unfolds, from her introducing herself with his mother's name (read off his tattoos) and playing off Stephen calling her "Elizabeth" as a feature of his dementia to the sort of familiar arrangement at the end, Bogdan keeping Stephen company, intermittently playing chess whenever he wakes up, while Elizabeth is out with her murder club business. I couldn't remember, after I had finished the book, whether Bogdan had lied to her about killing Tony Curran or answered questions in a way that was not lying but incomplete -- but no, he definitely lies outright. I liked Donna and Chris, too, and was happy that Donna hooked up Chris and her mother. the players who did end up lasting just the one book were fairly interesting, too, although Ian Ventham was a bit TOO cartoonishly hateful on all axes.
I enjoyed the compounding mysteries -- Tony Curran's murder and then Ian's, the body in the grave, and the incidental uncovering of other crimes and tragedies as the club investigated -- Father Mackie's tragic affair and Maggie's suicide, Bernard's lie, John Gray's suicide, which I hesitate to call murder-suicide since Penny was fading away already. In particular I enjoyed the moments of false confession: Elizabeth pretending to confess to killing the extra body in the grave to Father Mackie because she thinks he's the one responsible for it, John Gray pretending the body in the grave is a man he killed as a way of explaining why he would kill Ian Ventham to prevent the excavation when in actuality he is covering for Penny's extra-judician killing of the boyfriend who would've gotten away with the murder of his girlfriend. I was also taken in by the intimation that Joyce might've been up to something, what with her being a nurse and with Karen recognizing someone in the retirement village paper after Joyce had had her picture taken for her new column. And of course the person who actually killed Tony Curran and Turkish Johnny (20 years ago) -- Bogdan, avenging the death of his friend who'd been a bystander. I also particularly enjoyed the little con the octogenarians pull on the police early on, getting Donna assigned to the murder investigation by Ron pretending to be confused and senile and asking for her because they know her -- that's lovely, because it's such a victimless crime, and I do like that at the end of the book Elizabeth et al has got herself some pet police and a pet jack-of-all-criminal-but-also-other-trades, and everyone seems to be happy with this arrangement.
There are a lot of fun bits -- the central quirkiness of the premise, of course, of four people in a retirement village solving murders, but also just random zaniness, like the llamas, the drug smuggler turned florist. But there's also poignancy, of course, with the protagonists all being people who have either lost loved ones or fear losing them, or themselves. Elizabeth and Stephen hit pretty hard, as did Elizabeth setting herself memory tests two weeks ahead, as an early warning system. But also Joyce thinking back to the last train ride with her gang of girls to see a matinee and drink G&T in cans -- which she did not know was going to be the last outing with her friends, and Bernard's good-bye letter ("I realize that I have run out of whatever it is that we need to carry on.") and Joyce's friends comforting her as she weeps for all the losses, "for Gerry [her husband] and for Bernard and for Asima [Bernard's wife], and for the ladies who went to Jersey Boys and drank G&Ts out of cans all the way home" (I have a lump in my throat just from rereading that bit to copy down the quote).
Quotes:
"Ron's picture was rarely in the papers without the caption 'Talks between the two sides collapses late last night.'"
Ibrahim driving: "Ron [whose car it is] had put up a token fight, but Ibrahim knew he had lost his confidence on right-hand turns and would be secretly delighted to be voted down. Elizabeth put up more spirited opposition, mentioning that she still held a fully valid tank license. She really could play fast and loose with the Official Secrets Act at time. But in the end it all came down to this: Ibrahim was the only one who understood how the satnav worked."
Ron, rating the Ventham's murder suspects: "It's a ten from me."
Ibrahim: "This is not Strictly Come Poisoning, Ron."
Joyce, about Tinder: "Honestly, it breaks your heart, to scroll through. It reminded me of those photos of lost cats you see on lampposts. It's all that hope, I think."
"the quiet electronic beeps by Penny's bedside. All that remained of her, like a lighthouse blinking far out to see."
"I honestly don't know what to do with the Tupperware I used. If you've used two Tupperware containers to help mix the ashes of a dear friend and the woman he loved without letting their child know, is it more disrespectful to keep them or to throw them away?"
First look at the Murder Club folks (Elizabeth and Ibrahim are looking so good!)
*
Taskmaster Oz s02e07 -- this one was less of a blast than the last couple, but the last couple really were massive highlights. And I do feel like spoilers! Wil is being really underscored, which makes me enjoy the season a bit less. Reddit drew the comparison with Hugh Dennis, and yeah, I see that -- here's someone who is very good at objective tasks, but is being consistently scored low on subjective ones.
Prize -- something that gets progressively worse the more of it you have. Fun idea on the surface, but I didn't think many of these were good at all -- the only one that I thought made sense was Anne's Strongbow, and that was very route one. First, how did Wil, who at least put in some effort with the noses, get fewer points than Josh, who brought in the concept of multiple assholes? And I didn't think Jenny's winning Plan B pill made that much sense either. My favorite thing about Jenny's was actually Wil snickering into his fist in reaction to G.Tom saying, "you mean it 'saves you' from the blessing of having children." Also, while I do agree that more skulls are exponentially worse, I do think a single human skull in your posession is already fairly creepy.
Minivan in socks task -- OK, this was pretty cool! definitely the standout of the episode. Cute that Anne and Lloyd both focused on collecting the little toys for their daughter. Wil did a stellar job again (really, he should be winning if it weren't for G.Tom underscoring him), and Jenny made some bizarre house-caravan-minivan connections, looked to be on the verge of more matrices, but in this case her pondering paid off. But omg, poor Josh, who first thought it was fastest wins rather than fewest socks, then proceeded to take all the socks down even after figuring out how it was going to be scored, missed all of L.Tom's hints (SO MANY HINTS), spent 1 hr 43 min doing... all that, and eventually figured out where the minivan had to be but didn't even check. I was surprised G.Tom gave him 1 point for that, but Reddit pointed out that he had actually found the minivan, he just didn't lay hands on it, so maybe that works. But why did Lloyd get 2 points and not 3 points when Anne and Jenny both got 4? I'm pretty sure he would've gotten 3 in UK TM, and that would also be a fairer representation of how far apart he and Josh were in their results.
Full slop -- I thought Jenny had invented that slip-slop-slap slogan, but apparently it's an actual Australian thing? Anyway, that was definitely the most coherent and deserving of a win. Josh's go-to for any task he doesn't want to do is to ask for a beer, which, good for him, but that definitely deserved 1 point ("Score it how you will, Gay Daddy"). Poor Wil and poor Lloyd, and Anne didn't seem to be having a good time either, but I'm not sure why Wil got 2 points to Anne's 3, for example.
Show of strength or weakness -- this was chaotic but not very interesting. I guess Josh trying to show extreme weakness by overreacting and then getting 5 points for showing the most strength by coming out did deserve the win. And Anne actually carting L.Tom around also deserved the 4 points. There are outtakes of L.Tom farting while Lloyd carried him around, and the showdown over Lloyd's zebra was pretty cute. Jenny's was pretty terrible, but Wil's was ALSO pretty terrible, and for once deserved the low points, but I do think he and Jenny should've gotten the same score, so I don't understand why she got 3 and he got 1. Also, Wil's "I'm a white straight man, that used to be enough" in response to L.Tom's "what strengths do you have?" was my favorite/funniest part of the task.
Live task -- G.Tom guessing the time charades. OK, this was scored in a very weird way. I did not get that the time was going to be scored cumulatively, meaning that once the Discount Wiggles were penalized with the maximum possible time, it was virtually impossible for them to recover, even though 2 out of 3 of their charades/G.Tom's guesses were really good, closer than the team of 2. And I'm not even sure I agree with the disqualification in the first place; that was harsh, and RIDICULOUSLY harsh if they were going to lose the entire task on that. Also, it's just incredible to me that the team of 3 acted out the same thing 3 times, and somehow, thanks to G.Tom's very good guesses, ended up getting max points. Not a fan of the way this was scored.
Anne gets an episode win, and hopefully Jenny will eke one out as well, before the end of the season. Jenny and Josh are currently tied at the bottom, but Anne has now LEAPFROGGED Wil by 6 points, and is now only 3 points behind Lloyd. I do suspect she'll start falling away again, but Lloyd is now 9 points ahead of Wil, and I think pretty likely to win. We're not talking John Robins dominance here (John was 13 points ahead of Joanne after e07), but Lloyd's pretty consistently decent, while Anne is very inconsitent, and Wil frequently underscored, so I think it's pretty safe to call it for Lloyd at this point. Though I wouldn't be shocked if Anne ended up winning if there's a bunch more subjective tasks in the three episodes that are left.
Taskmaster Oz s02e08 -- this was really fun again, although it's still annoying me that spoilers! Wil is getting so underscored, and it's starting to feel like having Lloyd and Anne at the top, close together, is part of an intentional narrative (which a few people on Reddit have also said). It's just that looking at Anne's performance, it's simply unbelievable she would be second -- she has so many completely botched tasks. Reddit also drew the comparison to Bridget Christie, and, yeah, it's similar vibes, actually, of someone chaotically missing the point but then occasionally nailing a subjective or lateral thinking task. And, in fairness, neither Lloyd nor Wil are Chris Ramsay or Sophie Duker, but still, Anne's second plays doesn't feel "earned" to me. And because it's hard to give her more points, because she mostly fails on objective tasks, the easiest way to buoy her up is to score down her nearest competitor on subjective ones. And also I think the team judging is being applied more harshly to the Wiggles -- I thought the time penalty last episode was way too hard, and in this ep, while I'm willing to accept moving the spot in the live task as a not-outright-forbidden hack (although a boring one in a team task, frankly), I was very iffy about the mattress task, given that the rules explicitly said
Prize task -- it is fun that Anne and Lloyd keep bringing in each other's things (Lloyd's ratty house shorts, Anne's teddybear, which did deserve to win, I think), but I also wonder how much of this is truly natural vs something the producers are encouraging/nudging along. I do think Wil was absolutely robbed, given the amount of thought and effort that went into the TP with colonoscopy pictures; that should've been at least 4 points. Jenny's shampoo break-up story ("I was in a controlling relationship... where I was in control") was funny, but not 3 points funny. I think if I were scoring it, it would go Josh's TP cozy, Jenny's shampoo, Anne's Lloyd's shorts, and then probably a tie for Wil and Lloyd's Anne's bear at 5. (Wil's outburst was pretty funny, and clearly a long time coming, but, like, he's right, G.Tom's scoring has been pretty clearly unfair.)
