Taskmaster

[K]

Not the best format, but I also never watch these anyway so I'm unperturbed. 

[K]

Loved the new episode. Amazing lineup

[therockbox]

Thorpe Park looks so depressing when it's empty and cold and grey.

Emma Sidi was great, seems like one of those contestants that just 'gets' the whole thing.

The banter in the studio already feels a bit better than the last series, which is encouraging seeing as it's only the first episode.

[K]

I love all five of them at the moment, right off the bat. I've been hoping for Zaltzman for about fifteen series, so I'm well happy.

[therockbox]

That 3D art task was one of the best they've done in ages.

[Chris2K]

I thought the same about the pub quiz one, although that was perhaps less due to the task, and more down to Emma and Rosie's incredible over-acting.

[Chris2K]

So... (episode 4)

Spoiler

Baba should have clearly been disqualified for running in the maze task, right?

It's really weird that they didn't enforce what was one of the clearest rules of the task despite the overwhelming evidence showing him do it.

 

 

 

[ADG]

15 hours ago, Chris2K said:

So... (episode 4)

  Reveal hidden contents

Baba should have clearly been disqualified for running in the maze task, right?

It's really weird that they didn't enforce what was one of the clearest rules of the task despite the overwhelming evidence showing him do it.

 

 

 

He absolutely should have been disqualified.

[Colly]

I think I've mentioned that we only picked up Taskmaster late in lockdown, starting with Series 12, and ever since we've worked off watching the latest one, then catching up from one (not watching a new one til we finish said old one), then randomly watching 11 so we could watch Champion of Champions 3.

Anyway, with that rambling gone we've just got through the genuinely brilliant Series 7 (Acaster, Knappett et al) before hitting a grinding halt with Series 8 episode 4 which is genuinely among the most uncomfortable 20 minutes of tv I've ever seen. I'm almost surprised they didn't forewarn Iain Stirling and consider not showing it, because fucking hell he comes across as the worst human being in the history of TV. The fact he barely speaks again for the rest of the show is really telling. He's quite antagonist in earlier episodes but you could almost write it off as character (Acaster was similar but obviously much funnier and clearly playing off the others), but that really didn't look good. No wonder Hacker stopped working with him.

[Chris2K]

If it's any consolation Iain Stirling has said a lot how horrified he was after watching himself on the show and has apologised to pretty much everyone involved. 

The whole of series 8 is a bit off. You've got Stirling and Lou Sanders being over-competitive to the point of obnoxiousness and having shouting matches in the studio, Joe Thomas being himself, which by his own admission is just a weird guy, and Paul Sinha battling through a shoulder injury in the filmed tasks, shoulder surgery right before the live shows, and watching it now knowing he was in the early stages of his Parkinsons' diagnosis during both. Sian is fine, but not enough to balance any of that out.

[Colly]

I think that's my worry though, he only realised how bad it was watching it back. Hopefully a learning experience for him. 

I'm otherwise enjoying it, Joe is fine for someone who isn't a comedian, and the other three are great. I did a bit of googling after watching and there's a lot of anti Lou Sanders sentiment that I'm not getting 4 episodes in.

[Skummy]

I did the Taskmaster Live Experience yesterday. It was interesting.

It starts with a "Museum", with props from the show, including some of the artwork contestants have painted framed on the walls, and some replicas of bits of the set, with a couple of easter eggs and "find X number of things" tasks to complete, as well as some of the simpler to replicate tasks; my girlfriend got a potato in the hole without touching the red green on her first attempt, I was absolutely dreadful at it.

The actual Taskmaster side of it was reasonably well done; there's recordings of Greg and Alex, and then an "Assistant's Assistant" in the room with you live. There were only four people in my group, whereas other groups had 20+, so it would have worked very differently - if there's more than five of you, only the top five scorers progress to the final task, with everyone else getting a secondary task to complete at that time, and all scores are reset for the final, so basically whoever wins that wins the whole thing. There was one task in the Lab that should have been a team task, but because there were so few of us we were given the option of pairing up or playing it as individuals, and went for individuals. 

There's two options, of an easier or harder route, and we did the easier one, and I was terrible at it. I came second in one task, but got zero points in one, and came last in one, so really not a good run. 

[K]

absolutely should have been DQd for running. that episode didn't do much for me.

It is funny, but disappointing when the live task fails. There was a similar one with coat hanger buckaroo that just got fucked up immediately.

[therockbox]

On the other hand, that live task was great. The sort of thing I'd have no problem with them reusing.

Also really liked the smell in a jar task. We'd just been talking about how we missed the 'buy the Taskmaster a prize' tasks and that felt like a twisted version of it.

Edited October 12 by therockbox