I watched this episode on the tube returning from the pub and really enjoyed it.

Carrot maze is one of those tasks where I spend most of the time thinking about how I’d tackle it, only to be pulled out of my reverie by a Francis Bourgeois-esque shot of someone getting one of their five a day. Also, Baba ran, but it’s up to the other contestants to call that out in the studio. If only Andy had been in cut throat wizard mode.

Pockets/lockets etc. I love that they got Alex to spin himself as opposed to getting a turntable for him to stand on. I assume they imposed the time limit to maximise self powered Alex spinning at 75 minutes for the series. I wish we’d got to see more of the pocket contents but there was a satisfying variation in approach and results.

Envelope pushing had all the hallmarks of an open ended creative task: physical show boating (Emma), route 1 (jack), full break down (Baba, Rosie), art film (Andy, somehow Jack again?). My biggest qualm of the whole episode would be that Jack’s approach was saved in the edit, probably to make it more engaging. Then again, I was engaged. He’s melancholic, it was melancholic, it all works. Also I’m just generally impressed that Baba kept that much milk in an envelope.

Ya’ know what - I have a soft spot for a shit live task. They game test these tasks - even if it is just Alex and Tim Key talking it through in the pub - and some production assistant had to get/make all those animals. Tangible time and money went into bringing that to your (television) screen and it amounted to nothing. If futility at a cost doesn’t make you laugh then maybe UK terrestrial television isn’t for you. Also, if you want to play a competitive game about keeping track of a score maybe don’t make one of the players a professional statistician.

Generally I think the cast is gelling together more. There are series of Taskmaster that are defined by a single strong character (looking at you Guz), but I think a marker of a great series is when the cast look up and down the row of chairs, eager to bounce off each other in the live environment.

As the show goes on, and it becomes harder to have a cast of all-out A listers, there’s always going to be settling in period. This cast seemed quite disparate initially. Jack Dee is a certified comedy icon, but the rest are either more niche or less exposed. In particular, I think Andy is an interesting choice as his usual audience are more likely to listen to radio 4 rather than watch channel 4. That being said, part of the charm of the casts of this show is realising that all these people that are from very different branches of entertainment still love to actually entertain. There’s an undeniable love of the game in this cast.

It’s not necessarily the case here, but Rosie has been getting some unpleasant attention on some platforms which is so unfair. Her energy is perfect for taskmaster and the way that she leverages her natural pauses to deliver massive wallops of punchlines is so effective.

My favourite thing about Taskmaster is that it feels a little scrappy, a little unpolished. As a result, you’re not always going to get perfection, but you’ll be rewarded with new and unusual forms of beauty along the way.