CW 43: Taskmaster

Game shows are the best invention since sliced bread...

I have always loved game shows of any sort: Quizzes where I can be a smartass, competition shows where I can think about how I would conquer a challenge or if I would even be able to master certain tasks, shows like Takeshi's castle and Wipeout where I could watch people crash into stuff (which I realize, makes me sound like a horrible person but what can you do about it). So now recently a friend - shoutout to you, if you're reading this (probably not) - showed me this series called Taskmaster. 

Taskmaster is a British show - although, like other successful British TV shows, Americans tried to remake it and failed. Anyhow, five comedians are given tasks to do. These range from eating as much as they can from a watermelon in a minute to playing charades but with one teammate standing on each side of the Themse river. The series is so brilliantly edited and - yes, this sounds mean, but it's hilarious - makes such good fun of the contestants. They are currently uploading all episodes on Youtube in great quality and it's just a joy to watch, so whenever I was having breakfast, lunch or dinner this week I watched an episode of Taskmaster. I could have easily watched all of it, but I tried to not binge-watch it, so I could watch for a longer time, because the problem with me and game shows is that I'm usually done with them by day two.

A while ago I found this streaming service called InsightTV. They had some awesome game shows on there, like "No Time To Lose" where they toured through South Africa, doing various extreme and not-so extreme challenges, like riding the world's largest swing while solving an equation or landing a plane a flight simulator. Another one, mainly focused on sports and fitness, called "Spartan X", was super fun to watch. Contestants fought for a place in the castle, by doing various challenges like climbing up a pole while their hands are tied together or trying to hold on to a rope in 3m height as long as they could. Whoever didn't get to sleep there, would have to sleep outside in a tent and do chores for the people in the castle. If you're into game shows and adventure documentaries I can highly recommend subscribing to Insight (they also have a free trial).

I can't exactly say what it is that fascinates me so much about game shows. I guess it's my extreme competitiveness. However, I just love seeing people do weird tasks and think about how I would solve and conquer them. Even though I know in some game shows parts are scripted I always wanted to participate in one.

... although I'm massively out of shape, so I guess it would only be a quiz show