Television Taskmaster | Season 17 now airing

macheda14

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Nobody watching the current series or is it just not worth commenting on?
The few episodes I’ve seen have been good. Not top tier but still funny. More I have Taskmaster fatigue after watching so many seasons. Think it would take a really big cast to get me watching a whole season again.
 

Stevondo8

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Yeah it's been good imo.
Been decent I think. Doubt we’ll ever get a truly great season again just because of how long it’s been going now.

I do enjoy Sue Perkins’ old school army major character she slips into every now and then.
 

Solius

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Been pleasently surprised by all of them really. Julian has been funny in a very dry way, Perkins has been good, Susan Wokoma has done well and been funny, Sam is your typical bit weird funny bloke and despite thinking I'd find Lucy's 'I'm dumb and northern shtick' annoying she does it very well and it's good.
 

lsd

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This season has been excellent and perhaps that's why there's little reaction as there's nothing to really complain about.

Julian has been really funny and Sam and Lucy are perfectly nuts. Sue and Susan have also entered into the spirit of the show.

I think personally I'm just glad all the cast are very likeable and into what the show is about compared to last year where Mae seemed to think they were on mastermind and not an entertainment show.
 

Red Shorts

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Really strong season this, first time in a while I like all of the cast members.

Sue Perkins has won me over big time. Was not a fan of her at all before this, found her annoying. Really good humour.
 

harms

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The tasks are a bit meh (which can be expected) but the cast is really good.
 

lsd

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Really strong season this, first time in a while I like all of the cast members.

Sue Perkins has won me over big time. Was not a fan of her at all before this, found her annoying. Really good humour.

I like Sure though i was worried she might not enter into the spirit of the show but she has.

Lucy is amazing and Julian is just so funny with his put downs.

Starting to get a bit closer in the scoring too
 

Massive Spanner

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The tasks are a bit meh (which can be expected) but the cast is really good.
Agree with this. Some of the worst tasks in the whole show. The nickname one, the robot hoovers (funny when Sam was saying how crap it was) but a great cast have kept it entertaining. In fairness the live tasks have generally been really good, too.

Sue is great but Lucy and Sam are all timers. Lucy definitely does the self sabotage on purpose at times, though.
 

sullydnl

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The look of unadulterated greed in that child's eyes was quite heartwarming in its own way.
 

decorativeed

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It's been a really good series so far, this one. Weird given how poor the last one was, particularly in terms of the quality of the tasks. There have been one or two poor ones, but in general they have been a lot more fun. I'm really enjoying all the cast, especially Sam, who I'd never seen before he was on this.
 

hobbers

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It's been a really good series so far, this one. Weird given how poor the last one was, particularly in terms of the quality of the tasks. There have been one or two poor ones, but in general they have been a lot more fun. I'm really enjoying all the cast, especially Sam, who I'd never seen before he was on this.
The tasks have been better this season than last for sure, at least there's been none of that "stand on this spot and do x" tasks like there were dozens of last season.

But mainly having 5 likeable contestants, and not having an unlikeable shit gaming every task.
 

Stevondo8

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The tasks have been better this season than last for sure, at least there's been none of that "stand on this spot and do x" tasks like there were dozens of last season.

But mainly having 5 likeable contestants, and not having an unlikeable shit gaming every task.
Helps that the cast is a bit more physically able, don’t think jenny eclair was able to do much in the last series
 

Damien

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Hotel task was great and something that can be repurposed for future series by changing the hotel to something different and causing chaos.

Shame about the final live task but was just one of those things that can either last ages or everyone's eliminated instantly - I like how the ones after Sam got balls as close to the style of his as possible.
 

lsd

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Hotel task was great and something that can be repurposed for future series by changing the hotel to something different and causing chaos.

Shame about the final live task but was just one of those things that can either last ages or everyone's eliminated instantly - I like how the ones after Sam got balls as close to the style of his as possible.

The hotel was amazing and while it doesn't really matter who wins i think it might have come down to that task between Sam and Julian.

I will miss Lucy's prize task ramblings while Greg removed his glasses and listens in total bewilderment at her.

Sam was a total breakout star, Julian was really funny which isn't always the case when there's an older event removed from the others.

The two sues were a a proper double act credit to who paired up the teams.

It's certainly a session i want to watch again as soon as possible.
 

decorativeed

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Yeah, really a return to form, that season. I enjoyed it a lot.

The lineup for the new year special is very poor, however. I think I've only heard of two of them.
 

hobbers

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Sucks we'll probably have to wait till new year to hear about the season 17 lineup.

I know the two people Horne most wants on whenever he's asked is Jack Dee and Stephen Merchant. Would be good if they got either of them.
 

Stevondo8

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Yeah, really a return to form, that season. I enjoyed it a lot.

The lineup for the new year special is very poor, however. I think I've only heard of two of them.
Lenny rush is in daisy May cooper sitcom “am I being unreasonable” worth a watch on iPlayer. Steve backshall should be decent. Not sure about zoe ball, don’t expect much from meadon, no idea on the other one.
 

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The hotels task was so good :lol:

Sam is one of my favourite ever contestants now. Lucy was great too. They all brought something a bit different to the table actually and went for it in their own way which is always the makings of a great series.

The standard of the tasks has gotten poor though. The donut one was another really bad one.
 

decorativeed

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Lenny rush is in daisy May cooper sitcom “am I being unreasonable” worth a watch on iPlayer. Steve backshall should be decent. Not sure about zoe ball, don’t expect much from meadon, no idea on the other one.
Meadon is usually quite a sane voice on Twitter and was great on Murder ville, but not sure about the rest. I'll check out that sitcom, as I enjoyed This Country.
 

altodevil

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Three episodes in to the most recent series. Already way better than the Boyle one. Tasks way better. No try harder. Clary brilliant.
 

