A thread for Armando Iannucci's VEEP

Here it is, take it:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-veep-20120420,0,3510200.story

toot toot veep veep, veep me 911, etc.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/04/12/Style/Images/VEEP001.jpg

Do we think this is going to be good? I'm sort of interested.

I'm pretty excited! I've seen a bunch of good early hype and trailer looks lolz

Yeah, same. I'm intrigued by this and by the one with Jeff Daniels they keep showing previews for.

also, i've been craving a sharp, vulgar, + irreverent political sitcom

Ianucci. Not sure Americans can swear quite like this though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk75R9uTMmo

It's true , I was worried when I heard there would be Americans involved in this, they always seem to ruin things

"Afternoon, ladies. I heard there were sandwiches and I'm a fucker for cress. No, no, no, please don't get up - I'm not Viagra. Geoffrey, good to see you. John, how are you doing? I just wanted to tell you I really enjoyed your novel ... way of writing a fucking awful story."

he's written some great american characters like Linton Barwick

also thought anna chlumsky (My Girl!) was really good in the movie and she's gonna be in this

Haha a fucker for cress. I bet Veep won't have anything close to that. Also THick Of It>>>>In The Loop, right?

Jamie otm

When will it be possible to acquire the first episode?

tmmrw night i think

Sunday Night.

right, that's what i meant

lol, i thought it was saturday already

Thanks. Monday torrent viewings looking very nice for the next few months then; this, GoT and Mad Men.

there's a pretty bustling thread about another HBO sitcom happening on sundays

The recently completed Eastbound? Or am I missing something?

GIRLS

the infection spreads

Never heard of it, but damn that's a long thread.

THick Of It>>>>In The Loop, right?

Yes, but I thought the americans had the funniest parts of In The Loop, so I'm optimistic.

i saw the first three episodes of this, it's very good

it's not as good as the thick of it, mostly because there's no hilarious sweary malcolm tucker character, but i loled several times

I'm looking forward to this, especially if it doesn't prove another example of a gifted satirist who sets his eyes on America but quickly reveals he knows little about this country.

Yeah now that you mention it, I'm glad there was a thread for this before one for The Dictator.

I didn't realize the Thick of it Connection. I just liked the look of a trailer but now I realize that I probably should watch that movie. I'd forgotten about it after the comedy poll.

Not quite In The Loop funny, but it was pretty good. I don't know if it would be possible to have two characters as funny as Malcolm Tucker and the eff-star-star-cunt American from ITL.

Some thudding moments here and there, but this was pretty funny overall.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is great, as are Anna Chlumsky and the slimeball. The press secretary and her body man could wear thin.

this seemed sort of ... off. it's an interesting decision to have the passive-aggressive dweeb kid instead of a malcolm tucker figure but ... i dunno

maybe in three or four episodes i will stop automatically comparing it to the thick of it, and then i will also stop automatically trying to make the differences be emblematic of differences in national character

max

i. do they keep up the 'did the president call?' 'no' 'no' and the 'did you know i have my own flag' bits
ii. do they get funny and how many repetitions does it take for them to get funny

would honestly stick w/ this just for tony hale & matt walsh but i was ok w/ those 'jokes'

yeah, i laughed. i'll watch until they cancel it.

no i mean i honestly believe, given time, those 'jokes' will become funny

this is fine, it's not remotely as good as the early thick of it but it's doubtful anything else is going to be, certainly within the pro forma confines of the american sitcom

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

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

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?

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

that's an unplayable aesthetic

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.

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

original title was "The Veep of It" iirc

the thick of eep

In the Veep

ah, british humour.

some dude is british?

lol no, i don't think so

oi mates some dude is

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.

no. at least not the surrealism.

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

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

blimey blood sausage, i've been outed

too right guv'nor

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?

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.

Obviously I'm against it.

http://www.webtvwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/my-hero-logo.jpg

^ six series

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How many eps is a typical HBO season?

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

deadwood and curb were/are 10-13

dramas i think tend to be ~12

eastbound + d was 6-8

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

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

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

16 iirc?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

aha it all makes sense. thanks. i wish Mad Men was made by HBO.

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?

oh it's vague. I get the motivation but it kind of devolved things to "Looks like those clowns in government did it again. What a bunch of clowns."

JL-D's character is trying to push for "green jobs" in this ep so i'd guess dem but they don't really explicitly state it, no (/notreallyaspoiler)

i imagine they felt it would distract you from what the show is about and i think they're probably right; maybe they'll spill the beans after a couple more shows though?

"Looks like those clowns in government did it again. What a bunch of clowns."

yeah this meme is thoroughly owned by the right wing in america; i'm wondering if iannucci realizes how his schtick plays into that?

'in the loop' drew much of its power from blairite hardasses inescapably seeing what it was they'd muscled into, right?

i've never been satisfied by political drama of any kind tho, really. no show like the real thing imo.

political comedy even less

if the sense of individual characters and their relative intelligence/engagement increases, i could see the lack of political content being irrelevant, esp since the veep is such an irrelevant position.

it hasn't been for our adult life!

i think you can get away with a show that implies it is within a fantasy administration, with more jokes and a reason to get invested in the characters' dilemmas.

okay okay, i'll get of my hobbyhorse until i see the show

It's never mattered less what party anyone belongs to.