Egg breaking task -- another amazing job from Wil on an objective task, and not only was it a clever hack to have Tom do it, but also a great visual with the giant mallet, and I think having Wil "operate" L.Tom like a tool by raising and dropping his arm was a good thought, too. Sounds like that was an unnecessary layer, but good thinking nevertheless. Meanwhile, Jenny, who really does seem allergic to points (lol, G.Tom, good one) also hits on the hack, but then proceeds to give L.Tom VERY CAREFUL instructions that virtually guarantee her loss, because she tells him to break just one egg, and even if she had given him a do-loop, it still would not have helped, because the instructions are very explicit that the task stops when the first egg is broken. And then she agonizes over the instructions while completely failing to spot the problems. Amazing! (I can't think of another contestant quite like Jenny when it comes to failure mode, but this is such a Hawk failure mode, to put it in terms Dragaera houses). Speaking of consistent failure modes, as Reddit kept pointing out, Anne misreads the task (she thinks it's break fewest eggs, so she leaves the carton on and wraps it in some padding before throwing onto the grass), then fails at both the real task (because 4 eggs do not break) and at the opposite task she thinks she is doing (because 8 eggs do break). And her not even wanting to talk about it to G.Tom in the studio was also really funny. Meanwhile, Josh had a great idea, with dropping the target on the eggs, nicely done, efficient and visually impressive. The other remarkable thing about Josh is that he speaks up for Lloyd and gets them to adjust how they're measuring his attempt (quite fairly, I think) -- that was a very sweet moment. Dingo dongo! XD Lloyd himself was very funny too: "But by my actions, the eggs broke..." G.Tom: "Yeah? We agree with you." Lloyd: "Yeah, and now I realize I do not agree with me." XD XD
Mattress team task -- OK, first of all, I love this wholesome twist on a sabotage/secret task, with Lloyd having to stay within 50 cm of a team mate for >=50% of the task. I love that he didn't know either of his teammates, and that Jenny thought he was very weird and Wil was comforted by the touchy-feeliness, and it did look really sweet how Lloyd kept sort of patting and guiding blindfolded Wil. (It's not sharing a mattress, but maybe something for Anne's fantasies anyway. (P.S. As of this writing, no-one on AO3 seems to have written the Wil/Lloyd/Anne OT3 that this show is clearly pushing, although two people have written Wil/Lesser Tom, inspired by the conspiracy skit, judging by the timing.) Anyway, the individual task was great, and I'm glad Lloyd nailed it and managed to eke out 2 points for his team. Now, as for the actual team task. I like the idea of the task, but it's apparently quite hard -- like, both teams just guessed 1-2 things (the guitar, for both, although it took Wil two attempts, because it twanged the first time and was declared void, and bowling pin for Anne) without the aid of Anne's hack. Before that, though, how funny was Anne guessing "gun" for everything, so Josh very smartly went and got a bunch of guns, and then, as G.Tom put it, Anne forgot that guns existed and never said the word again, leading to some interesting images of frustrated Josh with the blue plastic guns to his forehead. I was struggling to see how the hack of Anne telling Josh what to bring, including in which order, was within the rules of no clues beyond through-the-mattress being allowed. I suppose, if it's Anne directing what gets put under the mattress, technically that's not Josh giving her a clue, but that's still Anne giving HERSELF a clue... and I listened to the task again, and it says "any clues that aren't through the mattress will render the item void" -- so I think the clues are not limited to what the non-blindfolded team member(s) and/or the objects themselves do. I think this was a VERY questionable hack. I did really enjoy G.Tom pointing out that between messing around on a mattress on the floor and the prank call to him in an earlier task, they were like two kids having a sleepover.
Other side of yourself task -- Wil does seem to flounder in these creative tasks, so I do have to agree with the one point here, and 2 points for Anne ("she doesn't swear... ah, shit!" was great timing XD). Lloyd and L.Tom having a lovely time skipping stones was adorable, and the 17 skip was hella impressive; I don't actually think that was any sort of other side of Lloyd, but the skipping has to be rewarded, so I don't mind the 4 points; as G.Tom said, that was basically just for the impressive skip. Jenny romancing L.Tom was so awkward XD And then! AND THEN. XD Josh, wearing Anne's tasking outfit, nursing helplessly giggling L.Tom from a balloon teat that was apparently actually filled with milk (which eventually spilled all over Anne's jeans), omg. I had the same thought as someone on Reddit, that this was very reminiscent of Sally Phillips giving birth to Alex -- but I appreciate the added twist that the contestant was wearing someone else's clothes without their knowledge at the time XD I also love that Josh thought of this idea, kind of hated that he'd thought of it, felt like he had to do it -- there was a sort of despodent inevitability to it that made me think of Nick on Poo Do You Think You Are? except that Josh did it entirely to himself XD Josh saying reflectively afterwards that he didn't think this was actually showing another side of himself, that just felt like him (which I kind of agree) was also great, and G.Tom giving him 5 points anyway (which of course he had to do) because the other side was that he found it funny was a great way out. Absolutely epic!
Live task (bubbles-hoop-peas) -- this looked like a really fun game, until Anne deployed the hack, which was effective but made it less fun. I do appreciate that G.Tom gave them soccer-type scores rather than 0-5.
**
There's another Taskmaster "Ultimate Episode" on YouTube (for I guess everyone outside the UK?). This one's for Lou Saunders, who is one of my less favorite contestants, so I still watched it of course, but enjoyed it less. Rewatching the tasks back reminds me that I don't really miss this group, and listening to Lou talking about it in retrospect doesn't make me appreciate her any more than I did prior to watching -- she is one of my less favorite winners, I did not particularly enjoy her as the co-host of the People's Podcast or as a guest on Ed's, and I haven't really gotten much out of anything else I've seen her on (she pops up a fair bit in the John & Elis stuff I've been mining, as a close friend of John's). series 8 spoilers, I guess Anyway. I had very little memory of the prize task (coat of protection), but I did remember the filmed tasks -- the "move as one person" team task, the location task with the tennis balls, and the "apologize to Alex" task which Lou unquestionably won -- and the pan-hoop live task. But I didn't feel like Lou's commentary added much to any of them, except maybe the "apology" task where she explains that she pretended Alex was her partner when signing him up for jazzercise. In the team task she mainly talks about how she feels bad for snapping at / bossing around Paul -- because she an Iain are constantly doing it to each other, but Paul isn't like that. So at least there were a few new tidbits I found worthwhile.
Ed's Taskmaster podcast has started doing Taskmaster New Zealand series 1, which is not my favorite series, but the podcast is fun even for series I like less. His first guest is Jack Bernhardt, which is less illuminating for NZ references (neither bothered to google the things they didn't know XD), but is gratifying for the stats about Jeremy's scoring, which they both agree is completely mad. Jack has calculated a harshness rating for Jeremy (based on how many points are given out of a hypothetical 15), and he's got a harshness rating of 1.1, harsher than Greg. Jack also shared that NZ tends to have more subjective tasks -- 64% (in this series or overall? I missed that part) vs UK's highest ever being 55%, so Jeremy's mad scoring also has an outsize effect on standings. At the end, where Ed always asks the guest to score the experience of the podcast in the style of Taskmaster, he invites Jack to do it specifically in the style of Jeremy Wells, and Jack goes, I had a great time, this was wonderful, 2 points, which really cracked me up, as well as Ed. For the second episode, Ed's guest is Brynley (who was my favorite s1 contestant), and it sounds like she was also annoyed by Jeremy's wild scoring, even when it was in her favor XD
And a person on r/Taskmaster has made amazing business logos based on Taskmaster quotes/incidents: part 1 and part 2 (and the artist's RedBubble shop, for my reference).
ETA: Oh right! I forgot the other thing I meant to link: this Taskmaster fic data analysis that was posted to AO3. Really interesting to see what perceptions of mine are borne out by the data vs not (e.g. I was thinking fic counts were spiking lately, but they don't seem to be, it's probably more that I've gotten in the habit of checking, so I notice it more).
**
I typed this up a couple of weeks ago but hadn't gotten around to posting: I've been browsing r/Taskmaster a bunch, as you can possibly tell from the above, and seeing the range in people's favorite series and contestants, decided to try to be systmatic about it. So UK series rankings for me, quantitatively -- by which I mean I looked at the line-up, assigned +/- scores for each contestant based on how much I (dis)like them, and added a small bonus for particularly favorite tasks where that applied (or very rarely a negative on the tasks if there were some I disliked especially), and for panel synergy where that was applicable. This is the result:
s1 -- No-one on s1 is a top-tier contestant for me, but I like Josh quite a bit, and generally like Roisin. I'm neutral on Frank Skinner, and low-level dislike Romesh and Tim Key. So if I were to try to quantify this and do something like Josh (+2), Roisin (+1), Frank (0), Romesh (-1), Key (-1) -- I'd end up with an overall score of +1 for the contestants. I feel like the format is still finding its feet, too, and there are some tasks that are least favorite, in either task itself (watermelon gorging) or specific execution (Romesh and hot sauce), while I can't think of any massively standout tasks (considering this wasn't the first series of TM I watched, so the very premise wasn't that big of a draw for me). So maybe -1 for the tasks, and I'm left with a score of 0 for the series. Which honestly feels about right. I'm not a big fan of it as a series, I just like Josh. Conclusion: 0.
s2 -- Conversely, s2 has a lot of favorite contestants. I think I could put Doc, Katherine, Jon, and Richard Osman all at the +2 level. Joe W is a contestant I dislike, and quite strongly, so I'd probably put him at -3. But that still adds up to +5 for contestants overall. Tasks are a bit more mixed for me. I think the team tasks are quite weak, and I dislike the "impress the mayor" task (too much cringe for me), but I do like the pizza ordering task a lot, so I think I'm going to leave the tasks contribution neutral on the whole, and leave the series at +5. Conclusion: +5.
s3 -- Oh dear, this one. The only contestant I feel positively inclined towards is Sara Pascoe, at the +1 sort of level. I'm neutral about Dave Gorman, even with the cheating (0). I low-level dislike Al Murray (-1), quite dislike Rob Beckett (-2) -- even though turns out I don't mind him in other things; either it was the timing of him having just had his baby, or TM just brings out the worst in him, anyway -- and very strongly dislike Paul Chowdhry (-3). So the contestants total is an abysmal -5. There were, I think, some fun tasks in this, but I couldn't even enjoy them properly. But, OK, maybe +1 point for things like the domino rally and the snowman, for an overall total of -4. Conclusion: -4.
s4 -- Hugh is a +3 level contestant for me, Joe Lycett and Mel are +2, and Lolly is probably +1. I'm pretty neutral on Noel (0). So that's +8 for contestants, and also +1 for tasks, because there were some great ones in here: I love the bathtub team task, and the exotic sandwich, and there's just a really nice variety. Oh, and this is the first series where I feel compelled to introduce another +1 for the interpersonal vibe for in-studio interactions. So, +10 overall, which feels right -- it's definitely up there for me. Conclusion: +10.
s5 -- Mark and Nish +2 contestants for me, and Sally, Bob, and Aisling are all +1 contestants -- the first series in which I liked everyone a positive amount. And +1 on tasks for the song at minimum, and there are many other tasks I enjoy. So, +8 overall, which feels right in relation to s4 -- I like both of these series a lot, but s4 is closer to my heart. Conclusion: +8.
s6 -- The first one where a +5 level contestant comes into play: Liza, of course. And that's kind of it, honestly XD Alice gets a +1, I'm deeply neutral on Tim Vine (0), and I think I'm going to go with -1 for Asim and Russell Howard (whom I, again, like more on other things; he was just annoyingly smug on TM). I can't really think of memorable tasks (vs Liza's memorable executions of them), so I'll just leave that part at zero. The resulting +4 feels about right, as I would definitely say I like the series less than s2 overall but am more positively inclined otwards it than my least favorite series. Conclusion: +4.
s7 -- +5 for Rhod, +2 for Phil, Kerry, and James, and I'm neutral on Jess (0), so that's a whopping +11 total for contestants, plus an additional +1 for the studio interaction, plus +1 for tasks (the video game one was amazing across the board, and then there's Jess falling off the soon-to-be-known-as-the-Knappett, and so many other iconic tasks) and just a lot of mayhem. So, +13 overall, edging out s4. Conclusion: +13.
s8 -- +1 for Iain (unpopular opinion, I know, but I liked his character arc); -2 for Lou; neutral on Paul Sinha, Joe and Sian (0), and I don't feel strongly about the tasks (even the fan-favorite hide from Alex one), so -1 for the series feels about right. Conclusion: -1.
s9 -- This is one of those series where I like basically everyone. I'll go with +2 for Ed and Jo Brand, +1 for David Baddiel and Katy and Rose, and +1 for studio interaction, for +8 overall. Having it about on the level with s5 feels right, so let's go with that. Conclusion: +8.
s10 -- Another one that's pretty weak. +1 for Mawaan and Katherine Parkinson, -1 for Johnny Vegas and Richard Herring, and -2 for Daisy Mae Cooper, for a total of -2 (just behind s8 but not as bad as s3 feels about right). Conclusion: -2.
s11 -- This is an odd one for me. +3 for Mike Wozniak, +2 for Sarah Kendall and Lee, and +1 for Charlotte, but -3 for Jamali leaves this at +5, which feels right for that sort of low-middle tier. Conclusion: +5.
s12 -- +5 for Victoria, +3 for Guz, +2 for Desiree, +1 for Morgana, neutral on Alan (0), so +11 for contestants, and +1 for studio vibes, for an overall of +12. Conclusion: +12.
