Reading and watching roundup with Deadpool & Wolverine, + Hugos
On Sunday O and I (and cousin D, who joined us at the last minute) went to see Deadpool & Wolverine. Two movies in theaters in two months after 2.5 years of not going to a movie theater at all -- amazing XD The benefit of seeing a movie a month after it came out is that there were like 10 people in our theater, and at first nobody but us in our row, although halfway through these two people came in and sat next to cousin D for some unfathomable reason... And also there was a group of teens a couple of rows ahead of us, that I'm sure were not old enough to watch a R-rated movie unsupervised, and they were being annoying throughout the trailers and then once the movie started too, until the lady behind them told them off. Ugh, people.
We got 25 minutes of trailers (and interstitial ads), which is NUTS for a 2 hr movie. Let's see what we got -- Captain America: Brave New World (which, I miss Sam Wilson, but I'm not sure I want to see this movie -- it seems very talky), Mufasa (the more I see of it, the less I understand the storytelling choices), Beetlejuice (I liked the teaser; this is too Beetlejuice-y for me XD), the horror movie with James MacAvoy, and A Complete Unknown with I guess Timothy Chalamet as Bob Dylan? Oh, and something with Dave Bautista that really confused me because I was like, OK, that's Drax playing an assassin taking a hit out on himself when he gets a terminal diagnosis, and is that Mantis hunting him down? (yes, it's Mantis, the film is The Killer's Game). That might not even be all of them XD
OK, on to the movie itself. I had a really good time, and am glad I got to see it in theaters. I usually don't care about spoilers, but tried to remain relatively spoiler-free for this one, and mostly succeeded. I was spoiled for SPOILERS from here Chris Evans as Johnny Storm, but did not know anything beyond that he would be there. So I still got to enjoy the reveal of Chris Evans, and I did still think it was Cap at first (because he could be both), but Johnny Storm was the first role I saw Chris Evans in, and much as he grew on me as Cap, I still like Johnny better, I think, so that was a delight, even if mostly he was there to swear in the after-credits scene, and also to quickly disappear to spare the budget (which was one of my favorite 4th wall quips). Other cameos I did not know to expect. I've never watched Daredevil, so have no feelings about Elektra, ditto for Blade, though at least I know enough via cultural osmosis to recognize the line. I was very happy to see Dafne Keen back as Laura/X-23, as I had loved her in Logan; I did not think she was as impressive here, but I liked her putting on the shades. But my big cameo gasp was Gambit :D -- I was into X-Men based on the cartoon and the older movies, and Gambit was my second favorite after Magneto, so it was nice to get an MCU version of him (though he did make me wish for subtitles, lol, and also laugh at Deadpool's crack about the Minions' dialect coach). I hope this doesn't end up being his only MCU appearance... I did not recognize the guy playing Pyro as being the same person in the original movies, but I cheered for Azazel (he is just so over the top goofy XD) and laughed at Deadpool's Juggernaut crack, and generally enjoyed the X-Men-ness. And I had heard that Blake Lively was voicing Lady Deadpool (who had been spotted in the trailer), but not that Ryan Reynold's actual kids were voicing Kidpool and Babypool, aww! Oh, and the running gag with Deadpool waking up saying Thor's name also amused me throughout. (There was a bunch of comic book references/Easter Eggs too, I'm sure, but all of those went over my head.)
Besides cameos, the other thing I was looking out for was the 4th wall breaks. I already mentioned the Chris Evans one I liked best and a couple others, but my top favorite was the giant 20th Century Fox sign in the Void, against the backdrop of which the first Deadpool vs Wolverine fight happened. I enjoyed all the MCU/comic book movies/Disney gags, especially the "Will I MARVEL at how CINEMATIC" bit at the TVA and "Paul Rudd finally aged" at the giant Antman skull in the Void, enjoyed Deadpool promising Cavil's Wolverine MCU would treat him better than DC, and telling the worst Wolverine that he's joining the MCU at a low point. And I thought lampshading that the movie was picking up with Wolverine after the highlight that was Logan was a good idea and allowed me to enjoy the terrible OTT gore of the credits. And I giggled at the Gossip Girl reference. Something I missed completely until O pointed it out to me was that its songs from The Greatest Showman playing on the Odyssey stereo during the fight in the car (I did laugh at more overt Hugh Jackman singing references). Oh, and I had just been thinking "Are we doing Star Trek now?" when Deadpool locked the door on Wolverine, and then of course he referenced Spock and did the "live long and prosper" hand thing -- that was another highlight for me, and made me laugh at an otherwise tense moment -- I thought the movie was in general really good at mixing the funny with the poignant and heroic.
OK, actual plot and character and stuff. I was quite confused by where Deadpool starts off the movie. I had a hard time believing he and Vanessa would've broken up, and I did not remember Peter at all. And I'm not sure I followed the variant universes thing in general, but also I was not too worried about that, so whatever. I liked worst Wolverine's backstory and the way it is revealed in a third-act flashback. Xavier's twin sister was creepy, especially with the fingers thing. I don't really buy that trusting her not to kill them by telling her about Charles was a good strategy, but I guess they did not have a lot of other options. And I actually did think that it might end in the heroic sacrifice of at least one of the characters, although of course it's a lot funnier the way it played out in reality.
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I also managed to read some books.
19. Richard Osman, The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club 2) -- still enjoying this series, although I have less to say about the individual book, and I think I liked it less than either the first one or the third one. Ibrahim is my favorite in these books, so SPOILERS the inciting incident and how he struggled to recover from the mugging hit me hard, but I was heartwarmed by Murder Club, police, and the criminal element in the person of Bogdan acting as the avenging angels on his behalf. I'm also enjoying the addition of Connie Johnson and her crush on Bogdan, and especially the degree to which he is oblivious to it. Besides that, I was amused by Joyce's friendship bracelets, and continue to be moved by her complicated relationship with her daughter. Oh, and I'm enjoying the evolving Elizabeth and Joyce dynamic, where Joyce has impressive people skills of her own to bring to bear, even in situations where Elizabeth is the one in her element. Happy for Chris and Donna's mom, and the fakeout with someone coming to Patrice's door, narrated very tensely, got me good!
Quotes:
"[Ibrahim] is choosing to learn a lesson from Ron's chaotic freedom, from Joyce's joyful optimism and from the forensic wrecking ball that is Elizabeth."
"The twinkle [in Douglas's eye] you soon realize is actually the beam of a lighthouse, warning you off the rocks."
Elizabeth about Stephen's plan to wander aimlessly around Venice: "No, that's not romantic either, that's deeply inefficient."
Elizabeth: "Why this sudden wave of people who refused to be taken in by her casual brilliance and brusque efficiency?"
20. Richard Osman, The Bullet That Missed (Thursday Murder Club 3) -- This was really fun! Spoilers from here In this one, I really enjoyed Viktor the ex-KGB colonel and his how to win friends and influence people skills (except that Illych is not a plausible last name). The whole comedy resolution with the Viking being drugged by Joyce by means of patriarchal tea cup choice was very amusing, and I am appreciative of how the Thursday Murder Club just keep adopting more and more criminals. On that note, I also enjoyed Ibrahim and Connie's dynamic (and also Ibrahim asking Joyce for magazines advice of Connie, and Joanna's recommendation being spot on), although the thing about Connie writing the suicide note caught me by surprise. I look forward to seeing how their relationship evolves. Speaking of things that amused me, I was also tickled by Richard Osman getting to make fun of a game show, and of people moonlighting as mystery authors :) Also, Alan the dog is an excellent addition to the cast, and I especially like his relationship with Ibrahim. And also Ibrahim's relationship with Ron's grandson (even more so than in the previous book). I'm less certain how I feel about the Donna/Bogdan relationship; I am happy that they are happy, and was amused by Bogdan, especially, trying to keep it low profile, and also their respective choice of dates (LaserQuest and Nando's ("That children's birthday party didn't know what had hit them." "It's a good lesson for them. Fighting is mainly hiding. It's good to learn that early.") vs Polish film). Even less certain what I think about Ron and Pauline the makeup lady (especially as I did spend a part of the book suspecting Pauline of being involved in the nefarious things), but Ron with the massage was very funny. Stephen's deterioration continues to be really heartbreaking, with the way we get to see both the person Elizabeth fell in love with and the advancing tragedy of his present state; I also continue to really love Bogdan's relationship with Stephen and with Elizabeth -- I think that's the most emotionally resonant relationship in the books for me, for all that I really enjoy the friendship between Elizabeth & Joyce, Ron & Ibrahim, Donna and Chris, Joyce and Joanna's fraught parent-child relationship, etc.
Quotes:
It's much too long to quote, but I really enjoyed the whole scene that juxtaposes horrible things with Chris's rosy perceptions because he's in love: "The corpse in the driver's seat is, as yet, unidentified. Chris has never really thought about how beautiful the sea is before. His foot crunches the broken neck of a beer bottle. [...] Chris sees a used condom curled up in a seashell. Life is a miracle."
"you'd never kill Jack with a bullet, you'd have to use a bulldozer."
Joyce: "Have yoou ever been on television, Elizabeth?"
"I was once called to give evidence to the Defense Select Committee. But, legally, they had to blur my face. And I was once in a hostage video."
21. John Scalzi, Starter Villain -- I thought I would read it for Hugo homework, started it shortly after getting the packet and finishing up with short fiction, but if I was going to consume amusing, low-impact stuff, Taskmaster and YouTube videos seemed like the better bet, so I only got to ~5% by the Hugo deadline. Then I was in a no-WiFi, low speed data situation while on holiday, and this book was downloaded on my Kindle, and I had finished the Thursday Murder Club book I had available, so I went back to Starter Villain, and then finished it on the plane. It was fun enough, and the ending was a tiny bit more interesting than I had been expecting, but I doubt this was one of the 6 best SFF books of the year.
It was fine? It was fun, but kind of one note, like, I feel like there are 5 jokes and they are stretched the length of the novel -- spoilers cats are in management, the dolphins want to unionize, Til and Tobias the Stabber as violently bickering exes (I was thus completely unsurprised to learn that they were actually together), supervillain crack played straight (volcano lair for geothermal energy, how do you take over the world with a giant laser (satellites and mutually assured destruction as a subscription service), the cats are actually spies) -- these were clever, actually! but still essentially one joke -- and then the one joke that was localized and which I therefore enjoyed the most, which was the Pitch and Pitch, especially "testicles as a service". Beyond that, I found Charlie's everyman-among-supervillains schtick kinda meh; actually, when it looked like he was going to successfully outsmart the league of supervillains, I was getting shades of the Lego Movie and other franchises where the newcomer everyman ends up being the hero with the help of a more competent and informed woman who for some reason had to go and source this dude instead of dealing with things herself, as she seems eminently capable of doing. So the one genuine pleasant surprise of the book for me was the revelation that Charlie is not so much the Chosen One as a patsy -- that was very nicely played. Also nice to see that for once it's a stand-alone because the conclusion is not that Charlie is going to join the supervillain trade, but that, having destroyed the Convocation, Dobrev and Til-as-Uncle-Jake's-executor can now wind down the supervillains business. Because the book is basically a parody of supervillain tropes, I never got much of a sense of character from anyone, not Charlie with his tragic backstory, not even Til despite her being the sort of character I'm predisposed to like, and I think I only liked Dobrev because of his struggles with his (non-superintelligent and therefore intractable) cat.
