Hoarder of the Gameshows

It's really not a competition I've just got an affinity for winning and a penchant for grinning :D

[becrystalamazed]

So, the renewable energy task in the most recent episode of Taskmaster bears a very strong resemblance to the game Four of Diamonds: Lightbulb from Alice in Borderland.

Clearly the only possible explanation is that this task is a manifestation of Alex Horne’s subconscious desire to make Taskmaster into a death game - and a sign that the day he snaps and fulfils it is drawing ever closer.

[becrystalamazed]

So presumably Nobody's Fool is the show they started casting for immediately after cancelling Genius Game? Which means that if it's worse than Genius Game I'm going to be really annoyed. However, if it turns out to be better somehow it will probably soothe my feelings about it.

[becrystalamazed]

The Way Out is a really fun and amusing show - as long as I forget everything I know about the commercial escape room industry

[becrystalamazed]

So I finally got round to finishing Four Wish (not due to lack of interest in the series, I've just been too busy or too tired to give it the concentration it deserves) and wow when it comes to gameplay and gameplay evolution this show does not miss! And the soundtrack is impeccable! I really enjoyed it, and if you haven't already watched it I highly recommend giving it a go <3<3<3

[le-britcom]

Celebrity Traitors Series 2 UK line up announced!

Spoilers below

Amol Rajan – Journalist and Broadcaster

Bella Ramsey – Actor

James Acaster – Comedian and Podcaster

James Blunt – Singer/Songwriter

Jerry Hall – Model and Actress

Joanne McNally – Comedian

Joe Lycett – Comedian

Julie Hesmondhalgh – Actor

King Kenny – Content Creator

Leigh-Anne Pinnock – Singer/Songwriter

Maya Jama – Broadcaster and Entrepreneur

Michael Sheen – Actor and Presenter

Miranda Hart – Actor and Author

Myha'la – Actor

Professor Hannah Fry– Broadcaster and Mathematician

Richard E. Grant – Actor and Author

Rob Beckett – Comedian

Romesh Ranganathan – Comedian

Ross Kemp – Actor and Presenter

Sebastian Croft – Musician and Actor

Sharon Rooney – Actor

Celebrity Traitors 2026: Full line-up of series two confirmed

Miranda Hart, Maya Jama, and Eastenders legend Ross Kemp are among the stars who will go head-to-head in the second series of The Celebrity

[weaversweek]

The Hunt Colon Prey Versus Predator

Went out on Channel 4 recently.

You didn't watch it.

Here's what you missed.

Okay, that's cool.

Ow, my eyes!

There was an awful lot of time where contestants would bicker and chat, and very little time when they were actually hunting. This is a bit of a mistake, given that the show is literally called The Hunt.

Yes, it's The Crystal Maze revival revival we didn't know we didn't want!

The most over-wrought elimination ceremony since Joel Dommett's Survivor, the worst map since The Summit, and (without spoiling it here - i do in the article) the worst finish since the Neil Hamilton vs Mohammed Fayed libel trial.

On paper, The Hunt should have been brilliant. It uses cutting-edge tech, it's got a careful design, they've spent money on the costumes, it feels like nothing on telly.

And yet the producers made so many unforced errors; i've listed a baker's dozen in the article, and that only scratches the surface. Viewers could see through the bullshit, and turned off in their droves, and Channel 4 gave up and stopped selling adverts in the prog. When even Channel 4 loses faith, you're basically screwed.

Plus! Lots of unforced accuracies in the Mastermind and University Challenge semi-finals, and does anyone know what's happened to Gladiators on Amazon Prime? It doesn't have Legend, so our interest is slim-to-minimal, but enquiring minds and all that...

[becrystalamazed]

So obviously I, tumblr user BeCrystalAmazed, needed this on my blog

[becrystalamazed]

By the way, the Taskmaster escape-room-in-a-box is very good. Nice quality materials, mostly interesting puzzles (some of the early ones are a little simple but that’s the warm up I guess), and full of fun show references without requiring encyclopaedic knowledge. I’d recommend playing it on a surface where you can easily see the model house (also very impressive) from multiple angles - I used a circular tray I could rotate.

My only criticism is that the use of symbols as potential answers makes the answer cards very hard to sort, you have to examine every one every single time to find the one you need. But that’s a convenience issue rather than a gameplay issue.

[becrystalamazed]

Item: The Scream Rarity: ⏶ Common

What is the scariest game you've ever played?

Feed your dashboard by answering my question, blogger.

As I mentioned in my first mysterious ask, I will be answering the questions as if they refer to gameshows and analogue games.

I was a rather timid child, and I frequently got nightmares from, well, Knightmare - but also Jungle Run and Escape from Scorpion Island as well (1). Turns out I didn't handle the concept of being imprisoned forever very well.

As an adult, I tend to enjoy fear elements in gameshows rather than being afraid myself. I find that fear is a great emotion to invoke to get people immersed and involved in a scenario, to switch them into game-mode.

Recent fear elements I have enjoyed in gameshows include:

The random jumpscare near the end of the first episode of Agents of Mystery S2 (the other horror elements of that series were also excellent, but that one stands out to me for how out-of-place but undeniably affective it was)

The Horror Cabin challenge in The Traitors UK S4

The Chambermaids from WIDM 2025 (the Tourists and Welders from the current series haven't been quite as effective to me, nor the Chambermaid reprise as part of the bad-guy team-up in Renaissance 2)

I also enjoyed that one challenge from The Crystal Maze reboot with the patrolling knights, which was too scary for some contestants. But I think I would struggle to pin-point a definitive scariest.

