Taskmaster series 12

[boinks]

The credits still say Tim Key is 'task consultant' as well, so should some of the blame land on him too or does he not actually have anything to do with it anymore?

I don't actually mind Alan or VCM, but it's a shame Guz and Morgana had to land up in this series - think they could've shone much more in another group/with better tasks.

Quite enjoying Outsiders, don't think there's loads of mileage in it but should stay entertaining for a series or two. Agreed that the camouflage task was a really good one. Nice bunch of contestants, even making me like Ed Gamble a bit more.

Agree with this! Ed's coming across really well. Much calmer and far less mugging.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

Tim Key whenever asked (including on the RHLSTP that went up this week) always plays down the task consultant thing. I think Alex fundamentally doesn't think the contestants are meant to outsmart the task or find loopholes he hadn't considered at all which is why there's been such an upturn in rigidity through clauses and additional rules. He just doesn't think that's what Taskmaster is meant to be

[Uncle TechTip]

I underplayed it though didn't I - it was people throwing forks in a bucket AFTER spinning round on a chair.

At the end Guz felt like I did and just chucked them in one after the other - nobody said anything (or I mentally switched off)

[olliebean]

Looks like they've started posting contestants' video interviews for this series. Here's the first one, with Desiree Burch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA0jIfolxPo

[BeardFaceMan]

Tim Key whenever asked (including on the RHLSTP that went up this week) always plays down the task consultant thing. I think Alex fundamentally doesn't think the contestants are meant to outsmart the task or find loopholes he hadn't considered at all which is why there's been such an upturn in rigidity through clauses and additional rules. He just doesn't think that's what Taskmaster is meant to be

That's it really, it used to be that the tasks were there to be completed, now it feels like the tasks are there to be beaten, people are approaching them differently now.

[g0m]

Looks like they've started posting contestants' video interviews for this series. Here's the first one, with Desiree Burch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA0jIfolxPo

the second one

[olliebean]

the second one

Oh. The first, with Alan Davies, didn't show up on my subscriptions feed for some reason.



Doesn't look like I missed much.

[steamed hams]

Might be an oversimplification, but really feels like a task works if it allows the contestants to come up with a mix of approaches, and otherwise (mostly) doesn't. So the jam spreading task, much like the spacehopper task from a week or two back, works because everyone does something slightly different. And the bike one doesn't, because everyone basically does the same thing. I did enjoy the riddle, but feel like they got a bit lucky there with the second team doing it so badly, if they'd done even a half decent job I don't think it would've been worth broadcasting, because again they're just following instructions. Might need to go back and rewatch some older episodes, but feels like there were far fewer tasks in those days where the contestants were basically just given a list of instructions and it just becomes about who follows them badly and who doesn't.

[Captain Z]

I generally agree with all the recent comments, but I did find it kind of funny/noteworthy that in the one task Victoria was excelling at it didn't occur to her that Alan obviously had the other half of the jigsaw/code she was trying to decipher.

[olliebean]

I've noticed that the loopholes Alex likes are not when a contestant thinks of something that he hasn't thought of, but ones that he has provided to be found, like the answers written on the underside of the table or extra equipment in a hidden compartment.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

Quite enjoying Outsiders, don't think there's loads of mileage in it but should stay entertaining for a series or two. Agreed that the camouflage task was a really good one. Nice bunch of contestants, even making me like Ed Gamble a bit more.

Same. Outsiders has made me laugh much more than this series of TM has. Ed has been an unexpected highlight too. He's a good foil for Lou.

The editing is terrible in places though, and there's so much padding with the teasers and recaps before and after the ad breaks.

[SteveDave]

What the fuck is this advert? Google Translate?

[Wayman C. McCreery]

The prize task was appalling (they really need to do something about that), but I thought the rest was much, much better. Even Alan made me laugh during the football task.

[olliebean]

Best strategy IWHT with the live task would have been to go for only one balloon on each turn, thus minimising your chance of hitting a "bad" balloon and maximising your chance of winning and getting the full 10 points. Assuming none of the other contestants had the same idea, of course.