This is basically a Netflix movie in book form, but as such not a bad way to pass the time on a transatlantic flight, so I'm glad it was sitting on my Kindle at the right time. (Last time I was in this situation I had to read A Psalm for the Wild-Built, and I'll happily take supervillain nonsense over that :P)
22. T.Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), Thornhedge -- I started it shortly after I got it as part of the Hugo voting packet, but the beginning wasn't grabbing me. Came back to it a couple of times with the same result, and it actually took being on a flight with nothing else to read to get me far enough along that I wanted to keep reading. Having read the whole thing, I liked it, but still think it was too long and under-edited (and, as much as I like Ursula Vernon and am happy for her to win bunches of Hugos, I didn't think this deserved the novella Hugo in its present form -- not in the sense that I would've put it under No Award -- definitely not! -- but in the sense that I thought both of the other nominated novellas I'd read (the Nghi Vo and the Malka Older) were more Hugo-worthy.
Things I liked about the novella: the greenteeth and glimpses of other parts of Faerie, like the hare goddess; Toadling in toad shape; SPOILERS Toadling's view of the king and queen (her biological parents); the role Toadling being the real child to Fayette's changeling plays -- I like changeling stories, and haven't seen that particular twist; a lot of the prose. Things I liked well enough but didn't think added anything really new or exciting: Halim the polite and awkward knight was nice but unremarkable; Fayette the creepy evil changeling child was very well done but not especially novel; the Sleeping Beauty subversion. On that final note, I kept thinking about how Vernon had already written a Sleeping Beauty subversion with Harriet in the Hamster Princess books (of which I'm obviously a fan), and here was a very different take -- and then Vernon mentioned in the Afterword that Toadling and Thornhedge came to her while she was writing the Harriet book. Of the two, while I enjoy both subversions, I prefer the hamster one, and definite Harriet as a protagonist. Frankly, while I found Toadling sympathetic, I also found her "oh no, I'm doing things wrong again :/" demeanor wearying. There seems to be a general trend towards smol, soft protagonist who are trying so hard, and while Toadling is a better take than many I've encountered, there's got to be something more interesting going on in order for me to actually vibe with them. The afterword, where Vernon talks about the story coming to her at the speed of typing, and I think that also probably explains why I found it under-edited and slow to get going.
Quotes:
Greenteeth: "Boy-children they eat, always. Girl-children they eat, mostly. But occasionally [...] one of them will be seized with some murky maternal instinct, and they will raise a child instead."
Halim: "I coudln't find a rabbi. Well, I did, but he wanted to come along because he'd never met a fairy, and I thought you wouldn't like that."
"She did not teach Fayette anything. She could sometimes trick her into learning by telling her that she was too young to understand."
"Toadling saw them as they were in that moment, two parents: one weak, one strong in the wrong places."
"It made no sense to her, that the queen with so much useless strength had simply given up. Perhaps she had come to the end of being strong."
re: Fayette maybe being able to fly: "she could not yet command the air, and it is... was... not in her nature to ask."
"The queen loved her and the nurse and I tried for years. [...] It should have mattered. All that love and all that trying should have changed... something..."
So, overall, that was nice enough, but neither Vernon/Kingfisher at her best nor the best novella of the year.
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Hugos happened while I was in Europe. I sometimes try to watch the ceremony live, but this time it was while we were at a place with no WiFi and I went to sleep before it got going anyway, and having seen quotes from some of the speeches, I don't think I'm going to bother catching up on the YouTube replay. But of course I still enjoy perusing the statistics anyway.
Novel -- I'm happy Some Desperate Glory won! I was voting for it by default, having not read any of the others, but I do think it's Hugo-worthy. In the end I read two of the nominees (SDG and Starter Villain, above) and tried and wasn't feeling two more (Witch King and Amina). Not surprised Starter Villain ended up in last place. Happy to see SDG led throughout. Saint of Bright Doors was the last thing to make the ballot, which does not surprise me, as that's the one I had not heard about at all before it showed up on the shortlist. Hiding in the long list, Annalee Newitz's The Terraformers, which I had heard very mixed things about, Naomi Alderman's The Future, He Who Drowned the World, The Water Outlaws by S.L.Huang, and something by Alix Harrow and T.J.Klune.
Novella -- I have now read 3 of the 4 English language nominees, though at the time of voting I'd only read two. I would rank those as Mammoths > Successes > Thornhedge -- I liked them all, but I thought Thornhedge was doing the least interesting thing of the three, and also was executed least impressively. The Hugo rankings were Thornhedge (won), Mammoths (2nd), Mimicking (4th). I'm not mad Thornhedge won, but it does feel like this is the Hugo machine doing its thing, with beloved authors amassing more and more wins. This is Vernon/Kingfisher's 5th Hugo, in 5 separate categories, impressively (GN, short story, novelette, novella, and novel though I know she isn't counting Nettle & Bone's win last year as a real win, plus she's won a Lodestar as well), and I'm happy for Ursula Vernon, whom I'm a fan of since hamster-pictures-on-LJ days, but I've been underwhelmed by her most recent wins (haven't read Nettle & Bone yet, though, hopefully that will be more whelming). ANYWAY, the Arkady Martine novella I chose to skip placed last of the English language ones, so I'll continue merrily skipping it. One of the Chinese-language novellas was actually leading until the final round, but eventually settled out in third. I wonder if there was a recommendation to vote for it for the Chinese voters? It did much, much better than the other Chinese-language nominee. Maybe i should give "Seeds of Mercury" a chance, anyway. Over in the longlist, Untethered Sky, a Wayward Children novella, The Crane Husband, a Tchaikovsky and a Suzanne Palmer that I hadn't heard about but should maybe check out, and three more Chinese language stories.
Novelette -- one of a couple of categories where I consumed and voted for every nominee. I ended up ranking On The Fox Roads just above The Year Without Sunshine, but it was a very close call for me, so I'm fairly pleased 'Sunshine' won. I don't understand how "On The Fox Roads" ended up in 4th -- I thought it was beautifully done, and Nghi Vo generally seems to do pretty well at the Hugos. But, in fairness, I stopped reading it the first time because the vibe wasn't speaking to me, and it was only on finishing the story that I loved it, so I guess that could explain it. "One Man's Treasure" (the Pinsker story) was 3rd for me, 2nd in the Hugos. "Ivy, Angelica, Bay" was 5th for me, 3rd for the Hugos. Besides On The Fox Roads, the deviation is "2181 Overture", the Chinese novelette I ranked 4th and Hugos last. What I had last, and I do mean last, below No Award, "I AM AI", came in 5th at the Hugos. Well, at least it's last of the English-language stories; I thought it was very weak and had nothing interesting to say. In the long list, there's a Chinese-language nominee who had gotten the most nominations but declined, below the cut-off are a Sarah Pinsker story ("Science Facts!"), Kelly Link's "Prince Hat Underground" which was on my nominating ballot, and a couple more Chinese language stories.
Short Story -- I skipped two of the stories, and the remaining ones I thought were a very weak field, so even the story I rated 1st ("Future Delicacy") was just mildly interesting; everything below that point actively annoyed me in some way XD "Delicacy" ended up coming in 5th XD -- both the Chinese language stories ended up on the bottom here. I did rank the winning story, Kritzer's "Better Living through Algorithms" second, but I hadn't liked it much. besides Kritzer's always pleasant to read prose. In second place for the Hugos is the P.Djeli Clark story I skipped after two attempts to get into it, then "Mausoleum's Children" (which I had below No Award, but I've accepted that the Hugo audience just sees something in Aliette de Bodard's work that I do not), then "The Sound of Children Screaming" (which I had in third, but, like, not as an endorsement). Over in the long list, John Wiswell and Yoon Ha Lee stories, and a bunch more Chinese language ones.
Best series -- Imperial Radch won that handily, as I expected (and it was top of my ballot, too). I had Freya's The Last Binding ranked second, because I quite liked book 1 and enjoyed the rest, and I think it's trying to do interesting things by blending an overarching series plot with individual romance arcs; it was last for Hugo voters. Second was Tchaikovsky's series which I did not rank because I haven't read it; I wonder if some of this is people trying to give him a series win after he won last year and then refused it after the scandal came out. Laundry files 3rd, Toby Daye 4th and Xuya 5th, which is also where I had those. I was hoping to see Dragaera on the long list, but no such luck :( But there's Craft Sequence, Singing Hills, Saint of Steel/White God, Murderbot, and Rivers of London, plus a second Seanan McGuire series XD
Graphic story -- Saga vol 11 won, and it's one of the two things on the ballot I read, but I definitely thought Bea Wulf was better, and that only came in 3rd. Saga only overtook the one Chinese language nominee, the 3BP GN, on the last round, and that finally settled out as 4th place -- so, similar to how it worked with novella. Over in the long list, Monstress vol8, something from Sarah Gailey, and something from Seanan McGuire (less than usual McGuire on the ballot this year...)
Related work -- I did not vote in this category, so have no horse in this race, but interesting to observe that the two Chinese language things had WAY more nominations than anything else, but ended up ranked 5th and 6th in the voting. What won was A City on Mars. Out in the long list, the Patrick Stewart autobiography, and the 2023 Hugo Censorship report that I'm pretty sure was not eligible (but that I fully expect will win next year, when it will be), and a few more Chinese language things. Also, still sad Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood declined nominaFon for their promotional tweets for This Is How You Lose the Time War; I haven't read the book, but that would've been hilarious XD
BDP-Long -- My unalloyed big cheer moment looking at the results was seeing that D&D:HAT had won! I did not expect that at all, though I had it at the top of my ballot, and it only overtook Spiderverse in the very last round, so it was a near thing -- but it was a delightful movie and I'm gad it was recognized (it also had the most nominations). So, Spider-verse in second, Barbie in third, Nimona (the only other thing I watched) in 4th, Poor Things, and finally the one Chinese Language nominee, Wandering Earth II. Over in the longlist, Godzilla Minus One (missed the ballot by 1 vote), Good Omens s2 (probably a good thing that nothing Gaiman-related was on the ballot this year), The Marvels, GotG 3, and a bunch of other things -- seems like a particularly rich category this year, with animated movies, live action franchise ones, series, even a couple indie movies.
BDP-Short -- Not watched any of these. The only one I know anything about, which was the Loki s2 finale, came in 3rd. And aww, there's an Owl House episode on the longlist; I should finish watching that at some point.
Game (new category this year) -- did not vote, no thoughts on any part of this.
Editor, short -- another win (come from behind) for Neil Clarke, yay! The Thomases in second place, Strahan (who was my pick for #2) in 3rd. Another situation where the two Chinese language editors got by far the most nominations but ended up 5th and 6th (this sort of pattern makes sense with the different nominating and voting populations).
Editor, long -- Ruoxi Chen won this one (I believe a second win for her), and I'm kind of annoyed, because she was the editor of Some Desperate Glory, and I feel very strongly that what made that book a very good book with some significant flaws and a truly great book was lack of editorial input. I mean, SDG won a Hugo, so I guess people liked it just fine as is, but I'm going to continue to be bugged by it. I don't have any thoughts on other nominees or where they placed. Interested that an editor declined a nomination though, huh.
Pro artist -- I had Alyssa Winans ranked 1st and Rovina Cai second, their positions ended up flipped, with Cai winning (come from behind). My feelings beyond that were less strong, but my last place was also Hugo's last place, and looks like I liked M.Alcaino more and Galen Dara quite a bit less than the Hgo-voting public. Over on the longlist, Tommy Arnold and John Picacio.
Semiprozine -- this was the result that shocked me -- Strange Horizons won, rather than Uncanny, which had won 7 of the previous 8 awards, from 2016 to 2023, the only blip being FIYAH winning in 2021. Strange Horizons beat Uncanny by 6 votes in the last round -- the closest result in the 2024 Hugos according to the stats packet. So it's Strange Horizons, Uncanny, FYIAH, Escape Pod, khoreo, and GigaNotoSaurus (I did not vote in this category, but am positively inclined towards the top 4, and just don't know the other two). In the longlist, Clarkseworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and towards the end a couple of smaller/newer magazines I've submitted to, which is kind of neat to see.
