I think Ivo alone is worth tuning in for.
Television Taskmaster | Series 18 starts tonight
- Thread starter prateik
- Start date
I actually think the cast could be decent (Mae being an easy person to root against), but the tasks have been boring as shit.
Did you start from the beginning or latest season? I mean, it's still the same show, but the first few seasons were the best.
Ive watched a few of them over the years and never once thought it was entertaining or funny.
That's fair enough!
I still think season 1 was my favourite. The one with Frank Skinner. If someone can't get into that season then, yeah, there's probably no hope for the rest of the show.
Yeah, Ivo's not disappointed for me. Though his dry, self-effacing humour isn't enough to carry a weak series on its own. But he's certainly doing his part to add some understated humour. And his and Frankie's one liners, and Kiell's complaining about the scores, are making the banter in the studio scenes quite good.
It's definitely the poor quality of the tasks that's the main problem. And Mae Martin taking it too serious in a pretty much humour-free way a la Sarah Kendall in series 11. There's nothing wrong with contestants wanting to win of course, and that can be fun to watch if the contestant also remember to try to be entertaining. But Sarah and Mae were / are both pretty boring and almost robotic like during tasks.
Yeah, if someone 'never once' finds any of the first 7 series of the show entertainment or funny then it's probably never going to be a show for them. As that was the peak.
But it's each to their own, and there's plenty of popular shows that I don't really 'get' either. But I really love Taskmaster.
Brilliant concept! A portuguese contester sent his socks to Jeffery Horne by DHL on the "send one clothing object as far as possible" and Horne actualy filmed himself opening the package and dressing his socks 
Brilliant concept! A portuguese contester sent his socks to Jeffery Horne by DHL on the "send one clothing object as far as possible" and Horne actualy filmed himself opening the package and dressing his socks
Did you mean Alex Horne?
I don't really see the comparison with Mae and Sarah Kendall. I think Mae has been considerably more entertaining. I still think Wozniak was robbed in that series, and we're all poorer for not seeing him in Champion of Champions.
Mike Wozniak getting beaten by Sarah Kendall genuinely had me in tears. Wife got a beating that night.
She's been more entertaining than Sarah, yeah, but that's a really low bar and she's definitely been the most Kendall-like contestant that I've seen on the show.
And completely agree about Mike Wozniak being robbed. He was the perfect contestant - did well enough to win it but never at the cost of humour or entertainment. It's frustrating when people like that don't win it and so don't return for a Champion of Champions special as they're such great value.
Yes, sorry, my bad.
I think the penny might have dropped with Mae last night after the drum task when they reacted to the crowd and wondered are they approaching this wrong.
Sadly all the tasks are done now so the rest of the series will be the same for Mae and won't be good viewing.
It's a thin line between going out to win the show and ending up being very dull.
You can argue Dara was all out to win last season but the difference there was he was just so much smarter than the others but also knew to entertain as well.
Sarah,Mae and Richard didn't seem to grasp that.
Other than that the others are actually good Kiel is doing well as regards what you want in the show ,Ivo and Jenny are very good to watch.
Then Frankie gets it as well and the bonus is he is not afraid to call everyone else out
I think the contestants don’t really offer much new but it’s hard to find variety.
Kiel is basically the Jamali type. Arguing back, etc..
Ivo is the quirky cerebral James Acaster style one.
Jenny the older woman who can’t get about as well as the others.
Mae the one who figures out loopholes in a boring way. Like Sarah Kendall as others said.
Frankie the older guy but I guess his approach and style is a bit different.
Kiel is basically the Jamali type. Arguing back, etc..
Ivo is the quirky cerebral James Acaster style one.
Jenny the older woman who can’t get about as well as the others.
Mae the one who figures out loopholes in a boring way. Like Sarah Kendall as others said.
Frankie the older guy but I guess his approach and style is a bit different.
I think David Correos ruined all other contestants for me.
I thought Ivo and the bingo task was great. Genuine disgrace though that Mae won the drum task - it was not a single throw by any stretch.
He was great. Perfect contestant!
I'm sure they stopped to put on a hat halfway through as well.
Ivo going to the caravan was brilliant.
No way that's a throw.
Yeah, clearly not a throw. Greg was just trolling.
Mae basically just played the drums. May as well have just used a drumstick
I actually haven't watched the last few seasons because I save them to binge with my brother when he comes back to Manchester to visit from Korea. Since he's not visited for a few years now as the whole Covid thing messed up his plans, I've got a lot of seasons to catch up on.
I think the last season I watched was the last one on Dave so I haven't really seen any of the C4 stuff.
The egg race one was kinda nice for creativity - don't see as much of that in tasks. Knew the egg would fall out of Frankie's though - was surprised the thing didn't sink.
Mae is awful on the show. And I’m a fan of their stand up and personality outside of the show.
The drum task win was particularly galling. Loophole wins should be funny as a minimum. May as well have let them bounce it off one, catch it, then smash the drums for an hour.
Everyone appreciated Richard Osman's loopholes in series 2 because they were actually clever, not just snivelly cheating.
Mae just does things in a boring way. I can’t really explain it. They’re not entertaining.
It’s like if monotone was a person.
It’s like if monotone was a person.
Yeah I think it's more their personality in the show. They do come off as dull and just out to beat the team whereas when Richard Osman was doing it he just seemed more willing to make a fool of himself too perhaps
There's only one Taskmaster and that's Kevin Sullivan.
The points do seem to get out of hand. Giving them 10points for one task is stupid. Especially in a team task when the numbers are skewed.
Yep total bollocks with the points
To be fair, the points are usually a joke anyway.
I think this is one of those seasons where the tasks are lacking inspiration and the cast as a group aren't interesting enough to carry the weak ones.
I think this is one of those seasons where the tasks are lacking inspiration and the cast as a group aren't interesting enough to carry the weak ones.
I've no idea how Alex thought a final task of two people lifting things versus one person would be a good idea let alone have the winning team getting 10 points and the losing team nothing
The music task was rubbish. One of the worst tasks they've done yet.
The points are always fixed. They literally decide in production which tasks are going into which episode, and produce the best tv possible.
Almost nobody gives a damn about points on the show anyway. Which is why the Harry Hardouts really grate on viewers.
Who gives a flying shit about points?
Bar the music task, that was a great episode.
Bar the music task, that was a great episode.
Mae Martin
Mae is the worst thing about it for me. They’re really not funny and the way they approach tasks is irritating.
Thing is the tryhards in the past have been funny about it. Like Ed Gamble or Josh Widdicombe. Ian Stirling was the worst offender, but even he had a go at trying to be funny. Mae operates like they are in a proper competition.
Bar the ridiculousness of the final task thought it was a good episode. The spoons task had me in stitches.