#this is my boringgirl era its 2.6k words long and nobody will read this | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mihotose · 2 years

Text

het grootste licht thoughts

decided to do some review type things for the lesser watched international versions since theres some real good and some real bad in there. i really didnt have high hopes for het grootste licht considering it only got one series but i was pleasantly surprised

basics:

it did not have the red theatre, gold thrones studio setup, more a comfortable daytime show studio like BiT would have, with screens on opposite walls

episodes were just under an hour long each, with three parts (compared with uk’s four and nz’s five)

there were five contestants, four of whom were permanent and one of whom was a guest for that week

the contestants were not specifically comedians but more television presenters

team tasks were teams of two and three, with the guest always on the team of two

each episode was generally made of the prize task, three house tasks, and the studio task

the vast majority of tasks were direct from the uk with little or no adjustments, and as it was broadcast in 2016 the tasks were all taken from s1 and s2

the tasks were filmed in (one of) the taskmaster’s house/s

the taskmaster is gert verhulst, a children’s tv show presenter who owns a themepark and a girl group

his assistant is ruth beeckmans, an actress

neither are comedians

the taskmaster:

im not sure how much adult television gert does, he seemed a little stiff in that regard but i think he ultimately was fine enough in the role

it was referenced a few times throughout the series about how gert dated members of the girl group he owns and while these tended to be jokes made by the contestants at gert’s expense i dont like that he dated his employees and its a very iffy subject. this doesnt affect how i see him as a taskmaster but it does as a person

some of his jokes were a bit off and could feel a bit mean, especially his introductions which were in the same mould as greg’s s1 intros, but i think since he isnt a comedian he didnt always pull them off amazingly. nobody got too offended thouugh and outside of those (which i dont think he even wrote) he could be really funny

his “character” as a taskmaster was less like greg’s authority figure and more like an extremely rich person who wished to be entertained, which had some truth to it, but was played up to an exaggerated degree. although different to greg i dont think its bad at all, the softening of the character works within the more lighthearted adaptation while still holding potential to “be a taskmaster”

gert boasted about his wealth a lot but i dont think offputtingly so. it was clear it was farcical for the character

i think his scoring tended to be fair and he did sometimes let contestants off the hook when they ought to have been disqualified. he didnt respond much to flattery like greg does, neither punishing nor rewarding it

the contestants seemed to respect him but neither did they shy away from making jokes at his expense which he took with good humour

gert’s observations post-vt i dont remember to be particularly brutal. they tended to be simple lines of questioning to figure out why a contestant chose a certain method, which i think most taskmasters besides greg employ, simply bc greg is so good at not crossing the line into offence while still being funny

i dont remember if gert had notecards like greg does so i wonder how much they told him in advance and therefore how much of it was truly off the cuff which is greg’s true skill imo, but again he isnt a comedian so perhaps its fair if they fed him observations etc

i think overall he seemed to be enjoying himself, although he was much less of a burning spark than greg. a good enough taskmaster who got the job done. serviceable

the taskmaster’s assistant:

ruth was a much different kind of assistant to the others ive watched (alex paul and david who are all similar to each other)

she was a lot more friendly and openly affectionate with the contestants, greeting them with a hug or kiss on the cheek before each task

while the other assistants would stand quietly in the corner with their ipad/stopwatch not interfering unless asked ruth would often sit besides the contestant and be more involved and overtly making jokes like a friend

she often turned to look directly into the camera and shrug when things went wrong unlike the others who would just awkwardly glance towards it

where other assistants would help contestants in tasks as long as they were asked nicely (and even when they werent) ruth was more outspoken in that she was her own person with feelings and that if she did decide to help them (which she did most of the time, in all fairness) that was because she wanted to and not because it was part of the job description

all in all ruth was very different to what ive come to expect of the assistant role and while i grew to like her (i originally didnt like her at all; i think she came off way too strongly in the first task such that i couldnt get to know the contestants - this is probably more of an issue with the order they showed the tasks in rather than her) i still much prefer when the assistant is like alex

also, and this is my least favourite thing about ruth, she had an exaggerated crush on one of the contestants and repeatedly flirted with him. im not sure how much of it was a joke but however much it was i found it really annoying

i really dont think assistants should be friendly to that extent with contestants (although contestants Can be friendly back) or at the very least their taskmaster should come first in the priorities list. or maybe thats just me bc i love the established at least somewhat onesideness that is almost inherent now to the taskmaster-assistant dichotomy

that being said im not sure ruth/the production was interested In her playing the role and archetype of “taskmaster’s assistant” rather than “the assistant of gert (the taskmaster),” especially considering het grootste licht was the first international version and so it hadnt been ‘decided’ perhaps exactly where “assistant” ends and “alex horne” begins - which behaviours are assistant-inherent and which are just alex?