Fanzine -- did not vote this year so no thoughts, but this was a category with no Chinese language nominees on the ballot, but looks like one juuuust missed the cutoff.
Fancast -- my favorites have all finished or recused themselves, so I didn't vote in this category this year. The interesting things are on the nominations side. The two things that received the most nominations (before EPH magic) were Chinese-language things that were ruled ineligible because they were professional productions. The remaining eligible Chinese language thing ended up in last place. Hugo Girl! was next after the cutoff, but they have recused themselves, so just as well.
Fan writer -- unsurprisingly, Paul Weimer, who had bee dropped from the ballot last year for mysterious/random reasons, won this year, and good for him. I was voting based on writing rather than justice done, so my pick was Jason Sanford, who came in 2nd. Beyond that I didn't have any strong feelings.
Fan artist -- my 5th and 6th places match the Hugo voters, but my 1-2 are their 3-4 and vice versa, but this was not a category in which I had strong feelings.
Lodestar -- I ended up not reading any of the nominees, but am happy that To Shape a Dragon's Breath won. I should actually read it now XD Surprised Unraveller was 4th, but then it didn't really grab me either, when I tried it.
Astounding -- Xiran Jay Zhao won this handily, in their extended 3rd year of eligibility after being dropped from last year's ballot in the censorship shenanigans. I'm not surprised, but their writing did not grab me when I first tried Iron Widow, and their online behavior has annoyed me since, so I'm not super interested in trying again. But I'm glad they got their second shot. The only authors on the list I read were Ai Jiang and a little bit of Hannah Kaner's stuff included in the packet, and I was not impressed with either. Ai Jiang ended up tied for 3rd place and Kaner in 5th. Well, some years are stronger than others.
So, IDK. I'm happy about the BDP-Long win and editor short form win, happy but unsurprised about series win, and happy but a little conflicted about the novel win. Quite happy about novelette (it would've taken a tie to make me truly happy in that one) and pro artist. I'm reasonably happy about novella. Short story I'm at "could've been a lot worse". Not mad about GN. The closest I am to being mad is editor long form, and even that is just more of a semi-resigned sigh.
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I had a lot of Taskmaster to catch up on when I came home!
Taskmaster NZ s5 -- I binged the 6 episodes that had come out already (they're being released 2 a week) in the space of a couple of days, because this is indeed a fun bunch. Miraculously, I don't seem to have as much of a problem with Jeremy as in past NZ seasons (though there are still times when I think his scoring is nuts), so tht was a pleasant surprise. Abby is definitely the most memorable contestant, as I had gathered from Reddit, and besides her filmed tasks and her studio banter, which are both highlights, she is also definitely the most sartorially interesting of this lot (and has in some episodes been the only spot of bright color on stage) -- but I do also like Tom's approach to in studio outfits, with the different pins on the lapel of his black tie getup -- he looks very dapper. The contestant I'm rooting for, though, is Ben, who was my favorite from the first episode on, and I'm also enjoying his dynamic with both of the women (his stage neighbors), especially the sort of older-brother teasing with Abby. Someone on Reddit, in one of the early episode discussions, pointed out that this lineup is like a classic teen movie -- you've got the nerd (Abby), the jock (Ben), the theater kid (Tom), and the girl next door (Hayley), with Tofiga as their laid-back teacher -- in this case represented by a procession of substitute teachers -- and that actually does fit really well XD Also nice to see what a close series it's shaping up to be.
SPOILERS from here
Episode 1 -- first thoughts on contestants: I think Ben is my favorite as of the end of this episode, which I didn't really expect, but I thought his "worst cup" approach was the most interesting (even if Jeremy's inexplicable scoring only gave him one point; I have not missed Jeremy or his scoring XD), and while he did not win the "roof task" task, he was the one who actually relatively quickly figured out the trick -- Tofiga was not fooled by it at all, so there was nothing for him to figure out -- which was the most satisfying for me to watch (although Abby doing all of the ceiling tasks and narrowly avoiding high-fiving Paul by accident was also very entertaining, and it's always a fun time when a contestant accidentally completes the task and still doesn't know what happened, as happened with Hayley and Tom. Taskmaster Reddit being hugely into Abby was a big part of why I was eager to get to s5, and I do find her the second-most entertaining based on e1. I liked her very different take on the goal celebration task, and especially her just watching Paul try to score and disconcerting him into missing. It is very odd not to have the actual contestant in the studio right from the start, as is unfortunately the case with Tofiga; when Katy was missing for two episodes and subbed by Kerry and Katherine Ryan, I already had a very solid feel for what Katy herself was like; the only comparable substitution is Johnny Peacock missing the NYT, and that didn't feel like I got a full sense of him as a contestant either, which was sad. Reddit's theory is that since they've had a s1 contestant sub for him in e1-2 (Madeleine Sami, whom I was happy to see again), s2 for e3-4, s3 fo e5-6, that he will hopefully be around to represent himself by the last two episodes, which I hope is the case. I do like this vibe in the tasks; it is very chill. The roof task was my favorite of this episode. The goal celebration got a bit samey, although it was interesting to see how much more narrative most of these got than the TM UK goal celebrations. I somehow managed to forget the almond milk task, even though I do think it was a pretty great task, and would be happy to see it pop up on TM UK. The highlight, of course, was Tom ending the task without completing it by ringing the bell, and continuing to try to guess what the task was and complete it while Paul kept telling him, unheard, that he had stopped the clock. I enjoy tasks where the contestants are the architects of their own misery via an uninformed choice they made earlier, and this was a pretty good example, although I don't think eliminating the sense of touch was handled all that well, and there was a bit too much repetition in the choices people made. I also forgot what the live task was until I looked up the episode on the wiki, but Abby's perfect over-the-shoulder shoe toss was amazing! and with such a fabulous choice of shoes, too.
Based on this first episode, my sense is that Ben will be a strong contender (but probably underscored by Jeremy in subjective tasks), Tom will be the buttmonkey of the season, Abby will be the bimodal contestant who sometimes does excellent and sometimes terrible, and Tofiga seems to have the makings of the kind of contestant who will do well in subjective and maybe lateral thinking tasks but be too slow to do well in most objective tasks, kinda like Judi Love. I don't really have any strong feelings about Hayley; the only one where I found her performance memorable was in the goal celebration task (ripping her shirt and kissing "Paulina"), and that was actually my least favorite take personally.
Episode 2 -- Prize: "the secret of your success" - that's more like it! I would've given Tom's "kombucha" 5 points and Abby's autism 4, but the Titanic banter was really fun. (Ben seems to be emerging as the studio MVP in terms of eliciting banter, which I'm appreciative of.) I liked the idea of Hayley's (her mother nagging her) but found the execution lackluster, and agree with the low points for Ben's literal one (VHS) and the mortgage. Legally-not-Jenga task -- damn, Ben's tennis ball thing actually worked, holy shit! even Jeremy said that was possibly the greatest thing that had ever happened in the history of NZ. Totally beats both Joe W's potato throw and Chris Ramsey's maypole strike. (Abby: "Valhalla awaits.") Abby is hugely entertaining to watch as she goes about the tasks, I do get the Reddit love. Did Hayley actually perform the actions on the blocks she named? I assume she must have even though it wasn't shown, or that should've been a DQ. Mostly, though, what a weird choice to have the two lackluster-but-not-outright-disastrous attempts go second when they could've ended on Ben's tennis ball high... Relive the best moment task -- I was wondering why Ben was being left for last and then figured it out just before he said it. I don't agree with 1 point for him objectively, but that was the funniest thing to do and also he certainly took a gamble. But I really enjoyed his "lens" of the event, and was amused that Abby had correctly guessed Valhalla, basically, when talking about it the first time. Also, we get another "you don't even go here!" complaint a la Ed Gamble to Kerry, which was fun. I do agree that the two plays deserved the maximum points (even if I think Paul's singing was the MVP of Tom's), and Abby with her lion encore was adorable. Team task, yay! Team task with a SECRET MISSION, woo! Tom, sans secret mission, was demonstrably more excited than Abby, on the team of three (Abby: "What, do you think Captain Autism is going to make the situation LESS awkward?") Hayley's betrayed reaction was really strong, too, unmollified by Ben trying to claim that he would've done everything but the breakdancing and the streamer. After Jeremy assigns the 1-5 point split, Ben asks Abby, "Is this the first time you've not got an A?" Team task itself was reasonably fun, and it does seem like the team of 2 will be the sort of route 1 competent ones and team of 3 the creative band of misfits, but so far they've worked together quite well. Live task -- Madeline earning her keep with that jacket strategy, which was clearly the best way to go about blowing out the candle, since it was responsible for both first and second place. And it really did look like Abby was trying to use sorcery with her makeshift wand XD A second straight win for Abby! although that's how Steve Pemberton started, too, and he ended up in 3rd.
Episode 3 -- Jeremy's genuine anger at the very concept of jigsaw puzzles may be the first time I've actively enjoyed watching Jeremy score a task XD And I'm amused that Ben is still proud of being Head Boy and charmed by Abby's bullet journal. Hayley's fairly straightforward "my first period" kit was a good approach which clearly paid off (even though she couldn't beat Jeremy's ire at jigsaw puzzles). Marshmallow over-the-wall throw -- there's Jeremy's baffling scoring again, *sigh* I don't even agree that Abby should be disqualified for her reading of the task that split it into two separate actions. I liked the different approaches, and though Hayley's funnel was fine, but I guess I can see a little more of the reasoning of not considering what she, Ben, and Tom did "throwing" (would love to have seen this task with TM UK s15 and the resulting semantic discussion). It was hilarious that Abby missed the implications of the hole completely, came up with a hack, then struggled to just toss the marshmallow in her mouth anyway. Turning on a lamp -- Tofiga taking the Richard Osman approach, except that it wasn't actually FASTER, just less work for him personally, and a lot more work for Paul, which seems on brand. Ben did look like he was reeling in a marlin, heh. I did think the noise-activated lamp that Ben and Haley used was the way to go, but it looks like Tom and Abby's approach with the banker's lamp was probably actually the better one (Abby did take the longest with it, but she also spent a lot of time trying to turn on the lamp sexually, so). Trailer trailer -- OK, Ben absolutely deserved those 5 points, I thought that was the most-trailer-like, the only one that was actually ABOUT the trailer, and also was the most entertaining/funniest. (On the studio banter side, I'm left wondering if Ben was making a joke with "The Charge of the Light Brigade" or not; he seems like a history buff from -- bringing in later episodes, knowing the names of the Wright brothers and the lesson he chooses to teach Paul, that kind of thing.) I liked Tofiga's, but it felt more like the whole movie rather than just a trailer, but I do think 3 was about right, and I think I do agree with the low scores for Abby and Tom, though I wouldn't have given Hayley 4 points. Live task -- OK, that was chaos XD Them allowing black team to roll Abby in the chair so that she could knock off all the red chairs seems sliiiightly counter to the spirit of the game, but was definitely funny/exciting.