'in the loop' drew much of its power from blairite hardasses inescapably seeing what it was they'd muscled into, right?

not sure what you mean

essentially comedic characters having to look at war, basically.

some VPs (Cheney) obv more important than others (Quayle)

First episode streaming free at hbo.com and probably YouTube btw.

first episode not very funny : (

i just watched and thought it was pretty good though i wonder how it'll work without any truly frightening characters. interesting that the veep herself is the audience proxy and not some chris addison type staffer

i didn't think the entire episode of sarah palin, but i have to admit that i occasionally was reminded of palin

i don't think that's a problem or anything the show necessarily has to run from.

for sure. i didn't mind it.

was annoyed at the production designers for not matching the wapo typefaces on the fake style section. Pretty glaringly obvious on screen I'd think even if you aren't familiar with the paper.

JLD looks great. This has promise and i'll keep watching but i only laughed once at JLD referring to glasses as "wheelchairs for the eyes". the gary character is bound to get super annoying. i know he's supposed to be but still...

"oh look, it's the guy from my left foot"

this show rules. between this and Girls i was starting to feel like a criminal so i ordered hbo.

I enjoyed the first episode of this a lot

def wanna see this

was annoyed at the production designers for not matching the wapo typefaces on the fake style section. Pretty glaringly obvious

Generally, no one in the biz cares about this kind of detail. Even if they actually said "Post."

(maybe there's even some weird un/written rule not to duplicate it)

renewed

I'm kind of surprised that I like this as much as I do.

i. do they keep up the 'did the president call?' 'no' 'no' and the 'did you know i have my own flag' bits
ii. 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

yes
and no, not by the end of the first three episodes at least

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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?

i noticed that. she seems to wear cocktail dresses a lot.

they're not really cocktail dresses. more like extremely well-tailored/form-fitting/high-end career-wear.

how i feel is mostly julia louis-dreyfus looks so great! but surely that wasn't what you were getting at.

she looks incredible, yes!

her wardrobe is not the main problem with the show

I am not denying that she looks fab, I just think the costuming is a little off somehow.

id like to engage in some presidential vice with her, if you catch my drift

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

third series was 2008, coalition one will be 4th

oh whatever

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?

or it's taking advantage of the fact that julia louis-dreyfus is in the cast

Autres temps, autres moeurs

I just think black during the day is a little jarring though somewhat less jarring than the closing sequence.

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.

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.

right soooo why not just be like DEMOCRATS

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?

This show is in thrall to the coffee lobby

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.

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.

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.

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.

(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)

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.

I just think black during the day is a little jarring though somewhat less jarring than the closing sequence.

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 love that your mind suggests such fancies as 'labial buffing device'.

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

which aspect is that exactly

the tribalistic speeches for public consumption

watching this in a double-header with Borgen is kind of head-chafing, FYI

Labial buffing greatly to be preferred?

can't i have both?

Only if you get them in a back massage chair

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, 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'

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

i coulda sworn that ttoi used party affiliations! but i guess not

it did, very much so.

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.")

Labial buffing greatly to be preferred?

i keep reading this as a cryptic crossword clue, and i don't even do cryptic crosswords

I'm kind of surprised that I like this as much as I do.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White)

loved jld's reaction when she gets a whiff of the white house

i liked ep 2 but it still feels somehow straitjacketed, not sufficiently unhinged; hoping for more appearances by washpo asshole

Best episode by far, on par with the great Thick of It episodes.

not really but still great as shown by

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/may/07/veep-episode-three-review-catherine?newsfeed=true

definitely much better!

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/us/politics/for-a-blunt-biden-an-uneasy-supporting-role.html?hp
this show is informing my understanding of biden in a weird way

i think my problem with veep is that there is no drama. if a problem arises, it gets sorted p quickly by the generic white guy or doesnt really matter? which i guess is the joke but it doesn't give me anything to care about.

"have you ever read faulkner before?"

Well the issues seem to be continuing on.

This last one was great.

i think my problem with veep is that there is no drama. if a problem arises, it gets sorted p quickly by the generic white guy or doesnt really matter? which i guess is the joke but it doesn't give me anything to care about.

― Thoughts? You must have loads. (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 16:35 (Yesterday) Permalink

yeah i thought a big sticking point between the thick of it & this might be that TTOI has such a good handle on the drudgery and texture of day to day british politics, & with this they were just going to use the correct issues as a backdrop. but now there are a couple of things competing it works a little better as a backstory.

thought this was better anyway, too, although some of it's still weirdly leaden, or just generically sit-com-ish. i liked someone saying someone had a face like a guy who'd been stabbed in the groin.

I have only just started watching this but I got some lols off the first episode and will def keep watching.

It's like a West Wing about dumb people, lol.

