Taskmaster series 10

[vainsharpdad]

Herring has been bland as fuck on this.

[frajer]

Herring has been bland as fuck on this.

Yeah I'd have to agree. I've heard it touted a few times that he's "in it to win it" but that single-minded pursuit is making him very beige.

I did chuckle at Acaster's comment on the Taskmaster pod that Richard Herring doing Taskmaster looks more like Johnny Vegas doing Taskmaster than the actual Johnny Vegas doing Taskmaster.

[Evian Mousemat]

There wasn't much room for variation in the approaches to those tasks, it made for a bit of a dull episode. It's better when they pepper those in between the tasks that are more open to interpretation, rather than making a whole episode of them.  Daisy getting incensed by Richard Herring was pretty good though.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I thought it was a strong episode though the barrel task was a little weak, other than that I enjoyed it a fair bit and thought it was the best of the series.

Perhaps it's due to watching it at the same time as the brightly lit New Zealand version, but I have noticed that this series looks about grim and colourless, many of the tasks filmed inside are in bleak and dark looking spaces, and even when they're outside it always seems to be cold and grey. The latter isn't their fault of course, but some of the other spaces (like the locker task, the one with inflatable boats, and this week's drawing task) could do with being in more colourful locations.

[BeardFaceMan]

Herring has been bland as fuck on this.

I thought there woild at least be some comedy value from him trying too hard and his desperation to win, but he doesnt even seem to be trying that hard, hes just...there.

[kevinq]

I have a pet theory that they arrange the choice of tasks in episodes so that every contestant gets to win at least one. The way the final task was set up,

Spoiler alert

Mawaan literally couldn't lose -- he was on the same team as the person in second

[close]

.

When Baddiel won his single episode, I remember being a little baffled that he got such a high score for whatever his prize was, given how poorly he'd scored up to then, and this is the best explanation I could think of.

[BeardFaceMan]

I think they do that every year, i think theres only been one series so far where someone didnt win at least one episode.

[JamesTC]

I think Herring has been disappointing. Particularly this week. Hoping he plays up the competitiveness more but I guess he plays that up too much and he might come across unlikeable. It also sounds like the recording were a rather enjoyable occasion with it being the first thing they've all done just after lockdown.

Rewatching the first five series has put into sharp focus how much the show has been impacted by the social distancing. The show is still great and it is buoyed by a great group but hopefully this is only needed for another series. They've made the best of a bad situation aside from perhaps dropping the team tasks and recording replacements.

[BeardFaceMan]

I get the feeling were seeing the real Richard Herring on this show, rather than the character of Richard Herring, which is why hes a bit dull.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Rewatching the first five series has put into sharp focus how much the show has been impacted by the social distancing.

It's weirdly jarring when the show begins and Greg is seemingly sitting by himself.

[kidsick5000]

Mawaan is both genius and non-genius

[vainsharpdad]

Actually amazed that Herring didn't put his autobiography up for the prize task - writing one being the most narcissistic thing any one can do, surely?

[JamesTC]

Or a memory stick with hundreds of podcasts of him playing himself at snooker.

[Spiteface]

Rewatching the first five series has put into sharp focus how much the show has been impacted by the social distancing. The show is still great and it is buoyed by a great group but hopefully this is only needed for another series. They've made the best of a bad situation aside from perhaps dropping the team tasks and recording replacements.

Thankfully, it seems to the the only thing that's changed since the show left Dave.

I was worried that with the show moving to a bigger channel, they'd be faced with requests to make it more of a "thing" and the show would have regular celebs on it, reality TV dullards and the like, but this series feels in line with the previous ones in that regard. You can imagine this going out on Dave had it not moved, and that's a good thing.

[JamesTC]

Thankfully, it seems to the the only thing that's changed since the show left Dave.

I was worried that with the show moving to a bigger channel, they'd be faced with requests to make it more of a "thing" and the show would have regular celebs on it, reality TV dullards and the like, but this series feels in line with the previous ones in that regard. You can imagine this going out on Dave had it not moved, and that's a good thing.

Absolutely. Channel Four are giving the show just as much support as Dave did, thankfully.

This Christmas special seems to be a compromise to have more celebs or reality TV people on but it is a one-off bonus episode so doesn't impact the normal series and might draw more people into the main series. Also if a one-off special with non-comedians becomes a yearly thing then it might be a good opportunity to get more well known or busy people on who wouldn't be able to commit to a full series.

[Ja'moke]

Thankfully, it seems to the the only thing that's changed since the show left Dave.

I was worried that with the show moving to a bigger channel, they'd be faced with requests to make it more of a "thing" and the show would have regular celebs on it, reality TV dullards and the like, but this series feels in line with the previous ones in that regard. You can imagine this going out on Dave had it not moved, and that's a good thing.

Channel 4 is doing a regular celeb Taskmaster one-off for Christmas, though, which is often how these sorts of changes begin. A "one-off" becomes multiple "one-offs" then eventually a full regular celeb version and other spin offs until we're all sick of it.

I hope it doesn't go that way, but C4 have a track record.