Episode 4 -- Prize task ("hmm, I don't know about that") -- I did think the starting ones were weak, but I loved Ben's weird motion sickness glasses and would've scored them higher. Not a fan of Hayley's "cuck chair" -- I think her humour just doesn't work as well for me as everyone else's on the panel, and as well as it clearly works for Jeremy, because I keep feeling like he quite consistently overscores her on subjective tasks. Ahaha the objects in order/planets task! Ben and Hayley just giving up and eating the candy bar in disgust was fun enough (and then Tofiga compounding that by not only eating the chocolate but also telling Paul off about taking him away from his kids to waste his time with this nonsense), but Abby getting adorably excited when she figured it out, aww! Jeremy saying "congratulations on the autism" and her answers, "It's an honor and a privilege" and Tom saying, "This makes me think I ought to get tested" and Paul replying, "That was the test" -- so good! Tower-building charades -- what a command performance from the Ben and Hayley team; clearly they did pick the right jobs and were fabulously in synergy. Sad that team of 3's tower collapsed near the end, but Abby's acting-out was also pretty great, and Tofiga's was creative at least (e.g. Longbottom). Teach Paul a lesson -- Jeremy seemed to change his scoring logic in the middle there, but I do actually agree with the order of points, but don't have a lot more to say about this task, other than that I enjoyed Tom's random collection of seagull facts. Live task (backpack drawing) -- that was fun! How that was a carrot from Matt Heath (covering for Tofiga) I don't know, and poor Abby with her Shetland pony, that was never going to be very guessable. And yay, an episode win for Ben!
Episode 5 -- oh yay, Josh as the sub for Tofiga! An NZ take on the "gift for another panelist" task, and I'm so amused that Tom, Abby, and Hayley all picked Ben as the recipient, but the most memorable by far is Hayley's "erotic fanfiction" about Ben. Now, we've had TM UK talk about Taskmaster/RPF fanfic plenty, but I think this is the first time it's participated in an actual task (unless you count the musical chairs storytime that Greg was reading out for a live task). (As of this writing, no Ben Hurley fanfic exists under the TM NZ tag, wonder if this task will change that.) And excellent ploy by Josh to bring in the s3 trophy for Hayley and earn the 5 points. Move Paul -- yeah, moving Paul emotionally was never going to be the winning strategy, too bad Tom and Abby. Hayley just driving him to her house and then staying there was hilarious -- for once I agree with the 5 points. Although I do think it might've been good to get this visit before the task where Paul impersonates her fiance. AHAHA Ben gets a solo task, and he is very angry about it XD That frisbee catch on the bike was pretty impressive, though! Egg catapult -- that is a serious catapult! Impressed with Ben's wig-wrapping + helmet shell and also his catch -- very cinematic, but slightly spoiled by the fact that Tom's much more haphazard approach, and then also Hayley and Tofiga, who just kind of wrapped it a bit, worked just as well. I'm glad Ben got a bonus point for catching it even though the task said nothing about that. Poor Abby with her ill-conceived decoy attempt! (P.S. I bet Josh is sad he didn't get to play around with this catapult.) New Year celebration/resolutions task -- don't have a ton to say about this one, although I enjoyed Abby's acting out of her resolutions (and agree she deserved 5 points) and Hayley's attempt to blackmail Urzila for $20 for Paul. Live task -- pinch, plunder, protect -- that was fun, though I'm not sure anyone was using any sort of strategy. And the first episode win for Hayley, who is in series lead -- seems really odd that she hasn't won before, but Abby had a lot of the wins -- and then some spectacular losses as well.
Episode 6 -- Prize task (best from far away) -- I think Ben was robbed (with his purchases of a star named "Ben gets 5 points") even if he did get the wrong constellation -- but it is really funny. Hayley's restraining order was also pretty funny, and the resulting "it's not A school, it's ALL schools" banter between Ben and Paul. Farted-on pillow is not really my sense of humour, but I was amused by the combination of potty humor and scientific mumbo-jumbo from Josh. A to Z of fashion -- Tom is really good at pattern recognition! Ben, to Abby: "Is this the first time you've been teased for NOT having autism?" (after Jeremy asks her what happened there), Abby, giggling: "Where are your autistic powers now, bitch?" Clearly she was just too distracted by the lure of X-Ray glasses and umbrella hat, though XD And poor Hayley, who managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory several times. Biopic task -- Ben seems to be really good at this Taskmaster short movie genre! Glad to see that Jeremy agrees -- a well deserved 5 points for him. Have to agree, good call, Tom, for deciding not to play Beyonce et al in his biopic, and the popsicle stick dolls + googly eyes approach was very cute. Abby's Phantom of the Opera sequel sitcom was very fun as well (though I guess it was the least biopic-y and Jeremy's 1 point logic makes sense for once). That was very impressive bulshitting from Tofiga, and I can't even quibble with the 4 points, and Hayley having to make a biopic about Paul Ego, whose family she's met many times and whose names she mostly couldn't remember, was a nightmare scenario, oops XD Anyway, considering how challenging this task was, I did think everyone had done great. Treasure map task -- Ben makes a great pirate, too bad the task had absolutely nothing to do with that XD Poor Abby, forcing herself to brave the lake even though she didn't have to, and score yet again for Tofiga's unwillingness to move. This was definitely a task I'd be happy to see with some other groups, although I do think it would not work in TM UK because I do think it was the presence of the lake that effectively served as a red herring. Live task (musical notes) was completely incomprehensible to me, since I'm tone deaf, but I'm glad Josh and Hayley knew what they were doing. Nice that Josh helped secure a win for Tofiga (I mean, the filmed tasks alone were nearly enough to do it, but the prize and live performance also helped).
At this point every contestant has won an episode, which is quite nice to have that be the case so early in the season. Wiki has series scores at 97 for Hayley, 93 for Ben, 90 for Tofiga, 87 for Tom, and 80 for Abby, and how the one person to win two episodes ended up in last place is slightly baffling to me, but that's a pretty close spread, first to last, and also Abby did come last in most of the other episodes, and next-to-last in the remaining one XD I'm guessing it's not super likely that Tofiga will have another episode win, although next two eps he's represented by Bubba, who came in second in her series and looks like tends to do better-than-average on prize tasks (though not as well as Josh, and pretty badly on live ones, unlike Josh, who dominated them. So I think 3rd or 4th is the likely outcome for Tofiga, and the real competition for the win is between Ben and Hayley. I expect Abby will have a comeback of some kind, but I don't think it's going to be enough to overcome a 17 point gap in 4 episodes, not as inconsistent as she is.
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This is probably also as good a time as any to write up the last episode of Taskmaster Oz s2, which I watched before my holiday. Tasks-wise, I did think it was a great episode of a very fun series, but as a season finale I have some reservations about it, which are spoilery, so I will get into them under the cut. SPOILERS from here I loved many of the tasks -- the childhood dream job was so good, with the highlight being Wil actually doing a GREAT sketch, paying off a full season of G.Tom mocking him about it ("I don't have feet" made me burst out loud laughing), but Lloyd's take on acting range was also great (his porn film bit made me laugh a lot), and Jenny's chaotic medical school and Anne's scary teacher were fun, and Josh's... featured a cute dog. The "most unco catch" short/bonus task was such a fun little amuse bouche, and L.Tom's protracted fumbling with Wil's especially was great fun to watch. And then, of course, there was the amazing collaborative short film, which I would be happy to see reprised on other series. Everyone making fun of Lloyd's script XD Jenny with the heroic training montage! Wil's villain who was not so much scenery-chewing and scenery-obliterating! Anne's impressive vocals and Josh's INCREDIBLE sound work -- like, that was genuinely so good, only to be offset by the lone "boing!" So that's two absolutely stellar full tasks and a little bonus. The "avoid being papped by Tom" filmed task was pretty boring, though, and I'm honestly not very sure why it was included -- even the 5 point attempt from Anne was just kind of meh. It is the only objective task in this episode, and it's one that Anne wins and Lloyd does badly on, which not for the first time made me wonder if there was an attempt to steer things towards a series tie between Anne and Lloyd, or at least an effort to keep it close / keep the tension.
There were several times Lloyd was singled out throughout the series -- the parsnip task he accidentally set for the others, the quiz, the "stay close to your team mates" secret task, but there are TWO tasks in which Lloyd is singled out in this one -- the prize task is "something that Lloyd has never heard of" (and Tom sets Lloyd's prize at 3, so I guess he was never going to win that one), and the live task where Lloyd has to build with fruit vs marshmallows, which ends up being a massive advantage. But it makes me wonder, if Lloyd were leading rather than trailing going into the live task, whether he would've just been presented with an empty jar, instead of the decision to count the fruit as equivalent to marshmallows. Don't get me wrong, I thought Josh choosing to settle some scores with G.Tom via a made-up character, Jenny messing up Lloyd's marital status and also not recognizing Wil's bear character, and especially Anne's shorts and resulting discussion of "outside shorts" was quite funny, but it did seem like it was very likely that Anne would win that task. Reddit pointed out that a lot of Lloyd being singled out has to be an artifact of him filming his tasks first -- setting the quiz, writing the script, the parsnip challenge -- or self-inflicted difference with the fruit, and that's true, but some of the others is just him being singled out (secret task, last prize task), as well as just the decision to incude "unequal" tasks to a greater degree than in any series I can think of. Anyway, between that, Anne improbably catching up and then being in the lead, and the way the show kept playing up them being a couple, it really did feel like the series tie was engineered rather than organic. Now, easiest way to do that would've been to have a subjective task for a live task, and they didn't, so maybe this is all conspiracy theories, but IDK, it felt less "authentic" and so I enjoyed it less. And the series tie-breaker was pretty anticlimactic (which might be another argument in favor of they didn't really plan it, but IDK...)
I'm pleased Lloyd won! Wil was my favorite, but Lloyd ended up being a close second and did well and was adorable throughout. Wil should absolutely have had second place, I think, with more equitable scoring, but I did like the "one final good sketch" arc, and the way the other contestants clearly viewed him as a yardstick of competence. And Jenny did not come last, and I feel like her movie performance redeemed her for past drastic failures a bit. And Josh did come last, but the movie task was an amazing high note to end on, and he got to have something of a last word via hiz prize task. Anne did have some tasks that I really enjoyed (the Gary jingle, e.g.) but she ended up as my least favorite out of this bunch because I did feel she was getting overscored (compared to my other bottom favorite, Josh, who settled out at about the right level XD)
One of my favorite consequences of Lloyd winning is the resurfacing of this photograph of "three Taskmaster champions... and James Acaster", from that time Ed Gamble, John Robins, James, and Lloyd Langford ended up stranded in NYC. My favorite comment/explanation is "I think James had already filmed his tasks at this point, and was therefore unaffected by the NYC/ TM magic that was about to occur..."