[steamed hams]

Football task was great. Best task of the series? Also liked the extended final task. Google thing was awful and I assume will be turning up in future ad breaks as well, not sure why they felt the need to do that.

[beanheadmcginty]

Alex's fetishism has now reached Savile levels of hiding in plain sight. The man is an out of control monster and needs to be stopped.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

Here's something nerdy: last December someone took a photo over the fence of Morgana doing the football task: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIlUFiMFbqG/

[The Roofdog]

What did "the ball and goalposts must be on their spots" mean? Because I thought Guz taking the ball with its spot was fair enough but I wouldn't have allowed turning the goalposts around

[g0m]

Jesus Christ. loved this one

[g0m]

Not sure if this is going to be a regular sponsored content thing, but here's a task with desiree burch and al murray competing to teach some non-english speakers origami

[Captain Z]

Not sure if this is going to be a regular sponsored content thing, but here's a task with desiree burch and al murray competing to teach some non-english speakers origami

This was shown as the entire first ad break for those watching on Channel 4. It was a bit confusing until I clocked the #Ad in the bottom corner. It was probably just a scheduling issue, but it did make me wonder if none of the rest of the current cast wanted to do it and so local boy Al Murray was drafted in.

[g0m]

This was shown as the entire first ad break for those watching on Channel 4. It was a bit confusing until I clocked the #Ad in the bottom corner. It was probably just a scheduling issue, but it did make me wonder if none of the rest of the current cast wanted to do it and so local boy Al Murray was drafted in.

just found this article: https://www.channel4.com/press/news/google-joins-forces-channel-4s-taskmaster-new-cross-platform-partnership - looks like we're getting one a week for the next six weeks. no skin off my nose, i like these little one off tasks.

i was a bit confused at first because the youtube upload wasn't marked as containing promotional content but it ended with a few unbroken seconds of the Google logo, which certainly made it seem like an ad.

[trabuch]

Breaking bad

[MigraineBoy]

Best strategy IWHT with the live task would have been to go for only one balloon on each turn, thus minimising your chance of hitting a "bad" balloon and maximising your chance of winning and getting the full 10 points. Assuming none of the other contestants had the same idea, of course.

Greg said as much when it was down to the final two, yet Morgana just kept chucking darts.

[AsparagusTrevor]

Greg said as much when it was down to the final two, yet Morgana just kept chucking darts.

She doens't seem like the kind of person who'd just sit back and win by default. She seems like the kind of person who'd enjoy chucking darts at stuff.

[olliebean]

What did "the ball and goalposts must be on their spots" mean? Because I thought Guz taking the ball with its spot was fair enough but I wouldn't have allowed turning the goalposts around

There were two spots to mark the front two corners of the goal. It could be turned around as long as those two corners were placed back on the spots (albeit the other way round). I'd be very surprised if Alex hadn't anticipated that strategy.

[DrGreggles]

Deflate the ball innit.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

Google thing was awful and I assume will be turning up in future ad breaks as well, not sure why they felt the need to do that.

Well it's commercial TV and I don't know what the going rate is but I imagine tens of thousands of pounds will have changed hands. As long as it's kept to the ad breaks and we don't have product placement in the show (clean this dirty bath using Cif Power & Shine Citrus Mousse Bathroom Cleaner - fastest time wins) then that's fine by me.

After a few weeks of duff episodes I was thinking about abandoning a series for the first time ever, but last night's episode was a lot of fun. I don't think Alan, Desiree or Victoria are funny contestants but when the tasks are as good as the football one then it almost doesn't matter.

And it's been said a thousand times, including by me about ten posts ago, but the prize task really needs binning. I wonder how many people who've never seen the show before turn off after five minutes because someone's brought a house plant in.

[jobotic]

Silly that Morgana didn't come second in the darts task despite being second to last there.

[KennyMonster]

In the ball-hall-lacrosse task, why didn't anyone get any points?

Surely the team who scored less badly won and the other team didn't win?