british characters were mostly cynical/self interested, tbh, rather than stupid
― Juata Man (darraghmac), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 15:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
Well the Minister who goes to America and his assistant are not exactly shining lights in the brain department.
― The New Dirty Vicar, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 09:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
Are the new specials ever coming out or do they have to keep frantically rewriting them every time some new bombshell hits British politics?
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 09:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
most of them seemed to be doing things for principled reasons
doesn't gandolfini end up on the line of "and in the end i decided that ACTUALLY the MOST principled thing when you think about it is to NOT resign"
― thomp, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 10:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
yeah what is the situash with the new episodes?
― caek, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 11:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
Ianucci's been making the US version instead of being in the UK writing anything AFAIK
― rude ragga beats from the F. U. Schnickens (sic), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 11:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
tho he's said he's really glad abt the delay bcz it means they get to do the coalition govt now
veep starts 22 april on hbo and presumably around the same time on sky atlantic
― caek, Friday, 13 January 2012 15:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
sitting down to watch this properly and in order over weekend.
― pet tommy & the barkhaters (darraghmac), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 12:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
Just re-watched all but the last season over the last week or so. Its been interesting to watch Malcolm become less of a caricature over time.
― give me back my 200 dollars (NotEnough), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 14:38 (1 year ago) Permalink
7 new eps written
http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/news/a382383/armando-iannucci-weve-written-seven-new-thick-of-it-episodes.html
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Saturday, 19 May 2012 22:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
Armando Giovanni Iannucci OBE
― jed_, Saturday, 16 June 2012 12:59 (11 months ago) Permalink
ugh
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 13:02 (11 months ago) Permalink
don't they give these trinkets to every member of the british entertainment industry who (often after a long domestic career) has some success in america
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 13:04 (11 months ago) Permalink
― She Got the Shakes, Saturday, 16 June 2012 13:26 (11 months ago) Permalink
a+
― blossom smulch (schlump), Saturday, 16 June 2012 14:10 (11 months ago) Permalink
Ouch. I think Campbell's right about this in this case, but maybe he should have let someone else do the dirty work. Something I thought he'd be good at.
― fun loving and xtremely tolrant (Billy Dods), Saturday, 16 June 2012 14:49 (11 months ago) Permalink
― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Thursday, 30 August 2012 23:01 (8 months ago) Permalink
well, TTOI isn't really the sort of thing that lends itself to a 30 second trailer so i'm still hopeful in spite of ^^^that.
― jed_, Thursday, 30 August 2012 23:08 (8 months ago) Permalink
Inception?
― Legendary General Cypher Raige (Gukbe), Thursday, 30 August 2012 23:13 (8 months ago) Permalink
https://twitter.com/Aiannucci/status/243683223169814528https://twitter.com/Aiannucci/status/243683392330293249https://twitter.com/Aiannucci/status/243683787639250946
― caek, Friday, 7 September 2012 12:38 (8 months ago) Permalink
That indicates significantly less Malcolm Tucker overall maybe, unless the early episodes involve a lot of running back and forth between parties.
The Thick of It Tories generally bring the lols more than their non-Tucker Labour counterparts though.
― Matt DC, Friday, 7 September 2012 12:43 (8 months ago) Permalink
really? the Glen and Ollie combo is pure gold. then there's Jamie, Julius... really there's no one on the other side anywhere near as good as that. Peter Mannion and Emma Messenger are good (and excellent actors) but Vincent Franklin is pretty characateur-ish as well as pretty badly played imo.
― jed_, Friday, 7 September 2012 13:32 (8 months ago) Permalink
i mean he's not terrible but everyone else is so good that it kinda shows him up. and i'd guess he's pretty much the main character now.
― jed_, Friday, 7 September 2012 13:33 (8 months ago) Permalink
More likely to be about Peter Mannion than Vincent Frankin's character, who I agree is relatively weak. PHIL is amazing though, although mostly as a foil for Ollie.
― Matt DC, Friday, 7 September 2012 13:37 (8 months ago) Permalink
that andrew rawnsley interview with armando the other do was crazy. armando being all calm and sensible, rawnsley being a concern trolling herb.
