#taskmaster rewatch

[willowmosby]

Taskmaster Rewatch: Series 5

Thoughts on past series: 1, 2, 3, 4

Oh we are cooking with gas on this season. We finally get consistent Little Alex Horne's! Its so interesting that there are so many personalized challenges which is a lot of fun. In contrast there are only three team tasks in the entire season but one of them is the song challenge which is one of the best performances of the entire show. I haven't really tracked the number of team tasks in all the seasons but three seems lower than normal.

There are some many iconic moments including: the before mentioned write a song task, Mark Watson doing the worst rainbow despite being the only one able to see, and Sally Phillips being so fucking horny all series. This series is one that I will always recommend to people who aren't sure about taskmaster but want to give it a try.

The cast for this series is so funny and I'm always so excited when I see them on other things because of their performance in this series. I also say that while Nish Kumar is one of the worst performing players I do feel like his failure is always funny to him rather than sad which is comforting. Here are my thoughts based on this post

Rating: 10/10 a god tier season.

[badassbiburgerbob]

Rewatching series of taskmaster and I just. God i think ive loved every Irishman and Northern Englander they've ever had on. Especially Ardle O'hanlan and Sara Millican. Their humor just hits me. Its amazing

[annadiplosis]

I’m rewatching Taskmaster for the hundredth time so I’ve decided I’m gonna try to draw my favorite moment from every season!

Series 1: Do something that will look impressive in reverse.

[prawns-are-cannibals]

Rewatching series 2 episode 1. When Joe said "don't take this away from me" after his potato throw, it broke me all over again.

[willowmosby]

Taskmaster rewatch: Series 20

Thoughts on earlier series are here

We did it! We made it back to the series that inspired this rewatch. I started this series to be sure that it wasn't recency bias that made me enjoy this series so much, and to be honest even though I've gone back I do think its definitely possible that I still have some level of regency bias because I did rewatch it in order.

No major production changes, I guess the caravan is no longer a submarine and is instead painted with a cow color. Which yeah is a continuation of the higher budget meaning that the house theme is very present.

With the exception of the spit portrait task, which because I hate spit/ vomit I found to be one of the worst things the show has ever aired, I think the tasks this series were all pretty fun! They lean into some complex rules again but I feel like it really suits this cast's level of indignation.

This cast is iconic. They do (okay, mostly just Reece and Maise) get quite snippy with each other but they are also all united by their annoyance with Alex. As a twenty something I really enjoy and relate to Ania's energy. Maise Adams is QI staple whom I simply love and adore, I was so happy when she won! She also gets to be angry on this show which was sooo fun, although the series genuinely is worrisome for her memory. Phil is like a muppet or a cartoon and the fact that he tied for first is crazy. As I've said in past reviews I enjoy (hopefully) exaggerated anger as a comedic device and Reece delivers that in spades, and its clear Greg and Alex enjoyed winding him up. Sanjeev Baskar is the absolute king of one liners, I mean he just always comes in with the best timing. I mentioned in my 18 review I thought these teams were miss-matched and I stand by it. Like I do think if they were to do with no need to match schedules etc. the move might be Girls vs. Boys. Unlike 18 though I don't think the miss-match docks points for the series or is a disservice to anyone. Maize and Reece still get to be the angry team members and people still need to look after Phil and Sanjeev still couldn't give a fuck so yeah I say it all worked out in the end. Major points for what has to be the best group outfit in the shows history.

As always here is the cast sorted by this post:

10/10- is it recency bias, maybe, but this still slapped

[willowmosby]

Taskmaster Rewatch: Series 4

Thoughts on series: 1, 2, 3

We now have longer series, although still not the full 10, so the speed at which these come out will slow down.

The caravan is there! Also we have more little Alex Horne's! And Ducks! we've got rubber duck based tasks! I thin the Alex &Greg chat/Banter section has become fully formed with the exception of prop usage.

I will also say something I kinda feel like the modern series might be lacking is the food making for themselves/Alex. I understand why no one should have to eat gross food but also imagine Jack Dee or Fatiha El-Ghorri or Reece Shearsmith having to eat a crazy sandwich or whatever they made?

This is one of my personal favorites from the 1st ten series. I love Hugh Dennis pulling over walls with ducks and being obsessed with sharp objects! I love Mel Giedroyc rushing to a baby gap with a Camel and snorting an m&m! I love Joe Lycett being forced to smile and opening a jar of mayo in zero seconds! I love Lolly Adefope failing to slide and hiding in the bathroom corner! I love Noel Fielding hiding as a banana and being oddly "Lad" like for the sports tasks!Also fun detail of Alex wearing a tie only for Mel's task, and not always the same tie. I don't know why they speak to me but Hugh and Mel have to be one of my top five teams!

So yeah I love the cast , I also wonder just how much having multiple women on the cast helped balance the tone for me. Here are cast as described by this post and they are once again all "just having a lovely time"!

Rating: 9/10, your honor I love them.

[willowmosby]

Taskmaster Rewatch: Series 1

Because I've enjoyed the last two series (19 & 20) of taskmaster so much I've decided to attempt to do a complete rewatch of the main series and see if it all holds up.

There were a fair amount of things I didn't remember but there were a lot of things that are classics, like Josh Widdicombe getting a Greg tattoo and Romesh Ranganathan's masterpiece Tree Wizard. Some great moments I had forgotten were Frank Skinner getting on a train with a fake boulder, Romesh getting second by leaving an egg on construction paper, and like literally every thing about Roisin Conaty.

Some things that are a bit different is it certainly seems like Greg is a lot more hesitant to accept work arounds and a lot less willing to disqualify people completely. Also with the exception of maybe the pie incident and Tim Key no one is really even slightly abusive towards Alex. He doesn't even have little in his title!

Production clearly had a much smaller budget, but I do think the tasks are still really creative and fun!

In terms of Contestants it's a stellar line up, that I think if we're on more recently would be even more popular with fans. Here they are as described by the terms from this post

Rating: 7/10 really great but lacking in some of the elements that feel important for taskmaster.

[willowmosby]

Taskmasker Rewatch: Series 7

Thoughts on past series: 1, 2, 3, 4 5 6

I can't really think of any like format changes, maybe the chat sections are a bit more consistent. Well okay this is the name origin of the Knappet but like they don't call it that until later so is it really a change in this Series

I mean it's an iconic season. We get the kiss*. We get the birth of the Knappet. We get Greg pulling James aside like a teacher. We get Phil Wang's very revealing outfit. We get Laminator as the best stationary tool.

In terms of cast well, "I Know its early days but are we the stupidest so far"- James Acaster Episode 1. The answer is not really but they are very funny. I feel like Kerry Godliman is a very deserving winner and just as likely to get mad as some other more remembered members of the cast. Speaking of I feel like we all remember James Acaster's mostly one sided rivalry with Rhod Gilbert. I feel like Phil Wang has the most memorable outfit of all the show. But I want to really Highlight Jessica Knappet. She is immortalized by falling off the stage but she was one point away from winning. She's so funny throughout the whole series and yeah I guess I just wanted to apologize to her for not remembering her complete brilliance. Here they are as categorized by this post.

Rating 9/10: I love anger on TV, Like real life anger- scary, comedians playing up emotions - hilarious.

* someone has very kindly and correctly pointed out that that was actually in season six. But I'm gonna leave it there cause it will remind people that these are completely vibes based and even when I've very recently and purposefully watched something I have an unreliable memory.