s13 -- This one is a bit tough... +3 for Chris Ramsey, +2 for Sophie Duker and Bridget, but -1 for Judi and Ardal, so I think that's a +5 on contestants. +1 for studio vibes (mostly on the strength of Bridget and Greg interaction), and I feel like there's enough fun tasks to earn another +1 (cement mixer, shoes, high five). Conclusion: +7.
s14 -- +3 for Munya, +2 for Fern and Sarah Millican, +1 for Dara, -2 for John Kearns, +1 for studio vibes, and +1 for some memorable tasks (the hands, the sabotage team task, the round robin plays). That adds up to +8 overall, which feels about right, about on the level with s9 and s5, where I like it a lot but it's not quite top tier. Conclusion: +8.
s15 -- +5 for Ivo, +3 for Kiell, +2 for Jenny, +1 for Frankie, neutral for Mae (0), so that's +11 for contestants, and +1 for the studio (honestly I'm tempted to give it +2, because this was my favorite studio atmosphere). I waffled whether there was an extra point here for tasks, and ultimately concluded no: I loved the pineapples task and potato conveyor task was great, but there are some live team tasks that are just too unfairly skewed, to the point that it interfered with my enjoyment. Conclusion: +12.
s16 -- The first series in a couple that did not have a strong (+3 level) favorite for me, but let's go with +2 for Sue Perkins and Susan Wokoma, +1 for Julian, neutral for Sam (unlike most other neutrals, it's not that I don't care, it's that he delights and annoys me in equal measure so they cancel out), and -1 for Lucy, who eventually started grating on me. But +1 for the amazing Taskmaster hotel task, fair play, and +1 for the studio vibes mostly courtesy of Sue. So, +6 for the total, i.e. a mid-tier series for me, similar to s11 and s13 where I enjoyed it overall but it didn't quite take off for me. Conclusion: +6.
s17 -- +5 for John, +2 for Nick, +1 for Sophie and Joanne, and I think neutral on Steve (0). The resulting +9 would put it at about the same level as s9 and s5, which feels about right, if skewed by one person. Conclusion: +9.
One dimension this is missing is Greg and Alex interaction, because I can't remember what series which bits belong to. Like, I think s17 was qite weak on this front, and I remember s12, s15, and s7 being fairly strong, but I don't have enough of a sense of it throughout to assign points for that, and it's not a hugely key thing for me anyway.
Then I think I'm going to round it to the nearest 5:
Round to 15 tier: series 7
Round to 10 tier: series 15 and series 12 in the 10+ category, series 4, series 17, and series 5, 9 and 14 in the 10- category
Round to 5 tier: series 13 in the 5+ category, series 16, series 2 and 11, series 6
Round to 0 tier: series 1, series 8, series 10 (in the 0- tier)
Round to -5 tier: series 3
This feels about right! The 15 tier means "I love everyone on the panel" (on average), and the 10 tier means "I like everyone on the panel a lot" -- and I do think that's reflected in the in those top two tiers. I would've preferred it if s7 and s15 and s12 ended up in the same tier, and I think the Alex and Greg interaction, if I could score it fairly, would actually put them there, but this is fine. Really what I think there is is a separate >=10 tier that s12, s15, and s4 live in, to separate them from the ones that only round up to 10. That 5 tier means I liked the series on the whole but wouldn't be able to say I liked it a lot -- and I think the right ones ended up in that category. The 0 tier is the meh tier, and, yep, s1, s8, and s10 are the ones I'm meh on. And I think it's accurate to say that there was only one series that I disliked on average, so it makes sense that s3 is over there by itself in the -5 tier.
(If I were to try to use this approach to compare to TM NZ and Austrialia, I'd need to add in baseline points for the Taskmaster and Assistant, which would defiitely be different from country to country. Greg is a +2 for me and Alex is a +1 (his persona as LAH, I mean; obviously his role as creator of the whole thing is reflected in other things), so the UK series would get a +3. Meanwhile, Australia would probably get a +1 (I like Greater Tom and am neutral on Lesser Tom), while TM NZ would get a -2 (I'm neutral on Paul Williams but actively dislike Jeremy).) But that's an exercise for another day...
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Catching up on the "real-time" Elis & John podcasts, the big news (#347) is that Elis and Isy (who have been together for >14 years and engaged since 2016 looks like (and have two children together)) are finally getting legally married, and Elis asked John to be his best man (which it sounds like he was always planning to do, but the school mate he's known for 30 years, who was the other potential candidate, also told him when he was trying to break the news to him that he didn't want to give a toast to a room full of comedians and he should ask John to be best man), so that's all very adorable. But Elis sounds stressed by wedding admin (John posited that he has admin trauma, which Elis agreed feels like the case -- and he does look really stressed in the clip, oh no XD), and also kept apologizing to John, who is planning his stag do, about some of his friends being difficult to wrangle and adding to the "burden" of planning on top of whatever else John is dealing with. Dave tries to opine that it's the kind of thing John enjoys, which John emphatically says no to. But he does sound happy about the wedding and being best man.
The other thing that came up in the recent episodes (#346), when Elis was talking to Adrian Chiles about the importance of loyalty in John's worldview (this is after Adrian said he felt disloyal about being on the air with Elis without John, because it was something about the town Elis is from), John mentioned that Elis was in a sketch group (Superclump, which it looks like included Mike Wozniak, Josh Widdicombe and Sian Harries (of the people who mean anything to me, plus some other names I recognize without having consumed any of their stuff), for 2 years, looks like around 2009, and John felt excluded and didn't talk to Elis for (those?) 2 years XD (and Elis says the subsequent digital decade was trying to make up for that). I mean, I doubt the last part, but if John really did keep a grudge for 2 years of silent treatment, as someone who also considers myself a pro at silent treatment, I'm impressed/horrified XD Elis's explanation for the exclusion is that John was "almost professionally hard work" during that period -- which from what John said about that sort of timeframe in his satirical autobiography sounds about right, and also he did not dispute that at all -- but he does regret it, Elis says.
Less recent:
- E&J radio show clip about John and Elis first handshake in 2005, the era when John was apparently extending his hand to be kissed, as also shared by Josh Widdicombe on Jon Richardson's Ultimate Worrier (John: "I was really hard work"), which resulted in a very limp handshake. Elis: "I didn't know what to make of John for the first 6 years I knew him; then I grew to like him and accept him."
- I finally managed to find a non-paywalled link to that article on comedian couples from July 2015 that profiled Elis & Isy and John & Sara Pascoe. Reading the John and Sara section, I was getting the feeling that John was more into the relationship than she was, or at least more vocally so, but that could be the benefit of hindsight as well, of course. My main takeaway is actually this quote from Elis: "I'm so profoundly uncompetitive, I think I have a genetic problem." He is talking about competing with Isy for who will get to use the material based on their daughter's antics, but I do think that's basically the secret of his long partnership with John.
Beat the Internet with John Robins (2018-2019) -- I had put off watching this because I had expected it to be terrible. I didn't find it to be terrible, but it's definitely not GOOD, either. The budget is clearly extremely low, from set to prizes (a Beat the Internet USB stick plus stuff like speakers or a Kindle 3G, although with the later episodes you get into things like an Apple TV, digital camcorder, and laptop also in the mix). They sort of lampshade the shittiness of the prizes by playing up the engraved USB stick, which is I guess the equivalent of a trophy in this, and an imaginary something extra saved on it each time, but while I respect that as an approach, that didn't really work for me. Richard Osman on House of Games often plays up the "this is all horrible tat" about the trophy and about some of the prizes, but those are intentionally kitsch; this just looks sad. The title cards and general aesthetic is just really ugly, in a Web 1.0 way, but intentionally ugly is still ugly, so this is a weird choice. The gameplay is... reasonably entertaining? I did enjoy guessing along, and could usually do as well as the higher-scoring contestants (except where not knowing British things hampers me), although of course it's different when you have to do it with an audience/buzzer.
From reading a few reviews, it sounds like comedians/John Robins fans got that John was doing an Alan Partridge bit (which I know nothing about, so I certainly didn't) but weren't sure it was working in the context of the show, and laymen just thought he was bad at hosting. I'm guessing the stuff I did not appreciate was the Alan Partridge homages, but I did enjoy the parts where John was more like he is on the radio show with Elis. The scripted bits, with belabored computer things references when people are eliminated, the "with John Robins" to camera, and the thing with running down the row of contestants asking them if they want to beat the internet are pretty cringey (I'm guessing these are all supposed to work as parody?), and the celebrity jokes at the beginning I just don't get. The chat with the contestants (around their search history) is more fun -- I do feel like he's more in his element here (vs playing some kind of role), between compering and radio show call-ins -- and I feel like this (and the "Earlier..." bits shown at the end where he has a go at competing himself) is where he comes across the most as himself(/his more familiar persona), with tax code advice (and less predictably, nipple cream advice XD), and cricket and tube station trivia, and cats facts, and household tips, e.g. for reheating rice (this is actually useful to know, as I've heard horror stories but not the logic behind it). He is also trying to get Sunil involved in little games based on contestants' search history at any provocation (like "animals beginning with i"). And special shoutout to the time in e18 where one of the contestants turns out to be a detective from the Met and John seems to forget for a bit that he's got a TV show to present and just focuses on his detective fantasies. (John: "How can I... Could... What... What if I wanted to come and help?" in a very adorable stammery way that reminded me of his "Are we filming?" in the darts/Twister task when Alex teased him about taking his jacket off -- while kind of picking at the podium in an almost cartoonishly bashful way.) I also enjoyed the subgenre of chat with contestants about their search history when his name comes up, which happened several times; the most entertaining of these is the guy who googled "leonardo di caprio" and "john robins" and John was like, "Were you googling heartthrobs?" (the contestant was pretty categorical in saying no XD), although John clearly enjoyed the contestant who googled for an audio clip of him because he figured his father would recognize John's voice from the radio even though he didn't recognize the name. I don't think Sunil and his occasional facts add much. I think the idea is a contrast between John's mugging at the camera (which I also found cringey) and Sunil's deadpan, but I think if you're going to have two hosts, it's important to have good chemistry between them (e.g Richard Osman and Alexander Armstrong on Pointless, which I think are the closest to the kind of roles this is going for), and I wasn't getting any chemistry here. (They met on this gig, and even when Sunil was a guest on on of Elis & John's livestreams, I didn't get much of a sense of chemistry between them.) I will say, the one thing I did appreciate with Sunil was him "reading" the Ts&Cs (actually a recording of this being played as he rattles off the fine print) while Sunil on stage does a new thing each time with a paper from the box labeled "Complaints".
The background beat and John's general demeanor as host are definitely giving me Taskmaster gameshow task vibes ("Take to the stage to guess the age to win the wage") XD He also does this thing where he guesses along with the contestants what an answer has to be, and so says, like, "[search term]? It's got to be. And is!" when the answer is revealed -- which is a construction that struck me when John was doing it in the darts-Twister task, because I hadn't encountered that before. Maybe it's a thing in some sport John is into that I've never watched (no shortage of those, with golf, darts, snooker, and cricket off the top of my head). I'm not digging the suit jacket-over-T-shirt look that John was sporting for most of this, but the pink collared shirt under the suit he's wearing in s6 is a much nicer one. But he looks very weird in a V-neck T-shirt (e11). Also, I'm definitely recognizing some of the shirts. I thought it was because he was wearing all the same clothes as on his other TV appearances, but apparently (according to an interview I came across) this is the show that BOUGHT him all those clothes, because he didn't have any shirts without bands on them XD I definitely recognized the red T-shirt with white stripes, which shows up on like two other shows as well. Clearly John liked that one more than I do XD A lot of these are T-shirts with horizontal stripes; not sure if that reflects John's taste in non-band T-shirts or what someone thought would look best on him on TV. And speaking of things that remind me of other things I've seen/heard/experienced John in, very amused that the way of blocking the other finalist from being able to see/hear what's going on is basically the same as what John and Elis used on Betabet on their radio show (which predates this), just with the addition of an ugly helmet/face shield thing.