Over in TM UK land, I'm hearing TM is due to come back Sept 12 (not sure where that date is from, but someone posted it on the Elis & John Facebook group, but meanwhile a couple of short extra things have been released. The Story of Patatas the cat -- I was intrigued to learn why he is called Patatas; it is because spoiler he was first introduced in series 2, which had a lot of potato-based tasks, and an art theme based on Dali, thus the Spanish. And two new Ultimate episodes, for Phil Wang (yay!) and (*sigh*) John Kearns. Phil (what is it with ill-advised mustaches for formerly clean-shaven contestants, Ed?) talked about the first team task (where Rhod and James spent the entire intro talking about his outfit/dick and balls) as being like the moment when Eve ate the apple, because he suddenly knew shame. In addition to the prize task that had the first appearance of the haggling joke, the sausage of finger live task, and the first team task, Phil also chose the "make the best noise " (mlem mlem mlem) one that he won, and, to my delight, the OLLIE/weight task, which remains my favorite Phil task solution and one of my favorite task solutions in all of TM, and I share his every outraged sentiment about it. Kearns's prize task was the sailor hat (Greg calls him a prick), his live task was the animal charades (Vee! Vee!), and the others were the spoiler! sabotage sand task (Dara is convinced he's an idiot), snort-raspberry-whistle (he can't whistle), laminated signs location task (the WINGDINGS XD) -- so a collection of things he was terrible at, including the sabotage even if he did get 5 points for that. I wonder if a Nick one is coming up, because he tweeted a picture of himself back at the Taskmaster house. And then there was part 2 of Askmaster with the Andys, which included a timelapse of the studio being set up, where they are with the various series (18 handed in, 19 tasks filmed and in editing but pre-studio, and 20 cast decisions made; and on the non-main series front, TM Junior handed in and will be shown later this year -- I guess after s18 runs its course? or in parallel?), and that most of NYT 2025 folks identified and that being the next to start filming)
We got 25 minutes of trailers (and interstitial ads), which is NUTS for a 2 hr movie. Let's see what we got -- Captain America: Brave New World (which, I miss Sam Wilson, but I'm not sure I want to see this movie -- it seems very talky), Mufasa (the more I see of it, the less I understand the storytelling choices), Beetlejuice (I liked the teaser; this is too Beetlejuice-y for me XD), the horror movie with James MacAvoy, and A Complete Unknown with I guess Timothy Chalamet as Bob Dylan? Oh, and something with Dave Bautista that really confused me because I was like, OK, that's Drax playing an assassin taking a hit out on himself when he gets a terminal diagnosis, and is that Mantis hunting him down? (yes, it's Mantis, the film is The Killer's Game). That might not even be all of them XD
OK, on to the movie itself. I had a really good time, and am glad I got to see it in theaters. I usually don't care about spoilers, but tried to remain relatively spoiler-free for this one, and mostly succeeded. I was spoiled for SPOILERS from here Chris Evans as Johnny Storm, but did not know anything beyond that he would be there. So I still got to enjoy the reveal of Chris Evans, and I did still think it was Cap at first (because he could be both), but Johnny Storm was the first role I saw Chris Evans in, and much as he grew on me as Cap, I still like Johnny better, I think, so that was a delight, even if mostly he was there to swear in the after-credits scene, and also to quickly disappear to spare the budget (which was one of my favorite 4th wall quips). Other cameos I did not know to expect. I've never watched Daredevil, so have no feelings about Elektra, ditto for Blade, though at least I know enough via cultural osmosis to recognize the line. I was very happy to see Dafne Keen back as Laura/X-23, as I had loved her in Logan; I did not think she was as impressive here, but I liked her putting on the shades. But my big cameo gasp was Gambit :D -- I was into X-Men based on the cartoon and the older movies, and Gambit was my second favorite after Magneto, so it was nice to get an MCU version of him (though he did make me wish for subtitles, lol, and also laugh at Deadpool's crack about the Minions' dialect coach). I hope this doesn't end up being his only MCU appearance... I did not recognize the guy playing Pyro as being the same person in the original movies, but I cheered for Azazel (he is just so over the top goofy XD) and laughed at Deadpool's Juggernaut crack, and generally enjoyed the X-Men-ness. And I had heard that Blake Lively was voicing Lady Deadpool (who had been spotted in the trailer), but not that Ryan Reynold's actual kids were voicing Kidpool and Babypool, aww! Oh, and the running gag with Deadpool waking up saying Thor's name also amused me throughout. (There was a bunch of comic book references/Easter Eggs too, I'm sure, but all of those went over my head.)
Besides cameos, the other thing I was looking out for was the 4th wall breaks. I already mentioned the Chris Evans one I liked best and a couple others, but my top favorite was the giant 20th Century Fox sign in the Void, against the backdrop of which the first Deadpool vs Wolverine fight happened. I enjoyed all the MCU/comic book movies/Disney gags, especially the "Will I MARVEL at how CINEMATIC" bit at the TVA and "Paul Rudd finally aged" at the giant Antman skull in the Void, enjoyed Deadpool promising Cavil's Wolverine MCU would treat him better than DC, and telling the worst Wolverine that he's joining the MCU at a low point. And I thought lampshading that the movie was picking up with Wolverine after the highlight that was Logan was a good idea and allowed me to enjoy the terrible OTT gore of the credits. And I giggled at the Gossip Girl reference. Something I missed completely until O pointed it out to me was that its songs from The Greatest Showman playing on the Odyssey stereo during the fight in the car (I did laugh at more overt Hugh Jackman singing references). Oh, and I had just been thinking "Are we doing Star Trek now?" when Deadpool locked the door on Wolverine, and then of course he referenced Spock and did the "live long and prosper" hand thing -- that was another highlight for me, and made me laugh at an otherwise tense moment -- I thought the movie was in general really good at mixing the funny with the poignant and heroic.
OK, actual plot and character and stuff. I was quite confused by where Deadpool starts off the movie. I had a hard time believing he and Vanessa would've broken up, and I did not remember Peter at all. And I'm not sure I followed the variant universes thing in general, but also I was not too worried about that, so whatever. I liked worst Wolverine's backstory and the way it is revealed in a third-act flashback. Xavier's twin sister was creepy, especially with the fingers thing. I don't really buy that trusting her not to kill them by telling her about Charles was a good strategy, but I guess they did not have a lot of other options. And I actually did think that it might end in the heroic sacrifice of at least one of the characters, although of course it's a lot funnier the way it played out in reality.
*
I also managed to read some books.
19. Richard Osman, The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club 2) -- still enjoying this series, although I have less to say about the individual book, and I think I liked it less than either the first one or the third one. Ibrahim is my favorite in these books, so SPOILERS the inciting incident and how he struggled to recover from the mugging hit me hard, but I was heartwarmed by Murder Club, police, and the criminal element in the person of Bogdan acting as the avenging angels on his behalf. I'm also enjoying the addition of Connie Johnson and her crush on Bogdan, and especially the degree to which he is oblivious to it. Besides that, I was amused by Joyce's friendship bracelets, and continue to be moved by her complicated relationship with her daughter. Oh, and I'm enjoying the evolving Elizabeth and Joyce dynamic, where Joyce has impressive people skills of her own to bring to bear, even in situations where Elizabeth is the one in her element. Happy for Chris and Donna's mom, and the fakeout with someone coming to Patrice's door, narrated very tensely, got me good!
Quotes:
"[Ibrahim] is choosing to learn a lesson from Ron's chaotic freedom, from Joyce's joyful optimism and from the forensic wrecking ball that is Elizabeth."
"The twinkle [in Douglas's eye] you soon realize is actually the beam of a lighthouse, warning you off the rocks."
Elizabeth about Stephen's plan to wander aimlessly around Venice: "No, that's not romantic either, that's deeply inefficient."
Elizabeth: "Why this sudden wave of people who refused to be taken in by her casual brilliance and brusque efficiency?"
20. Richard Osman, The Bullet That Missed (Thursday Murder Club 3) -- This was really fun! Spoilers from here In this one, I really enjoyed Viktor the ex-KGB colonel and his how to win friends and influence people skills (except that Illych is not a plausible last name). The whole comedy resolution with the Viking being drugged by Joyce by means of patriarchal tea cup choice was very amusing, and I am appreciative of how the Thursday Murder Club just keep adopting more and more criminals. On that note, I also enjoyed Ibrahim and Connie's dynamic (and also Ibrahim asking Joyce for magazines advice of Connie, and Joanna's recommendation being spot on), although the thing about Connie writing the suicide note caught me by surprise. I look forward to seeing how their relationship evolves. Speaking of things that amused me, I was also tickled by Richard Osman getting to make fun of a game show, and of people moonlighting as mystery authors :) Also, Alan the dog is an excellent addition to the cast, and I especially like his relationship with Ibrahim. And also Ibrahim's relationship with Ron's grandson (even more so than in the previous book). I'm less certain how I feel about the Donna/Bogdan relationship; I am happy that they are happy, and was amused by Bogdan, especially, trying to keep it low profile, and also their respective choice of dates (LaserQuest and Nando's ("That children's birthday party didn't know what had hit them." "It's a good lesson for them. Fighting is mainly hiding. It's good to learn that early.") vs Polish film). Even less certain what I think about Ron and Pauline the makeup lady (especially as I did spend a part of the book suspecting Pauline of being involved in the nefarious things), but Ron with the massage was very funny. Stephen's deterioration continues to be really heartbreaking, with the way we get to see both the person Elizabeth fell in love with and the advancing tragedy of his present state; I also continue to really love Bogdan's relationship with Stephen and with Elizabeth -- I think that's the most emotionally resonant relationship in the books for me, for all that I really enjoy the friendship between Elizabeth & Joyce, Ron & Ibrahim, Donna and Chris, Joyce and Joanna's fraught parent-child relationship, etc.
Quotes:
It's much too long to quote, but I really enjoyed the whole scene that juxtaposes horrible things with Chris's rosy perceptions because he's in love: "The corpse in the driver's seat is, as yet, unidentified. Chris has never really thought about how beautiful the sea is before. His foot crunches the broken neck of a beer bottle. [...] Chris sees a used condom curled up in a seashell. Life is a miracle."
"you'd never kill Jack with a bullet, you'd have to use a bulldozer."
Joyce: "Have yoou ever been on television, Elizabeth?"
"I was once called to give evidence to the Defense Select Committee. But, legally, they had to blur my face. And I was once in a hostage video."
21. John Scalzi, Starter Villain -- I thought I would read it for Hugo homework, started it shortly after getting the packet and finishing up with short fiction, but if I was going to consume amusing, low-impact stuff, Taskmaster and YouTube videos seemed like the better bet, so I only got to ~5% by the Hugo deadline. Then I was in a no-WiFi, low speed data situation while on holiday, and this book was downloaded on my Kindle, and I had finished the Thursday Murder Club book I had available, so I went back to Starter Villain, and then finished it on the plane. It was fun enough, and the ending was a tiny bit more interesting than I had been expecting, but I doubt this was one of the 6 best SFF books of the year.
It was fine? It was fun, but kind of one note, like, I feel like there are 5 jokes and they are stretched the length of the novel -- spoilers cats are in management, the dolphins want to unionize, Til and Tobias the Stabber as violently bickering exes (I was thus completely unsurprised to learn that they were actually together), supervillain crack played straight (volcano lair for geothermal energy, how do you take over the world with a giant laser (satellites and mutually assured destruction as a subscription service), the cats are actually spies) -- these were clever, actually! but still essentially one joke -- and then the one joke that was localized and which I therefore enjoyed the most, which was the Pitch and Pitch, especially "testicles as a service". Beyond that, I found Charlie's everyman-among-supervillains schtick kinda meh; actually, when it looked like he was going to successfully outsmart the league of supervillains, I was getting shades of the Lego Movie and other franchises where the newcomer everyman ends up being the hero with the help of a more competent and informed woman who for some reason had to go and source this dude instead of dealing with things herself, as she seems eminently capable of doing. So the one genuine pleasant surprise of the book for me was the revelation that Charlie is not so much the Chosen One as a patsy -- that was very nicely played. Also nice to see that for once it's a stand-alone because the conclusion is not that Charlie is going to join the supervillain trade, but that, having destroyed the Convocation, Dobrev and Til-as-Uncle-Jake's-executor can now wind down the supervillains business. Because the book is basically a parody of supervillain tropes, I never got much of a sense of character from anyone, not Charlie with his tragic backstory, not even Til despite her being the sort of character I'm predisposed to like, and I think I only liked Dobrev because of his struggles with his (non-superintelligent and therefore intractable) cat.
This is basically a Netflix movie in book form, but as such not a bad way to pass the time on a transatlantic flight, so I'm glad it was sitting on my Kindle at the right time. (Last time I was in this situation I had to read A Psalm for the Wild-Built, and I'll happily take supervillain nonsense over that :P)
22. T.Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), Thornhedge -- I started it shortly after I got it as part of the Hugo voting packet, but the beginning wasn't grabbing me. Came back to it a couple of times with the same result, and it actually took being on a flight with nothing else to read to get me far enough along that I wanted to keep reading. Having read the whole thing, I liked it, but still think it was too long and under-edited (and, as much as I like Ursula Vernon and am happy for her to win bunches of Hugos, I didn't think this deserved the novella Hugo in its present form -- not in the sense that I would've put it under No Award -- definitely not! -- but in the sense that I thought both of the other nominated novellas I'd read (the Nghi Vo and the Malka Older) were more Hugo-worthy.
