Television Taskmaster | Series 18 starts tonight

Globule said:
During lockdown 1 he presented a YouTube quiz series, where he'd get a bunch of comedians for a virtual pub quiz. That was the first time I saw him and he came across quite well in that. Quite sharp and witty. I'm expecting him to be quite thoughtful with the tasks. Not necessarily good, mind - that's always harder to predict.
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Yeah, I enjoyed Ivo's YouTube quiz during lockdown. I've seen him on a good few panel shows - in particular on two separate weeks of House of Games (and he's on for a third time in an upcoming week just before Christmas for those who want to watch him). And also on British as Folk - along with Fern Brady. And I quite like his dry, self-mocking style.

I watch a lot of the panel shows so I'm usually familiar with most of the contestants as most of them regularly pop up on one or another (and, again, 4 out of 5 of the newly announced series). It'll be interesting to see how Frankie Boyle works on a warmer show like Taskmaster. He's witty, but his humour is often quite acerbic / political. But most seem to adjust their style to suit the tone of Taskmaster and he'll probably rein it in a bit as well and he should be an entertaining watch.
 
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Loved the last series. Up there as one of the best.

I'd seen all 5 before on panel shows - but Dara and Sarah a lot more than the others. I'd mostly seen John in 'character', so it was great to see how entertaining he was as himself.
 
That'll probably go down as one of my favourite series of the show. They all had their moments in the sun and lots of funny moments. Glad John didn't go in character - think that would have put a dampener on things.
 
Globule said:
During lockdown 1 he presented a YouTube quiz series, where he'd get a bunch of comedians for a virtual pub quiz. That was the first time I saw him and he came across quite well in that. Quite sharp and witty. I'm expecting him to be quite thoughtful with the tasks. Not necessarily good, mind - that's always harder to predict.
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I've started re-watching Ivo's YouTube quiz again since the news he'll be on the next series of Taskmaster.

My favourite so far is probably the 5th, as it includes Tim Key behaving pretty much like he does on No More Jockeys... :)

 
Caught up on the last couple. Only one I skipped was the Tim Vine one, first episode I knew just wasn't going to be much fun. This last series very good.
 
looking forward to the new years treat episode on 1st Jan.
 
The new series (15) begins next Thursday - 30th March.

A reminder of the group - Frankie Boyle, Ivo Graham, Jenny Eclair, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Mae Martin.
 
Been watching the NZ one. Heard season 2 was the best so started with that. The whole thing with the Brussel sprout was great. The Taskmaster is proper dull though isn’t he. Has nothing funny to say ever.
 
Started watching Australian TaskMaster... it's OK, some of the comedians are trying too hard though, doesn't seem as natural as the NZ version


Solius said:
Been watching the NZ one. Heard season 2 was the best so started with that. The whole thing with the Brussel sprout was great. The Taskmaster is proper dull though isn’t he. Has nothing funny to say ever.
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Yeah, Jeremy Wells is a bit understated - You actually appreciate him more in Season 2 after Season 1 - as he's REALLY underwhelming in Season 1.

Paul Williams more then makes up for it though - he's great.
 
Redlambs said:
NZ Taskmaster shows just how much Greg carries the show. Put him and Williams together and it would be pure magic every season no matter who the guests are.
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That would be great to watch. None of the other taskmasters have come close. I took one look at who they put in for the Aussie version, and knew it wasn't going to be great.
 
David Correos in the NZ version is great :lol:

“I’m gonna drown you in your own blood”.
 
Yeah think he's probably one of my favorites as well. You'd think at some point they might do an international special with some of the best of each country.

It's a shame the format doesn't really allow the funniest people to come back.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Started watching Australian TaskMaster... it's OK, some of the comedians are trying too hard though, doesn't seem as natural as the NZ version




Yeah, Jeremy Wells is a bit understated - You actually appreciate him more in Season 2 after Season 1 - as he's REALLY underwhelming in Season 1.

Paul Williams more then makes up for it though - he's great.
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He's basically a cardboard cutout in season 1. He's better in season 2, but still not great. He just doesn't seem... funny. It shows how important Greg is.
 
Smores said:
Yeah think he's probably one of my favorites as well. You'd think at some point they might do an international special with some of the best of each country.

It's a shame the format doesn't really allow the funniest people to come back.
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Alex recently said on an AMA (that's on the Taskmaster YouTube Channel) that he would love to do an International winners special, even though it would probably be difficult to sign off and people might not be interested in watching it.
 
Thanks to all the posts about the New Zealand version, I've had a great few days watching all the full episodes / clips I can find on YouTube - mainly of series 2.