Certainly my favorite part of the whole show was the very last bit, which shows John competing in the final round, before the contestants have a go at it:
- e1 -- tie with winner with 6 on different Michaels, as he couldn't name the designer, unsurprisingly;
- e2 -- John wins with 8, but was stumped by Neil deGrasse Tyson (because he claims he's not a "super-dweeb") and Neil Patrick Harris from a HIMYM reference, although when he hears the latter, he asks if it's the guy who played Doogie Howser, which is something people called him at school;
- e3 -- John wins handily with 8, but doesn't know Captain Marvel ("couldn't care less, I'm a grownup" -- this would've been pre-MCU movie, so purely in a comic book context)
- e4 -- tied with winner at "a pitiful 5", did not get Chris Pine (Star Trek) or Chris Pratt (Jurassic World) or Chris Hemsworth (Thor) but did get Chris Evans -- but felt bad about this, because I guess he's not too much of a grown-up for the MCU or Star Trek -- or maybe 5 is just the line where he beats himself up for how he did instead of preening and dismissing the ones he didn't get;
- e5 -- both finalists beat John 3 to 2 on Natalies, because he didn't know Natalie Dormer, since he didn't watch GoT, which is an interesting factoid, but maybe he only likes less grim fantasy?;
- e6 -- beat the winner with 5;
- e7 -- beat the winner with 5, but missing Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) because "I don't watch comedy, I make it" (surprised to hear that due to various references on the radio show, though maybe those are things he watched before becoming a comedian) and also not getting the Team GB cycling Jason, because he find cycling boring (that's not a surprise, given his reaction to Elis's cycling chat);
- e8 -- beat the winner with 6, disputing that Lady Macbeth is evil ("she's conflicted") and asking what grime is (to be fair, I also don't really know, beyond "some kind of music");
- e9 -- beat the winner with a "miserable 5" on Sarahs
- e10 -- beat the winner with 9 (almost got the 10th, the football guy, but the time ran out and he ended up shouting it afterwards)
- e11 -- tied winner with 8, and getting to name Frank Zappa elicits a "get in!"
- e12 -- winner beats John 7 to 5 (ironically, on Johns), after John takes something like 3 attempts to get John Wick right (he also didn't know John Cena or Gotti -- who, to be fair, I didn't realize was a John either)
- e13 -- tied with winner at 8, although I think John getting "Tony Robbins" was wild guessing -- he was just naming surnames at that point, I think (that was one of like 3 I knew, because my friend M is a huge fan of his, going back like 30 years)
- e14 -- tied with winner at 5, after note getting Jennifer Love Hewitt (which I didn't either) despite having had "a substantial crush on her" (but I'm guessing in an earlier timeframe than the question was about)
- e15 -- beat the winner handily with 6, but they skimped on showing him guessing (and also the opening "do YOU want to beat the internet", which is an improvement) -- I suppose the episode was running long with some ties and slow guesses?
- e16 -- both finalists beat John's "disgraceful 4" by 1 point
- e17 -- tied winner with 8, despite missing The Great Fire of London ("I went to an exhibition about that!" once the answer is revealed -- though in fairness I do think the clue was fairly vague)
- e18 --beat the winner with 4 (which he didn't even want to say out loud, so he sort of just mouthed it while holding up 4 fingers), but at least he managed to name that 4th one, after getting stuck but being determined not to get 3
- e19 -- tied with the winner at 7
- e20 -- beat the winner with "a personally disappointing 5" on Andys, wherein he shares that he's met Andy Serkis, but also failed to get "British sculptor" Andy Goldworthy's name despite remembering his work ("I hate myself, I did him in year 8!")
That's 7 times he tied the winner, and 3 times he "lost" (5 contestants total beat him, because in two of those rounds, he was beaten by both finalists by 1 point) -- or, looking at it another way, 5 people who beat him, 7 who tied him, and 28 people he beat, across the 20 episodes. Which is not a bad track record. His lowest score was 2 (on Natalies) and his highest was 9 (which no one equaled in any ep). He seems to be happy with a score of 7 or above, which happens 7 times; is unhappy with a score of 4-5, which happens 9 times; 6 doesn't seem to get either kind of comment (this happens 3 times); and his lone score below 4, the 2, I think doesn't get a comment at all.
I also really enjoyed all his explanations for why he is competing on his own show -- they are very John. In addition to this, I also got a kick out of random T.S.Eliot quote in an early episode (there was also a Warren Buffet quote, because the man's got range), But no, they don't use yen in China, John, although "yuan" is close enough, I suppose that if you've only heard it and not read it you could mix the two up. (I do often find myself surprised by gaps in his 'cultural literacy' sorts of things, considering he loves quizzes and seems to read pretty widely and so knows a lot of random things.)
- I have not listened to the full podcast yet, but John was a guest on Russell Howard's Wonderbox (May 2024) and YouTube provided some clips, including one where John talks about the Buddhism of golf and Russell does a spittake. Was not expecting John to be carrying crystals on him (from Lou, obviously), but I found the discussion with Russell Howard unexpectedly moving.
- Also, stashing this article about John and finances (Dec 2022), less because it's deeply fascinating and more because I don't think I'd be able to find it again. It does have some info I hadn't come across before about John's pre-bookshop job and how his single mother managed their finances and what he learned from that. The unlearning of saving at all costs and training yourself that it's OK to spend money on a hotel to spare yourself a stressful trip (even if the trip is theoretically possible) is definitely relatable. For me, this was something that having a partner who did not have that attitude helped me learn, and also having a steady source of income obviously helped. However it's coming about, I'm happy for John that he's coming around to being OK with spending money on himself (which he's mentioned on the radio show/podcast as well).
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Fannish goals check-in. You know, it's been half a year, this seems like a good time for a status on all of them.
1. Poetry: done for the goals I set myself (3 of 3) out at the beginning of the year, a bunch of work left on new and follow-on goals.
1.1 Update my poetry website with all 2023 publications -- done (3 of 3).
1.2 Submit at least 10 poems somewhere -- UPDATE: done but continuing to keep track. Currently at 18. I submitted to another haiku contest in June, and to a dialogue contest/special issue in July.
1.3 Submit at least one chapbook (or micro-chap) length manuscript -- UPDATE: Done, and accepted, and now I'm keeping track of progress towards publication (targeting ??? -- we were targeting early June, but that has clearly come and gone). I finished my edits and filling out the form and submitted all that to the guy and then heard nothing in, uh, a month and a half. This sounds not terribly unusual for him, so I'm not too worried, since I'm not in a hurry and he's still publishing new titles it looks like, but I am starting to get annoyed. Although I'm also too busy to deal with this, so after sending him one reminder email, I haven't reached out again.
1.3b Publish a children's book -- no progress in the last couple of months, but we've done a lot of the prep wor and I think can still finish by end of year.
2. Fanworks: 2 of 3 done
2.1 Post at least one new thing to AO3 -- Done (the Sethra soaps fic :D)
2.2 Actually comment on AO3 -- UPDATE: I'm going to dount this as DONE, because I've been leaving a healthy amount of comments. On, uh, Taskmaster fic, which is actually kind of an accomplishment, because I don't think I'd ever commented on RPF before, and it took me a while to get past that block. But there are now a couple of writers in this fandom who do interesting things with characterization and dialogue, and so I have actual things to comment on.
2.3 Do at least one fandom meme -- UPDATE: In Progress. Now that I've dipped back into Tumblr, I found a Taskmaster ask meme that I'm going to try to do. I'm sure you're all thrilled to hear that.
3. Television & Movies --NOT STARTED (0 of 1)
3.1 Finish out a season of at least one TV show I'm mid-season on or where I'm an already completed season behind (list below) -- Not Started I've been feeling like getting back to POI, and White Collar (with reboot news for the latter). And at this point I could probably even count Taskmaster NZ s4 and live-action AtLA for this?
4. Reading -- Done (3 of 3, let's say)
4.1 Fix my reading logistics: Done (3/3, or 2/2)
4.1.1 Figure out and resolve the issue with my library card -- Done.
4.1.2 Figure out a sustainable e-Reader solution --Binned/Done, as my Kindle app started working again.
4.1.3 Figure out a way of posting about books that better suits my current reading pace -- UPDATE: I'm going to count this as DONE. I was waiting to make sure my current method was sustainable, but it's worked for 6 months and 10 posts, so I think that counts as sustained. It's not, like, a system, but I don't need it to be a system.
4.2 Read some stuff: Read at least 3 things that meet one or more of the categories below -- Done (5 things in 4 categories)
4.2.1 Read something from the "backburner" series where I'm still actively thinking "oh hey, I should catch up on that" -- Done, but continuing to keep track. Currently at 3 (RoL, Saga, Murderbot).
4.2.2 Finish something I've been stalled out on that makes me go "oh hey, I should finish that" when I scroll past it on my Kindle -- Done, with Winter's Gifts, the Kim Reynolds Rivers of London novella.
4.2.3.1 Read a book I own in paper copy (physical TBR pile) -- In Progress. I started Solutions and Other Problems and The Power Unbound, both of which would count for this, but have not been reading paper books lately.
4.2.3.2 Read a book I own in e-copy (book I bought or was gifted) -- Done (1 so far), but continuing to keep track. (A Taste of Gold and Iron)
4.2.4 Read a book in Russian -- UPDATE: In Progress. cafemassolit shared with me a Russian collection of Ashkenazi Jewish folktales (so far I've read just a bunch of the introduction).
4.2.5 Read a non-genre book (non-fiction counts for this) -- Done, but continuing to keep track (currently at 1= Bitch (nonfiction)).
5. Try new things: -- Done (1 of 1)
5.1 Read/watch at least 3 things from the updated "to try" list -- UPDATE: Done, but continuing to keep track. 5/3 complete. I finally got around to reading the Thursday Murder Club books. (Full list: Fire and Hemlock, Malka Older's Jupiter mysteries, Bitch, When the Angels Left the Old Country, Thursday Murder Club)
6. Sudoku -- 1 of 2
6.1 Learn how to solve a new sudoku type or a new trick -- UPDATE: done, but continuing to track new rulesets/tricks: currently at 52. I solved this puzzle, which sort of merges arrows and quads, in that the arrow's circle (blank) acts as the quad clue, which I found quite fun. There's a new "circuit lines" constraint, which I first tried in a CtC puzzle and couldn't finish, but then was able to solve this easier puzzle using the same constraints. And I solved this thermo pointers puzzle.
6.2 Solve at least one puzzle from CtC Greatest Hits vol 2 book -- NOT STARTED
7. Hugos -- Done (3 of 3)
7.1 Nominate for the Hugos -- done
7.2 Cast a Hugo ballot -- UPDATE: DONE. In that I've cast my ballot, figuring I wanted to get something in even though I still have a week until deadline. I voted in 13 categories (novel, novella, novelette, short story, series, GN, BDP-long, editor long and short, pro artist, fan writer, fan artist, and Astounding).
7.3 Read/watch at least 5 Hugo-nominated things I have not yet read (from any year and of any length -- Done, currently at 10/5: (GN 1 Bea Wulf; novelettes I AM AI, On the Fox Roads, One Man's Treasure, The Year Without Sunshine, Introduction to 2181 Overture Second Edition, Ivy Angelica Bay; short stories Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times, The Mausoleum Children, The Sound of Children Screaming,).
So that's a total of 13 out of 16 done so far, 81%.
First of all, I have to comment on the movie piece, since it's what was my final impetus in picking up the book. Helen Mirren is SO perfect for Elizabeth -- was apparently the fancasting random people kept shouting at Osman -- that I'm with cafemassolit in thinking Osman must've had her in mind when writing the character. Spoilers from here, I guess? She does, after all, remind me quite a bit of Mirren's role in RED (where I also loved her). So, anyway, cannot wait to see her play Elizabeth. Ibrahim ended up, unsurprisingly, being my favorite of the main for, and I'm excited about Ben Kingsley, too. Pierce Brosnan is a weird bit of casting for Ron. Like, I'm not complaining -- I've had a crush on Pierce Brosnan since his James Bond days, and he has aged like a fine wine, so I'm very happy to have him as part of the cast -- I just did not think of Pierce Brosnan when reading about Ron, and also he seems a bit young compared to the rest? I don't know anything about the lady cast as Joyce. Mostly now I want to know who will be playing Bogdan, who ended up being one of my favorite characters along with Ibrahim and Elizabeth.
