i. do they keep up the 'did the president call?' 'no' 'no' and the 'did you know i have my own flag' bitsii. do they get funny and how many repetitions does it take for them to get funny
― thomp, Monday, April 23, 2012 10:16 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yesand no, not by the end of the first three episodes at least
― max, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:15 (eleven years ago) link
have not seen this but am suspicious of the choice to make it vague what party anyone belongs to. or is it not vague, upon viewing?
― goole, Tuesday, April 24, 2012 2:56 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this annoys the hell out of me
― max, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:17 (eleven years ago) link
first 2 eps strike me as a lil boring? at least v conventional sitcom-y plots/pacing/beats idk i might'ev been hoping this'd be more ambitious
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:19 (eleven years ago) link
i liked the pilot a lot--i think mostly because i love the mike character? but yeah the second one seemed a little aimless. i'm not sure vice-presidents have no real power is enough to hang a show on.
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:25 (eleven years ago) link
oh, i quite enjoyed 'did the president call' in the second episode
i'm interested how they'll work the parties in the third season of 'the thick of it' because it's been quite clear all along which parties they belong to, and if they're doing a coalition govt. with peter mannion as an MP (which i read somewhere or other) they either need to churn their cast massively, or deal mainly with the opposition, or get quite stuck into doing ... actual alternate history
― thomp, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:25 (eleven years ago) link
Is US politics more polarised and partisan than in the UK? Maybe AI thought that making the party explicit would stop the show being about politics and start being about the party.
― give me back my 200 dollars (NotEnough), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:26 (eleven years ago) link
theres some widely cited intvw where iannucci said he was glad to have delayed the 3rd season of TTOI because the election happened and he was excited about the prospect of a coalition govt
― max, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:26 (eleven years ago) link
yeh, kinda rubbing my hands at what he'll do with the coalition, esp. since political communication is a big theme running through the series.
― give me back my 200 dollars (NotEnough), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:28 (eleven years ago) link
What do we make of JLD's costuming? Is it too much to quibble over the fact that I can't imagine a VP wearing a lbd in the middle of the day not to mention when it's supposedly that hot?
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:30 (eleven years ago) link
i noticed that. she seems to wear cocktail dresses a lot.
― caek, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:30 (eleven years ago) link
they're not really cocktail dresses. more like extremely well-tailored/form-fitting/high-end career-wear.
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:31 (eleven years ago) link
how i feel is mostly julia louis-dreyfus looks so great! but surely that wasn't what you were getting at.
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:32 (eleven years ago) link
she looks incredible, yes!
― caek, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:34 (eleven years ago) link
her wardrobe is not the main problem with the show
― caek, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:35 (eleven years ago) link
I am not denying that she looks fab, I just think the costuming is a little off somehow.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:36 (eleven years ago) link
id like to engage in some presidential vice with her, if you catch my drift
― max, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:36 (eleven years ago) link
third series was 2008, coalition one will be 4th
― ┗|∵|┓ (sic), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:43 (eleven years ago) link
oh whatever
― max, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:47 (eleven years ago) link
I just think the costuming is a little off somehow.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, May 1, 2012 10:36 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i know what you mean, but i think it's a character note, like evidence of selina's...vanity is too strong, but self-regard? desire to look good?
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:49 (eleven years ago) link
or it's taking advantage of the fact that julia louis-dreyfus is in the cast
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:50 (eleven years ago) link
Autres temps, autres moeurs
I just think black during the day is a little jarring though somewhat less jarring than the closing sequence.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:56 (eleven years ago) link
being as how her primary issue is the environment, and she has a love/hate relationship with big oil, presumably the democratic party is in office.
― Mordy, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:57 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i know it's officially not about a party and that is annoying, but since all of the political discussions seems more-or-less based in reality, even if everyone's behaving pettily, i just read it as being about democrats.
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 14:58 (eleven years ago) link
right soooo why not just be like DEMOCRATS
― max, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:05 (eleven years ago) link
i don't know, but they're going to have to be a little more specific about the politics soon or it's going to get rough. how many eps can they do about incompetently organized photo ops?
― Mordy, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:06 (eleven years ago) link
This show is in thrall to the coffee lobby
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:08 (eleven years ago) link
the thing that seems off is the direction overall. as glaringly obvious as it was, the gastric bug ending still had comic potential that was somehow missed or fudged through bad timing, confused performances, weird camera movements etc.