Things I liked about the novella: the greenteeth and glimpses of other parts of Faerie, like the hare goddess; Toadling in toad shape; SPOILERS Toadling's view of the king and queen (her biological parents); the role Toadling being the real child to Fayette's changeling plays -- I like changeling stories, and haven't seen that particular twist; a lot of the prose. Things I liked well enough but didn't think added anything really new or exciting: Halim the polite and awkward knight was nice but unremarkable; Fayette the creepy evil changeling child was very well done but not especially novel; the Sleeping Beauty subversion. On that final note, I kept thinking about how Vernon had already written a Sleeping Beauty subversion with Harriet in the Hamster Princess books (of which I'm obviously a fan), and here was a very different take -- and then Vernon mentioned in the Afterword that Toadling and Thornhedge came to her while she was writing the Harriet book. Of the two, while I enjoy both subversions, I prefer the hamster one, and definite Harriet as a protagonist. Frankly, while I found Toadling sympathetic, I also found her "oh no, I'm doing things wrong again :/" demeanor wearying. There seems to be a general trend towards smol, soft protagonist who are trying so hard, and while Toadling is a better take than many I've encountered, there's got to be something more interesting going on in order for me to actually vibe with them. The afterword, where Vernon talks about the story coming to her at the speed of typing, and I think that also probably explains why I found it under-edited and slow to get going.
Quotes:
Greenteeth: "Boy-children they eat, always. Girl-children they eat, mostly. But occasionally [...] one of them will be seized with some murky maternal instinct, and they will raise a child instead."
Halim: "I coudln't find a rabbi. Well, I did, but he wanted to come along because he'd never met a fairy, and I thought you wouldn't like that."
"She did not teach Fayette anything. She could sometimes trick her into learning by telling her that she was too young to understand."
"Toadling saw them as they were in that moment, two parents: one weak, one strong in the wrong places."
"It made no sense to her, that the queen with so much useless strength had simply given up. Perhaps she had come to the end of being strong."
re: Fayette maybe being able to fly: "she could not yet command the air, and it is... was... not in her nature to ask."
"The queen loved her and the nurse and I tried for years. [...] It should have mattered. All that love and all that trying should have changed... something..."
So, overall, that was nice enough, but neither Vernon/Kingfisher at her best nor the best novella of the year.
*
Hugos happened while I was in Europe. I sometimes try to watch the ceremony live, but this time it was while we were at a place with no WiFi and I went to sleep before it got going anyway, and having seen quotes from some of the speeches, I don't think I'm going to bother catching up on the YouTube replay. But of course I still enjoy perusing the statistics anyway.
Novel -- I'm happy Some Desperate Glory won! I was voting for it by default, having not read any of the others, but I do think it's Hugo-worthy. In the end I read two of the nominees (SDG and Starter Villain, above) and tried and wasn't feeling two more (Witch King and Amina). Not surprised Starter Villain ended up in last place. Happy to see SDG led throughout. Saint of Bright Doors was the last thing to make the ballot, which does not surprise me, as that's the one I had not heard about at all before it showed up on the shortlist. Hiding in the long list, Annalee Newitz's The Terraformers, which I had heard very mixed things about, Naomi Alderman's The Future, He Who Drowned the World, The Water Outlaws by S.L.Huang, and something by Alix Harrow and T.J.Klune.
Novella -- I have now read 3 of the 4 English language nominees, though at the time of voting I'd only read two. I would rank those as Mammoths > Successes > Thornhedge -- I liked them all, but I thought Thornhedge was doing the least interesting thing of the three, and also was executed least impressively. The Hugo rankings were Thornhedge (won), Mammoths (2nd), Mimicking (4th). I'm not mad Thornhedge won, but it does feel like this is the Hugo machine doing its thing, with beloved authors amassing more and more wins. This is Vernon/Kingfisher's 5th Hugo, in 5 separate categories, impressively (GN, short story, novelette, novella, and novel though I know she isn't counting Nettle & Bone's win last year as a real win, plus she's won a Lodestar as well), and I'm happy for Ursula Vernon, whom I'm a fan of since hamster-pictures-on-LJ days, but I've been underwhelmed by her most recent wins (haven't read Nettle & Bone yet, though, hopefully that will be more whelming). ANYWAY, the Arkady Martine novella I chose to skip placed last of the English language ones, so I'll continue merrily skipping it. One of the Chinese-language novellas was actually leading until the final round, but eventually settled out in third. I wonder if there was a recommendation to vote for it for the Chinese voters? It did much, much better than the other Chinese-language nominee. Maybe i should give "Seeds of Mercury" a chance, anyway. Over in the longlist, Untethered Sky, a Wayward Children novella, The Crane Husband, a Tchaikovsky and a Suzanne Palmer that I hadn't heard about but should maybe check out, and three more Chinese language stories.
Novelette -- one of a couple of categories where I consumed and voted for every nominee. I ended up ranking On The Fox Roads just above The Year Without Sunshine, but it was a very close call for me, so I'm fairly pleased 'Sunshine' won. I don't understand how "On The Fox Roads" ended up in 4th -- I thought it was beautifully done, and Nghi Vo generally seems to do pretty well at the Hugos. But, in fairness, I stopped reading it the first time because the vibe wasn't speaking to me, and it was only on finishing the story that I loved it, so I guess that could explain it. "One Man's Treasure" (the Pinsker story) was 3rd for me, 2nd in the Hugos. "Ivy, Angelica, Bay" was 5th for me, 3rd for the Hugos. Besides On The Fox Roads, the deviation is "2181 Overture", the Chinese novelette I ranked 4th and Hugos last. What I had last, and I do mean last, below No Award, "I AM AI", came in 5th at the Hugos. Well, at least it's last of the English-language stories; I thought it was very weak and had nothing interesting to say. In the long list, there's a Chinese-language nominee who had gotten the most nominations but declined, below the cut-off are a Sarah Pinsker story ("Science Facts!"), Kelly Link's "Prince Hat Underground" which was on my nominating ballot, and a couple more Chinese language stories.
Short Story -- I skipped two of the stories, and the remaining ones I thought were a very weak field, so even the story I rated 1st ("Future Delicacy") was just mildly interesting; everything below that point actively annoyed me in some way XD "Delicacy" ended up coming in 5th XD -- both the Chinese language stories ended up on the bottom here. I did rank the winning story, Kritzer's "Better Living through Algorithms" second, but I hadn't liked it much. besides Kritzer's always pleasant to read prose. In second place for the Hugos is the P.Djeli Clark story I skipped after two attempts to get into it, then "Mausoleum's Children" (which I had below No Award, but I've accepted that the Hugo audience just sees something in Aliette de Bodard's work that I do not), then "The Sound of Children Screaming" (which I had in third, but, like, not as an endorsement). Over in the long list, John Wiswell and Yoon Ha Lee stories, and a bunch more Chinese language ones.
Best series -- Imperial Radch won that handily, as I expected (and it was top of my ballot, too). I had Freya's The Last Binding ranked second, because I quite liked book 1 and enjoyed the rest, and I think it's trying to do interesting things by blending an overarching series plot with individual romance arcs; it was last for Hugo voters. Second was Tchaikovsky's series which I did not rank because I haven't read it; I wonder if some of this is people trying to give him a series win after he won last year and then refused it after the scandal came out. Laundry files 3rd, Toby Daye 4th and Xuya 5th, which is also where I had those. I was hoping to see Dragaera on the long list, but no such luck :( But there's Craft Sequence, Singing Hills, Saint of Steel/White God, Murderbot, and Rivers of London, plus a second Seanan McGuire series XD
Graphic story -- Saga vol 11 won, and it's one of the two things on the ballot I read, but I definitely thought Bea Wulf was better, and that only came in 3rd. Saga only overtook the one Chinese language nominee, the 3BP GN, on the last round, and that finally settled out as 4th place -- so, similar to how it worked with novella. Over in the long list, Monstress vol8, something from Sarah Gailey, and something from Seanan McGuire (less than usual McGuire on the ballot this year...)
Related work -- I did not vote in this category, so have no horse in this race, but interesting to observe that the two Chinese language things had WAY more nominations than anything else, but ended up ranked 5th and 6th in the voting. What won was A City on Mars. Out in the long list, the Patrick Stewart autobiography, and the 2023 Hugo Censorship report that I'm pretty sure was not eligible (but that I fully expect will win next year, when it will be), and a few more Chinese language things. Also, still sad Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood declined nominaFon for their promotional tweets for This Is How You Lose the Time War; I haven't read the book, but that would've been hilarious XD
BDP-Long -- My unalloyed big cheer moment looking at the results was seeing that D&D:HAT had won! I did not expect that at all, though I had it at the top of my ballot, and it only overtook Spiderverse in the very last round, so it was a near thing -- but it was a delightful movie and I'm gad it was recognized (it also had the most nominations). So, Spider-verse in second, Barbie in third, Nimona (the only other thing I watched) in 4th, Poor Things, and finally the one Chinese Language nominee, Wandering Earth II. Over in the longlist, Godzilla Minus One (missed the ballot by 1 vote), Good Omens s2 (probably a good thing that nothing Gaiman-related was on the ballot this year), The Marvels, GotG 3, and a bunch of other things -- seems like a particularly rich category this year, with animated movies, live action franchise ones, series, even a couple indie movies.
BDP-Short -- Not watched any of these. The only one I know anything about, which was the Loki s2 finale, came in 3rd. And aww, there's an Owl House episode on the longlist; I should finish watching that at some point.
Game (new category this year) -- did not vote, no thoughts on any part of this.
Editor, short -- another win (come from behind) for Neil Clarke, yay! The Thomases in second place, Strahan (who was my pick for #2) in 3rd. Another situation where the two Chinese language editors got by far the most nominations but ended up 5th and 6th (this sort of pattern makes sense with the different nominating and voting populations).
Editor, long -- Ruoxi Chen won this one (I believe a second win for her), and I'm kind of annoyed, because she was the editor of Some Desperate Glory, and I feel very strongly that what made that book a very good book with some significant flaws and a truly great book was lack of editorial input. I mean, SDG won a Hugo, so I guess people liked it just fine as is, but I'm going to continue to be bugged by it. I don't have any thoughts on other nominees or where they placed. Interested that an editor declined a nomination though, huh.
Pro artist -- I had Alyssa Winans ranked 1st and Rovina Cai second, their positions ended up flipped, with Cai winning (come from behind). My feelings beyond that were less strong, but my last place was also Hugo's last place, and looks like I liked M.Alcaino more and Galen Dara quite a bit less than the Hgo-voting public. Over on the longlist, Tommy Arnold and John Picacio.
Semiprozine -- this was the result that shocked me -- Strange Horizons won, rather than Uncanny, which had won 7 of the previous 8 awards, from 2016 to 2023, the only blip being FIYAH winning in 2021. Strange Horizons beat Uncanny by 6 votes in the last round -- the closest result in the 2024 Hugos according to the stats packet. So it's Strange Horizons, Uncanny, FYIAH, Escape Pod, khoreo, and GigaNotoSaurus (I did not vote in this category, but am positively inclined towards the top 4, and just don't know the other two). In the longlist, Clarkseworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and towards the end a couple of smaller/newer magazines I've submitted to, which is kind of neat to see.
Fanzine -- did not vote this year so no thoughts, but this was a category with no Chinese language nominees on the ballot, but looks like one juuuust missed the cutoff.
