The one hundred twenty-second TV show: #6 What's My Line
While I don't think I hold much hope for a lot of these early shows, when we were looking for What's My Line, we tried some fragments and enjoyed it. It became an easy pick now and we've been thoroughly enjoying it now. The idea is somewhat simple - celebrities attempt to guess a person's job or line, or try to determine the identity of a celebrity guest. They do this through asking yes or no questions and lose their turn if they say no. Ten no answers and the guest wins, which happens often enough. What sets the show apart is both that the panel plays incredibly seriously - at times they know exactly what to go for - and how they interact. It feels like a pretty formal show - male guests wear dinner jackets and the ladies lovely dresses, at times with gloves. The panel is addressed as Mr. ... or Mrs. ... by the moderator. At the same time, they are familiar enough with each other to banter and tease each other. It's a lot of fun to watch, both to see the game being played and see these players in action and it's all a great feel good show... available on Youtube right now to make it easier.
The seventy-fifth comic: #695 Yu Gi Oh
In the mean time, I've been reading Yu Gi Oh, which has been an interesting experience. I've only seen bits of the anime series and so came into it knowing there's a card game and some of the cards it features, but I've never paid too much attention and would be more familiar with games like Magic the Gathering that this is based on. Reading the manga is an odd experience then, as the card game barely appears in the first set of volumes. Instead, Yugi, the title character, solves an ancient puzzle that awakens a second personality in him that's good at games, and can trigger punishments for losing games. The first set of episodes is about him taking revenge on bad people and righting wrongs through games as he slowly takes on longer arcs and develops a set of recurring antagonists, as well as a mythology. Around the tenth volume, this picks up further as the card game takes over in the longer Duelist Kingdom arc, which revolves around these themes all using the card game, which pretty much has the only focus at this point.
The division is quite clear in my mind, and as the popular card game becomes the focus on the series, my interest goes down. There's something interesting about the different variations and parodies of popular games that appear and how they get visualized, as well as the punishments related to that. The card game starts off quite interesting, especially when the rules are quite loose, but they quickly start following a similar pattern: the opponent has a trick or somewhat of a cheat they use, Yugi or another protagonist is forced in a corner because of it, but because they trust in the cards they draw a card that wins them the game at the last moment. It's a fine device when used occasionally, but here it feels exhausting, with nobody playing fair and the flow of the series becoming predictable. I gave up at the start of the second arc, as it seemed clear that's how it continued, and I think that's the right point to do it if that arc doesn't interest you. Start at the beginning, but be prepared for the story's quality to drop.