Taskmaster s16

[MoreauVasz]

16 seasons and still no Bobby Davro. Fucking hell!

[Twilkes]

[Fishfinger]

Bump

Starts this evening at 9pm on C4.

[Simply_The_Bestest]

I've been loving getting to know Sam Campbell the past month or so through his youtube endeavours.

First his full show he released last Christmas 'Companion' and then all the other fun stuff.

Probably outrageous to suggest but I can see flashes of Norm, Dangerfield & Kinison in him in a strange way, they way he uses stock comedy phrases like 'I'm serious' and how he dials his outrage up and down.

Two thumbs up (the bum)!

[Utter Shit]

Spoiler alert

"Are you a child of divorce?"

[close]

Fucking hell Sam Campbell is so great.

[BritishHobo]

This is already one of the best casts they've had. That was fucking great.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Spoiler alert

"Are you a child of divorce?"

[close]

Fucking hell Sam Campbell is so great.

Biggest laugh in an episode that was already packed with them.

[selectivememory]

Yeah, that was great. Decided I liked everyone in the cast by the end of the prize task, and aside from the slightly drab duck task, it was a really fun episode.

[Old Thrashbarg]

Yeah, that was one of the strongest opening episodes.

Sam's Pinocchio prize was absolutely nightmarish.

[Ron Superior]

Brilliant. Love Sam, think a lot of people will fall in love with him off the back of this series. I met him the other week and asked him if he enjoyed his experience and he was a bit cagey about it and I was worried he'd either had a bad time or gone down like a sack of shit, so I'm glad that wasn't the case. He said Lucy was really lovely in particular.

I enjoyed pretty much everyone, and thought the tasks were mostly great.

Julian's hilarious. Truly withering with his putdowns but he seems to be having fun.

Feeling very good about this series.

[Twilkes]

Everyone seemed to throw themselves into it 100%, except Julian maybe, but that's still unusual for a first episode. Happy that Lucy came out full of beans from the off, and Sue is as Sue always does. Susan might be a more benign presence but she's likely the grounded one for this series.

But zero creative tasks, again, all skill and puzzles, and nothing for Greg to judge. The open-ended "Fake something" task was one of my favourites from last series, but maybe the simpler tasks are the hardest to come up with.

[BritishHobo]

I was surprised nobody tried popping/deflating the duck.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

Fantastic opener.

"They saved those boys."

[Ja'moke]

That was one of the best first episodes in ages. The last few series it's taken at least a couple of episodes to warm up, but this group just got stuck in right away. And the tasks were a decent mix too.

[Bobloblawslawbomb]

Getting 10 hours of Sam Campbell on tv feels like a real treat

[trabuch]

Sam is going to save this program from Alex's fetish filth. (they all are I hope). I'm looking foreward to the next one.

[g0m]

sam has immediately endeared himself to me

[Wezzo]

Everyone seemed to throw themselves into it 100%, except Julian maybe, but that's still unusual for a first episode. Happy that Lucy came out full of beans from the off, and Sue is as Sue always does. Susan might be a more benign presence but she's likely the grounded one for this series.

But zero creative tasks, again, all skill and puzzles, and nothing for Greg to judge. The open-ended "Fake something" task was one of my favourites from last series, but maybe the simpler tasks are the hardest to come up with.

Next week's Radio Times says that one of next week's tasks is

Spoiler alert

"make mischief"

[close]

which could be promising.

[Norton Canes]

I thought Lucy just about came away as the most entertaining - liked her bizarre interjections and naive comedy persona (assuming it is a comedy persona)

Didn't know Sam before this and he hasn't quite won me over yet, but he had a couple of great moments. Not sure winning the show then standing around on the stage doing nothing before walking off is the sort of thing that's going to endear him to people, to be honest. They expect mucking around with the objects.

[bobloblaw]

Next week's Radio Times says that one of next week's tasks is

Spoiler alert

"make mischief"

[close]

which could be promising.

is that a rare repeat task? From when Katharine Ryan spread rang up her family? I'm all for it either way - open-ended tasks like often bring out contestants' creativity in the best way

[Wezzo]

is that a rare repeat task? From when Katharine Ryan spread rang up her family? I'm all for it either way - open-ended tasks like often bring out contestants' creativity in the best way

That was "make a mess and clean it up" - so, subtly different.

[bobloblaw]

That was "make a mess and clean it up" - so, subtly different.

ah yes. A classic moment, in any case.
Incidentally, Katharine Ryan was the after-dinner entertainment for TV bigwigs at a Cambridge conference this week. Booked months ahead but serendipitous/awkward given recent events...

[DrGreggles]

Might be the best TM series opener I've seen.
Rarely does it come flying out of the traps, but this was very promising.
Got high hopes for Sam and Julian.

[Edinho]

Thought s13 was the best season opener, but this was pretty good.

In a reverse to most others I really enjoyed Lucy's persona and wasn't quite so!d on Sam's yet, probably didn't help that he seems quite mumbly as well. Still excited and this opener will keep me interested for a few episodes yet.

[Clownbaby]

I didn't know who Sam Campbell was going into this but I liked his vibe almost straightaway. Not usually a fan of Lucy Beaumont but she made me laugh a couple of times as well. I'm feeling open minded about her. This series feels right already!

[El Unicornio, mang]

Is Sam autistic/aspergers? Reminds me a lot of a co-worker. Anyway everyone was pretty good but I liked Lucy and Julian (who's been a favourite of mine since about 1990) the most.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I really, really like the whole cast this time around, and it's been a long time since I've said that. I feel there's a slight chance Susan Wokoma might fade in to the background a bit if only because of the force of the other four's characters, but either way I've a feeling this will be a great series.

The only problem I have with the show is my increasing disdain for Alex Horne, when he was giggling away during the cans task I couldn't help but think he was a giant twat, it was designed to make the comedians look stupid and they're by far my least favourite tasks. If only he'd buggered off for a year and they'd replaced him with Paul Williams I think I'd be raving a ridiculous amount about how amazing this was!

[BritishHobo]

I saw a great comment the other day from somebody who'd only ever seen NZ Taskmaster but had stumbled across a clip from the UK show - "Who's this prick? Where's Paul?!"

[Clive Dogshit]

Agree with what everyone else wrote, really great opening episode and a very promising cast (Ive never liked Sue Perkins though but as it's taskmaster I'm sure I'll get by). Haven't seen Sam on anything before and thought he was really funny, Lucy too.

The only problem I have with the show is my increasing disdain for Alex Horne, when he was giggling away during the cans task I couldn't help but think he was a giant twat, it was designed to make the comedians look stupid and they're by far my least favourite tasks. If only he'd buggered off for a year and they'd replaced him with Paul Williams I think I'd be raving a ridiculous amount about how amazing this was!

I started to really really dislike Alex a few series ago (also around the time when No More Jockeys was happening). His deliberately shit jokes and annoying persona grated on me and the increasing "fetish" type stuff - sitting on cakes, close ups of women drooling, wrapping people up in tape - totally made me feel queasy. I've come around a bit now though after enjoying the last series of TM but I really hope all that "stamping on a grape in slow mortion while wearing fireman's boots" type shit has been dialled down.

[Ron Superior]

Oh no, are people turning on Alex? No!