PebbleInALake

Too many axes for doomscrolling, this is the escapism post.

Taskmaster Oz finale -- That was a fun conclusion! ( Spoilers )

I think this might be my favorite lineup in TM Oz... I mean, I liked most people on the other seasons, too, and it could always be recency bias, but I feel like I actively like 4 of the contestants, while my previous high was 3. Tommy actually ended up being my favorite, surprising the hell out of me -- I expected to find him annoying based on the first impression, but he grew on me with each episode, until I was amazed to discover he was the one I was looking forward to the most. I can't remember that ever happening before... Anyway, Tommy's right at the top for me, followed by Waka and Lisa -- I think those two are tied for me, different as they are -- Lisa is just such a darling! and Waka is such a delightful weirdo! And Emma reliably made me laugh, as well as being a great player of the game. Hughesy was also entertaining; I would rank him last of the five personally, but I still enjoyed him, and his interplay with the other contestants, especially Tommy, Emma, and Lisa.

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Taskmaster s19e05 -- halfway! wow, this series is going fast. ( Spoilers )

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North of North -- tinny wrote a rec post, and in addition to the really cool premise (a comedy about an Inuk woman and various people in her life, starring and made by mostly Inuk women), the thing that caught my attention was that it was short (8 episodes of ~25 min each), on Netflix, and did not require subtitles (mostly, as it turned out; there are a couple of short scenes in Inuktitut, but in-universe translation is provided for the pivotal one). Anyway, the length was perfect to binge it in two halves over two weekends. I really enjoyed it!

The thing it most reminded me of, weirdly, was Alma's Not Normal -- I think a similar vibe of, like, a situation that one would more expect to be the subject of a Very Special Episode but allowed to be a proper comedy, with a protagonist who is allowed to be flawed and goofy and not just an object of sympathy/brave in adversity or whatever. There's even a mother who was not very motherly, although Neevee is definitely in a healthier place than Alma's mum during the timeframe of the show.

( More, with spoilers )

Anyway, really enjoyed that, and hope there's a second season to catch up with these folks again.

Also, it reminded me strongly enough of 'Alma' that it served as my impetus to track down the second series of Alma's Not Normal, which I'd been meaning to do for a while, especially after John Robins spoke so positively about it when interviewing Sophie Willan on How Do You Cope. Actually doing so required remembering which source I'd gotten the first series from, trying to download some kind of codec thing from Microsoft to be able to play the videos, and finally downloading a brad new freeware media player -- but I persevered, and then binged all six episodes (they're short, so the whole thing is <3 hours) in one night. And that was really well done, and also I totally see why, in addition to general acclaim (the second series also won a bunch of awards) it appeals to John specifically -- there's a similar mixture of "emotional heft" (to use Elis's phrase) and funny moments that release tension that I recognize from John's work, and it's a combination that works for me really well. I did not realize that the show was complete at 2 series (with a Christmas special potentially to come), so while I kind of knew what to expect from the general progression, since the show is semi-autobiographical, ( Spoilers from here )

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Hugo homework:

( Related work )

Related Work: (6/6) Charting the Cliff, Report on Censorship (I do hope either one of these wins), Tracking Changes, Star Wars Hotel video essay, Speculative Whiteness, r/Fantasy bingo

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You may be thinking I've been talking about Elis and John less lately (I was shocked to discover I haven't posted a roundup in 2 months!), but that's just because, delightfully, sysann has followed me down the same rabbit hole, so I've actually had a person who is also in the grip of active obsession to talk about them with in various comment threads. But I've been continuing to make solid progress through the old 5Live episodes, backwards, and now only have ~40 episodes of that to go. I won't quite have finished them all in a year, but it'll be pretty close.

( March-May 2025 )

( Feb-Sept 2020 )

Clips from the socials:
- John's adorable sneezes
- John seems to have stopped eating chocolate/cake during/prior to the recordings, but this was from before he figured out not to do that: live cake slump and Elis, udeterred by the threat of impending tears (when John says he should feel free to speak Welsh during Cymru Connection).
- John is an outlier
- Discussing John's muscles
- Elis's commentary on a review of John
- Elis's John-centric alternatives to Cymru Conection

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Fannish goals update: ( progress )