Kangaroo Court – Game Changer S8 Review

Last week's episode of Game Changer was definitely one of the episodes I was most curious about from the trailer, as it featured three contestants who were in last season's Outvoted episode, maybe with them being made to look guilty for stuff. The episode didn't end up having anything to do with that, but I did find the casting connection very fun!

Kangaroo Court is the fourth episode of the eight season of Game Changer. As usual, I suggest you watch the whole thing if you can, and they even uploaded the first parts of it on YouTube for free! This review won't contain any big spoilers, but I will talk about multiple things that happen in the episode.

Kangaroo Court featured three contestants who previously ran for Honorary President of Dropout, Brennan, Vic, and Aabria, and they were given tasks to do. Then they had to convince a jury of seven that they were the one who won each task, and the person who convinced the plurality of the jury would win more points!

The jury was also composed of Dropout cast members/contributors, specifically Geoff Ross, Tao Yang, Alex Song-Xia, Carolyn Page, Alexis Rhiannon, Rashawn Nadine Scott, and Mike Trapp. Paul also featured as Paul Robailiffo, apparently his last jobalino of the season.

This format resulted in the episode having two recurring sections: first the contestants actually did the tasks and bantered with each other and Sam, and then the jury came in and interacted with the contestants. The contestants are all quite competitive in their own way and definitely got in the way of each other during the tasks, but to me it was just as fun seeing them interact with the baffled jury, who somehow had to piece together a verdict from all of their claims, some of them insane, all of them contradictory.

A lot of fun moments came from the first sections! The immediate first task, which they used for the teaser of the episode before it came out, was removing the most bras from some mannequins they were given, which immediately set the chaotic tone for the episode. As the game went on some of the tasks were formatted differently, specifically with a lot of misdirection for the jury. Some tasks were made to look much more complicated than they really were, but some also featured additional elements that impacted the jury directly, like bringing back stenographer Kevi to transcribe one of the tasks as it went on (I loved seeing him back btw!). Some contestants even found loopholes, like Brennan keeping an important part of a task after a misdirection was set for the jury.

The jury, despite being made up of comedians, actually took their role quite seriously, which to me contrasted perfectly with the silly contestants and silly tasks they had to do. Most of the jury just asked questions that set up a lot of the banter between them and the contestants, but they often reacted in very funny ways to a lot of their attempts at "persuasion". In general they mostly played the role of straightening out the silliness of the rest of the episode very well… except for Tao who ended up being just as silly by eating almost everything edible they had.

I also have to mention that this the first episode to introduce the new secondary set they're using this season! I really enjoyed the inclusion of the original circle set in Season 7, and I really like this version of it a lot too with the columns and carpet! From the looks of the trailer there's definitely more episodes that will happen here, so I hope that they take full advantage of it in upcoming episodes!

This was a very good episode, though I will say that I don't think I liked it as much as Night Shift or Roulette 2. I do think I prefer it to Don't Wake Standards and Practices, but ultimately even the weaker episodes of Game Changer are extremely fun, so this is just comparing different scales of good.

The amazing cast of this episode — not just the contestants but the jury too, as well as the very silly tasks and the very pretty set, definitely makes this episode a highlight for me, even if it's not necessarily my favourite of the season so far, it's very much worth anybody's time!