Fancast -- my favorites have all finished or recused themselves, so I didn't vote in this category this year. The interesting things are on the nominations side. The two things that received the most nominations (before EPH magic) were Chinese-language things that were ruled ineligible because they were professional productions. The remaining eligible Chinese language thing ended up in last place. Hugo Girl! was next after the cutoff, but they have recused themselves, so just as well.
Fan writer -- unsurprisingly, Paul Weimer, who had bee dropped from the ballot last year for mysterious/random reasons, won this year, and good for him. I was voting based on writing rather than justice done, so my pick was Jason Sanford, who came in 2nd. Beyond that I didn't have any strong feelings.
Fan artist -- my 5th and 6th places match the Hugo voters, but my 1-2 are their 3-4 and vice versa, but this was not a category in which I had strong feelings.
Lodestar -- I ended up not reading any of the nominees, but am happy that To Shape a Dragon's Breath won. I should actually read it now XD Surprised Unraveller was 4th, but then it didn't really grab me either, when I tried it.
Astounding -- Xiran Jay Zhao won this handily, in their extended 3rd year of eligibility after being dropped from last year's ballot in the censorship shenanigans. I'm not surprised, but their writing did not grab me when I first tried Iron Widow, and their online behavior has annoyed me since, so I'm not super interested in trying again. But I'm glad they got their second shot. The only authors on the list I read were Ai Jiang and a little bit of Hannah Kaner's stuff included in the packet, and I was not impressed with either. Ai Jiang ended up tied for 3rd place and Kaner in 5th. Well, some years are stronger than others.
So, IDK. I'm happy about the BDP-Long win and editor short form win, happy but unsurprised about series win, and happy but a little conflicted about the novel win. Quite happy about novelette (it would've taken a tie to make me truly happy in that one) and pro artist. I'm reasonably happy about novella. Short story I'm at "could've been a lot worse". Not mad about GN. The closest I am to being mad is editor long form, and even that is just more of a semi-resigned sigh.
*
I had a lot of Taskmaster to catch up on when I came home!
Taskmaster NZ s5 -- I binged the 6 episodes that had come out already (they're being released 2 a week) in the space of a couple of days, because this is indeed a fun bunch. Miraculously, I don't seem to have as much of a problem with Jeremy as in past NZ seasons (though there are still times when I think his scoring is nuts), so tht was a pleasant surprise. Abby is definitely the most memorable contestant, as I had gathered from Reddit, and besides her filmed tasks and her studio banter, which are both highlights, she is also definitely the most sartorially interesting of this lot (and has in some episodes been the only spot of bright color on stage) -- but I do also like Tom's approach to in studio outfits, with the different pins on the lapel of his black tie getup -- he looks very dapper. The contestant I'm rooting for, though, is Ben, who was my favorite from the first episode on, and I'm also enjoying his dynamic with both of the women (his stage neighbors), especially the sort of older-brother teasing with Abby. Someone on Reddit, in one of the early episode discussions, pointed out that this lineup is like a classic teen movie -- you've got the nerd (Abby), the jock (Ben), the theater kid (Tom), and the girl next door (Hayley), with Tofiga as their laid-back teacher -- in this case represented by a procession of substitute teachers -- and that actually does fit really well XD Also nice to see what a close series it's shaping up to be.
SPOILERS from here
Episode 1 -- first thoughts on contestants: I think Ben is my favorite as of the end of this episode, which I didn't really expect, but I thought his "worst cup" approach was the most interesting (even if Jeremy's inexplicable scoring only gave him one point; I have not missed Jeremy or his scoring XD), and while he did not win the "roof task" task, he was the one who actually relatively quickly figured out the trick -- Tofiga was not fooled by it at all, so there was nothing for him to figure out -- which was the most satisfying for me to watch (although Abby doing all of the ceiling tasks and narrowly avoiding high-fiving Paul by accident was also very entertaining, and it's always a fun time when a contestant accidentally completes the task and still doesn't know what happened, as happened with Hayley and Tom. Taskmaster Reddit being hugely into Abby was a big part of why I was eager to get to s5, and I do find her the second-most entertaining based on e1. I liked her very different take on the goal celebration task, and especially her just watching Paul try to score and disconcerting him into missing. It is very odd not to have the actual contestant in the studio right from the start, as is unfortunately the case with Tofiga; when Katy was missing for two episodes and subbed by Kerry and Katherine Ryan, I already had a very solid feel for what Katy herself was like; the only comparable substitution is Johnny Peacock missing the NYT, and that didn't feel like I got a full sense of him as a contestant either, which was sad. Reddit's theory is that since they've had a s1 contestant sub for him in e1-2 (Madeleine Sami, whom I was happy to see again), s2 for e3-4, s3 fo e5-6, that he will hopefully be around to represent himself by the last two episodes, which I hope is the case. I do like this vibe in the tasks; it is very chill. The roof task was my favorite of this episode. The goal celebration got a bit samey, although it was interesting to see how much more narrative most of these got than the TM UK goal celebrations. I somehow managed to forget the almond milk task, even though I do think it was a pretty great task, and would be happy to see it pop up on TM UK. The highlight, of course, was Tom ending the task without completing it by ringing the bell, and continuing to try to guess what the task was and complete it while Paul kept telling him, unheard, that he had stopped the clock. I enjoy tasks where the contestants are the architects of their own misery via an uninformed choice they made earlier, and this was a pretty good example, although I don't think eliminating the sense of touch was handled all that well, and there was a bit too much repetition in the choices people made. I also forgot what the live task was until I looked up the episode on the wiki, but Abby's perfect over-the-shoulder shoe toss was amazing! and with such a fabulous choice of shoes, too.
Based on this first episode, my sense is that Ben will be a strong contender (but probably underscored by Jeremy in subjective tasks), Tom will be the buttmonkey of the season, Abby will be the bimodal contestant who sometimes does excellent and sometimes terrible, and Tofiga seems to have the makings of the kind of contestant who will do well in subjective and maybe lateral thinking tasks but be too slow to do well in most objective tasks, kinda like Judi Love. I don't really have any strong feelings about Hayley; the only one where I found her performance memorable was in the goal celebration task (ripping her shirt and kissing "Paulina"), and that was actually my least favorite take personally.
Episode 2 -- Prize: "the secret of your success" - that's more like it! I would've given Tom's "kombucha" 5 points and Abby's autism 4, but the Titanic banter was really fun. (Ben seems to be emerging as the studio MVP in terms of eliciting banter, which I'm appreciative of.) I liked the idea of Hayley's (her mother nagging her) but found the execution lackluster, and agree with the low points for Ben's literal one (VHS) and the mortgage. Legally-not-Jenga task -- damn, Ben's tennis ball thing actually worked, holy shit! even Jeremy said that was possibly the greatest thing that had ever happened in the history of NZ. Totally beats both Joe W's potato throw and Chris Ramsey's maypole strike. (Abby: "Valhalla awaits.") Abby is hugely entertaining to watch as she goes about the tasks, I do get the Reddit love. Did Hayley actually perform the actions on the blocks she named? I assume she must have even though it wasn't shown, or that should've been a DQ. Mostly, though, what a weird choice to have the two lackluster-but-not-outright-disastrous attempts go second when they could've ended on Ben's tennis ball high... Relive the best moment task -- I was wondering why Ben was being left for last and then figured it out just before he said it. I don't agree with 1 point for him objectively, but that was the funniest thing to do and also he certainly took a gamble. But I really enjoyed his "lens" of the event, and was amused that Abby had correctly guessed Valhalla, basically, when talking about it the first time. Also, we get another "you don't even go here!" complaint a la Ed Gamble to Kerry, which was fun. I do agree that the two plays deserved the maximum points (even if I think Paul's singing was the MVP of Tom's), and Abby with her lion encore was adorable. Team task, yay! Team task with a SECRET MISSION, woo! Tom, sans secret mission, was demonstrably more excited than Abby, on the team of three (Abby: "What, do you think Captain Autism is going to make the situation LESS awkward?") Hayley's betrayed reaction was really strong, too, unmollified by Ben trying to claim that he would've done everything but the breakdancing and the streamer. After Jeremy assigns the 1-5 point split, Ben asks Abby, "Is this the first time you've not got an A?" Team task itself was reasonably fun, and it does seem like the team of 2 will be the sort of route 1 competent ones and team of 3 the creative band of misfits, but so far they've worked together quite well. Live task -- Madeline earning her keep with that jacket strategy, which was clearly the best way to go about blowing out the candle, since it was responsible for both first and second place. And it really did look like Abby was trying to use sorcery with her makeshift wand XD A second straight win for Abby! although that's how Steve Pemberton started, too, and he ended up in 3rd.
Episode 3 -- Jeremy's genuine anger at the very concept of jigsaw puzzles may be the first time I've actively enjoyed watching Jeremy score a task XD And I'm amused that Ben is still proud of being Head Boy and charmed by Abby's bullet journal. Hayley's fairly straightforward "my first period" kit was a good approach which clearly paid off (even though she couldn't beat Jeremy's ire at jigsaw puzzles). Marshmallow over-the-wall throw -- there's Jeremy's baffling scoring again, *sigh* I don't even agree that Abby should be disqualified for her reading of the task that split it into two separate actions. I liked the different approaches, and though Hayley's funnel was fine, but I guess I can see a little more of the reasoning of not considering what she, Ben, and Tom did "throwing" (would love to have seen this task with TM UK s15 and the resulting semantic discussion). It was hilarious that Abby missed the implications of the hole completely, came up with a hack, then struggled to just toss the marshmallow in her mouth anyway. Turning on a lamp -- Tofiga taking the Richard Osman approach, except that it wasn't actually FASTER, just less work for him personally, and a lot more work for Paul, which seems on brand. Ben did look like he was reeling in a marlin, heh. I did think the noise-activated lamp that Ben and Haley used was the way to go, but it looks like Tom and Abby's approach with the banker's lamp was probably actually the better one (Abby did take the longest with it, but she also spent a lot of time trying to turn on the lamp sexually, so). Trailer trailer -- OK, Ben absolutely deserved those 5 points, I thought that was the most-trailer-like, the only one that was actually ABOUT the trailer, and also was the most entertaining/funniest. (On the studio banter side, I'm left wondering if Ben was making a joke with "The Charge of the Light Brigade" or not; he seems like a history buff from -- bringing in later episodes, knowing the names of the Wright brothers and the lesson he chooses to teach Paul, that kind of thing.) I liked Tofiga's, but it felt more like the whole movie rather than just a trailer, but I do think 3 was about right, and I think I do agree with the low scores for Abby and Tom, though I wouldn't have given Hayley 4 points. Live task -- OK, that was chaos XD Them allowing black team to roll Abby in the chair so that she could knock off all the red chairs seems sliiiightly counter to the spirit of the game, but was definitely funny/exciting.
Episode 4 -- Prize task ("hmm, I don't know about that") -- I did think the starting ones were weak, but I loved Ben's weird motion sickness glasses and would've scored them higher. Not a fan of Hayley's "cuck chair" -- I think her humour just doesn't work as well for me as everyone else's on the panel, and as well as it clearly works for Jeremy, because I keep feeling like he quite consistently overscores her on subjective tasks. Ahaha the objects in order/planets task! Ben and Hayley just giving up and eating the candy bar in disgust was fun enough (and then Tofiga compounding that by not only eating the chocolate but also telling Paul off about taking him away from his kids to waste his time with this nonsense), but Abby getting adorably excited when she figured it out, aww! Jeremy saying "congratulations on the autism" and her answers, "It's an honor and a privilege" and Tom saying, "This makes me think I ought to get tested" and Paul replying, "That was the test" -- so good! Tower-building charades -- what a command performance from the Ben and Hayley team; clearly they did pick the right jobs and were fabulously in synergy. Sad that team of 3's tower collapsed near the end, but Abby's acting-out was also pretty great, and Tofiga's was creative at least (e.g. Longbottom). Teach Paul a lesson -- Jeremy seemed to change his scoring logic in the middle there, but I do actually agree with the order of points, but don't have a lot more to say about this task, other than that I enjoyed Tom's random collection of seagull facts. Live task (backpack drawing) -- that was fun! How that was a carrot from Matt Heath (covering for Tofiga) I don't know, and poor Abby with her Shetland pony, that was never going to be very guessable. And yay, an episode win for Ben!
