A thread for Armando Iannucci's VEEP

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felt very "ooh, handheld cameras, gratuitous cursing, big fuckin deal" to me, but still pretty funny and a good cast, will watch again

Poor Turrican (some dude), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 02:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

lol well in 2k12 those things are pretty commonplace no?

The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 02:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

feel like american sitcom is a more expansive genre than british sitcom -- one of the weird things about the thick of it is that it is an absolutely classical version of standard british sitcom setup, only it somehow escapes being awful

xpost ha yeah i don't really notice those things at this point?

thomp, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 02:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

well yeah that's what i meant, the look/feel of it is kind of played imo

Poor Turrican (some dude), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 02:36 (1 year ago) Permalink

that's an unplayable aesthetic

The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 02:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

I think it needs time to develop side characters. People like Blinky Ben, etc...

There's also a different dynamic from The Thick of It. Everyone listened to/was scared of Malcolm, and the politicians tended to need to be shepherded around. JLD seems to have all the agency in Veep, where everyone else is just scrambling to fix her mistakes or get her what she wants.

Also the US doesn't have an equivalent of the civil servant, so we don't get a Terri.

stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

you guys realize this isn't an adaptation, right, it's a different show by the same creator

Poor Turrican (some dude), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

original title was "The Veep of It" iirc

stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

the thick of eep

Poor Turrican (some dude), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

In the Veep

stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

ah, british humour.

Mordy, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

some dude is british?

The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

lol no, i don't think so

Mordy, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

oi mates some dude is

The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

these political shows that Iannucci has done, do they have any of the same absurdity of the 'Armando Iannucci Show'? I saw the first episode of 'Veep' and it didn't, though it was funny enough in its own right.

boxall, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:25 (1 year ago) Permalink

no. at least not the surrealism.

stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

though his next show for HBO, Armando Iannucci's Veep Trumpet, probably will

stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:27 (1 year ago) Permalink

the early thick of it is blackly absurd in the best sense, some of his more freeform stuff is a bit winsome

The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

blimey blood sausage, i've been outed

Poor Turrican (some dude), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

too right guv'nor

stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

Some of the lines felt quite British or straight out of TTOI like 'massive and total shit' and 'Tom Hanks might die'. This is not nec a bad thing but slightly jarring?

kinder, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 05:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

American innovation on stale British sitcom formula = something nice occasionally happens to the lead character, instead of being dangled in front of them and snatched away.

Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 06:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

Obviously I'm against it.

Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 06:25 (1 year ago) Permalink

^ six series

thomp, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 09:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

what i mean about classical british sitcom in re: the thick of it would be something like:

- enclosed environment
- all conflict is created by strict pecking order amongst characters
- each episode follows a rising action plot ending with someone making a tit of themselves

you guys realize this isn't an adaptation, right, it's a different show by the same creator

― Poor Turrican (some dude), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 03:14 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

iirc ianucci was 'developing' an american version of 'the thick of it' for ages and then it wasn't being mentioned and then his name was attached to this? i mean ... c'mon. it's the same show. sort of.

thomp, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 09:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

no, as far as I know there actually was a pilot for the American version of The Thick Of It directed by Christopher Guest

Number None, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 09:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

In October, 2006, ABC announced that it was developing a U.S. version of “The Thick of It.” Mitchell Hurwitz, whose show “Arrested Development” had just been cancelled, was named executive producer and co-writer. In a recent e-mail, Hurwitz said that he saw similarities between “Arrested Development” and “The Thick of It,” which, in his reading, was about “people whose big outward and ‘important’ lives are run on a very small and impaired set of inner resources.” He went on, “That just really appeals to me comedically. . . . Big people with small hearts. Stupid people with high I.Q.s.”
Christopher Guest directed the pilot. Iannucci barely had a role. Peter Bennett-Jones, Iannucci’s agent in the U.K., told me, “It seemed to be in good hands, but they just didn’t listen to Armando.” The pilot, which never aired, starred Oliver Platt as an almost avuncular (and non-swearing) envoy from the office of his party’s Whip, and John Michael Higgins as a peppy congressman who has never heard of “The Daily Show.” Seen today, the pilot seems flat. And there is no hint of melancholy, as there was in the British version, no sense of ideals eroded over time. Iannucci said, “It’s not awful, it’s just dull—which, you know, is a good trick to pull off.” Hurwitz defended the pilot, but admitted that it had “lost the sense of mania of the original.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/03/26/120326fa_fact_parker?currentPage=all

Touché Gödel (ledge), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 09:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

oh, sure, if you want to rely on external evidence

thomp, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 10:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

look i just called old mandy on the old dog and bone and he said for bobby moore that he developed this show as a version of his other show but for the bloody septics and now he's confirmed it let's have no more talk about it, right? right

thomp, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 10:02 (1 year ago) Permalink

Solid premiere ratings. If people liked it as much as I do it should get a couple of seasons.

abcfsk, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

it'll do fine. you practically have to kill a few horses to get less than 2-3 full seasons on HBO these days.

some dude, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:03 (1 year ago) Permalink

i'm excited for 2-3 full seasons of this

Mordy, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

How many eps is a typical HBO season?