― Trad., Arrrgh (stevie), Friday, 7 September 2012 13:47 (8 months ago) Permalink
Great series opener.
― Chewshabadoo, Saturday, 8 September 2012 21:34 (8 months ago) Permalink
i thought it was quite bad, the writing was poor: just a series of one-liners in place of any kind of substance. a couple of good one-liners admittedly but not bedded into a believable scenario. the direction was poor as well, a load of actors who didn't seem to know what they were supposed to be doing. i don't thing this is the directors fault though.
i know dosac is supposed to be some lolworthy non-department but i just didn't believe the scenario with the apps and then i didn't believe the fake furore with the minister going home with his half bottle of champagne. it was flimsy.
also it was annoying that they did that )re in the loop) thing of re-using an actor from a previous episode in a completely different role. one of the actors (i dunno who since i couldn't actually tell who anyone was supposed to be) was previously used as the newspaper editor in spinners and losers. the one who was trying to get ollie's ex gf to get ollie to dish the dirt so that he could have a headline for the morning's paper.
― jed_, Sunday, 9 September 2012 01:10 (8 months ago) Permalink
the glorious confusion of the rise of the nutters/spinners and losers episodes worked because the central characters were already bedded in. you can't really use that format on new characters who we know nothing about. no amount of one-liners and frantic camera moves can substitute for that.
overall this was a lot like veep.
― jed_, Sunday, 9 September 2012 01:23 (8 months ago) Permalink
rubbish, this was great. I especially liked the casual nazi references from several tories,
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Sunday, 9 September 2012 02:06 (8 months ago) Permalink
this was fucking waste
only writer credited was will smith the prick who plays the conservative apparatchik
idk if this is iannucci making a bbc1 sitcom episode as oblique condemnation of coalition era cultural degredation, or he really doesn't give a fuck anymore now he's running tings for HBO
― A.R.R.Y. Kane (nakhchivan), Sunday, 9 September 2012 11:04 (8 months ago) Permalink
credit to roger allam to putting in a good shift in a failing enterprise
― A.R.R.Y. Kane (nakhchivan), Sunday, 9 September 2012 11:06 (8 months ago) Permalink
to/for
i thought it was alright but i just watched the last series opener this morning and its a lot tighter
― thomp, Sunday, 9 September 2012 11:10 (8 months ago) Permalink
but that's one disruptive presence in a scenario we already know, which is kind of a fun thing to write and a delight to watch executed well -- whereas this is 'let's try and make round characters out of these people we're used to just seeing one facet of' which is a lot more work on both sides
i don't know, it seems like they're going all in on this having a continuous plot rather than being episodic? so i am okay with the idea it might take a minute to get off the ground
― thomp, Sunday, 9 September 2012 11:11 (8 months ago) Permalink
It was a bit light on incident for a TTOI episode, but I still laughed a lot. Love Mannion and Phil.
― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Sunday, 9 September 2012 11:13 (8 months ago) Permalink
felt sorry for the actors playing terri and glenn
― A.R.R.Y. Kane (nakhchivan), Sunday, 9 September 2012 11:23 (8 months ago) Permalink
well Terri had to deliver the superficially funny lines
"Ever the charmless minor royal." & (to Glen) "You look like a week-old party balloon. I just don't want you ending up as one of those 'before he turned the gun on himself' guys."
which, you know, may be funny but even if you do think they're funny it's not Terri, that's not her character. that's just trying to write every character like a variation on malcolm tucker. there were worse examples eg. Mannion calling Terri a fart in a frock we what to waft out of here. which definitely isn't funny OR in character.
― jed_, Sunday, 9 September 2012 12:06 (8 months ago) Permalink
It's not funny, but it is in character for Mannion. I basically agree with you on inserting mini-Tuckerisms into the mouth of any character who happens to be standing about at the time, but TTOI has been doing that for ages - Terri and (especially) Glen have had loads of those jarring one-liners in the past.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 9 September 2012 18:42 (8 months ago) Permalink
lol at calling stuart "doctor robotnik"
― caek, Sunday, 9 September 2012 19:14 (8 months ago) Permalink
Actually the one-liners seemed particularly jarring coming from the new LibDems.
the glorious confusion of the rise of the nutters/spinners and losers episodes worked because the central characters were already bedded in
The central characters in this episode have been bedded in for ages, they were hardly introducing an entire cast at once.
