“Game Changer” Season 8 – Every Episode Ranked

If there’s one show I can always guarantee will serve up the consistent laughs, that will continue to blow me away with its craftsmanship and ingenuity, it’s Dropout’s “Game Changer”.

Season 8 has been yet another success, with ten fun episodes that pushed its contestants to their limits … but how would I rank them all?

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

Game Changer – Season 7 Episodes Ranked

Every Modern Resident Evil Game Ranked

EVERY “Friends” Character Ranked

10 Books I Loved In 2024 (And 4 I Didn’t)

Okay

10 – Kangaroo Court

All of the episodes this season were solid. These guys know how to make a good, one-off game show by this point, so all of the premises had potential … but I think the biggest wasted potential in Season 8 was “Kangaroo Court”.

The idea is that the contestants had to compete in a random game for points, then afterwards convince a jury that they were the ones who won. A great premise, but unfortunately the prompts / games were quite boring to begin with.

If it wasn’t for Brennan and Vic being two of my favourite Dropout performers, this episode could’ve been a dud.

Good

9 – I Spy

The premise of “I Spy” was awesome. The art department (shout-out to those incredibly talented people!) created many detailed scenes of famous images from history, and it was up to the cast to spot where the prompted item was.

This led to many great moments – any time the cast had to guess where the cake was, or whenever a prompt threw a spanner in the works like “find Brennan Lee Mulligan”, it was fun to see them arguing over the specifics.

Sadly, I think this is a case of a game being over-designed. Having a Spy to mislead people is a good enough game mechanic by itself, so the two other roles needlessly muddied the waters.

8 – Earwigs

How has “Game Changer” not done an episode like “Earwigs” before? It’s an extremely simple premise to have at least one player be a sort of traitor and be fed no / incorrect information via earpiece, so I’m surprised it took until Season 8 to see that idea become reality.

Despite the very simple premise, this was a fun episode. The large cast bounced off each other really well, and the games AND meta-games were entertaining to watch unfold.

And the Alex Horne narration was a pleasant surprise.

7 – Last Talent Standing

The Season 8 finale was disappointing in some regards, and indicative of some of the deeper problems “Game Changer” is starting to have. This bloated cast becomes too much after a point, and the game itself never evolved into something truly entertaining.

Still, “Last Talent Standing” certainly had its moments. The three guest judges were funny, and a fair few of the talent segments were either impressive or hilarious.

But there was just too much filler and too many random talents for this to be a “Great” episode. In one segment, for example, Kimia missed a basketball shot … and she got three passes anyway? This episode was so inconsistent at times it hurt.

6 – Night Shift

“Night Shift” had one of the most complex premises of the season. A trio of contestants had to complete a series of tasks as part of their “day shift”, unaware that their night-time counterparts were coming in and messing it up for them afterwards.

This led to lots of fun moments of misunderstanding, like the “Don’t Acknowledge Ron Pearlman” minigame, but also a lot of second-hand stress as well. It’s so frustrating as the viewer when you know what the contestants have to do but there’s no way of telling them!

Also, I think this was overdesigned like “I Spy”. The “time shop” and the back alley informant were two random game elements that ultimately added nothing.

Great

5 – What’s The Catch

I’m glad they cast Kurt, Jacob and Kimia for “What’s The Catch” – their strong friendships meant that they were more than willing to give each other hilarious punishments.

I liked the game design of having a prize ruined by a catch (or three), but that does mean some punishments were naturally better than others. Jacob’s “go to a theme park every day for a week, one minute at a time” punishment, for example, felt like a waste of everybody’s time.

What sent this episode up into my “Great” tier (other than Josh’s amazing Fisherman character) was Kimia’s dad – his acting reel served up some of the biggest laughs of the whole season. He was a natural!

Out of all the episodes of Season 8, “What’s The Catch” is the one that I think has the biggest sequel potential. Some of those future prize-catch combos could be dastardly.

4 – Count The Rice

“Count The Rice” has become one of the highest-rated episodes of Season 8, and for good reason. The layered premise is executed to perfection.

The rice-counting is merely the first step of a long chain of tasks – the players had to make it all the way to the “bottom” task by losing and then climb back up by winning. But, in a stroke of genius game design, they didn’t know at first that they were initially supposed to lose.

There were some really funny tasks in the mix, like the Grant fever dream and the spot the difference rooms, but one of the unfortunate side effects of the game is that most of the players became redundant after a point. Out of the seven participants, only two or three were regularly followed by cameras.

I bet this is one of those games which is more fun to participate in than watch.

3 – Don’t Wake Standards & Practices

Season 8 opened with a bang for “Don’t Wake Standards & Practices” – to be honest, I was shocked that Dropout’s legal team allowed some of this to air!

Jeremy, Lou and Ally were tasked with pushing the boundaries of their comedy. The game involved making outrageous claims in front of a trio of lawyers, and the lawyers decided how many points to award – the catch being that if the players went overboard (and could potentially get sued) they’d go straight back to square one.

At first it was funny to watch them walk the tightrope of what was allowed, but it soon devolved into some hilariously risqué chaos.

Amazing

2 – Rulette 2

The sequel everyone asked for, and it delivered. “Rulette 2” is an uproarious extension of a fan-favourite.

It made sense for Anna to return to the chaos, and Josh and Demi were also great picks for the absurdity of the rules and prompts – Josh in particular had to juggle so many silly scenarios, but he pulled it off perfectly.

I wasn’t entirely sure if this game had replay potential, but “Rulette 2” proved it. I’d be happy for this to spinoff into its own show.

1 – Noise Some Makes

Look, I know the premise is simple. “Noise Some Makes” is just “Make Some Noise” with some extra steps … which in itself is just a charades with words permitted. But my god, I haven’t laughed this hard all year.

Having the Noise Boys back was an immediate plus, and the various additions were fantastic. The drawing, phone booth and prompt-guessing were all matches made in heaven.

The part in particular where Josh (and the other Noise Boys) was in the phone booth and couldn’t get a word out … holy shit. I had to pause the episode because I was dying from laughter.

This to me is classic “Game Changer”. The focus is on three hilarious participants, the game is light-hearted, and the episode escalates in ingenious ways right until the end. The best episode of the season, without a doubt.

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