Episode 5 -- oh yay, Josh as the sub for Tofiga! An NZ take on the "gift for another panelist" task, and I'm so amused that Tom, Abby, and Hayley all picked Ben as the recipient, but the most memorable by far is Hayley's "erotic fanfiction" about Ben. Now, we've had TM UK talk about Taskmaster/RPF fanfic plenty, but I think this is the first time it's participated in an actual task (unless you count the musical chairs storytime that Greg was reading out for a live task). (As of this writing, no Ben Hurley fanfic exists under the TM NZ tag, wonder if this task will change that.) And excellent ploy by Josh to bring in the s3 trophy for Hayley and earn the 5 points. Move Paul -- yeah, moving Paul emotionally was never going to be the winning strategy, too bad Tom and Abby. Hayley just driving him to her house and then staying there was hilarious -- for once I agree with the 5 points. Although I do think it might've been good to get this visit before the task where Paul impersonates her fiance. AHAHA Ben gets a solo task, and he is very angry about it XD That frisbee catch on the bike was pretty impressive, though! Egg catapult -- that is a serious catapult! Impressed with Ben's wig-wrapping + helmet shell and also his catch -- very cinematic, but slightly spoiled by the fact that Tom's much more haphazard approach, and then also Hayley and Tofiga, who just kind of wrapped it a bit, worked just as well. I'm glad Ben got a bonus point for catching it even though the task said nothing about that. Poor Abby with her ill-conceived decoy attempt! (P.S. I bet Josh is sad he didn't get to play around with this catapult.) New Year celebration/resolutions task -- don't have a ton to say about this one, although I enjoyed Abby's acting out of her resolutions (and agree she deserved 5 points) and Hayley's attempt to blackmail Urzila for $20 for Paul. Live task -- pinch, plunder, protect -- that was fun, though I'm not sure anyone was using any sort of strategy. And the first episode win for Hayley, who is in series lead -- seems really odd that she hasn't won before, but Abby had a lot of the wins -- and then some spectacular losses as well.
Episode 6 -- Prize task (best from far away) -- I think Ben was robbed (with his purchases of a star named "Ben gets 5 points") even if he did get the wrong constellation -- but it is really funny. Hayley's restraining order was also pretty funny, and the resulting "it's not A school, it's ALL schools" banter between Ben and Paul. Farted-on pillow is not really my sense of humour, but I was amused by the combination of potty humor and scientific mumbo-jumbo from Josh. A to Z of fashion -- Tom is really good at pattern recognition! Ben, to Abby: "Is this the first time you've been teased for NOT having autism?" (after Jeremy asks her what happened there), Abby, giggling: "Where are your autistic powers now, bitch?" Clearly she was just too distracted by the lure of X-Ray glasses and umbrella hat, though XD And poor Hayley, who managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory several times. Biopic task -- Ben seems to be really good at this Taskmaster short movie genre! Glad to see that Jeremy agrees -- a well deserved 5 points for him. Have to agree, good call, Tom, for deciding not to play Beyonce et al in his biopic, and the popsicle stick dolls + googly eyes approach was very cute. Abby's Phantom of the Opera sequel sitcom was very fun as well (though I guess it was the least biopic-y and Jeremy's 1 point logic makes sense for once). That was very impressive bulshitting from Tofiga, and I can't even quibble with the 4 points, and Hayley having to make a biopic about Paul Ego, whose family she's met many times and whose names she mostly couldn't remember, was a nightmare scenario, oops XD Anyway, considering how challenging this task was, I did think everyone had done great. Treasure map task -- Ben makes a great pirate, too bad the task had absolutely nothing to do with that XD Poor Abby, forcing herself to brave the lake even though she didn't have to, and score yet again for Tofiga's unwillingness to move. This was definitely a task I'd be happy to see with some other groups, although I do think it would not work in TM UK because I do think it was the presence of the lake that effectively served as a red herring. Live task (musical notes) was completely incomprehensible to me, since I'm tone deaf, but I'm glad Josh and Hayley knew what they were doing. Nice that Josh helped secure a win for Tofiga (I mean, the filmed tasks alone were nearly enough to do it, but the prize and live performance also helped).
At this point every contestant has won an episode, which is quite nice to have that be the case so early in the season. Wiki has series scores at 97 for Hayley, 93 for Ben, 90 for Tofiga, 87 for Tom, and 80 for Abby, and how the one person to win two episodes ended up in last place is slightly baffling to me, but that's a pretty close spread, first to last, and also Abby did come last in most of the other episodes, and next-to-last in the remaining one XD I'm guessing it's not super likely that Tofiga will have another episode win, although next two eps he's represented by Bubba, who came in second in her series and looks like tends to do better-than-average on prize tasks (though not as well as Josh, and pretty badly on live ones, unlike Josh, who dominated them. So I think 3rd or 4th is the likely outcome for Tofiga, and the real competition for the win is between Ben and Hayley. I expect Abby will have a comeback of some kind, but I don't think it's going to be enough to overcome a 17 point gap in 4 episodes, not as inconsistent as she is.
**
This is probably also as good a time as any to write up the last episode of Taskmaster Oz s2, which I watched before my holiday. Tasks-wise, I did think it was a great episode of a very fun series, but as a season finale I have some reservations about it, which are spoilery, so I will get into them under the cut. SPOILERS from here I loved many of the tasks -- the childhood dream job was so good, with the highlight being Wil actually doing a GREAT sketch, paying off a full season of G.Tom mocking him about it ("I don't have feet" made me burst out loud laughing), but Lloyd's take on acting range was also great (his porn film bit made me laugh a lot), and Jenny's chaotic medical school and Anne's scary teacher were fun, and Josh's... featured a cute dog. The "most unco catch" short/bonus task was such a fun little amuse bouche, and L.Tom's protracted fumbling with Wil's especially was great fun to watch. And then, of course, there was the amazing collaborative short film, which I would be happy to see reprised on other series. Everyone making fun of Lloyd's script XD Jenny with the heroic training montage! Wil's villain who was not so much scenery-chewing and scenery-obliterating! Anne's impressive vocals and Josh's INCREDIBLE sound work -- like, that was genuinely so good, only to be offset by the lone "boing!" So that's two absolutely stellar full tasks and a little bonus. The "avoid being papped by Tom" filmed task was pretty boring, though, and I'm honestly not very sure why it was included -- even the 5 point attempt from Anne was just kind of meh. It is the only objective task in this episode, and it's one that Anne wins and Lloyd does badly on, which not for the first time made me wonder if there was an attempt to steer things towards a series tie between Anne and Lloyd, or at least an effort to keep it close / keep the tension.
There were several times Lloyd was singled out throughout the series -- the parsnip task he accidentally set for the others, the quiz, the "stay close to your team mates" secret task, but there are TWO tasks in which Lloyd is singled out in this one -- the prize task is "something that Lloyd has never heard of" (and Tom sets Lloyd's prize at 3, so I guess he was never going to win that one), and the live task where Lloyd has to build with fruit vs marshmallows, which ends up being a massive advantage. But it makes me wonder, if Lloyd were leading rather than trailing going into the live task, whether he would've just been presented with an empty jar, instead of the decision to count the fruit as equivalent to marshmallows. Don't get me wrong, I thought Josh choosing to settle some scores with G.Tom via a made-up character, Jenny messing up Lloyd's marital status and also not recognizing Wil's bear character, and especially Anne's shorts and resulting discussion of "outside shorts" was quite funny, but it did seem like it was very likely that Anne would win that task. Reddit pointed out that a lot of Lloyd being singled out has to be an artifact of him filming his tasks first -- setting the quiz, writing the script, the parsnip challenge -- or self-inflicted difference with the fruit, and that's true, but some of the others is just him being singled out (secret task, last prize task), as well as just the decision to incude "unequal" tasks to a greater degree than in any series I can think of. Anyway, between that, Anne improbably catching up and then being in the lead, and the way the show kept playing up them being a couple, it really did feel like the series tie was engineered rather than organic. Now, easiest way to do that would've been to have a subjective task for a live task, and they didn't, so maybe this is all conspiracy theories, but IDK, it felt less "authentic" and so I enjoyed it less. And the series tie-breaker was pretty anticlimactic (which might be another argument in favor of they didn't really plan it, but IDK...)
I'm pleased Lloyd won! Wil was my favorite, but Lloyd ended up being a close second and did well and was adorable throughout. Wil should absolutely have had second place, I think, with more equitable scoring, but I did like the "one final good sketch" arc, and the way the other contestants clearly viewed him as a yardstick of competence. And Jenny did not come last, and I feel like her movie performance redeemed her for past drastic failures a bit. And Josh did come last, but the movie task was an amazing high note to end on, and he got to have something of a last word via hiz prize task. Anne did have some tasks that I really enjoyed (the Gary jingle, e.g.) but she ended up as my least favorite out of this bunch because I did feel she was getting overscored (compared to my other bottom favorite, Josh, who settled out at about the right level XD)
One of my favorite consequences of Lloyd winning is the resurfacing of this photograph of "three Taskmaster champions... and James Acaster", from that time Ed Gamble, John Robins, James, and Lloyd Langford ended up stranded in NYC. My favorite comment/explanation is "I think James had already filmed his tasks at this point, and was therefore unaffected by the NYC/ TM magic that was about to occur..."
Over in TM UK land, I'm hearing TM is due to come back Sept 12 (not sure where that date is from, but someone posted it on the Elis & John Facebook group, but meanwhile a couple of short extra things have been released. The Story of Patatas the cat -- I was intrigued to learn why he is called Patatas; it is because spoiler he was first introduced in series 2, which had a lot of potato-based tasks, and an art theme based on Dali, thus the Spanish. And two new Ultimate episodes, for Phil Wang (yay!) and (*sigh*) John Kearns. Phil (what is it with ill-advised mustaches for formerly clean-shaven contestants, Ed?) talked about the first team task (where Rhod and James spent the entire intro talking about his outfit/dick and balls) as being like the moment when Eve ate the apple, because he suddenly knew shame. In addition to the prize task that had the first appearance of the haggling joke, the sausage of finger live task, and the first team task, Phil also chose the "make the best noise " (mlem mlem mlem) one that he won, and, to my delight, the OLLIE/weight task, which remains my favorite Phil task solution and one of my favorite task solutions in all of TM, and I share his every outraged sentiment about it. Kearns's prize task was the sailor hat (Greg calls him a prick), his live task was the animal charades (Vee! Vee!), and the others were the spoiler! sabotage sand task (Dara is convinced he's an idiot), snort-raspberry-whistle (he can't whistle), laminated signs location task (the WINGDINGS XD) -- so a collection of things he was terrible at, including the sabotage even if he did get 5 points for that. I wonder if a Nick one is coming up, because he tweeted a picture of himself back at the Taskmaster house. And then there was part 2 of Askmaster with the Andys, which included a timelapse of the studio being set up, where they are with the various series (18 handed in, 19 tasks filmed and in editing but pre-studio, and 20 cast decisions made; and on the non-main series front, TM Junior handed in and will be shown later this year -- I guess after s18 runs its course? or in parallel?), and that most of NYT 2025 folks identified and that being the next to start filming)