[JamesTC]

Channel 4 is doing a regular celeb Taskmaster one-off for Christmas, though, which is often how these sorts of changes begin. A "one-off" becomes multiple "one-offs" then eventually a full regular celeb version and other spin offs until we're all sick of it.

I hope it doesn't go that way, but C4 have a track record.

Worst case scenario it goes back to Dave when C4 ratings drop too low.

[Andy147]

I think they do that every year, i think theres only been one series so far where someone didnt win at least one episode.

That's true for the 10-episode series (Phil Wang in S7), assuming Johnny wins one this series.

The first three series (which were only 5 or 6 episodes each) each had a contestant who didn't win an episode (Romesh Ranganathan, Joe Wilkinson and Sara Pascoe), and neither Nish Kumar nor Aisling Bea won an episode in S5 (8 episodes).

[Spode]

Thought the latest one was by far and away the best of the series. Heard the premise for that first task and thought it had all the hallmarks of an over planned task with no room for laughs. Was gutted when it was over, 25 mins later. The editing was brilliant for it.

Been rewatching series 6 over the weekend as well. Tend to skip past it when I rewatch old episodes because of Russell Howard but was surprised at how good it was. Probably one of my favourites now. Howard was nowhere near as hateful as I remembered (still wasn't particularly funny either, but watchable and seemed well liked by the others). The cast was just a really good fit. Greg and Alex seemed to love watching Tim Vine fumble his way through tasks, Liza Tarbuck was brilliant, Asim on the rare animal tasks was one of my favourite examples of a contestant being genuinely exasperated  (before bringing it back brilliantly) and Alice was great value as well. Surprised she scored so lowly over the course of the series given her approach to tasks

All in all, one of my favourite series.

[Captain Z]

Only just started watching this in the past couple of weeks but really into it now. I'm up to series 5 as I binge my way from the start, but also watching S10 as it goes out. It seems to me that the latest series is very strong, on balance I'm enjoying it more than S3 and 4, but they're all very good.

[JamesTC]

Series 5 is easily the best for me. That said, as I rewatch I find that even when I think that I remember the series not being as good, it turns out to be better than I remember.

I did have a thought the other day. Wouldn't mind them doing a special Champion of Champions special with the twist being that it is all second place contestants who now have the chance to win a run but against other strong opponents. Might be too self-indulgent though.

[mjwilson]

Worst case scenario it goes back to Dave when C4 ratings drop too low.

Worst case scenario is 8 out of 10 Cats Does Taskmaster.

[SteveDave]

The New Zealand has been pissing from a great height on the C4 one. I even quite like the bald man now.

[Ja'moke]

I did have a thought the other day. Wouldn't mind them doing a special Champion of Champions special with the twist being that it is all second place contestants who now have the chance to win a run but against other strong opponents. Might be too self-indulgent though.

I've also advocated for a Taskmaster Second Chance special. Not necessarily just second-place contestants though, but memorable contestants that did well but didn't win.

[DrGreggles]

The New Zealand has been pissing from a great height on the C4 one. I even quite like the bald man now.

Not sure the NZ series is as good as the UK one, but it's definitely great fun.
Personally I find the non-bald bloke a bit annoying, but that's more than made up for by Angella's endearing strangeness and Brynley's relentless enthusiasm.
The 'Greg' and 'Alex' dynamic is good too, in a way the American version couldn't capture.

[The Lurker]

Rosalind the nightmare, of series five fame, is currently on The Chase. Had to do a double take at first

[Ja'moke]

Rosalind the nightmare, of series five fame, is currently on The Chase. Had to do a double take at first

I thought it was her, but wasn't 100% sure. That's great.

[frajer]

Rosalind the nightmare, of series five fame, is currently on The Chase. Had to do a double take at first

She jumps quite far - for a woman of her age. Glorious telly.

[Hank Venture]

If you're interested in other country's versions I'd really recommend the Norwegian one, which captured the spirit of the UK show really well. https://www.reddit.com/r/panelshow/comments/c7yns3/taskmaster_international_editions_collection/

Interesting that you've seen this. I watched the Norwegian one before starting on the available UK eps on YouTube and I think the Norwegian one holds up. The feuding between the Ylvis brothers (WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY) was really great, and the machine-like approach from strong, silent, engineer besserwisser Jon was really funny when it went to shit and he got annoyed. How well does the Norwegian one translate? The only thing I think doesn't quite work in the Norwegian one is the taskmaster/assistant dynamic.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Interesting that you've seen this. I watched the Norwegian one before starting on the available UK eps on YouTube and I think the Norwegian one holds up. The feuding between the Ylvis brothers (WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY) was really great, and the machine-like approach from strong, silent, engineer besserwisser Jon was really funny when it went to shit and he got annoyed. How well does the Norwegian one translate? The only thing I think doesn't quite work in the Norwegian one is the taskmaster/assistant dynamic.

I think it translates really well, the prize task is sometimes a bit garbled or has references that I didn't get, but otherwise I'm very fond of it - and not just because I'm slightly in love with Maria. I actually like the relationship between Atle and Olli, sometimes the translation has gone a bit wrong but I think after the UK show they're the best presenters, and Atle is nicely vicious when it comes to the scoring too.