I liked Elizabeth a lot as the driving force that gets everyone involved and moving along; Elizabeth is awesome. Joyce on her own was less interesting to me, but I enjoy her as a foil for Elizabeth and as the POV character through whom to meet the others -- the conventional, silly old lady, who bakes and is interested in men and silly TV -- but is nevertheless unfazed by dangerous situations and gruesome death, and is good at reading people, and can keep up with Elizabeth just fine. I loved Ibrahim and his little vanities, his assertion that he looks six years younger because of Pilates and daily swimming (even when Donna guesses his age), that he would have made a great heroin smuggler, because "it's just logistics", with his algorithms and estimates and his role of local technology guru (because he knows what a Fitbit is, and can set up a WhatsApp group). Similarly, Ron on his own was not that interesting to me, but I love the odd couple he and Ibrahim make, the way they complement each other. I liked Bogdan pretty much from the moment he appeared, and was happy to see him stick around rather than end up being a victim or perpetrator. The way his relationship with Elizabeth unfolds, from her introducing herself with his mother's name (read off his tattoos) and playing off Stephen calling her "Elizabeth" as a feature of his dementia to the sort of familiar arrangement at the end, Bogdan keeping Stephen company, intermittently playing chess whenever he wakes up, while Elizabeth is out with her murder club business. I couldn't remember, after I had finished the book, whether Bogdan had lied to her about killing Tony Curran or answered questions in a way that was not lying but incomplete -- but no, he definitely lies outright. I liked Donna and Chris, too, and was happy that Donna hooked up Chris and her mother. the players who did end up lasting just the one book were fairly interesting, too, although Ian Ventham was a bit TOO cartoonishly hateful on all axes.
I enjoyed the compounding mysteries -- Tony Curran's murder and then Ian's, the body in the grave, and the incidental uncovering of other crimes and tragedies as the club investigated -- Father Mackie's tragic affair and Maggie's suicide, Bernard's lie, John Gray's suicide, which I hesitate to call murder-suicide since Penny was fading away already. In particular I enjoyed the moments of false confession: Elizabeth pretending to confess to killing the extra body in the grave to Father Mackie because she thinks he's the one responsible for it, John Gray pretending the body in the grave is a man he killed as a way of explaining why he would kill Ian Ventham to prevent the excavation when in actuality he is covering for Penny's extra-judician killing of the boyfriend who would've gotten away with the murder of his girlfriend. I was also taken in by the intimation that Joyce might've been up to something, what with her being a nurse and with Karen recognizing someone in the retirement village paper after Joyce had had her picture taken for her new column. And of course the person who actually killed Tony Curran and Turkish Johnny (20 years ago) -- Bogdan, avenging the death of his friend who'd been a bystander. I also particularly enjoyed the little con the octogenarians pull on the police early on, getting Donna assigned to the murder investigation by Ron pretending to be confused and senile and asking for her because they know her -- that's lovely, because it's such a victimless crime, and I do like that at the end of the book Elizabeth et al has got herself some pet police and a pet jack-of-all-criminal-but-also-other-trades, and everyone seems to be happy with this arrangement.
There are a lot of fun bits -- the central quirkiness of the premise, of course, of four people in a retirement village solving murders, but also just random zaniness, like the llamas, the drug smuggler turned florist. But there's also poignancy, of course, with the protagonists all being people who have either lost loved ones or fear losing them, or themselves. Elizabeth and Stephen hit pretty hard, as did Elizabeth setting herself memory tests two weeks ahead, as an early warning system. But also Joyce thinking back to the last train ride with her gang of girls to see a matinee and drink G&T in cans -- which she did not know was going to be the last outing with her friends, and Bernard's good-bye letter ("I realize that I have run out of whatever it is that we need to carry on.") and Joyce's friends comforting her as she weeps for all the losses, "for Gerry [her husband] and for Bernard and for Asima [Bernard's wife], and for the ladies who went to Jersey Boys and drank G&Ts out of cans all the way home" (I have a lump in my throat just from rereading that bit to copy down the quote).
Quotes:
"Ron's picture was rarely in the papers without the caption 'Talks between the two sides collapses late last night.'"
Ibrahim driving: "Ron [whose car it is] had put up a token fight, but Ibrahim knew he had lost his confidence on right-hand turns and would be secretly delighted to be voted down. Elizabeth put up more spirited opposition, mentioning that she still held a fully valid tank license. She really could play fast and loose with the Official Secrets Act at time. But in the end it all came down to this: Ibrahim was the only one who understood how the satnav worked."
Ron, rating the Ventham's murder suspects: "It's a ten from me."
Ibrahim: "This is not Strictly Come Poisoning, Ron."
Joyce, about Tinder: "Honestly, it breaks your heart, to scroll through. It reminded me of those photos of lost cats you see on lampposts. It's all that hope, I think."
"the quiet electronic beeps by Penny's bedside. All that remained of her, like a lighthouse blinking far out to see."
"I honestly don't know what to do with the Tupperware I used. If you've used two Tupperware containers to help mix the ashes of a dear friend and the woman he loved without letting their child know, is it more disrespectful to keep them or to throw them away?"
First look at the Murder Club folks (Elizabeth and Ibrahim are looking so good!)
*
Taskmaster Oz s02e07 -- this one was less of a blast than the last couple, but the last couple really were massive highlights. And I do feel like spoilers! Wil is being really underscored, which makes me enjoy the season a bit less. Reddit drew the comparison with Hugh Dennis, and yeah, I see that -- here's someone who is very good at objective tasks, but is being consistently scored low on subjective ones.
Prize -- something that gets progressively worse the more of it you have. Fun idea on the surface, but I didn't think many of these were good at all -- the only one that I thought made sense was Anne's Strongbow, and that was very route one. First, how did Wil, who at least put in some effort with the noses, get fewer points than Josh, who brought in the concept of multiple assholes? And I didn't think Jenny's winning Plan B pill made that much sense either. My favorite thing about Jenny's was actually Wil snickering into his fist in reaction to G.Tom saying, "you mean it 'saves you' from the blessing of having children." Also, while I do agree that more skulls are exponentially worse, I do think a single human skull in your posession is already fairly creepy.
Minivan in socks task -- OK, this was pretty cool! definitely the standout of the episode. Cute that Anne and Lloyd both focused on collecting the little toys for their daughter. Wil did a stellar job again (really, he should be winning if it weren't for G.Tom underscoring him), and Jenny made some bizarre house-caravan-minivan connections, looked to be on the verge of more matrices, but in this case her pondering paid off. But omg, poor Josh, who first thought it was fastest wins rather than fewest socks, then proceeded to take all the socks down even after figuring out how it was going to be scored, missed all of L.Tom's hints (SO MANY HINTS), spent 1 hr 43 min doing... all that, and eventually figured out where the minivan had to be but didn't even check. I was surprised G.Tom gave him 1 point for that, but Reddit pointed out that he had actually found the minivan, he just didn't lay hands on it, so maybe that works. But why did Lloyd get 2 points and not 3 points when Anne and Jenny both got 4? I'm pretty sure he would've gotten 3 in UK TM, and that would also be a fairer representation of how far apart he and Josh were in their results.
Full slop -- I thought Jenny had invented that slip-slop-slap slogan, but apparently it's an actual Australian thing? Anyway, that was definitely the most coherent and deserving of a win. Josh's go-to for any task he doesn't want to do is to ask for a beer, which, good for him, but that definitely deserved 1 point ("Score it how you will, Gay Daddy"). Poor Wil and poor Lloyd, and Anne didn't seem to be having a good time either, but I'm not sure why Wil got 2 points to Anne's 3, for example.
Show of strength or weakness -- this was chaotic but not very interesting. I guess Josh trying to show extreme weakness by overreacting and then getting 5 points for showing the most strength by coming out did deserve the win. And Anne actually carting L.Tom around also deserved the 4 points. There are outtakes of L.Tom farting while Lloyd carried him around, and the showdown over Lloyd's zebra was pretty cute. Jenny's was pretty terrible, but Wil's was ALSO pretty terrible, and for once deserved the low points, but I do think he and Jenny should've gotten the same score, so I don't understand why she got 3 and he got 1. Also, Wil's "I'm a white straight man, that used to be enough" in response to L.Tom's "what strengths do you have?" was my favorite/funniest part of the task.
Live task -- G.Tom guessing the time charades. OK, this was scored in a very weird way. I did not get that the time was going to be scored cumulatively, meaning that once the Discount Wiggles were penalized with the maximum possible time, it was virtually impossible for them to recover, even though 2 out of 3 of their charades/G.Tom's guesses were really good, closer than the team of 2. And I'm not even sure I agree with the disqualification in the first place; that was harsh, and RIDICULOUSLY harsh if they were going to lose the entire task on that. Also, it's just incredible to me that the team of 3 acted out the same thing 3 times, and somehow, thanks to G.Tom's very good guesses, ended up getting max points. Not a fan of the way this was scored.
Anne gets an episode win, and hopefully Jenny will eke one out as well, before the end of the season. Jenny and Josh are currently tied at the bottom, but Anne has now LEAPFROGGED Wil by 6 points, and is now only 3 points behind Lloyd. I do suspect she'll start falling away again, but Lloyd is now 9 points ahead of Wil, and I think pretty likely to win. We're not talking John Robins dominance here (John was 13 points ahead of Joanne after e07), but Lloyd's pretty consistently decent, while Anne is very inconsitent, and Wil frequently underscored, so I think it's pretty safe to call it for Lloyd at this point. Though I wouldn't be shocked if Anne ended up winning if there's a bunch more subjective tasks in the three episodes that are left.
Taskmaster Oz s02e08 -- this was really fun again, although it's still annoying me that spoilers! Wil is getting so underscored, and it's starting to feel like having Lloyd and Anne at the top, close together, is part of an intentional narrative (which a few people on Reddit have also said). It's just that looking at Anne's performance, it's simply unbelievable she would be second -- she has so many completely botched tasks. Reddit also drew the comparison to Bridget Christie, and, yeah, it's similar vibes, actually, of someone chaotically missing the point but then occasionally nailing a subjective or lateral thinking task. And, in fairness, neither Lloyd nor Wil are Chris Ramsay or Sophie Duker, but still, Anne's second plays doesn't feel "earned" to me. And because it's hard to give her more points, because she mostly fails on objective tasks, the easiest way to buoy her up is to score down her nearest competitor on subjective ones. And also I think the team judging is being applied more harshly to the Wiggles -- I thought the time penalty last episode was way too hard, and in this ep, while I'm willing to accept moving the spot in the live task as a not-outright-forbidden hack (although a boring one in a team task, frankly), I was very iffy about the mattress task, given that the rules explicitly said
Prize task -- it is fun that Anne and Lloyd keep bringing in each other's things (Lloyd's ratty house shorts, Anne's teddybear, which did deserve to win, I think), but I also wonder how much of this is truly natural vs something the producers are encouraging/nudging along. I do think Wil was absolutely robbed, given the amount of thought and effort that went into the TP with colonoscopy pictures; that should've been at least 4 points. Jenny's shampoo break-up story ("I was in a controlling relationship... where I was in control") was funny, but not 3 points funny. I think if I were scoring it, it would go Josh's TP cozy, Jenny's shampoo, Anne's Lloyd's shorts, and then probably a tie for Wil and Lloyd's Anne's bear at 5. (Wil's outburst was pretty funny, and clearly a long time coming, but, like, he's right, G.Tom's scoring has been pretty clearly unfair.)
