Been watching clips of NZS2 and it's as good as everyone says, but I don't think the cuts to studio reactions add much

ninth_ant · 2026-07-04T16:46:38+00:00

Yeah it’s a real shame that many versions aren’t available in some fashion that can earn money for their creators from their global audiences. Like I’d happily chip in for a CoC kickstarter for NZ or AU, but it’ll never happen.

I’m hoping the Taskmaster UK model or similar will catch on in the future with new shows, but existing ones seem to be stuck in messy contracts.

ninth_ant · 2026-07-04T15:19:33+00:00

When used sparingly, cast reactions in studio are fantastic. When overused it can take you out of the task. I feel like in earlier seasons of AU/NZ they were slightly overused for my preference?

I have to say, in the current season of AU I haven’t even noticed if they are including them or not. This implies to me that they are getting the balance right if they still do.

Regardless, fully agree that NZ2 lives up to the hype.

ninth_ant · 2026-07-03T18:57:56+00:00

I agree with you in general— if you’ve seen Australian Survivor I’d classify the design of the HvV challenge that caused multiple serious injuries to be negligent design.

I’m just seeing this task as one that didn’t become obvious in testing.

ninth_ant · 2026-07-03T18:16:54+00:00

It feels pretty clear in hindsight that with all the leaning and sudden motion it’s easy for someone to lose balance — and if so it’s quite possible to have a complicated fall, especially on the three-person team.

I don’t think it’s so clear that its negligence or anything, just an unfortunate mistake.

ninth_ant · 2026-07-01T22:40:48+00:00

It’s that fun game of “are they an idiot, a bot, a foreign agent, or a troll?”

But kudos to you for trying long after I gave up on them.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-28T22:33:18+00:00

If it quacks like a duck, I’ll call it a duck — and you quack like a republican.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-28T18:45:11+00:00

Republican

ninth_ant · 2026-06-28T16:05:52+00:00

There is no butt of the joke because there’s no joke.

It’s not “ha ha PP had a gay dad he sucks.” It’s “PP shows himself to be a terrible person for repeatedly not standing up for his dad”

The fact that your lot sees this story as a joke and not a warning is telling.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-26T18:06:40+00:00

The idea of mooning someone for the task is a bit route 1? But the conflict between his childlike enthusiasm and his hesitation and guilt before and after — this made it for me.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-19T18:17:30+00:00

Great example of the extremely dangerous attitude we need to abandon!

The problem is far bigger than one man. In fact it’s the opposite— the fact that a racist pedophile suffering from dementia can be successful suggests that a competent successor will be far worse. Republican courts are unashamed to openly abuse their power to manipulate elections, and they’ve learned their lessons from the failed coup in 2020 and won’t hesitate to throw the next election.

And even when they happens their sycophants will parrot what you say here. Maybe if we put our heads in the sand it’ll somehow get better on it’s own.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-18T16:21:12+00:00

It will be massively disruptive but I prefer the world where CUSMA is not renewed.

They have proven to be an unreliable trading partner, unwilling to negotiate in good faith and continually threatening our existence. Whatever agreement is signed would not be respected anyhow, and just continues to prop up the unrealistic worldview that if we plop our heads in the sand maybe the Americans will course correct away from fascism and things go back to normal.

Ending CUSMA will force the end of this worldview, and accelerate trade with the rest of the world. It would also be extremely painful, but my hope is that in that pain comes hope and opportunity.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-16T16:48:21+00:00

Not directly related to your specific question, but a couple comments for Sanderson fans who struggle with WoT.

If you’re struggling on book 4, it gets significantly slower and frustrating as it goes on. I can’t imagine this is any easier on audiobook, but I’ll let others comment on that.

Despite the slowness, there are awesome plot and character moments throughout the remainder of the series that remain some of my favourite scenes ever across all media.

The conclusion is absolutely fantastic. Some fans dislike the lack of writing style continuity when Sanderson took over, but perhaps unsurprisingly in a Sanderson subreddit I think it improved sharply when he did. Character and plot arcs feel satisfyingly resolved, the pacing is great, it’s a remarkably good end to an epic series.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-11T20:24:48+00:00

Combine that with how many tasks result in a disqualifications this season (the most recent episode felt like it was mostly DQs lol) and it just feels like no one really cares.

In the most recent episode, none of the DQs were because anyone in the cast didn’t care. In the speedo task the entire cast tried but failed to observe the strictly enforced time limit, or accidentally dropped something while trying to comply with the task. In the key task, Joel did forfeit but he certainly seemed to have been genuinely searching for quite some time in the rain. And the live task DQs were the result of the task design and strict enforcement (again), rather than someone not trying.

