Taskmaster (Greg Davies sets some comedians daft challenges!)

Penn

A decent series. Mid-tier, but had a lot to enjoy throughout. Sophie was fantastic, really looked forward to all her attempts. Steve's prize tasks were absolute genius for the most part. Nick had his moments. John and already-genuinely-can't-think-of-her-name were fine.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122204316#Comment_122204316

Totally agree on Sophie she was terrific. Hopefully this brings some more people to watch the excellent Alma's not normal.

Dodge

caught up with the season finale. Really enjoyed the whole season. Hadn’t high hopes before it but overall it was great fun

(Have even lower hopes for next season based on the cast)

Exclamation Marc

Season 2 (originally meant to be Season 3) of Taskmaster Australia has started and the first two episodes have been an absolute riot.

sammyjo90

I would have put money on the fact that Jack Dee had already done a series of TM.

And from reading comments from other sites I seem to not be the only one who has dreamt this up! Weird

Basq

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122220672#Comment_122220672

He's been the one dream guest Alex had wanted since the start so he's been referred to a couple of times in various articles and social media.

salmocab

yeah delighted with Jack Dee as usual there’s a few I don’t know and that generally works out okay.

Penn

I was hoping this was going to be more a behind-the-scenes, maybe going through some old tasks and things that went wrong or they had to change etc. It's more just a clip show with a little bit of voiceover between.

Basq

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122228355#Comment_122228355

Was between watching this and latest episode of AU.. sounds like I made the right choice!

Penn

Yeah, it's 48 minutes in and they're only now showing something new... (ish). They showed an outtake that was already on YouTube. Now back to clips from an old task.

salmocab

that was disappointing, even the banter between clips was really forced and scripted.
thought there’d be some behind the scenes stuff in how the show is made but it was like the filler episode in a 90s sitcom where they have a full episode of flashbacks just to make an extra cheap **** episode

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122229201#Comment_122229201

Yeah. Thankfully it wasn't quite as bad as what the channels usually do with the likes of Mock The Week, Would I Lie To You, Cats Does Countdown etc, where they announce a new series of 6 episodes, but the last episode is just highlights of the previous 5. This didn't take up the space of a normal episode and was just a bonus. Kind of pointless though given how often Taskmaster is repeated on a loop. Think I read though that there'll be one of these at the end of each series for the next few series'.

Even an end-of-series filmed Taskmaster Podcast type of episode would be great, where they just interview the cast and go through highlights, let them talk about it, show extra footage etc. Would be cheap to make (wouldn't need an audience or anything) and be far more worth watching.

Exclamation Marc

Picked up tickets today for the Taskmaster Live Experience in November in London. Incredibly excited for it!

siblers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122250967#Comment_122250967

TThought it wasn't till next week they were doing the draw

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122251473#Comment_122251473

They had a "lucky duck" draw where they randomly gave out early access today to some entrants.

There are two different experiences, 'Absolute Casserole' and 'Melon Buffet'. It's pricey though. Prices at the weekend start at £70 and work up to £100 per ticket whereas weekdays start at £50 and work up to £100.

Basq

Taskmaster VR out tomorrow too.

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/app/6997166963639073/

siblers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122251592#Comment_122251592

Quite expensive when you don't know what it involves. Saw that you do it in a group of 14 but the top 5 only get to do the final task.

I'd be happy enough to pay 50, doubt I could justify 100 when there's no details on what's involved

Basq

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252776#Comment_122252776

Sounds like a similar price point and setup to The Crystal Maze Experience and that makes a fortune.. albeit among often quite negative reviews.

siblers

Wife got drawn, can't see us going though, too expensive for little over an hour and you don't know what you're getting. Plus no guarantee of doing the live final task either

Zaph

Same here, my wife got the email earlier. If we lived in London, maybe we'd have splashed out. But add flights and hotel to ridiculously priced tickets for just an hour and it's really not worth it, especially if you're not even guaranteed to get to complete the whole thing.

Basq

Season 5 of Taskmaster NZ started last night.

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122472595#Comment_122472595

Very good first episode, a really strong start. Bit of an unusual set-up this year as one of the contestants couldn't make the studio records so they've a guest in their place, which is a huge shame as Tofiga is brilliant.

Basq

Only seen her on Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont Spelling Bee, but Abby's bloody adorable!

pjohnson

The Youtube algorithm somehow spat this out at me so I've been watching. I ended up starting with Series 10 (?) Johnny Vegas I thought would never be beaten as a contestant as he genuinely seemed to believe his life was in danger in every single task if he didn't win, yet he almost constantly ended up in the most chaotic moments (all his balloons abandoning him in slow motion, "Have you been in an accident that wasn't your fault?" - immediately betrayed by the ladder, 400ft chicken, beermat apartment failure, tripped up by a ghost trying to turn on his unplugged hose, I've been hurt and I want to hurt others, genuine lack of phone service to finish his locker task and having to borrow Alex's phone)

But series 7 already seems to be absolutely the elite series. Only 2 episodes in but I think Acasters "are we the stupidest" is not only accurate then but actually still accurate now. Himself and Rhod have great squabbles while Knappett honks away and Wang just Wangs.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122509801#Comment_122509801

Series 7 is pretty much considered to be the best. Great lineup, great tasks, studio banter/arguments were great.

Series 1-5, 9, 13 and 14 are also some of the best ones. 6 and 8 were pretty weak (8 had some good moments but not enough), 10-12 were during Covid and so never felt right. 15 & 16 were okay for the most part. The last series (17) was also pretty decent.

You have a lot of good stuff to catch up on! Enjoy!

Basq

You lucky duck @pjohnson ..

.. don't forget the likes of New Zealand and Australia when finished.

You've a lot of catching up to do.

Oh, new series of UK should start about this time next month I believe - Alex was on Sunday Brunch last week and mentioned it.

pjohnson

The third episode of series 7 goes from James playing a lovely game of tag with Alex to Rhod stripping Alex, tying him up and waterboarding him with coffee.

This is fantastic.

J. Marston

Been binging this like mad on Netlfix over the last month, just finished season 10, absolutely love it. Would agree with was said above about season 7 being the best. Acaster ignoring Alex, Knappett falling off the stage, Rhod tormenting Greg, Phil Wang haggling and Kerri's "Bosh!". It was a great cast.

I think Daisy May Cooper is the only person I didn't really like on the show. She just rubbed me the wrong way. She was heavily pregnant for the studio shows though so maybe she was exhausted/cranky, in her defence.

Dodge

in general the Covid era studio bits aren’t great and I don’t find her that funny in the first place, but her losing it with Richard Herring is an all time taskmaster moment

Zaph

Episodes 1-4 of Taskmaster NZ series 5 are on YouTube. Next two episodes are out tomorrow and Wednesday.