#taskmaster rewatch

We made to the point i started from. While I had a good time and might return with some thoughts about international or new years editions that won't be for a while if ever, so for now these are my final rewatch thoughts. You can expect a first watch post about series 21 once its finished airing.

What I Love:

Its pointless, Not literally. But its not got any real stakes I mean most of the prizes are things from people's houses that they are willing to get rid of. The focus on the show gets to be almost solely on entertainment and fun

Its incredibly well made. The production team is just so clearly good at their jobs, they are able to source a lot of weird things really quickly and the editors know how to make some one look even funnier than they already are.

They're nice, obviously I've never interacted with anyone involved but in like every interview people talk about how fun (if a bit stressful) the show was to do or how nice Greg and Alex are.

My One Critique:

I'm sure I'm not blowing anyone's minds with this cause you know its British tv, but this show really loves its white men. Its a light entertainment show so not exactly a place where most people are wanting to examine our unconscious bias, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be. There are 20 series and only one person of color, Sophie Duker, has ever won. The show always has at least one woman and one person of color in every series. Which while not spectacular I suppose is better than nothing but it can sometimes feel like they are just trying to check off a box.

There is an easy fix, at least in my mind, which is to have more diverse cast.

My Favorite Series:

Series 5, 12, 13, 14, 19, & 20 all got 10/10's from me and I think a ranking of them would change from day to day. If I had to pick one favorite I'm probably going with Series 12 just for how rewatchable it is to me personally. I just think its a lot of fun and I love all the cast members on it. 14 is also one I have rewatched separate to this project so that means its probably in second place most of the time.

My Favorite Contestants:

In order of appearance not necessarily ranking: Nish Kumar; Jessica Knappet; Alan Davies: Sarah Millicent; Fatiha El-Ghorri

Honorable mentions to: Roisin Conaty; Mel Giedroyc; all of the series 5 cast; Joe Thomas; all of the series 12 cast; Susan Wokoma; Stevie Martin

My favorite teams:

Again in order of appearance: Hugh Dennis & Mel Giedroyc; Nish Kumar & Mark Watson; Bridget Christie, Judi Love, & Sophie Duker; Sue Perkins & Susan Wokoma; Fatiha El-Ghorri, Mathew Bayton, Rosie Ramsey.

Honorable mentions to :Frank Skinner & Tim Key; Jessica Kanppet & Kerry Godliman; Lee Mack & Mike Wozniak, Both Teams from 12, 14, & 20.

My favorite Tasks:

I have less of a definitive top for this as I have a better memory for the moments rather than the actual task details, but here are some that come to mind.

Transport the boulder furthest (s1), as a team write a song about this woman (s5), do something with this chickpea (s9), as team solve this puzzle/ riddle (s12), Hold the milk jugs (s14), Make this mannequin come to life (s17), what is missing from the room (s20).

My least favorites are easily don't blink (s7), lick things in this order (s13) & spit portrait (s20) because I don't like eye or spit stuff.

Overall rankings:

10/10: 5, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20

9/10: 4, 7 ,9 ,16

8/10: 8, 11, 17

7/10: 1, 15, 18

6/10: 3 & 6

5/10: 2 & 10

I stand by these rankings, there are a few that I might bump higher just thinking about them 1, 8, & 10 for example, but I can't say I have a good memory so I would trust the ranking I gave with the series fresh in my mind.

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:

Past series thoughts are here

In a lot of ways the best review for this Series would be welcome back series 8 vibes. Don't ask me to explain they just fill a similar space in my brain.

In terms of production it's not got any massive changes or additional. The house theme and location are both fun but not like super involved or interesting.

In terms of tasks I think it's got some of the simplicity of classic seasons but still has plenty of multilayer high budget of the later seasons. I guess an example of this might be the watermelon table team task or follow the string to find that you've caught a fish. There are a few tasks this season that I'm not particularly fond of for various reasons but nothing that like tanks an episode

I do love this cast Nick Mohammad was the only one I would have recognized prior to this airing, but unlike other series I have actually put in the an effort to watch stuff by all of them after the fact. Which dose mean honestly watching back, Of Course John Robbins is dressed as Freddie Mercury and Of Course Steve Pemberton made a cryptic crossword. In terms of there performance on this show they are all hilarious and I really think its a stand out cast dynamic. I love the moment where Sophie Willan calls the Prize task presents and then everyone who goes after her dose as well.

Categorized by this post:

Past thoughts are here

I didn't notice any format or set up changes. It felt very heavy on the team tasks but I haven't been tracking numbers or data this is just based on vibes.

I remembered liking this series more initially than I did on this rewatch. I will also say interestingly I remember a lot more of Ivo and Jenny's failures than Mae's successes. I think the gold shoes on grass is one that I pretty vividly remembered. Kiell's "what your age young man" is definitely a bit of an ear worm. I did remember some of the other tasks but I don't know if i'm still riding the high of the past few series or am finally getting burnt out from this but the tasks as a whole just weren't as good.