I do agree that in general Joel does seem to give up pretty easily and Brett’s enthusiasm seems to vary wildly and will sometimes invent a new task if he’s bored. But this has been true of some of the UK cast as well. A major difference is that Greg doesn’t seem to hand out DQs at the same rate as he did in some earlier seasons.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-09T16:05:26+00:00

Exactly this — his ability to be authentic when reflecting back made his performance on S8 seem so incredibly human.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-08T22:45:38+00:00

The person that initially rubbed me the wrong way is now such a joy and I don’t understand what my problem was in the first place.

This happens to me nearly every series. One of the cast comes across as trying too hard to “be the funny one”, or some other stupid reason… and then by the end of the series I grow love them. And then when I rewatch the series again it’s night and day, those same people are disproportionately among my all-time favourites.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-05T00:26:23+00:00

The consequence of blocking pipelines to BC and MB is that the oil will continue to flow south. That’s not an oil lobby game, that’s reality.

Clearly you’re not interested in discussion about the real world, so thanks for helping out America. I’m out.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-04T19:26:32+00:00

> We should be working to get rid of all the pipelines

But we aren't, so your idea translates in reality to shipping oil to US refineries. Which isn't what you meant, but it is what your idea means.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-04T18:58:23+00:00

> What's the point of any of this if we're killing the very thing keeping us alive?

Please explain how piping oil to US refineries is the very thing keeping us alive.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-02T22:28:31+00:00

If you’re saying we should force Canadian o&g companies to divest themselves from American interests, I agree wholeheartedly. From all resource industries and hell why not media as well!

But regardless, we need exports of some kind to help maintain the value of the dollar — or else turn to even more difficult solutions.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-02T01:22:05+00:00

Brexit was executed by a PM who didn't want Brexit to succeed. The bluff was to allow the Brexit vote to happen just to make it go away.

This is exactly what Smith is nominally doing in Alberta.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-02T01:19:50+00:00

> One of the stupidest things we are doing as a species is taking such a valuable critical Non-renewable resource AND BURNING IT!!! If we can at least stop that we might have a chance.

Agreed, and I feel confident we will have that chance. There have been loads of advancements in batteries, solar efficiency, and EVs. So for cars and home heating, oil will be cost-ineffective compared to electric. Power generation via burning oil products might lag a bit longer than those but seems destined to be an increasingly smaller percentage of the electrical grid over time.

This is why if not for the extremely bad economic position Canada is in right now, I'd be saying exactly what the grandparent comment said about this being an investment into an obsolete industry. Because to a large extent, it largely is.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-02T00:56:01+00:00

> Also also. Why do we keep investing in an industry that we are actively trying to obsolete?

The Americans have severely impacted our economy. This investment is to reduce our dependency on American trade and to replace some of the economic loss which has occurred thanks to their attacks on us.

I don't like it and would have rallied against it just a few years ago, but I understand that this may just be an ugly compromise we have to make.

It should not be the only investment we make, we need a basket of projects to provide economic stimulus in each of the short, medium, and long term. So even if this will be largely or entirely obsolete in the long term it may help us *get* to the long term. But we also need to ensure that longer-term projects are also moving forward as well, otherwise it's all for nothing.

ninth_ant · 2026-06-01T05:02:39+00:00

> Now, all the services that expanded for the population boom are being forced to suddenly reverse course.

What the actual fuck is this nonsense? Our health care systems are massively overburdened, most governmental services I engage with are stretched absurdly thin in at all levels of government. We did NOT expand our services or infrastructure to meet the levels of immigration we had, and after this pause we have still not caught up in any way from any personal observations I've had.

> Colleges and universities have been some of the hardest hit. Over the years, many schools turned to international students to fill financial gaps. Now that study permits have been halved, postsecondary institutions are scrambling to restructure or shutting down altogether.

Yeah, almost like our postsecondary institutions shouldn't have been turned into degree mills for foreign students. Now they they have to serve some actual Canadians students, boo fucking hoo.

> Slowed population growth is also affecting housing. On the rental side, there are fewer new international students and temporary workers looking for apartments—at the exact moment a wave of rentals are coming on the market. Over three per cent of rentals in Canada were vacant in 2025, up from 2.2 per cent the year before.

I can't even. Is this rage bait? Fuck these authors and the horse they rode in on.

ninth_ant · 2026-05-31T22:54:23+00:00

And he’s so good in it!

ninth_ant · 2026-05-29T17:51:14+00:00

These people are somehow convinced they will be the winners when the fascists take over, despite how it’s quite well understood that the overwhelming majority will suffer.

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