Egg breaking task -- another amazing job from Wil on an objective task, and not only was it a clever hack to have Tom do it, but also a great visual with the giant mallet, and I think having Wil "operate" L.Tom like a tool by raising and dropping his arm was a good thought, too. Sounds like that was an unnecessary layer, but good thinking nevertheless. Meanwhile, Jenny, who really does seem allergic to points (lol, G.Tom, good one) also hits on the hack, but then proceeds to give L.Tom VERY CAREFUL instructions that virtually guarantee her loss, because she tells him to break just one egg, and even if she had given him a do-loop, it still would not have helped, because the instructions are very explicit that the task stops when the first egg is broken. And then she agonizes over the instructions while completely failing to spot the problems. Amazing! (I can't think of another contestant quite like Jenny when it comes to failure mode, but this is such a Hawk failure mode, to put it in terms Dragaera houses). Speaking of consistent failure modes, as Reddit kept pointing out, Anne misreads the task (she thinks it's break fewest eggs, so she leaves the carton on and wraps it in some padding before throwing onto the grass), then fails at both the real task (because 4 eggs do not break) and at the opposite task she thinks she is doing (because 8 eggs do break). And her not even wanting to talk about it to G.Tom in the studio was also really funny. Meanwhile, Josh had a great idea, with dropping the target on the eggs, nicely done, efficient and visually impressive. The other remarkable thing about Josh is that he speaks up for Lloyd and gets them to adjust how they're measuring his attempt (quite fairly, I think) -- that was a very sweet moment. Dingo dongo! XD Lloyd himself was very funny too: "But by my actions, the eggs broke..." G.Tom: "Yeah? We agree with you." Lloyd: "Yeah, and now I realize I do not agree with me." XD XD
Mattress team task -- OK, first of all, I love this wholesome twist on a sabotage/secret task, with Lloyd having to stay within 50 cm of a team mate for >=50% of the task. I love that he didn't know either of his teammates, and that Jenny thought he was very weird and Wil was comforted by the touchy-feeliness, and it did look really sweet how Lloyd kept sort of patting and guiding blindfolded Wil. (It's not sharing a mattress, but maybe something for Anne's fantasies anyway. (P.S. As of this writing, no-one on AO3 seems to have written the Wil/Lloyd/Anne OT3 that this show is clearly pushing, although two people have written Wil/Lesser Tom, inspired by the conspiracy skit, judging by the timing.) Anyway, the individual task was great, and I'm glad Lloyd nailed it and managed to eke out 2 points for his team. Now, as for the actual team task. I like the idea of the task, but it's apparently quite hard -- like, both teams just guessed 1-2 things (the guitar, for both, although it took Wil two attempts, because it twanged the first time and was declared void, and bowling pin for Anne) without the aid of Anne's hack. Before that, though, how funny was Anne guessing "gun" for everything, so Josh very smartly went and got a bunch of guns, and then, as G.Tom put it, Anne forgot that guns existed and never said the word again, leading to some interesting images of frustrated Josh with the blue plastic guns to his forehead. I was struggling to see how the hack of Anne telling Josh what to bring, including in which order, was within the rules of no clues beyond through-the-mattress being allowed. I suppose, if it's Anne directing what gets put under the mattress, technically that's not Josh giving her a clue, but that's still Anne giving HERSELF a clue... and I listened to the task again, and it says "any clues that aren't through the mattress will render the item void" -- so I think the clues are not limited to what the non-blindfolded team member(s) and/or the objects themselves do. I think this was a VERY questionable hack. I did really enjoy G.Tom pointing out that between messing around on a mattress on the floor and the prank call to him in an earlier task, they were like two kids having a sleepover.
Other side of yourself task -- Wil does seem to flounder in these creative tasks, so I do have to agree with the one point here, and 2 points for Anne ("she doesn't swear... ah, shit!" was great timing XD). Lloyd and L.Tom having a lovely time skipping stones was adorable, and the 17 skip was hella impressive; I don't actually think that was any sort of other side of Lloyd, but the skipping has to be rewarded, so I don't mind the 4 points; as G.Tom said, that was basically just for the impressive skip. Jenny romancing L.Tom was so awkward XD And then! AND THEN. XD Josh, wearing Anne's tasking outfit, nursing helplessly giggling L.Tom from a balloon teat that was apparently actually filled with milk (which eventually spilled all over Anne's jeans), omg. I had the same thought as someone on Reddit, that this was very reminiscent of Sally Phillips giving birth to Alex -- but I appreciate the added twist that the contestant was wearing someone else's clothes without their knowledge at the time XD I also love that Josh thought of this idea, kind of hated that he'd thought of it, felt like he had to do it -- there was a sort of despodent inevitability to it that made me think of Nick on Poo Do You Think You Are? except that Josh did it entirely to himself XD Josh saying reflectively afterwards that he didn't think this was actually showing another side of himself, that just felt like him (which I kind of agree) was also great, and G.Tom giving him 5 points anyway (which of course he had to do) because the other side was that he found it funny was a great way out. Absolutely epic!
Live task (bubbles-hoop-peas) -- this looked like a really fun game, until Anne deployed the hack, which was effective but made it less fun. I do appreciate that G.Tom gave them soccer-type scores rather than 0-5.
**
There's another Taskmaster "Ultimate Episode" on YouTube (for I guess everyone outside the UK?). This one's for Lou Saunders, who is one of my less favorite contestants, so I still watched it of course, but enjoyed it less. Rewatching the tasks back reminds me that I don't really miss this group, and listening to Lou talking about it in retrospect doesn't make me appreciate her any more than I did prior to watching -- she is one of my less favorite winners, I did not particularly enjoy her as the co-host of the People's Podcast or as a guest on Ed's, and I haven't really gotten much out of anything else I've seen her on (she pops up a fair bit in the John & Elis stuff I've been mining, as a close friend of John's). series 8 spoilers, I guess Anyway. I had very little memory of the prize task (coat of protection), but I did remember the filmed tasks -- the "move as one person" team task, the location task with the tennis balls, and the "apologize to Alex" task which Lou unquestionably won -- and the pan-hoop live task. But I didn't feel like Lou's commentary added much to any of them, except maybe the "apology" task where she explains that she pretended Alex was her partner when signing him up for jazzercise. In the team task she mainly talks about how she feels bad for snapping at / bossing around Paul -- because she an Iain are constantly doing it to each other, but Paul isn't like that. So at least there were a few new tidbits I found worthwhile.
Ed's Taskmaster podcast has started doing Taskmaster New Zealand series 1, which is not my favorite series, but the podcast is fun even for series I like less. His first guest is Jack Bernhardt, which is less illuminating for NZ references (neither bothered to google the things they didn't know XD), but is gratifying for the stats about Jeremy's scoring, which they both agree is completely mad. Jack has calculated a harshness rating for Jeremy (based on how many points are given out of a hypothetical 15), and he's got a harshness rating of 1.1, harsher than Greg. Jack also shared that NZ tends to have more subjective tasks -- 64% (in this series or overall? I missed that part) vs UK's highest ever being 55%, so Jeremy's mad scoring also has an outsize effect on standings. At the end, where Ed always asks the guest to score the experience of the podcast in the style of Taskmaster, he invites Jack to do it specifically in the style of Jeremy Wells, and Jack goes, I had a great time, this was wonderful, 2 points, which really cracked me up, as well as Ed. For the second episode, Ed's guest is Brynley (who was my favorite s1 contestant), and it sounds like she was also annoyed by Jeremy's wild scoring, even when it was in her favor XD
And a person on r/Taskmaster has made amazing business logos based on Taskmaster quotes/incidents: part 1 and part 2 (and the artist's RedBubble shop, for my reference).
ETA: Oh right! I forgot the other thing I meant to link: this Taskmaster fic data analysis that was posted to AO3. Really interesting to see what perceptions of mine are borne out by the data vs not (e.g. I was thinking fic counts were spiking lately, but they don't seem to be, it's probably more that I've gotten in the habit of checking, so I notice it more).
**
I typed this up a couple of weeks ago but hadn't gotten around to posting: I've been browsing r/Taskmaster a bunch, as you can possibly tell from the above, and seeing the range in people's favorite series and contestants, decided to try to be systmatic about it. So UK series rankings for me, quantitatively -- by which I mean I looked at the line-up, assigned +/- scores for each contestant based on how much I (dis)like them, and added a small bonus for particularly favorite tasks where that applied (or very rarely a negative on the tasks if there were some I disliked especially), and for panel synergy where that was applicable. This is the result:
s1 -- No-one on s1 is a top-tier contestant for me, but I like Josh quite a bit, and generally like Roisin. I'm neutral on Frank Skinner, and low-level dislike Romesh and Tim Key. So if I were to try to quantify this and do something like Josh (+2), Roisin (+1), Frank (0), Romesh (-1), Key (-1) -- I'd end up with an overall score of +1 for the contestants. I feel like the format is still finding its feet, too, and there are some tasks that are least favorite, in either task itself (watermelon gorging) or specific execution (Romesh and hot sauce), while I can't think of any massively standout tasks (considering this wasn't the first series of TM I watched, so the very premise wasn't that big of a draw for me). So maybe -1 for the tasks, and I'm left with a score of 0 for the series. Which honestly feels about right. I'm not a big fan of it as a series, I just like Josh. Conclusion: 0.
s2 -- Conversely, s2 has a lot of favorite contestants. I think I could put Doc, Katherine, Jon, and Richard Osman all at the +2 level. Joe W is a contestant I dislike, and quite strongly, so I'd probably put him at -3. But that still adds up to +5 for contestants overall. Tasks are a bit more mixed for me. I think the team tasks are quite weak, and I dislike the "impress the mayor" task (too much cringe for me), but I do like the pizza ordering task a lot, so I think I'm going to leave the tasks contribution neutral on the whole, and leave the series at +5. Conclusion: +5.
s3 -- Oh dear, this one. The only contestant I feel positively inclined towards is Sara Pascoe, at the +1 sort of level. I'm neutral about Dave Gorman, even with the cheating (0). I low-level dislike Al Murray (-1), quite dislike Rob Beckett (-2) -- even though turns out I don't mind him in other things; either it was the timing of him having just had his baby, or TM just brings out the worst in him, anyway -- and very strongly dislike Paul Chowdhry (-3). So the contestants total is an abysmal -5. There were, I think, some fun tasks in this, but I couldn't even enjoy them properly. But, OK, maybe +1 point for things like the domino rally and the snowman, for an overall total of -4. Conclusion: -4.
s4 -- Hugh is a +3 level contestant for me, Joe Lycett and Mel are +2, and Lolly is probably +1. I'm pretty neutral on Noel (0). So that's +8 for contestants, and also +1 for tasks, because there were some great ones in here: I love the bathtub team task, and the exotic sandwich, and there's just a really nice variety. Oh, and this is the first series where I feel compelled to introduce another +1 for the interpersonal vibe for in-studio interactions. So, +10 overall, which feels right -- it's definitely up there for me. Conclusion: +10.
s5 -- Mark and Nish +2 contestants for me, and Sally, Bob, and Aisling are all +1 contestants -- the first series in which I liked everyone a positive amount. And +1 on tasks for the song at minimum, and there are many other tasks I enjoy. So, +8 overall, which feels right in relation to s4 -- I like both of these series a lot, but s4 is closer to my heart. Conclusion: +8.
s6 -- The first one where a +5 level contestant comes into play: Liza, of course. And that's kind of it, honestly XD Alice gets a +1, I'm deeply neutral on Tim Vine (0), and I think I'm going to go with -1 for Asim and Russell Howard (whom I, again, like more on other things; he was just annoyingly smug on TM). I can't really think of memorable tasks (vs Liza's memorable executions of them), so I'll just leave that part at zero. The resulting +4 feels about right, as I would definitely say I like the series less than s2 overall but am more positively inclined otwards it than my least favorite series. Conclusion: +4.
s7 -- +5 for Rhod, +2 for Phil, Kerry, and James, and I'm neutral on Jess (0), so that's a whopping +11 total for contestants, plus an additional +1 for the studio interaction, plus +1 for tasks (the video game one was amazing across the board, and then there's Jess falling off the soon-to-be-known-as-the-Knappett, and so many other iconic tasks) and just a lot of mayhem. So, +13 overall, edging out s4. Conclusion: +13.
s8 -- +1 for Iain (unpopular opinion, I know, but I liked his character arc); -2 for Lou; neutral on Paul Sinha, Joe and Sian (0), and I don't feel strongly about the tasks (even the fan-favorite hide from Alex one), so -1 for the series feels about right. Conclusion: -1.
s9 -- This is one of those series where I like basically everyone. I'll go with +2 for Ed and Jo Brand, +1 for David Baddiel and Katy and Rose, and +1 for studio interaction, for +8 overall. Having it about on the level with s5 feels right, so let's go with that. Conclusion: +8.