― jed_, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:20 (eleven years ago) link
actually the actors don't seem to be entirely sure what they're supposed to be doing, alot of the time, which is a combination of the fault of writing and direction, i guess.
― jed_, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:25 (eleven years ago) link
It started out funny in the yoghurt place but the pacing of her getting sick and hustled into the limo was too fast to let the joke really settle in.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:28 (eleven years ago) link
i think the cast are still feeling out how this works (though obviously we don't know what order these were shot in ...)
the gastric bug ending still had comic potential that was somehow missed or fudged through bad timing, confused performances, weird camera movements etc
i think this is kind of the point ... the british show's schtick is that shabby fuckups never make for great comic climaxes but are always just shabby fuckups. ianucci's scripts have a slightly off relationship to sitcom cliché; i'm not convinced this works as well as the thick of it does - but, then, the first series of that show (of which there have been two series, numbered one and three) has an awkward and off feel about the early episodes too. to some degree this evaporates in rewatching -- i feel like knowing the moment of pettiness the first series 'builds' to somehow retrospectively justifies the tenor of it.
― thomp, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:35 (eleven years ago) link
(thick of it has yet to utter the names of any of the political parties -- but has been way more tied to certain specifics of labour govt. 1997-2007 than this is tied to the american political scene, unless i'm missing all the tells)
― thomp, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:38 (eleven years ago) link
you're right about that being the point and it's a difficult thing to pull off. it's just not working yet. early days.
― jed_, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:38 (eleven years ago) link
it wasn't until here that I realized what "lbd" was and was trying to convince myself that no matter how much my mind suggested it, it probably didn't stand for "labial buffing device"
― I'M THAT POSTA, AAAAAAAAAH (DJP), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 16:17 (eleven years ago) link
I love that your mind suggests such fancies as 'labial buffing device'.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 16:19 (eleven years ago) link
yeah it's obviously about the democrats! not weird to me at all that they're not referring to the parties, though, cause it's not about that aspect of politics
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 19:00 (eleven years ago) link
which aspect is that exactly
― thomp, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 20:51 (eleven years ago) link
the tribalistic speeches for public consumption
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:09 (eleven years ago) link
watching this in a double-header with Borgen is kind of head-chafing, FYI
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:11 (eleven years ago) link
Labial buffing greatly to be preferred?
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:17 (eleven years ago) link
can't i have both?
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:18 (eleven years ago) link
Only if you get them in a back massage chair
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:21 (eleven years ago) link
― max, Tuesday, May 1, 2012 3:17 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this is exactly the same as the thick of it, party affils rendered via types of deportment, wit, affect &c so u see a woman w/ a jewish name and u don't have to think 'republicans can be jewish, too'
― Ms Tum-Bla-Wi-Tee (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:36 (eleven years ago) link
second episode rather better, still think POTUS is even more hateful than VEEP but impressed to the degree to which iannucci and friends have cloaked themselves in another flag
― Ms Tum-Bla-Wi-Tee (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:38 (eleven years ago) link
i coulda sworn that ttoi used party affiliations! but i guess not
― max, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:45 (eleven years ago) link
it did, very much so.
― jed_, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:50 (eleven years ago) link
I don't think of it as naming them but that's not what I'm watching it for
the first series of that show (of which there have been two series, numbered one and three)
First series was three eps, second series was 3 eps. I promise you this is how they were made internally, and are sold separately to OS broadcasters by the Beeb. (Ianucci was given money for one half-hour pilot and managed to turn in two episodes on the budget - they then said "blimey, if you can do a third on whatever change everyone at the table has in their pockets, we'll show them all," and he said "deal.")
― ┗|∵|┓ (sic), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 00:11 (eleven years ago) link
i keep reading this as a cryptic crossword clue, and i don't even do cryptic crosswords
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 09:56 (eleven years ago) link
I'm kind of surprised that I like this as much as I do.― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White)
― "in this super-sexy postracial age" (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 15:39 (eleven years ago) link
loved jld's reaction when she gets a whiff of the white house
― give me back my 200 dollars (NotEnough), Thursday, 3 May 2012 16:20 (eleven years ago) link
i liked ep 2 but it still feels somehow straitjacketed, not sufficiently unhinged; hoping for more appearances by washpo asshole
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 May 2012 17:58 (eleven years ago) link