I must have seen some of those episodes before, as I definitely remembered some of David's mad antics, and Guy's t-shirts with early photos of Paul on them. :lol:

David's madness provided some great moments (not surprised to read he's now a writer for that version), and Guy's dry humour and one liners probably made him my favourite. Everyone was spot on in the earlier posts - it seemed a great series, Paul was brilliant as the assistant, and the Taskmaster was pretty wooden and humour-free.
 
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Bertie Wooster said:
Thanks to all the posts about the New Zealand version, I've had a great few days watching all the full episodes / clips I can find on YouTube - mainly of series 2.

I must have seen some of those episodes before, as I definitely remembered some of David's mad antics, and Guy's t-shirts with early photos of Paul on them. :lol:

Everyone was spot on in the posts - it seemed a great series, Paul was brilliant as the assistant, and the Taskmaster was pretty wooden and humour-free.
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I think I watched all the episodes of both seasons on YT, have they been taken down?

But yes, they are great. I've watched bits and pieces of others, but not been taken in as much as NZ.
 
I think I will watch NZ episodes given the comments above.
 
NZ is by far the best foreign Taskmaster so far. First season is pretty dull but 2 and 3 are good.
 
Dailymotion is generally a good place to find the episodes if they're not on YouTube.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Started watching Australian TaskMaster... it's OK, some of the comedians are trying too hard though, doesn't seem as natural as the NZ version
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Dargonk said:
That would be great to watch. None of the other taskmasters have come close. I took one look at who they put in for the Aussie version, and knew it wasn't going to be great.
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After really enjoying the New Zealand version, I've watched the first couple of episodes from the only Australian series so far. And, I agree - it's not great.

Not helped by none of the 5 contestants being particularly funny, and some, as pointed out, seeming to try too hard. But the bigger problem long term is that the Taskmaster and the assistant aren't great either.

I guess the Taskmaster's no worse than the NZ one, but he's definitely no Greg. And the assistant is really no Alex Horne or Paul Williams. He's the worst of the three by some distance. And, so far, the Australian version is by far the worst of the three that I've seen.

The first series would obviously have been helped with funnier contestants, but the choice of Taskmaster and, especially, the assistant is more of an issue in the long term.
 
Finished the NZ Season 2 one. It's up there with the best of the UK seasons.
 
Ivo Graham is very funny, I recently listened to Several podcasts where he did a breakdown of Steve Bruce’s trio of novels. I would highly recommend giving them a listen.
 
Redlambs said:
NZ Taskmaster shows just how much Greg carries the show. Put him and Williams together and it would be pure magic every season no matter who the guests are.
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Cant stand Greg Davies. I generally fast forward the non tasky bits unless I really like the comedians involved.
 
Nico87 said:
Ivo Graham is very funny, I recently listened to Several podcasts where he did a breakdown of Steve Bruce’s trio of novels. I would highly recommend giving them a listen.
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hobbers said:
Expect Ivo or Kiell to win the season and Frankie to finish last.
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Yeah, I've seen Ivo on a good few panel shows, podcasts, YouTube Pub Quiz, etc, and always like his dry, self-effacing humour.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Ivo's ultra poshness working against him at times in Greg's scoring, but I would imagine it will be between him, Kiell or Mae Martin to win it - and can't see Frankie Boyle over exerting himself in many tasks. :)
 
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Solius said:
Get out. In fact that whole post is insanity.
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Yeah I missed the whole Taskmaster bandwagon. Only watched my first episode in February. I just find him to be desperately unfunny. Alex Horne is a genius and many of the comedians are good value. Greg is a bit of an empty vessel after coming to it this late.
 
Bertie Wooster said:
After really enjoying the New Zealand version, I've watched the first couple of episodes from the only Australian series so far. And, I agree - it's not great.

Not helped by none of the 5 contestants being particularly funny, and some, as pointed out, seeming to try too hard. But the bigger problem long term is that the Taskmaster and the assistant aren't great either.

I guess the Taskmaster's no worse than the NZ one, but he's definitely no Greg. And the assistant is really no Alex Horne or Paul Williams. He's the worst of the three by some distance. And, so far, the Australian version is by far the worst of the three that I've seen.

The first series would obviously have been helped with funnier contestants, but the choice of Taskmaster and, especially, the assistant is more of an issue in the long term.
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Yeah, pretty valid criticisms... Though I am enjoying it a bit more now to be fair. Just got to episode 5 and it was definitely the strongest so far (thanks largely to some excellent tasks).
 
UnrelatedPsuedo said:
Cant stand Greg Davies. I generally fast forward the non tasky bits unless I really like the comedians involved.
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The Cat said:
Agreed, hate his stand up too.
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I've not really seen much of his stand up, and thought it was only OK when I did.

But as the Taskmaster he's fantastic. He absolutely nails that role. Even more so after watching the Australia and New Zealand versions recently. The latter is actually very good, but the Taskmaster's in both are so poor compared to Greg.
 
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