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:07 (1 year ago) Permalink

SATC generally did 18 - sometimes as few as 12 or 8 (first season + when two of the actresses were pregnant respectively)

Mordy, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:10 (1 year ago) Permalink

deadwood and curb were/are 10-13

caek, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:10 (1 year ago) Permalink

dramas i think tend to be ~12

Mordy, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:10 (1 year ago) Permalink

eastbound + d was 6-8

caek, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:10 (1 year ago) Permalink

it seems to be inconsistent, even within a particular show's run

Mordy, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

Stoked for this, it'll feel good to watch a US sitcom from the beginning at the same time as America.

Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

I doubt there have been 18 episodes of The Thick of It in total!!

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

enlightened had 10 and it's getting a 2nd season

i enjoyed this tho i kind of hope future episodes are less...stuffed

y'tulip, y'pea-brained earwig (donna rouge), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:23 (1 year ago) Permalink

there are 8 episodes of this season of Veep

btw i might've mentioned this in a previous thread but a lot of the show was shot in Baltimore instead of D.C. and i was this close to getting to spend a day on the set a few months ago, am really bummed that didn't pan out. maybe next season.

some dude, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

The first episode is good if a little slow-burny (certainly compared to TTOI, but I should make a conscious effort to not compare the two too much). Excellently acted all round.

I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

kind of reminded me of early parks & rec in that I didn't know what the stakes were, so there was just a bunch of quality comic actors all playing clueless. It's just the pilot, though.

da croupier, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

reminds me more of Lisa Kudrow's HBO show The Comeback than anything else

some dude, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 15:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

dumb Brit speaking but i've never actually understood exactly what HBO means. is it pay per view? is it cable only? over here we have some satelite/ cable stations where you *have* to pay for the channel month by month (Sky Sports, etc) but some are free with a basic 'freeview' box and so you pay once for that, then never again to watch any given channel. is that how it works over there with HBO? i was never sure also why that means you get more swearing and nudity and suchlike in HBO shows than other non HBO shows. hey i could WIKI this shit but i want the fun version from you guys.

piscesx, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 18:13 (1 year ago) Permalink

i don't know if it's the fun version, but HBO is cable that you pay an extra monthly fee to get

Mordy, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 18:15 (1 year ago) Permalink

HBO's pay-cable (you have to pay specifically for it, as opposed to getting it with a basic cable package) status means it can show movies unedited and make tv series with no restrictions as to content as opposed to Broadcast (heavily regulated by the FCC) and basic cable (which is more self-regulated than anything, but is dependent on advertisers and cable companies paying subscriptions), because you don't specifically choose those channels.

stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 18:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

also having no advertisers means it's not dependent on ratings, and as it's paid for monthly it has a lot more money than anyone else.

stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 18:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

it sounds like you just didn't really like ttoi?

caek, Sunday, 5 May 2013 00:43 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

"i just had to sign a 2 year lease on a nissan cube"

johnny crunch, Monday, 6 May 2013 03:31 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

"it actually comes out as the number two."

stefon taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Monday, 13 May 2013 04:18 (1 week ago) Permalink

<3 dave foley

stefon taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Monday, 13 May 2013 04:26 (1 week ago) Permalink

i'm giving up on this :-(

caek, Sunday, 19 May 2013 19:59 (4 days ago) Permalink

really! i think it's improved greatly this season!

klaus dingeldore's rhinelander monkey keeper father (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 19 May 2013 20:12 (4 days ago) Permalink

why did the midnight caller ask for mike again? he wanted him so much that he basically bribed VPOTUS. why??

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 19 May 2013 20:16 (4 days ago) Permalink

ohhh to get rid of jolly green jizzface perhaps

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 19 May 2013 20:16 (4 days ago) Permalink

sometimes you just have to write it down and then you know

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 19 May 2013 20:17 (4 days ago) Permalink

it's got more ambitious this season i suppose. it's still not gotten funny imo.

caek, Sunday, 19 May 2013 21:19 (4 days ago) Permalink

i love it

Mordy , Sunday, 19 May 2013 21:24 (4 days ago) Permalink

xxposts -- common interest in boating i thought made him think of mike as someone appealing to work with.

stefon taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Monday, 20 May 2013 05:27 (3 days ago) Permalink


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