Voyagers

Taskmaster is back!!

Taskmaster s21 interviews – I like the format a lot better this series than the last couple – it’s probably one of my favorite gimmicky ones (I had also liked s17’s, but mostly I feel like the format detracts rather than adds to the interview on the other recent ones; OK, s20’s table tennis was not too bad, but I thought the table tennis was too disruptive to the chat, in a way texting was not really). ( First impressions, before watching the episode )

Episode itself: Taskmaster s21e01 – oh, this was FUN! ( spoilers )

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I caught up on the Christmas 2025 House of Games, which had what is probably my favorite lineup ever: Mathew Baynton, Mel Giedroyc, and Harriet Kemsley (and a fourth non-Britcom/non-Taskmaster person I didn’t know, but he was fun, too). ( spoilers )

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I finished watching James Acaster’s Repertoire on Netflix – a 4-part stand-up show which I found really interestingly constructed but enjoyed less than the shows by the comedians it turns out I really vibe with, like John Robins or, based on a smaller sample size, (Lesser) Tom Cashman or Pierre Novellie. Also, it really is a single four-part show, even though the first three parts are fairly stand-alone, and I did not have 4 hours to watch it all the way through – nor do I really think that’s a reasonable, like, aliquot for standup. And I was still able to appreciate it watching it in several chunks over a matter of weeks, but not as well – by the time I got to the last part, which calls back to the previous ones a lot, and loops around to the first one, there were definitely details I had forgotten – I could tell from the audience laughing at things that were clearly callbacks but ones I did not recognize. But I did recognize some inter-episode callbacks, and even within each episode (Recognise, Represent, Reset, and Recap) there are callbacks and loop-arounds.

If I had to describe Repertoire in one word, it would be ( intricate )