I think most of the government issues/storylines in TTOI were as throwaway as the ones here but Malcolm made them seem like they were of insane importance to execute properly. The gimpy White House guy turning up to go "ummm, the first lady is getting a dog, plz dont get one" just doesn't make you care. Instead I was just sitting there, kinda bored. Ok, so she doesn't get a dog. Or she can get one for her daughter and just not have a press conference about it. Woop.

I think most of the government issues/storylines in TTOI were as throwaway as the ones here but Malcolm made them seem like they were of insane importance to execute properly

but I think that the kind of throwaway they were was so well-observed - third sector pathfinder initiative, expert-buttressed slapdash policy assemblages, fetishistic plays for an idea of 'coalface' or earthy politics - & i think the veep stuff is more generic: filibuster reform, oil contracts. part of what's amazing and oppressive about the thick of it is the limiting, nihilistic view of policy as something that no-one really understands or is invested in, which is exclusively valuable as ideological bragging ground, & for which there's no correlation between handling and presumably-profound-consequence. it's what makes the office feel like a bubble floating away from everything, which maybe, in veep, the whole white house thing makes less necessary, but which i think veep would be poorer without having an analogue for.

otm

it's a show about nothing

The closing bit with greetings was excellent. Also, "you're the widow."

sterling, i would fuck the shit outta julia louis dreyfus i wold treat her like a princess
also thank you for asendin me that daily worker

forks i think schlump's post and a hoy hoy's make a very good case that this is NOT a show about nothing (despite its subjects being unmoored from the realities that are supposed to inform their work)

Chris Morris directed a couple of the later episodes - I'm interested to see if they have any kind of stamp on them. The show has such a distinctive look and flow that I can't imagine there's too much variation on the theme, but I like to see him doing stuff, no matter what it is.

oh yeah that's encouraging, i think. i thought a lot of four lions was kinda perfunctory but his tone is always interesting

tracer: seinfeld ref

right i got that

was 'the new adventures of old christine' any good

/ what else has julis louise dreyfus been doing for the past decade

"There were two incarnations of Watching Ellie, neither of which met with any success. Both focused on the character of cabaret singer Ellie Riggs (Louis-Dreyfus), with markedly different approaches.
The first was directed by Ken Kwapis, known for his innovative work in single-camera sitcoms such as The Larry Sanders Show, Malcolm in the Middle and The Bernie Mac Show. Each 22-minute episode was meant to portray a 22-minute slice of Ellie's life, in real time. In the earliest episodes, a clock was even shown in the corner of the screen. Thirteen episodes were filmed but only ten aired before the series was put on indefinite hiatus (the remaining first-season episodes have never aired). During its use, the clock had the unfortunate effect of reminding the audience that a half-hour situation comedy only contained twenty-two minutes of content."

nobody in this show knows how to use email

but I guess if the White House used email instead of Jonah the show would be less funny, email isn't funny

hey theres this extreme metal band playing over at labyrinths tonight just real fucked up noise they dont even have a name you wanna check it out

The show's come together nicely, I think.

has gotten better & better 4 real

jonah at the show!!!

"That's like using a croissant as a fucking dildo."

"You've just turned this office into a salad spinner of Fuck!"

full of ttoi rehashes at this point

enjoyed purcell the oil guy, nice to have some invective amid the repartee

gig was an itl rehash, not a ttoi, but who cares bcz it was lol

there were like half a dozen refashioned ttoi lines this week alone, inc one quoted itt

except for first three-ep series, I've only seen TTOI eps once each so don't feel burnt out on small lines. (they're generally less effective here though, to be sure.)

has gotten better & better 4 real

― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 00:59 (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. the croissant line & follow up was amazing.
i still think it's a slightly weird assemblage - like the kinda breathy assistant guy. but it's good. i hope the tall guy with the imaginary dog drifts in a sorta glenn-in-the-thick-of-it direction, all pitifully obsolete.

i like the extensive explanation jokes like the croissant, the anti-viagra, etc

get some nuts. i'm sweating all my minerals into my shorts here.

hundreds of pictures of herons catching fish

^

this show is good but i wish it were not quite so sitcommy. looking at you, anna chlumsky and guy that plays gary

Total POTAL meltdown

^

this show is good but i wish it were not quite so sitcommy. looking at you, anna chlumsky and guy that plays gary

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 4 June 2012 22:49 (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah. i like anna chlumsky a lot though. i wish selena was sketched out a little more; like she's so good in certain moods - like being mad, or being conniving, that it feels kinda weak to just have her always on the back foot, as like a default mode.

"guy that plays Gary" is Tony Hale, better known as Buster Bluth. Jonah is my favorite character. His housemates in this ep were amazing. Six guys in white shirts on their phones at once.

this is impressive

good finale

Where have I seen the congressman's (very funny) aide before?