therefore, it ended up that ruth was more of a strictly professional personal assistant to gert, who is sometimes belittled by him but didnt seem to mind it, who respected him as a boss and did what he told her to do bc its her job and decided to let herself enjoy it

ruth didnt get a banter section like alex does (neither she or gert being a comedian, nor her character being one that would thrive on the awkwardness and cringiness of the format of a banter section like alex’s) but i think during discussions and between tasks she and gert had pretty funny banter and they seemed to get along well

where gert would introduce them all he tended to say some disparaging things about ruth’s appearance, but she never seemed too offended, probably understanding whats expected of their dynamic, even if she wasnt subscribing exactly to alex’s blueprint

likewise, ruth could make jokes about gert that alex could never get away with. again, they seemed to have a good working relationship

overall i came to like ruth eventually and you could tell the contestants became friends with her too which i found sweet but i still much prefer the traditional assistant mould. but again, it was the first attempt so i cant complain that much

the first few episodes didnt click for me, after watching them i took several days break before i watched six episodes in three days. as i got more used to the contestants and the format it became a lot more enjoyable

only one of the constestants was a comedian, but the others werent unfunny by any means, and were all at least trying their best. my favourite was olga but i also liked guga. het grootste licht was the first with a rotating guest setup, which i dont mind, but it does stop me emotionally investing in the guests and their performance. guests were an automatic writeoff in my brain since they were only around for three or four tasks and so i wasnt interested in getting to know them and moreso in seeing alternative methods of doing a task. being a guest i think has both its advantages and disadvantages in that they are less cautious about the world and its tricks which also allows them to be route one in their methods that permanent contestants may have been too wary to attempt. either way, i wasnt very interested in rooting for the guests

het grootste licht did not have a series long competition and therefore did not have a gert trophy. the prize tasks were the only prizes given out and so only episode scores really mattered; series scores werent being kept track of nor did gert make any mention that the last episode was in any way special. therefore, episodes could technically be watched in any order and it wouldnt make any difference. i didnt mind there being no long competition aspect, and the contestants seemed to continue trying their best throughout, so i suppose it didnt matter. that being said im pleased that had there been a trophy olga would have won it

task notes:

i love the conceal the pineapple task but every other version did it so weirdly. in uk they had the option of wearing their boiler suit and alex was guessing really specific places on their body which was why he took so many guesses to find all their pineapple, whereas ruth guessed more general parts of their bodies so obviously found all their pineapple really quickly

i did think it was funny how she spun them around on the platform really quickly to make them dizzy so theyd tell her where the pineapple was but again i dont think its very assistantly of her

i actually think the eat the egg task worked a lot better here. in uk most of them suspected the egg was raw so didnt rush into eating it whereas in het grootste licht i think the panic hit them and a lot of them immediately broke the egg onto the table believing it to be hardboiled

there were two (or three) solo tasks, one of which was given to a guest which i thought was clever, which was to send the most money to gert’s bank account. shortly before the vt was shown gert had caviar on toast brought in and revealed afterwards that was what he had spent the money on and i really enjoyed how it played out, especially as gert was so open about his wealth throughout the whole show

neither team managed to work out how to score 11 points, unlike the other versions ive seen where one team did

there was a task where they had to gain the most weight and while it was the first time this task had been broadcast it had actually been a task in the original The Taskmaster in 2010, which i thought was interesting. although it may have been an independent original task as the concept is so simple

ruth said something about not telling everyone what the women weighed to be nice which i thought was odd. either say all of their weights or dont, pick one

the potato throw task had a white green (aka a circle of plastic) rather than a red green and they werent allowed to move it either. they tried to recreate a joe wilkinson moment i think but it personally didnt work on me because the editing of the vt was confusing

one of the contestants got the count the beans and the count the rice solo tasks. for the beans he drained away the sauce unlike josh which i thought was clever and for the rice ruth helped him out a little and said she hadnt come up with it so he shouldnt blame her. while true im not sure if that was any consolation and i dont think blaming alex would have helped either. he didnt get any points and he didnt even ask for any which was really odd

the tears in the eggcup task was really interesting. like in uk two of them didnt get any tears, one of them rubbed tabasco under their eyes, and one got other people to help out (but not before putting toothpaste and shampoo in his eyes). uniquely olga was able to sit down and put sad music on and cry her eyes out

they also had the build a bridge for a potato task with a debajo de la mesa and one of them actually figured it out and built a really tall bridge. olga happened to stumble upon the materials just by chance somehow

other things:

the episodes begin with a “what’s to come” preview narrated by ruth before the typewriter sequence that ends with her saying “all that to please this man” and i really liked it. i like when they emphasise that all these silly things are For the taskmaster

as far as i can tell the seating order was random. it wasnt alphabetical like in the uk and while i suppose its the norm on every show everywhere else to Not put your panel in alphabetical order i really really enjoy alex’s irritatingly methodical ways of doing things

the contestants have their prizes with them when they present what they brought in for the prize task, rather than a photo of them being put on the screens

the contestants didnt have a singular task outfit. they clearly shot the tasks over several days and so had different clothes for each filming day

unlike the other versions ive seen the tasks were not on a singular folded piece of paper, they were card inside an envelope which was then sealed with wax

i believe ruth’s ad breaks were the same every episode or at least reused multiple times, unlike uk and nz where they’re unique

when rolling vts alex and paul tap their ipad whereas ruth ‘swiped’ the vt from her ipad to the screens

ruth’s assistant outfit was a pantsuit but she wore different shirts under her blazer across the task days and studio records making her the assistant, i believe, with the biggest outfit changes (alex changes his socks and david his bowtie to match babben. paul doesnt change)

i noticed that BiT scoreboards are backwards to uk’s and nz’s in that the leader is on the left and its the same here. it may be a european thing but it really took me a while to get used to in BiT

olga was 19 at the time i think she may well be the youngest contestant across all versions

to sum up i finished episode 8 enjoying it a lot more than i liked it at the beginning. i had very low standards based off the fact it hadnt been renewed for a second series but overall i think it was enjoyable enough. i did hear that gert signed an exclusivity contract with a different broadcaster after this which may be why it hadnt been, rather than low viewing numbers, but either way im not especially mad about it, though id have been equally pleased if it had been renewed

#this is my boringgirl era its 2.6k words long and nobody will read this #gemitus #het grootste licht

0 notes