Mongrel

Finished season 2 of Taskmaster NZ in a couple of days - what a delight. I agree it's up there with one of the very best seasons of the show. It's also a big improvement on season 1, but I think a lot of that is down to the cast which seemed to gel a lot better. They are also doing some fun things outside the show. I know there's a lot of focus on David, but I thought Guy and Laura were an absolute delight. Guy Montgomery's date was one of my favourite things. It's great when the assistant cracks up in tasks (e.g. Alex with Katherine Parkinson's catapult task), and this was another great example.

This is one of my favourite casts - Mike is all time, and although I was a bit iffy about Sarah Kendall at the start she's really come into her own as the series has progressed and has been a great sport. Charlotte Ritchie has also been incredible fun, and contrary to a lot of people I've enjoyed Jamali to. It's a bit surprising that Lee Mack has actually been the least memorable cast member this series - he's been pretty good, but I expected him to be great. I'm not sure whether the show has just got better at dealing with it, but they also all seem so much more comfortable without a crowd than last season. It's a real shame this cast didn't get the chance to perform in front of a live crowd, but it's still been so much fun and some of the tasks have been great.

I really did not like the acting task. I think it was one of the worst they've done. I'm struggling a bit with this season - I'm not sure whether it's because of coronavirus, the fact I don't really enjoy a couple of the contestants or that a lot of the tasks are falling a bit flat, but I'm not excited to watch these in the way I have been excited to watch other seasons. Which is a shame because it started really strongly. 😕

I haven't watched the most recent episode, but quite enjoyed the first two. I'm not really digging Richard Herring yet, and hopefully the prize tasks start to improve because it felt a bit like there were 3-4 people in each episode thinking along the same lines so it fell a bit flat. Other than that, it's a strong cast and really good fun. I also finished watching Season 6 for the first time. It's not the best season by any means, but I think Tim Vine and Liza Tarbuck added some genuinely fun laugh out loud moments like this: Asim and Alice would have probably been fine on separate seasons, but I think it was too much for both of them to be on the same season.

Haha, good luck singing along with Jamie Foxx in the crowd. What the fuck was that?

holy shit guys

He'd be unleckie to not get a decent move after this tournament imo. It is a bit of a weird case, because he has just moved to a new club in the same division.

Kinda hard to believe that Leckie plays second flight German football.

Haha, oh Australia.

Yay, The Tallest Man. Unfortunately he's coming to Copenhagen tomorrow (I think), but I didn't manage to nab tickets to him because of supreme laziness. He makes pretty regular trips to Australia, so I guess I'll have to catch him there. I'm obviously a big fan, and pretty happy to see him snag a spot on the list.

Saw What Richard Did last night. It was an odd movie - like the tension is oppressive up until Richard "does" what he does, but after that it sort of peters out despite a great scene between the father and son. Even so, Jack Reynor is really wonderful in it, and Lars Mikkelsen was also very good, even if his character was oddly written. It is great to see him start to break into more English cinema. He's been good in everything I've seen him in - particularly The Killing/Forbrydelsen.

Joni

Yzma (Eartha Kitt) was pretty fantastic as the villain from what I remember. It has been years since I've seen the film, but I have it on DVD in German (imaginatively titled "A Kingdom for a Llama").

Haha, I could have even slipped Disclosure in! We had a moment, man!

First time I've voted in this, so my order might change a bit! The Tallest Man on Earth Jens Lekman Iron & Wine Efterklang James Vincent McMorrow Joni Mitchell The National Patty Griffin Roy Orbison Sigur Rós Jake Bugg Final Fantasy/Owen Pallett Kings of Convenience Jonathan Richman Disclosure Glen Hansard Frank Turner James Blake Tame Impala Movits!