IT guy on The Office?

last ep was tremendous!! everything i didn't like about earlier episodes suddenly seemed to work

The Twitter exchange between Ianucci and Alasdair Campbell about his OBE brought the lols.

all the deleted scenes

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7F30C892CF01C672&feature=plcp

this gets better yeah? that first one was poo

it's hard at first because of the natural comparisons w/the thick of it, but after i'd say ep 3 or 4 i was looking forward to the next episodes. and the finale was thumping

I liked the first one more than many in the middle, but there are several better ones

are you likely to enjoy the characters more with the accretion of detail and establishment of running gags, or hate them now and will hate seeing more of them?

the first one is one of the weaker ones, so stick with it, but don't expect the thick of it

that's what i was expecting :(

amazing series, more watchable that TTOI because of JLD. just feels slicker and better-written too. first one or two eps not amazing but by e5 i was in awe

it's slicker partly because it's not as well written, but it's still very good by the end of the season

i am open to there being cultural differences in how satire translates on each side of the ocean, but that the writing of TTOI is superior seems beyond doubt, to me - veep, which is good!, still pretty regularly incorporated sitcommish zings and ad-homs, a bunch of which fell flat. its successes were more-good-original-swearing, &c. but the thick of it's so multi-layered & plays with conversational & power dynamics so powerfully. it fabricates all of these benign policy nooses that hang the characters, & some of the conclusions - like i am remembering malcolm promising to come up with an appropriate expert to corroborate the new argument of a flip-flop - seem so poignant & OTM wrt how things are now. malcolm's slow turn in the first scene of the first ep still kills me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSRN8O4ULQs

gonna have to rewatch ttoi to see how it compares but as a *comedy series* (not a political satire) i felt veep was a few steps beyond ttoi. just had so much swagger and confidence, seems to be a product of a proper writing team rather than one or two minds (not sure if the creation of either worked in this way but it definitely felt like that. plus julia ld far more charismatic and watchable and inherently funny than any of the ttoi blokes

full disclosure: the pompous unfunny shite chris addison spews on twitter has marred ttoi for me bigtime

Does it improve after the first episode? Because that was a horrible opener. (i'm talking about Veep btw, TToI was gold from the start)

Thought the opener was great, feels like a lot of people who say later episodes improved a lot just found it jarring to adjust to a half hour americanized Iannuci thing but then got to know the characters and liked them. In my opinion it stays good. But sticking with it you may find it grows on you, and there are better episodes later on.

Watched the first episode last night and enjoyed it, I like Anna Chlumsky's character and the obnoxious Jonah guy, not so sure about JLD. It feels very obviously an Ianucci creation and the potential's definitely there, but it's very obviously missing a Malcolm Tucker character (although maybe it wouldn't work in the US).

Think the first episode maybe suffered for lack of a proper crisis, those were very minor fires to have to put out.

'those were very minor fires to have to put out.'

That was the problem. Were we supposed to care about the incorrectly-signed card? Jeeze.

Also, yo, just because you add an unexpected 'fuck' to words/phrases doesn't mean its suddenly hilarious.

I wasn't completely sold on it (have only seen ep 1), but comparisons to TTOI were bound to affect my perspective. I think if it had come without the baggage I might have enjoyed it more.

my problem was not ttoi, my problem was quality/frequency of lols

I wasn't that taken with the first one, but it really hits its stride around ep 4 or 5.

Yeh, stick with it, it gets a lot better. I found myself gradually feeling warmer towards it and by the last 2 or 3 episodes I was anticipating the next one.

Agreed, I wasn't completely sold to begin with but it keeps getting better, and the last two episodes are pure gold. Ep 7, directed by Chris Morris, is jaw-droppingly good - and dark.

this is back now.

first ep was gold, Morris is great for this show

Addison doing the next few? should help bring the nervous vibe

yeah, really poisonous first ep

dan bakkedahl is so good

i wasn't convinced that mr midnight caller's touted credentials as a cold-blooded operative were actually valid, though? he seemed sort of relaxed and then he got hit in the face with some lipstick and crawled away

that was shit

someone actually wrote 'idontgiveafuckistan'

nah it was p good. ppl say dumb shit like that

This is way more realistic than House of Cards

:D

Probably the best ep yet; surprising depth this go round.

some great lines. the "you timed that metaphor out for that shitty ding" thing. the "tiny hands" gag.

"better than my shitty legs. i hate my legs."

So glad this is getting another season. Hitting its stride.

it's pretty decent, but i'm even more glad that this introduced me to "the thick of it." what an amazing show

it makes me laugh like once an episode, and those are always lines that feel like they were written for the thick of it ('i would rather set fire to my vulva', 'rubber idiots', etc.). i mean i'll keep watching and it's been held to an unfair standard, but it's not very funny and i've got a horrible feeling they're going to Make A Point about something at the end of this season with these multi-episode plots they keep touching on.

Multi-episode plots last season as well.

Feel this is basically as good as most TTOI at this point. And I don't see why people still claim it's copy paste. Especially in season 2, with the old characters settled and unique and new ones not having TTOI counterparts at all. The arsenal is pretty robust at this point, someone like Sue on the side holds up as an episode lead.

