For the first time in a few months, I have nothing new to review on the TV/game/book front this week, so why not just give a quick shout-out to one of my favorites on Collegehumor’s Dropout subscription service. This is a quick and easy series to get into, with season 1 only having 5 episodes, each about 20-30 minutes long.

The basic concept of Game Changer is a literal interpretation of the title. Basically, this is a game show, but the rules change every episode. So, the three contestants are brought in with no idea what the rules or goal is, and they have to figure it out along the way in order to win. It’s a really neat idea, and so part of the fun of the show is seeing what the episode is even going to be about.

I guess the obvious complication with a show like this is when the premise changes every episode, some are bound to be better than others. The best examples of this are in my favorite and least favorite episodes. My favorite episode has the three contestants participating in a sound effects contest, where they get points based on how well their impressions of the sounds are. This is really fun, so much so that it got a part 2 in the second season. However, then there’s the murder mystery episode, which sounds fun in theory, but ultimately falls flat.

The positive side to this, though, is that if the premise doesn’t work in an episode, you can at least find comfort that the next episode will be something completely different. I feel like this is the main draw to the show, and so you’re already going to make your mind up about whether this will be worthwhile purely on me describing this as a “game show where the game is different every episode.” If this sounds fun to you, Game Changer is worth watching. It’s not like every single episode is amazing, but it’s a pretty consistently fun show.

4/5