In terms of cast I don't dislike any of them but its kind of a perfect storm of meh. I had trouble with my usual assignments via that "every taskmaster line up needs" post and I think that speaks to the sort of unbalanced, for lack of a better term, feeling this cast gives me. Again individually they are fine I love kiell's pretty much constant making up little tunes, Ivos frequent crash outs and jennys insane grandma vibe but all together they just don't speak to me. As previously mentioned I love when they do a group outfit for the finale, so points for that.

Here they are assigned by this post

Thoughts on series 1-12 : Here

I started this rewatch because 19 &20 were such back to back bangers that I wanted to test if it was just recency bias. 13 series in I mostly stand by that sentiment but It has to be said that 12& 13 are also back to back bangers. I don't have a solid answer on which pair is better I think it probably shifts day to day.

Nothing completely new, although we are back to the non social distant set up. I would also say there are a lot more tasks behind the caravan than I remember in other series.

I think that in terms of tasks there are a lot ones that come to mind when I think of this series, like recreate a photo or the team multitrack song task. There were some other ones that I had mostly forgotten about but here plenty entertaining like the surprising delivery and the largest number on the step tracker. Not a fan of spit so the licking one is one I remember but for bad reasons. I would also say that this seasons prize categories weren't very memorable, usually there is at least one that sticks out.

Ardal O' Hanlon spends most of the series confused but, that's still DI Jack Mooney to you sir. My love for death in paradise aside this is a hilarious cast. In rewatching I realized I really should start watching other things created by the comedians because Bridget Christie must have some very intelligent work out there but on this show she is well easily befuddled. The contrast with how Chris Ramsey deals with tasks with how his wife dose on season 20 is pretty funny to think about now. I also would say him spraying Alex with a hose just cause he thinks Greg will respect it is one of the most memorable "let's fuck with Alex" moments for me. For some reason I remembered Judi Love doing at lot worse and Sophie Duker winning by a large margin both of which were wrong but I understand how I got that impression. Judi is another one of those contestants who really has high-highs and low-lows. Sophie is one of those contestants that just never seemed to frazzled, she gets frustrated for sure, but never confused or at a loss for words. The cast as described by this post.

Thoughts on past series can be found: here

The new thing this series is the Dome! Funny how it feels like it's been there longer.

When talking about the memorability of this season I should mention this is one of the series I have seen multiple times. I think everyone remembers things like the Wow monster and the team of 3 taking well over an hour for a task that took the team of 2 half an hour. I personally think the prize tasks where they have to buy each other gifts alphabetically is truly one of the best prize categories throughout the whole show. We also get the proposal task which starts the trend for several series including relationships milestones done with Alex.

So 12 post into this rewatch Series is should probably talk about my relationship to British Television. I am American and I would say I started watching lots of British tv in highschool. My mom is a huge Agatha Christie fan which led to watching lots of adaptations and that has led to getting brit box and eventually watching various other things. The most consistently probably being Death in Paradise, Shetland, QI, and Johnathan Creek. Which yeah you can see why I'm bringing this up now. Besides QI & Taskmaster I do watch several other panels shows, just a little less religiously, so I do oftentimes know a few people on the series beforehand and I always am super excited to watch a brand new comedian that I haven't seen yet. Even with that mindset I undoubtedly have a bias for Alan Davies, and to a lesser extent Victoria Coren Mitchell who is pretty regularly a QI guest. So yeah this season is one of my favorites.

Regardless of my love for Alan Davies I do think this is a stacked cast. Victoria is endless logical except when she's not. Desiree Burch is constantly hilarious and I love how much she just is like "this is just what it's gotta be". Gus Kahn is so confident at everything even when he does poorly. Morgona Robinson is this sort of wood nymph type that, while not always my cup of tea, is always captivating. For obvious reasons and for the sort of "just plooding along" friendship vibes Alan and Victoria are one of my favorite teams of all Time.

Cast described by this post

If you finding me it might be because of one of these on going series,

Homicide: life on the street as Text posts:

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31

Taskmaster [Re]watch:

Series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, Rewatch final thoughts , 21,

Thoughts on other TV shows:

Buffy verse ship thoughts & Buffy reboot/ sequel thoughts

H:lots thoughts

Inside No. 9 thoughts

CSI thoughts

MASH text posts & MASH thoughts ( no I haven't finished the show yet, why are you calling me out like that)

Person of interest thoughts part 1 & part 2

Thoughts on past series: 1, 2, 3, 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The youtube videos no longer have add break conversations. Which dose steamline it a little, but i don't know the add break stuff was always whimiscal so I actually didn't hate them.

One of the most memorable individual tasks in Mike wosniak farting. I think the airport/airplane is one of the most memorable of the locations for location tasks. (i almost just called them destination tasks so now you all get to share that in that thought). Lee Macks costume is one of my personal favorites and I always remember the fact that Jamali Maddix definitely should have gotten more points in the first episode for spinning that pillow.

The cast is really fun. I'm a big fan of the Charlottes children tv presenter energy and Sarah's sort of more muted but very intense energy. I'm a fan of Lee Mack and he and Mike as a team feel like they could just as easily be a wacky pair of crime solvers in the north of England. I do think that Jamali is fascinating for his ability to switch between being super invested and truly not giving a fuck about the show.

the cast as broken down by this post