Thick of It is obv next level, but I'm laughing far harder at this series of Veep than the last. So many nice little moments in E3; the "robust" farce set-up, "procrasturbate", and a touching ending as the responsibilities of office intrude upon the career politician, which didn't happen at all last season (I may have forgotten that tho)

Yeah it's the combination of multi episode stuff and the attempt at a touching ending this week that makes me nervous

Also my complaint is not that it's like/not like ttoi. My complaint is that it's nowhere near as good.

do i need to know anything about british politics to get into The Thick Of It

No

Not really. Political shananigans cross the atlantic quite well. My grasp of US politics is a bit shaky but I've no trouble with Veep. The pop culture references might be more problematic tbh, tho maybe they're not quite as parochial as I remember.

you'll be fine h4a, check it out

i dig veep. its not Hilarious but i get some chuckles out of it and i like the actors and im just into the general vibe

liked the first season, but it definitely feels like this season stepped up a bit, really great right now.

i was on the set for a couple hours a few months ago, worked on a psa w/ J L-D, was really cool to see random cast members walking around and see the sets -- it really looks like they're in cramped old government buildings on the show but it's all these huge sets in a giant warehouse in columbia, maryland.

jld elevates this into something far superior to ttoi imo

interesting that chris morris and chris addison directed the first 2 eps but barely seemed different to the rest, in tone, etc. (thankfully as addison has shown himself to be grimly unfunny outside of ttoi)

i don't think he's terrible in mock the week. but yeah ianucci's group seem pretty good at sticking to a consistant house style

not seen him in that but his twitter account is a hive of smug 6th form bants

so like his ttoi character?

jld elevates this into something far superior to ttoi imo

― NI, Thursday, May 2, 2013 3:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nuh uh. langham & capaldi operate in such singular territory, i think jld's really good but i don't think she's doing something so novel or engrossing as to beat out ttoi. i think i said stuff upthread about the specifity of that show trumping veep's broad-brush stuff, but yeah this season is so much better, ep 2 in partic.

so like his ttoi character?

yeah imagine that guy but one who isn't saying words written for him by the best comedy brains britain has to offer. and without a malcolm to brutalise him for his obnoxiousness. not quite as good huh

and yeah i get that ttoi is v novel and singular and all that but i simply don't find it as watchable, amusing or as engaging as veep. v rare i'd say that about any uk>us comedy but like i said, largely because jld plays that role so well, and her character is so well-written - maybe more cartoonlike than any of the brits but hey.

btw that's not to diss, ttoi's great but i found myself agreeing with a lot of the stuff in this article: http://richardhcooper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/how-to-write-thick-of-it.html
(esp re final series)

I think that article is pretty offtm. Most of all because the dialogue is improvised with the actors, so it's really not describing how to write it... Also, the examples he creates are really not that fun. It mainly made me think that ttoi had to do something right, since it's dialogue is so much better than when other people try it.

ttoi is not improvised. it's like the most tightly scripted, printed-script-revering thing on tv. they just improvise the lines that don't matter to give it a looser feel.

right

they even published the scripts from the early episodes

come on though, the swears became as hackneyed as 'rock on tommy' by the end

i swear i will rip your tongue off and shove up your arse so far it comes out of both ears so you can hear me calling you a bellend in stereo you mum-sucking sewer-drinking numpty blah blah blah

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

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

"it actually comes out as the number two."

<3 dave foley

i'm giving up on this :-(

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

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

ohhh to get rid of jolly green jizzface perhaps

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

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

i love it

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

Anyone else notice how ramped-up Jonah's douchiness was in the last one? Thought it was great.

theres the uh bluff puff which we're gonna start off with youre her friend you went to high school together you guys like each other then we switch right over to rough puff

i thought this was one of the better eps.

little more than a month away from returning, very excited

with some other good stuff starting as well it is that time of year when the tv emits a sweeter light than those first rays of spring sunshine.

silicon valley episode was amazing

It's been a great season so far.

yeah keeps getting better. I worry that they might be overusing Jonah though. He was a lot funnier as the obnoxious DC insider prick than the walking punching bag he is now.

"I have to go to the bathroom - do they have a bathroom here or do they put their turds up in the cloud?"

The last 2 ep's have been so savagely funny!

Jonah is the Chang of this show and he is following a Chang-like trajectory

i dont even know what that means but it cant be good

He starts off as the external antagonist vested with undeserved authority/power over the core group, uniting them in their shared antipathy for him, but the show strips him of that authority and decides to reduce him to an erratic outlandish caricature who still sort of flits around the edges of the show but with less purpose and in a less interesting way.

