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TV nerds: what should I watch
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this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2024
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Asklemmy
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I know little about English speaking TV, so can't quite help OP, but I gotta vouch for Taskmaster. This show is just incredible. I've only watched a few UK episodes, but I've watched every single one they've made in Portugal (4 seasons out already, 5th in the making iirc). It's peak cheek-hurting laughter content. It's not sophisticated humour or whatever, but it's undeniably funny AF.
Glad to hear the Portugal version is good. The US version was pretty lame in comparison to the UK version. The thing I like about Greg's judging in TM is how he rewards out of the box thinking, and takes ownership of being the Taskmaster. But it felt like the US TM punished it. "Yeah, the task didn't prohibit you from doing that, and yeah you did it the fastest, but that wasn't really in the spirit of the task, so I can't give you points for it." It was like the most boring game of Cards Against Humanity you can imagine. Apples to Apples with your grandma.
I'd say there's a bit of both in Portugal's TM. Sometimes the TM acknowledges the creativity, but if the execution it too off the rules, it doesn't get well rewarded. Other times, creative solutions really bump a player's score.
An interesting detail, though, is that in here, TM contestants are mostly non-comedians, and only four of them are permanent per season, with each episode having a different guest. I don't know how it is in US, but I find it really entertaining seeing well known figures doing silly shit and being creative. The varying 5th seat also brings a nice dynamic, and sometimes some of them then get moved to the permanent cast in following seasons.
Ahh, that is interesting. I guess they have a winner of each episode that could be the 5th, but the season winner is always one of the 4?
Yep, that's correct! There have been multiple occasions where the guest wins the episode.
The US version was severely bungled, especially in the cutting of the runtime to a 30 minute timeslot from 60. They made that decision AFTER filming it, so they edited down full episodes to half their length.
I think everyone agrees that Reggie Watts was not a great choice for the Taskmaster, but I do think a US version could work with the right group. It has to find it's own voice though, and be given room to grow, which is hard for US TV.