Thought the episode was very funny but flawed. The LibDems were a bit clumsily handled - the guy playing the MP had the mix of petulant impotence down nicely and obviously they're necessary in this series, but the episode as a whole fell victim to the modern malaise of trying to include too much stuff at once.
The main Tories were all excellent and Roger Allam was more than good enough to carry the episode in his own right. The scene where he was dying in front of the 6th form IT class was hilarious and excruciating. Glen having defected to the LibDems made sense as well.
I like Stuart as a character but, I dunno, Ianucci should really have taken a second look at his collection of Tories because real life has overtaken him madly. You can give Mannion a pass as some kind of avuncular and marginalised Ken Clarke type but if the episode was missing anything it was a properly evil Tory bastard to rival Malcolm Tucker. The lack of an Andy Coulson figure so far feels like a missed opportunity. The gag about Stuart taking a morning off after Steve Jobs died was pitch perfect though.
Splitting the two sides like this is a bit odd, I have faith the thing will improve massively when they move over to the opposition and then set the two groups up against each other.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 9 September 2012 19:45 (8 months ago) Permalink
i know dosac is supposed to be some lolworthy non-department but i just didn't believe the scenario with the apps
I just about bought this because a) it's not that much more convoluted and stupid than some actual government policies and b) if Dosac actually existed it would have been cut in its entirety, the only conceivable reason for it existing would be to put some kind of liberal gloss on brutal Tory policies, which I suppose is going to be the theme for the series.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 9 September 2012 19:50 (8 months ago) Permalink
You can give Mannion a pass as some kind of avuncular and marginalised Ken Clarke type but if the episode was missing anything it was a properly evil Tory bastard to rival Malcolm Tucker.
the only precedent here is tom hollander's cameo as an estuarine coulson type at the end of the last series, but hollander has his work cut out being hollywood's favourite undersized englishman (so i guess he will turn up in a cameo on veep s2 as the british ambassador or something)
― ask morbs if he is better off than he was 4 days ago (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Sunday, 9 September 2012 19:55 (8 months ago) Permalink
yeah i did spend a little while thinking 'whatever happened to 'the fucker''
― thomp, Sunday, 9 September 2012 19:56 (8 months ago) Permalink
2013 Untitled Woody Allen Project Undersized English Chap
― ask morbs if he is better off than he was 4 days ago (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Sunday, 9 September 2012 19:57 (8 months ago) Permalink
Yeah I was assuming Hollander just wasn't available, they need someone though, there's no way the Stuart guy would have lasted into a real Tory government (and maybe he won't).
― Matt DC, Sunday, 9 September 2012 19:58 (8 months ago) Permalink
the real version is on sabbatical at stanford iirc
― ask morbs if he is better off than he was 4 days ago (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Sunday, 9 September 2012 20:00 (8 months ago) Permalink
there isn't actually any need for most of the characters now that the writing is basically 'offscreen character x is a bloody old bastard' x1000
― ask morbs if he is better off than he was 4 days ago (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Sunday, 9 September 2012 20:04 (8 months ago) Permalink
jed p much otm, here, though i wasn't quite as despairing. it did have an awkward 'radio play' feel to it, though, the direction fairly staid & the sorta framing & acting of fergus & the other guy p poor.
this is way off though! the guy was previously the night shift editor of the independent - afaic this seems like a fairly salient take on the small village quality of westminster, that he's pointedly resurfacing.
this def underperformed though. i feel like w/this being the final series there's actually some room for some real weight to it, in the same way that there was with in the loop, which was way more affecting & depressing than it was amusing, leaving you with questions about politics. having the opposition involved next week is kinda promising. but yeah mannion didn't quite flesh out, & there were a lot of kinda veep-level weak lines (i wish there was an app that could send him a dead cat, &c).
― very sexual album (schlump), Sunday, 9 September 2012 21:22 (8 months ago) Permalink
i loved it when terri stood up for herself. even if it was a calculated move to get herself fired.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 9 September 2012 21:27 (8 months ago) Permalink