I was happy when it looked like his site was going to be bought out because I thought they were re-establishing him as a thorn in the team's side in a new context, but it turned out to be just another set-up for him to fall on his face. But who knows maybe next episode he'll join up with the oil lobby and become Sidney Purcell's protege.

who was Chang?

a character in TV sitcom Community

still is, at time of press

oh man, that seems about right. They need to get Jonah back into the white house. Or on Gov Chung's campaign team.

anyway, this show doesn't get enough credit for how much plot it manages to pack into half an hour. This episode alone had anti-fracking mom, Selina and Craig (Craaaaaaiiiig...) at Clovis, the Amy/Melissa/Kent thing, the Gov Chung torture story (Dan doesn't even realise that Ben did the same thing to him as he did to Jonah), the subplot where everyone thinks Gary is gay, SMARCH, Meet/Meat/Meating Meyer and they still have time for throwaway gags like the Ron Jeremy/Jeremy Irons confusion.

I'd say season 3 has been as good as peak ITTOI.

Dan doesn't even realise that Ben did the same thing to him as he did to Jonah

this was beautiful, especially as Ben didn't even try to hide it

xps

OTM about Veep's dense plotting/writing, makes it extremely re-watchable and often better on repeat viewings. Also some great lines aren't even in the episodes but in deleted scenes, e.g. Mike response to Leon West question about when Selena knew a hitchhiker was a spy.

"post-tax"

everybody luvva da showbiz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da5tjfpKyac

New episode is masterclass stuff.

some say three microwaves is overkill, my response is always ~tapas~

admit it, we're all a little bit Ray-curious.

"cancel search siri"

tony hale/jld laughing fit bathroom scene is so good

this season >>

yeah, great wind up

shd i be watching this? p4reene seems to like it.

i think it's some of the best teevee on teevee

easy enough, if you liked in the loop, you'll like this too

figured a show where all politicians are awful, self-obsessed, disingenuous prats would be total morbs bait

tony hale/jld laughing fit bathroom scene is so good

Jonad lives

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/charles-johnson-thad-cochran-mississippi

It was the latest twist in the rancorous, messy feud enveloping the Mississippi GOP — and Johnson was right in the middle of it. He followed up the story, which was published on his own website, gotnews, with an avalanche of defiant tweets.

"You establishment hacks do know that I've been threatened with lawsuits, death threats before, right?" he wrote in one. "I planned on this."

He took on former Mitt Romney adviser Stuart Stevens, who mocked the bribery allegations and referred to Johnson as a "fringe" blogger. Johnson said Stevens had "praised" him in the past and threatened to publish private direct messages between the two.

All the while, Johnson engaged in relentless self-promotion. He bragged that his story had been picked up by the likes of Fox News, Breitbart and Rush Limbaugh (although he lamented that Sean Hannity didn't cite him by name.) And he used the spotlight to give attention to his efforts to raise money for his "awesome projects."

"Oh I know this annoys people but send me some research money. Because I am kicking ass," Johnson wrote in another tweet, providing a link to his page at gofundme.com where supporters can donate money to his cause.

hahaha okay that is uncanny

Oh my god freaking OOUUUTTTT over Selina vs. Gary blow-up

it was pretty awesome yes. thought for sure he was fired.

what happened on labour day

outlook unclear, try again later
http://tvline.com/2015/04/19/veep-season-4-selina-gary-fight-labor-day/

the banana doesn't work gag

this thing has gotten way to big, its like my moms cat

I love the pace of this.

hitler bunker

"Richard T. Splatt. I don't know why I said T, my middle name is John."

Pairing up Richard and Jonah is almost the best thing they've ever done.

I've been rewatching a few episodes from season 1, and they feel so empty. They've really created a world over time.

yes, this show has gotten so classic. i love that iannucci is now expanding the universe to lobbyists.

i have been loving this

Richard is an A+ addition to the show; dude's comic timing is excellent
i like that the more power JLD gets, the worse of a human being she becomes
the basic iannucci principle seems to be that the best thing about absolute power is that you don't have to take responsibility for your actions

this show is never not funny per se but sometimes the cringe comedy style is grating

I feel like this show is missing a malcolm tucker type and that's a notable if not crippling deficiency - although ben the chief of staff comes close

& while this is obviously a satire I have to say that literally everything gary does has long since passed the point of being remotely plausible behavior by a human, even for a sycophantic assistant in the beltway - maybe it's just how one-note tony hale is idk

idk i find hale's character believable. aren't there so many ppl in politics - actual politicians, and staff, etc - that you wonder how they made it so far considering how bizarre they are? and the answer is normally that the entropy of the system creates a condition where you met the right person and ten years later you're still working with them.

adding hugh laurie's character was a total masterstroke imo, he's the malcolm tucker of this bullshit

"I don't care if you're a 1950s radio broadcaster. your fozzie bear's been ripped up and used to smuggle heroin. *points to ken* and nazi doctor...*points to gary* and I don't even know what the fuck you are!!!*

not quite as good as malcolm's "sanitarium for the fuckin deaf" rant but close

ben is great but he has a weariness and lack of concern w/power that you wouldn't see in malcolm

malcolm was like the omar of ttoi, the villain with a heart of gold, everyone on earth petrified of him, a supernatural being almost, with the power to bestow life or death

richard is completely all-time at this point

feel like the show has gotten a little slower, more telegraphed, more curb-y, not a bad thing though necessarily

yea Jonah & Richard are amazing

I lol'd that they really had Jonah w/ a Nissan cube after making that reference a few seasons ago

also lol'd so much @ jld can u guys just pick up all this shit tomorrow and fuck u america

chlumsky's kiss-off speech coupla eps ago was weirdly unsatisfying, maybe her character is too uptight to properly deliver it i dunno. it reminded me of ben stiller's equally damp rant to the stewardess at the end of meet the parents, you're supposed to identify with what they're saying, this voicing of long suppressed irritation, but when they've done you're just kinda eh is that all you got?