CallyRed

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Thought Kojey was great on the NYT. Would be good to see him in a full series. Meaden, Alex and the toaster was a great moment.
Has anyone appeared on a NY episode and went on to be in a full series?
 

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Has anyone appeared on a NY episode and went on to be in a full series?
Not yet because the full series is usually for comedians and the NY episodes for others, but Alex and Greg have said that going on the NY episode doesn't stop someone from being on the full series at a later point - so there's a chance someone could get the full set of eyebrows, head and body.
 

hobbers

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Champ of champs saved somewhat since Mae Martin wasn't able to be in it.
 

Bertie Wooster

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Champ of champs saved somewhat since Mae Martin wasn't able to be in it.
Yeah, that's good news.

I got mixed up as to who was in the same line up as Mae, and who finished 2nd, so I was particularly pleased at first thinking it might be Ivo Graham or Mike Wozniak (wrong series!) who was the replacement. In comparison to those, I'm less excited about Kiell. But in comparison to Mae, then I'm really pleased to see him in it.
 

Bertie Wooster

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I was unfamiliar with Lenny Rush before the New Years Special episode.

I know he won the one off special - that managed to work the small number of tasks so that he wasn't inconvenienced - but I'm not sure how they could have someone like him, or say the blind Chris McCausland, on for a full series of 10 episodes (so 30-40 tasks)?

They had Chris McCausland on House of Games recently and, points wise, he did well - but, again, in order for that they had to change the format so that there were no visual rounds which meant it was a very 'samey' week with plenty of audio rounds each day. It was fine as a one off, but was one of the poorer weeks in terms of variety of rounds so the show would be worse if they had to 'dumb it down' too often.

And I think the same applies to Taskmaster. I can see how the one off New Year Specials can be tweaked for someone like Lenny Rush, Chris McCausland, Rosie Jones, etc, to participate - but I'm not sure how they'd manage to come up with 30-40 tasks for a full series if they were seriously limited in how physical / visual any of them could be?
 

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I was unfamiliar with Lenny Rush before the New Years Special episode.

I know he won the one off special - that managed to work the small number of tasks so that he wasn't inconvenienced - but I'm not sure how they could have someone like him, or say the blind Chris McCausland, on for a full series of 10 episodes (so 30-40 tasks)?

They had Chris McCausland on House of Games recently and, points wise, he did well - but, again, in order for that they had to change the format so that there were no visual rounds which meant it was a very 'samey' week with plenty of audio rounds each day. It was fine as a one off, but was one of the poorer weeks in terms of variety of rounds so the show would be worse if they had to 'dumb it down' too often.

And I think the same applies to Taskmaster. I can see how the one off New Year Specials can be tweaked for someone like Lenny Rush, Chris McCausland, Rosie Jones, etc, to participate - but I'm not sure how they'd manage to come up with 30-40 tasks for a full series if they were seriously limited in how physical / visual any of them could be?
Is it any good? I've never heard of him, I just know from Wikipedia he's a a child.
 

Bertie Wooster

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Is it any good? I've never heard of him, I just know from Wikipedia he's a child.
He's a child, yeah. And also has dwarfism.

It was OK. I think I've generally found the New Year's ones only OK, really - good bonus episodes, but with no comedians they're often not as funny and feel a bit Taskmaster-lite. Though, this time, I thought the banter in the studio was fine, and it was the tasks which weren't great as they had to limit what they did because of Lenny Rush, I guess.

It's worth watching.
 

Yagami

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I always save Taskmaster to watch with my brother when he comes back to Manchester to visit so we've been binging this again recently.

We were up to S10 and just finished it. I loved it. This was the one after lockdown so they had no audience which I thought was going to be weird but it really wasn't. Katherine was my favourite from the get go because I loved her in IT Crowd and remained my favourite throughout, so naturally she finished last. Her bit on the final episode with the spider was hilarious!

I was happy for Richard. I liked them all but Daisy was iffy at times. Sometimes I found her to be a bit fake and her legitimately getting angry over the hippo, whilst hilarious, was a bit much for a light hearted show like this.

Onto Champion of Champions 2!
 

Damien

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Was rooting for Dara but felt once again Greg was favourable to him with the scoring, especially for the elastic bands on the head and the hat task.

Ah well, if there is a CoCoC, Josh Widdicombe, Richard Herring and Dara Ó Briain are a good combo so far.
 

Globule

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Was rooting for Dara but felt once again Greg was favourable to him with the scoring, especially for the elastic bands on the head and the hat task.

Ah well, if there is a CoCoC, Josh Widdicombe, Richard Herring and Dara Ó Briain are a good combo so far.
I feel it's a fairly flat lineup so far. I think it could do with more chaotic energy so I was really hoping Morgana was going to take this.
 

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Was rooting for Dara but felt once again Greg was favourable to him with the scoring, especially for the elastic bands on the head and the hat task.

Ah well, if there is a CoCoC, Josh Widdicombe, Richard Herring and Dara Ó Briain are a good combo so far.
Elastic bands on the head was absolutely hilarious and the exact right amount of stupid - definitely worth 4 points. Minimum 3. (It was definitely better then Sophie and Kiell's efforts) - Sarah was underscored on that one.

The hat task if anything he was underscored? He had a hand tied behind his back! Which is a way bigger disadvantage then what Sarah and Sophie had, but he got the same amount of points as them).