s10 -- Another one that's pretty weak. +1 for Mawaan and Katherine Parkinson, -1 for Johnny Vegas and Richard Herring, and -2 for Daisy Mae Cooper, for a total of -2 (just behind s8 but not as bad as s3 feels about right). Conclusion: -2.
s11 -- This is an odd one for me. +3 for Mike Wozniak, +2 for Sarah Kendall and Lee, and +1 for Charlotte, but -3 for Jamali leaves this at +5, which feels right for that sort of low-middle tier. Conclusion: +5.
s12 -- +5 for Victoria, +3 for Guz, +2 for Desiree, +1 for Morgana, neutral on Alan (0), so +11 for contestants, and +1 for studio vibes, for an overall of +12. Conclusion: +12.
s13 -- This one is a bit tough... +3 for Chris Ramsey, +2 for Sophie Duker and Bridget, but -1 for Judi and Ardal, so I think that's a +5 on contestants. +1 for studio vibes (mostly on the strength of Bridget and Greg interaction), and I feel like there's enough fun tasks to earn another +1 (cement mixer, shoes, high five). Conclusion: +7.
s14 -- +3 for Munya, +2 for Fern and Sarah Millican, +1 for Dara, -2 for John Kearns, +1 for studio vibes, and +1 for some memorable tasks (the hands, the sabotage team task, the round robin plays). That adds up to +8 overall, which feels about right, about on the level with s9 and s5, where I like it a lot but it's not quite top tier. Conclusion: +8.
s15 -- +5 for Ivo, +3 for Kiell, +2 for Jenny, +1 for Frankie, neutral for Mae (0), so that's +11 for contestants, and +1 for the studio (honestly I'm tempted to give it +2, because this was my favorite studio atmosphere). I waffled whether there was an extra point here for tasks, and ultimately concluded no: I loved the pineapples task and potato conveyor task was great, but there are some live team tasks that are just too unfairly skewed, to the point that it interfered with my enjoyment. Conclusion: +12.
s16 -- The first series in a couple that did not have a strong (+3 level) favorite for me, but let's go with +2 for Sue Perkins and Susan Wokoma, +1 for Julian, neutral for Sam (unlike most other neutrals, it's not that I don't care, it's that he delights and annoys me in equal measure so they cancel out), and -1 for Lucy, who eventually started grating on me. But +1 for the amazing Taskmaster hotel task, fair play, and +1 for the studio vibes mostly courtesy of Sue. So, +6 for the total, i.e. a mid-tier series for me, similar to s11 and s13 where I enjoyed it overall but it didn't quite take off for me. Conclusion: +6.
s17 -- +5 for John, +2 for Nick, +1 for Sophie and Joanne, and I think neutral on Steve (0). The resulting +9 would put it at about the same level as s9 and s5, which feels about right, if skewed by one person. Conclusion: +9.
One dimension this is missing is Greg and Alex interaction, because I can't remember what series which bits belong to. Like, I think s17 was qite weak on this front, and I remember s12, s15, and s7 being fairly strong, but I don't have enough of a sense of it throughout to assign points for that, and it's not a hugely key thing for me anyway.
Then I think I'm going to round it to the nearest 5:
Round to 15 tier: series 7
Round to 10 tier: series 15 and series 12 in the 10+ category, series 4, series 17, and series 5, 9 and 14 in the 10- category
Round to 5 tier: series 13 in the 5+ category, series 16, series 2 and 11, series 6
Round to 0 tier: series 1, series 8, series 10 (in the 0- tier)
Round to -5 tier: series 3
This feels about right! The 15 tier means "I love everyone on the panel" (on average), and the 10 tier means "I like everyone on the panel a lot" -- and I do think that's reflected in the in those top two tiers. I would've preferred it if s7 and s15 and s12 ended up in the same tier, and I think the Alex and Greg interaction, if I could score it fairly, would actually put them there, but this is fine. Really what I think there is is a separate >=10 tier that s12, s15, and s4 live in, to separate them from the ones that only round up to 10. That 5 tier means I liked the series on the whole but wouldn't be able to say I liked it a lot -- and I think the right ones ended up in that category. The 0 tier is the meh tier, and, yep, s1, s8, and s10 are the ones I'm meh on. And I think it's accurate to say that there was only one series that I disliked on average, so it makes sense that s3 is over there by itself in the -5 tier.
(If I were to try to use this approach to compare to TM NZ and Austrialia, I'd need to add in baseline points for the Taskmaster and Assistant, which would defiitely be different from country to country. Greg is a +2 for me and Alex is a +1 (his persona as LAH, I mean; obviously his role as creator of the whole thing is reflected in other things), so the UK series would get a +3. Meanwhile, Australia would probably get a +1 (I like Greater Tom and am neutral on Lesser Tom), while TM NZ would get a -2 (I'm neutral on Paul Williams but actively dislike Jeremy).) But that's an exercise for another day...
*
Catching up on the "real-time" Elis & John podcasts, the big news (#347) is that Elis and Isy (who have been together for >14 years and engaged since 2016 looks like (and have two children together)) are finally getting legally married, and Elis asked John to be his best man (which it sounds like he was always planning to do, but the school mate he's known for 30 years, who was the other potential candidate, also told him when he was trying to break the news to him that he didn't want to give a toast to a room full of comedians and he should ask John to be best man), so that's all very adorable. But Elis sounds stressed by wedding admin (John posited that he has admin trauma, which Elis agreed feels like the case -- and he does look really stressed in the clip, oh no XD), and also kept apologizing to John, who is planning his stag do, about some of his friends being difficult to wrangle and adding to the "burden" of planning on top of whatever else John is dealing with. Dave tries to opine that it's the kind of thing John enjoys, which John emphatically says no to. But he does sound happy about the wedding and being best man.
The other thing that came up in the recent episodes (#346), when Elis was talking to Adrian Chiles about the importance of loyalty in John's worldview (this is after Adrian said he felt disloyal about being on the air with Elis without John, because it was something about the town Elis is from), John mentioned that Elis was in a sketch group (Superclump, which it looks like included Mike Wozniak, Josh Widdicombe and Sian Harries (of the people who mean anything to me, plus some other names I recognize without having consumed any of their stuff), for 2 years, looks like around 2009, and John felt excluded and didn't talk to Elis for (those?) 2 years XD (and Elis says the subsequent digital decade was trying to make up for that). I mean, I doubt the last part, but if John really did keep a grudge for 2 years of silent treatment, as someone who also considers myself a pro at silent treatment, I'm impressed/horrified XD Elis's explanation for the exclusion is that John was "almost professionally hard work" during that period -- which from what John said about that sort of timeframe in his satirical autobiography sounds about right, and also he did not dispute that at all -- but he does regret it, Elis says.
Less recent:
- E&J radio show clip about John and Elis first handshake in 2005, the era when John was apparently extending his hand to be kissed, as also shared by Josh Widdicombe on Jon Richardson's Ultimate Worrier (John: "I was really hard work"), which resulted in a very limp handshake. Elis: "I didn't know what to make of John for the first 6 years I knew him; then I grew to like him and accept him."
- I finally managed to find a non-paywalled link to that article on comedian couples from July 2015 that profiled Elis & Isy and John & Sara Pascoe. Reading the John and Sara section, I was getting the feeling that John was more into the relationship than she was, or at least more vocally so, but that could be the benefit of hindsight as well, of course. My main takeaway is actually this quote from Elis: "I'm so profoundly uncompetitive, I think I have a genetic problem." He is talking about competing with Isy for who will get to use the material based on their daughter's antics, but I do think that's basically the secret of his long partnership with John.
Beat the Internet with John Robins (2018-2019) -- I had put off watching this because I had expected it to be terrible. I didn't find it to be terrible, but it's definitely not GOOD, either. The budget is clearly extremely low, from set to prizes (a Beat the Internet USB stick plus stuff like speakers or a Kindle 3G, although with the later episodes you get into things like an Apple TV, digital camcorder, and laptop also in the mix). They sort of lampshade the shittiness of the prizes by playing up the engraved USB stick, which is I guess the equivalent of a trophy in this, and an imaginary something extra saved on it each time, but while I respect that as an approach, that didn't really work for me. Richard Osman on House of Games often plays up the "this is all horrible tat" about the trophy and about some of the prizes, but those are intentionally kitsch; this just looks sad. The title cards and general aesthetic is just really ugly, in a Web 1.0 way, but intentionally ugly is still ugly, so this is a weird choice. The gameplay is... reasonably entertaining? I did enjoy guessing along, and could usually do as well as the higher-scoring contestants (except where not knowing British things hampers me), although of course it's different when you have to do it with an audience/buzzer.
From reading a few reviews, it sounds like comedians/John Robins fans got that John was doing an Alan Partridge bit (which I know nothing about, so I certainly didn't) but weren't sure it was working in the context of the show, and laymen just thought he was bad at hosting. I'm guessing the stuff I did not appreciate was the Alan Partridge homages, but I did enjoy the parts where John was more like he is on the radio show with Elis. The scripted bits, with belabored computer things references when people are eliminated, the "with John Robins" to camera, and the thing with running down the row of contestants asking them if they want to beat the internet are pretty cringey (I'm guessing these are all supposed to work as parody?), and the celebrity jokes at the beginning I just don't get. The chat with the contestants (around their search history) is more fun -- I do feel like he's more in his element here (vs playing some kind of role), between compering and radio show call-ins -- and I feel like this (and the "Earlier..." bits shown at the end where he has a go at competing himself) is where he comes across the most as himself(/his more familiar persona), with tax code advice (and less predictably, nipple cream advice XD), and cricket and tube station trivia, and cats facts, and household tips, e.g. for reheating rice (this is actually useful to know, as I've heard horror stories but not the logic behind it). He is also trying to get Sunil involved in little games based on contestants' search history at any provocation (like "animals beginning with i"). And special shoutout to the time in e18 where one of the contestants turns out to be a detective from the Met and John seems to forget for a bit that he's got a TV show to present and just focuses on his detective fantasies. (John: "How can I... Could... What... What if I wanted to come and help?" in a very adorable stammery way that reminded me of his "Are we filming?" in the darts/Twister task when Alex teased him about taking his jacket off -- while kind of picking at the podium in an almost cartoonishly bashful way.) I also enjoyed the subgenre of chat with contestants about their search history when his name comes up, which happened several times; the most entertaining of these is the guy who googled "leonardo di caprio" and "john robins" and John was like, "Were you googling heartthrobs?" (the contestant was pretty categorical in saying no XD), although John clearly enjoyed the contestant who googled for an audio clip of him because he figured his father would recognize John's voice from the radio even though he didn't recognize the name. I don't think Sunil and his occasional facts add much. I think the idea is a contrast between John's mugging at the camera (which I also found cringey) and Sunil's deadpan, but I think if you're going to have two hosts, it's important to have good chemistry between them (e.g Richard Osman and Alexander Armstrong on Pointless, which I think are the closest to the kind of roles this is going for), and I wasn't getting any chemistry here. (They met on this gig, and even when Sunil was a guest on on of Elis & John's livestreams, I didn't get much of a sense of chemistry between them.) I will say, the one thing I did appreciate with Sunil was him "reading" the Ts&Cs (actually a recording of this being played as he rattles off the fine print) while Sunil on stage does a new thing each time with a paper from the box labeled "Complaints".