Richard is definitely the star turn. His low-key introduction last series was a turning point.

Hard not to see the inquiry that will close this season as anything other than a rerun of S4 TToI though.

well it won't be called an inquiry, so that's different..

I was always worried they'd put in a Malcolm and so happy they haven't. They've really impressed with finding new types of characters who fit in oddly well. Ben was early on and always delivers gold of course, but Richard is a whole new thing. Dude's face is amazing.

re: chlumsky rage, i think part of that stems from the show having such disdain for literally everyone that it's not even going to give that character the big fuck-you/truth to power moment, in part because im not sure chlumsky's character actually hates what she does for this completely inept/undeserving candidate - just hates not being listened to when her ideas are always relatively practical

The introduction of Selina's friend that led to Amy's ragequit was, I assumed, AI's take on the Carole Caplin saga.

also lol'd so much @ jld can u guys just pick up all this shit tomorrow and fuck u america

― johnny crunch, Tuesday, June 2, 2015 8:29 AM (36 minutes ago)

this was so great

this ep was all time, this show is all time, everything abt veep is just the best

http://33.media.tumblr.com/eb073abb06432a3d3fb7ebb3ee79b560/tumblr_molvosSNMS1s7gnr1o1_400.gif

"sure, i love money. but i also love a little lady called the united states of america"

amazing ep imo, i was loling throughout

"crouch cream

"easy cream? it's, um, it's searchable"

Knee-Z!

when she asks richard where the abuse happened and he responds "on the two spheres" i lost it. richard definitely all-time

i started cackling the moment i saw him, before he'd said a word

this is one of the show's best episodes ever

I stand by my point that literally every gary behavior beggars belief - which doesn't mean it isn't funny. it is.

the list of jonah insults had me dying

"benedict come in his own hand." "supercalifragilisticexpialidickcheese."

actually I take back my gary point for this episode, but this is one of the only times he's been believable and human

Fuck yes

scrotum pole
One erection
Wadzilla
Transgenderformer
Jonah Ono

"cloud botherer"

I've been a few weeks behind this season but managed to get up to this week's episode today, and so glad to see the acclaim for Richard itt - I've been marvelling at how he's grown so quickly and well to be the funniest guy in the show this year

i started cackling the moment i saw him, before he'd said a word

gotta rewatch to see if they framed him out in the first couple of Jonah / lobbyists scenes for this very purpose

great episode. Ben is such an unflappable asshole.

"Are you going to keep answering questions with one word answers?"
"No. (long pause) I am not."

I died at Richard raising his left hand instead of his right. "Oh sorry... I was practicing in the mirror."

richard was the only part of this episode i enjoyed.

lolled at Ben's perfect delivery of "If I had kids... which, actually, I do... this bill would be my baby”

CONTINUITY with CHANGE

What a great season.

one of the greatest things this year was everyone in Selina's machine becoming increasingly furious at Tom for being apparently decent and evidently competent - hope whichever writers remain have initial plans to work some more amusement and tension out of the situation under the Ianucci-less regime

i am, frankly, wary of life without armando

agreed on that count, i worry they might lean more on the cringe-comedy tactics that are more a staple of hbo prestige comedy

xp - yeah, it's an interesting conflict because they're not used to a politician with actual interest in, well, doing things, because selina's staff members either have no interest in doing things (ben) possess zero self-awareness (kent, to some extent amy and sue) or are mentally unstable (gary)

i was loling so hard at the panicky google search for what happens in an electoral tie

"the 22nd amendment negates the 12th amendment"
"why so many amendments!?!? get it right the first time, people!!"

god, julia louis-dreyfus is amazing.

I didn't know Iannuci was leaving after this season, hope the team after will be able to keep the quality up.

Just binge-watched this. It's gotten so good. otm re Richard, he's a delight

I had forgotten how many characters this thing has until last night's premiere, when they kept showing up. So funny.

There's a bunch of really good characters on this, but honestly I'm mainly watching for Richard T. Splett at this point. And he didn't disappoint!

lol I don't know why I said T, my middle name is John.

can we get a strikethrough in the thread title

Robert Slattery is great. Martin Mull is great. But the best addition to the roster this season is Clea DuVall. It's never not funny to have her hovering in the background. Along with Catherine and her camera. They've been on point with sightgags this season, behind Amy in the election office was a posters saying 'Meyer for President' and 'Latinos for Selina', which I found cynically funny.

i don't like this show any more? based on 1st ep of new season? am i crazy?