(1) You might be wondering when I was born for all three of those to be young-childhood viewing. Don't worry about it.

[becrystalamazed]

Item: The Memory Squeegee Rarity: ⏶ Common

What game would you erase from your memory just to experience it for the first time again?

Feed your dashboard by answering my question, blogger.

I find this April Fool event delightful, except unfortunately I am Twil 'irrational hatred of video games' BeCrystalAmazed. So any whimsical and oddly aggressive questions I receive from duelling your snake will treated as if they are referring to analogue games and gameshows.

My first game of Blood on the Clocktower was as a Storyteller (casualty of being the first person in the area to get into it) and I didn't have my first game as a player until many months later, after I'd found and trained a secondary Storyteller. I do wonder what it would be like to have entered purely as a player, without Storyteller-meta whirring away in the back of my head.

Alternatively, I would wipe the solution to Sondheim's Murder Game from my brain so I could actually experience it properly as a game. By nature it can only be played once, and as I solved it pretty quickly in puzzle form, I'd love to see if adrenaline would draw out the process a little more. Plus my love of hunted-for-sport mechanics.

While there are many gameshows I wish I could experience again for the first time, I don't think many of them would impact me the same way as an adult as they did when I was 11, when the blend of story, reality and game was truly magical to me.

[becrystalamazed]

Happy Halloween - Trapped! edition

[cardboard-catastrophe]

omg, actually like my favourite game show, remember how I was talking about how my interests like swap round, yeah so this is the new one in rotation, is this too niche? Pls tell me someone remembers this

[becrystalamazed]

It's no more niche than any other British kids gameshow(1), and it's definitely one of the more well known ones, but it does tend to slip peoples' minds until they're actively reminded of it. I've always been fond of it, it's pretty much unique(2) in terms of being a social deduction game(3) with kid contestants, and while the Fight for Freedom isn't quite as showy as other final showdowns, I think the test of observation and memory really emphasises the core skills of saboteur-hunting, which appeals to me. It's a bit spooky, which is fun, and I've always liked the imprison-you-forever trope in gameshows, of which Trapped! is textbook. And the lore and characters are kinda interesting too, especially with the implications around Wiley Sneak's whole existence.

Sorry for the ramble, I was just in the mood to talk about it.

(1) Okay, maybe a little niche (2) There's been some mol-junior shows worldwide and that's about it (3) I wouldn't even say it's strictly social deduction, there's not much deduction going on, but it's definitely informed minority vs uninformed majority

[weaversweek]

Secret Genius on Channel 4

A look at "Secret Genius" on Channel 4, the show that appeared to be about puzzles and the way the brain works, but was actually about how society consistently cannot cope with people who think in an unusual way.

The first episode introduced us to the ambulance tech who remembered all her patients, the shepherd, the drag queen, the quiet civil servant, and the painfully unconfident person.

Pretty much everyone could bring a history of being ignored, dismissed, passed over, or horrendously bullied. Week after week, one contestant might allude to their formative years, and see nods of recognition from all around.

And, by the end of the series, we were rooting for all of them. Okay, some more than others, but whoever won would be a worthy winner.

Tumblr, you'll love it! (Wouldn't be surprised if someone from Tumblr was on it: /me waves enthusiastically and cheers for you, whoever you are.)

And it's got Susie Dent! (And it's got Alan Carr, but he's kept on a reasonable leash and doesn't steal the show.)

Plus! Who do we want to replace Richard Osman on House of Games (3), and which is faster: Taylor Swift selling out Wembley, or Sarah Keyworth naming three Taylor albums.

[becrystalamazed]

Gladiators and Four Wish and Agents of Mystery and WIDM?

I’m having a great weekend :D

[becrystalamazed]

The Periodic-Table-Colour-Pattern-Memory-Game from the most recent episode of Secret Genius reminds me a lot of The Force from Raven: The Dragon's Eye, except I feel like it's better designed. It replaces the luck quota with pure memory testing, and there's a little more strategy to it. I'd love to see reskinned versions slip their way into other gameshows.

[becrystalamazed]

The sisters of all time <3

[justfairythings]

why avoid fairies. theyre fun to play with, you just have to be smart

a game show where everyone ends up physically or emotionally mutilated beyond repair called Are You Smarter Than A Fairy

[becrystalamazed]

I know the whole villain thing with Viper never really worked, but I have a bit of a soft spot for him (read: He has my favourite theme song, I generally like villainous gladiators, and also his actor seems like a decent guy). And the thing is, because nothing they've tried has really worked, they can do literally anything with him. Consider:

They reveal that there are actually three different Vipers: the stoic one who growls, the one who breaks things and the one who gives pantomime villain monologues. All of them still cheat. All of them blame one of the others for failure. They keep hinting at the reveal of a secret fourth Viper.

They suddenly give him a heel-face turn and he tries to be one of the friendly Gladiators. His compliments are really bad, and he keeps 'relapsing' with cheating and having to apologise. They give him a stress ball after he loses to stop him breaking things, cut away, and when they cut back its in tiny pieces and he's unnaturally calm.

Have him be inexplicably friendly with just one other person (one of the two secondary refs, a new gladiator, someone like that) and not explain it at all.

Literally anything. Do you see my vision?