The background beat and John's general demeanor as host are definitely giving me Taskmaster gameshow task vibes ("Take to the stage to guess the age to win the wage") XD He also does this thing where he guesses along with the contestants what an answer has to be, and so says, like, "[search term]? It's got to be. And is!" when the answer is revealed -- which is a construction that struck me when John was doing it in the darts-Twister task, because I hadn't encountered that before. Maybe it's a thing in some sport John is into that I've never watched (no shortage of those, with golf, darts, snooker, and cricket off the top of my head). I'm not digging the suit jacket-over-T-shirt look that John was sporting for most of this, but the pink collared shirt under the suit he's wearing in s6 is a much nicer one. But he looks very weird in a V-neck T-shirt (e11). Also, I'm definitely recognizing some of the shirts. I thought it was because he was wearing all the same clothes as on his other TV appearances, but apparently (according to an interview I came across) this is the show that BOUGHT him all those clothes, because he didn't have any shirts without bands on them XD I definitely recognized the red T-shirt with white stripes, which shows up on like two other shows as well. Clearly John liked that one more than I do XD A lot of these are T-shirts with horizontal stripes; not sure if that reflects John's taste in non-band T-shirts or what someone thought would look best on him on TV. And speaking of things that remind me of other things I've seen/heard/experienced John in, very amused that the way of blocking the other finalist from being able to see/hear what's going on is basically the same as what John and Elis used on Betabet on their radio show (which predates this), just with the addition of an ugly helmet/face shield thing.
Certainly my favorite part of the whole show was the very last bit, which shows John competing in the final round, before the contestants have a go at it:
- e1 -- tie with winner with 6 on different Michaels, as he couldn't name the designer, unsurprisingly;
- e2 -- John wins with 8, but was stumped by Neil deGrasse Tyson (because he claims he's not a "super-dweeb") and Neil Patrick Harris from a HIMYM reference, although when he hears the latter, he asks if it's the guy who played Doogie Howser, which is something people called him at school;
- e3 -- John wins handily with 8, but doesn't know Captain Marvel ("couldn't care less, I'm a grownup" -- this would've been pre-MCU movie, so purely in a comic book context)
- e4 -- tied with winner at "a pitiful 5", did not get Chris Pine (Star Trek) or Chris Pratt (Jurassic World) or Chris Hemsworth (Thor) but did get Chris Evans -- but felt bad about this, because I guess he's not too much of a grown-up for the MCU or Star Trek -- or maybe 5 is just the line where he beats himself up for how he did instead of preening and dismissing the ones he didn't get;
- e5 -- both finalists beat John 3 to 2 on Natalies, because he didn't know Natalie Dormer, since he didn't watch GoT, which is an interesting factoid, but maybe he only likes less grim fantasy?;
- e6 -- beat the winner with 5;
- e7 -- beat the winner with 5, but missing Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) because "I don't watch comedy, I make it" (surprised to hear that due to various references on the radio show, though maybe those are things he watched before becoming a comedian) and also not getting the Team GB cycling Jason, because he find cycling boring (that's not a surprise, given his reaction to Elis's cycling chat);
- e8 -- beat the winner with 6, disputing that Lady Macbeth is evil ("she's conflicted") and asking what grime is (to be fair, I also don't really know, beyond "some kind of music");
- e9 -- beat the winner with a "miserable 5" on Sarahs
- e10 -- beat the winner with 9 (almost got the 10th, the football guy, but the time ran out and he ended up shouting it afterwards)
- e11 -- tied winner with 8, and getting to name Frank Zappa elicits a "get in!"
- e12 -- winner beats John 7 to 5 (ironically, on Johns), after John takes something like 3 attempts to get John Wick right (he also didn't know John Cena or Gotti -- who, to be fair, I didn't realize was a John either)
- e13 -- tied with winner at 8, although I think John getting "Tony Robbins" was wild guessing -- he was just naming surnames at that point, I think (that was one of like 3 I knew, because my friend M is a huge fan of his, going back like 30 years)
- e14 -- tied with winner at 5, after note getting Jennifer Love Hewitt (which I didn't either) despite having had "a substantial crush on her" (but I'm guessing in an earlier timeframe than the question was about)
- e15 -- beat the winner handily with 6, but they skimped on showing him guessing (and also the opening "do YOU want to beat the internet", which is an improvement) -- I suppose the episode was running long with some ties and slow guesses?
- e16 -- both finalists beat John's "disgraceful 4" by 1 point
- e17 -- tied winner with 8, despite missing The Great Fire of London ("I went to an exhibition about that!" once the answer is revealed -- though in fairness I do think the clue was fairly vague)
- e18 --beat the winner with 4 (which he didn't even want to say out loud, so he sort of just mouthed it while holding up 4 fingers), but at least he managed to name that 4th one, after getting stuck but being determined not to get 3
- e19 -- tied with the winner at 7
- e20 -- beat the winner with "a personally disappointing 5" on Andys, wherein he shares that he's met Andy Serkis, but also failed to get "British sculptor" Andy Goldworthy's name despite remembering his work ("I hate myself, I did him in year 8!")
That's 7 times he tied the winner, and 3 times he "lost" (5 contestants total beat him, because in two of those rounds, he was beaten by both finalists by 1 point) -- or, looking at it another way, 5 people who beat him, 7 who tied him, and 28 people he beat, across the 20 episodes. Which is not a bad track record. His lowest score was 2 (on Natalies) and his highest was 9 (which no one equaled in any ep). He seems to be happy with a score of 7 or above, which happens 7 times; is unhappy with a score of 4-5, which happens 9 times; 6 doesn't seem to get either kind of comment (this happens 3 times); and his lone score below 4, the 2, I think doesn't get a comment at all.
I also really enjoyed all his explanations for why he is competing on his own show -- they are very John. In addition to this, I also got a kick out of random T.S.Eliot quote in an early episode (there was also a Warren Buffet quote, because the man's got range), But no, they don't use yen in China, John, although "yuan" is close enough, I suppose that if you've only heard it and not read it you could mix the two up. (I do often find myself surprised by gaps in his 'cultural literacy' sorts of things, considering he loves quizzes and seems to read pretty widely and so knows a lot of random things.)
- I have not listened to the full podcast yet, but John was a guest on Russell Howard's Wonderbox (May 2024) and YouTube provided some clips, including one where John talks about the Buddhism of golf and Russell does a spittake. Was not expecting John to be carrying crystals on him (from Lou, obviously), but I found the discussion with Russell Howard unexpectedly moving.
- Also, stashing this article about John and finances (Dec 2022), less because it's deeply fascinating and more because I don't think I'd be able to find it again. It does have some info I hadn't come across before about John's pre-bookshop job and how his single mother managed their finances and what he learned from that. The unlearning of saving at all costs and training yourself that it's OK to spend money on a hotel to spare yourself a stressful trip (even if the trip is theoretically possible) is definitely relatable. For me, this was something that having a partner who did not have that attitude helped me learn, and also having a steady source of income obviously helped. However it's coming about, I'm happy for John that he's coming around to being OK with spending money on himself (which he's mentioned on the radio show/podcast as well).
*
Fannish goals check-in. You know, it's been half a year, this seems like a good time for a status on all of them.
1. Poetry: done for the goals I set myself (3 of 3) out at the beginning of the year, a bunch of work left on new and follow-on goals.
1.1 Update my poetry website with all 2023 publications -- done (3 of 3).
1.2 Submit at least 10 poems somewhere -- UPDATE: done but continuing to keep track. Currently at 18. I submitted to another haiku contest in June, and to a dialogue contest/special issue in July.
1.3 Submit at least one chapbook (or micro-chap) length manuscript -- UPDATE: Done, and accepted, and now I'm keeping track of progress towards publication (targeting ??? -- we were targeting early June, but that has clearly come and gone). I finished my edits and filling out the form and submitted all that to the guy and then heard nothing in, uh, a month and a half. This sounds not terribly unusual for him, so I'm not too worried, since I'm not in a hurry and he's still publishing new titles it looks like, but I am starting to get annoyed. Although I'm also too busy to deal with this, so after sending him one reminder email, I haven't reached out again.
1.3b Publish a children's book -- no progress in the last couple of months, but we've done a lot of the prep wor and I think can still finish by end of year.
2. Fanworks: 2 of 3 done
2.1 Post at least one new thing to AO3 -- Done (the Sethra soaps fic :D)
2.2 Actually comment on AO3 -- UPDATE: I'm going to dount this as DONE, because I've been leaving a healthy amount of comments. On, uh, Taskmaster fic, which is actually kind of an accomplishment, because I don't think I'd ever commented on RPF before, and it took me a while to get past that block. But there are now a couple of writers in this fandom who do interesting things with characterization and dialogue, and so I have actual things to comment on.
2.3 Do at least one fandom meme -- UPDATE: In Progress. Now that I've dipped back into Tumblr, I found a Taskmaster ask meme that I'm going to try to do. I'm sure you're all thrilled to hear that.
3. Television & Movies --NOT STARTED (0 of 1)
3.1 Finish out a season of at least one TV show I'm mid-season on or where I'm an already completed season behind (list below) -- Not Started I've been feeling like getting back to POI, and White Collar (with reboot news for the latter). And at this point I could probably even count Taskmaster NZ s4 and live-action AtLA for this?
4. Reading -- Done (3 of 3, let's say)
4.1 Fix my reading logistics: Done (3/3, or 2/2)
4.1.1 Figure out and resolve the issue with my library card -- Done.
4.1.2 Figure out a sustainable e-Reader solution --Binned/Done, as my Kindle app started working again.
4.1.3 Figure out a way of posting about books that better suits my current reading pace -- UPDATE: I'm going to count this as DONE. I was waiting to make sure my current method was sustainable, but it's worked for 6 months and 10 posts, so I think that counts as sustained. It's not, like, a system, but I don't need it to be a system.
4.2 Read some stuff: Read at least 3 things that meet one or more of the categories below -- Done (5 things in 4 categories)
4.2.1 Read something from the "backburner" series where I'm still actively thinking "oh hey, I should catch up on that" -- Done, but continuing to keep track. Currently at 3 (RoL, Saga, Murderbot).
4.2.2 Finish something I've been stalled out on that makes me go "oh hey, I should finish that" when I scroll past it on my Kindle -- Done, with Winter's Gifts, the Kim Reynolds Rivers of London novella.
4.2.3.1 Read a book I own in paper copy (physical TBR pile) -- In Progress. I started Solutions and Other Problems and The Power Unbound, both of which would count for this, but have not been reading paper books lately.
4.2.3.2 Read a book I own in e-copy (book I bought or was gifted) -- Done (1 so far), but continuing to keep track. (A Taste of Gold and Iron)
4.2.4 Read a book in Russian -- UPDATE: In Progress. cafemassolit shared with me a Russian collection of Ashkenazi Jewish folktales (so far I've read just a bunch of the introduction).
4.2.5 Read a non-genre book (non-fiction counts for this) -- Done, but continuing to keep track (currently at 1= Bitch (nonfiction)).
5. Try new things: -- Done (1 of 1)
5.1 Read/watch at least 3 things from the updated "to try" list -- UPDATE: Done, but continuing to keep track. 5/3 complete. I finally got around to reading the Thursday Murder Club books. (Full list: Fire and Hemlock, Malka Older's Jupiter mysteries, Bitch, When the Angels Left the Old Country, Thursday Murder Club)
6. Sudoku -- 1 of 2
6.1 Learn how to solve a new sudoku type or a new trick -- UPDATE: done, but continuing to track new rulesets/tricks: currently at 52. I solved this puzzle, which sort of merges arrows and quads, in that the arrow's circle (blank) acts as the quad clue, which I found quite fun. There's a new "circuit lines" constraint, which I first tried in a CtC puzzle and couldn't finish, but then was able to solve this easier puzzle using the same constraints. And I solved this thermo pointers puzzle.
6.2 Solve at least one puzzle from CtC Greatest Hits vol 2 book -- NOT STARTED
7. Hugos -- Done (3 of 3)
7.1 Nominate for the Hugos -- done
7.2 Cast a Hugo ballot -- UPDATE: DONE. In that I've cast my ballot, figuring I wanted to get something in even though I still have a week until deadline. I voted in 13 categories (novel, novella, novelette, short story, series, GN, BDP-long, editor long and short, pro artist, fan writer, fan artist, and Astounding).
7.3 Read/watch at least 5 Hugo-nominated things I have not yet read (from any year and of any length -- Done, currently at 10/5: (GN 1 Bea Wulf; novelettes I AM AI, On the Fox Roads, One Man's Treasure, The Year Without Sunshine, Introduction to 2181 Overture Second Edition, Ivy Angelica Bay; short stories Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times, The Mausoleum Children, The Sound of Children Screaming,).
So that's a total of 13 out of 16 done so far, 81%.