I was getting similar vibes, sometimes the unrelenting zings start to seem a bit stale. You are probably wrong or crazy if I'm agreeing with you, I also went the same way with the original series at the last season.

1st ep was so stilted that I was poised to bail - really felt like the new American writers struggling to capture the style of the show, but with zings that you could see coming two lines away instead of twisting and startling you.

Second one was really good and third one is okay though - it's not as good as with the S1-4/Thick Of It writers, but it's still a funny show in this cynical, fast paced* style. Or it might suck hard for the rest of the season, who knows.

An oddity, given that the new guy only kept a couple of minor (as these things go**) writers on as consultants, is that Chris Addison has directed every episode so far.

*Was the scene of Lennon Parham coming out of the campaign jet the longest single shot in the series' history?

** Georg1a Pr1tchett, who joined TTOI for one ep seven years after it started and joined Veep in its third year, and Wi11 Smith, who started writing on TTOI years after he started acting on it. Not to diminish their contributions to either show, but it looks like Curb/Clerks The Animated Series blokey didn't want to use any of the, lets say, foundational writers.

huh, turns out he moved production from Maryland to LA, too, with one week's location shoot in MA/DC for some exteriors.

I'm enjoying this season, which has a real "No Exit" vibe to it. No one gets fired, everyone comes back, they all hate each other, they hate the people they are working for, they hate the ideas they are working for, they hate the goal they are working for, they're just so cynical and jaded they can't even do much more than insult each other anymore. Even the great Tom James has gone sour. But not Richard Splett, whose guileless optimism is such a contrast.

Ooh didnt realise this was a new series

"This is like that famous scene from the movie Heat. You know, DeNiro and Brenneman."

lol yes

ok that was the most deeply weird and dark and uncomfortable thing

like it made me feel the way i felt when i watched funny games

The most recent episode was an all-time classic.

Gary's face when he learns what the c-word actually is...

Jonah on the campaign trail is so great I want the series to leave Washington and just follow the Splett / Ryan / Peter McNicol axis for the rest of the year

I've found it encouraging that lately my wife has been more interested in watching Veep than catching up on Game of Thrones.

noticed this ep was directed by JLD's husband - first one not by Chris Addison this year?

https://www.jonahryanforcongress.com

https://www.jonahryanforcongress.com/app/uploads/2016/05/TeenageJonah-uai-516x516.jpeg

Man that is hilarious. I love how all the helpful links are about New Hampshire, except for a link to Tom Petty.

This show has held up better than I expected without Iannucci at the helm.

In a way it is broadening really quickly and becoming more sitcommy by the episode. But the world is so deep and welldrawn that it holds up beautifully, and is in fact pretty amazing. I can see a lot of the characters becoming caricatures of themselves pretty quickly if it goes on like this. But that's a problem for a later day.

my one complaint is that it seems out of step w/ the current political moment in the US. genius jl-d is doing incredible work but the election plotline itself feels more like a 2000 electoral tie retread than this actual moment w/ the buffoonery and clusterfuckedness of american politics disappearing into the psychotic screaming void. aka real life much stranger + funnier (and also scarier) than the world of veep. but show is still wonderful don't get me wrong.

they said at the outset in the press that they are actively avoiding trump topix; i think that's wise considering how unpredictable the primary process became.

probably the more prudent choice but the alternative that grappled w/ this moment obv much higher stakes + potential resonance / payoff.

They couldn't be addressing what's happening in May 2016 with a show that was shot in December 2015 though, it's not Drop The Dead Donkey

Been watching this and House of Cards almost simultaneously, and it's funny how much the plots overlap. A good exercise for a TV writing class would be to show scenes side by side with the same situation and completely different tone (e.g., the President meeting with his/her ousted, ineffectual Vice President).

lol it got to the point for me where i couldn't remember which characters/plot details happened on which show

also sometimes i daydream abt like one of those corny awards show pretaped sketch segments where like Claire and Selena hang out

with Olivia Pope of course

highlights of the season so far imo: jonah campaign ad and learning that kent davison's cat is named fibonacci

I love that Jonah's opponent isn't just a second grade teacher, but was in fact Jonah's second grade teacher.

i was interleaving Veep and Borgen for awhile. good times

Focus group bit I was slightly confusing with similar in an ep of Silicon Valley

Any comment on the Catherine & Margaret plot twist? Seemed very "stunty" but I still lolled at "I can't stop grinning" and "I'm giddy" from Margaret.

i thought dan boning amy's sister was a little dumb and then jerry gergich knowing about it was even dumber but otherwise i'm down with this season.

I buy Jerry knowing about it because it seems like something Amy and her sister would have screamed at each other about at some point

or he could have just read the situation during the dinner we didn't see, knowing what the relationship between his daughters is like

The Catherine & Margaret thing was a really broad twist. I've loved both characters this season, though, and hope to see much more of them.

http://www.avclub.com/article/hbo-actually-took-out-full-page-jonah-ryan-ad-new--237713

What the hell is going to happen with Catherine's documentary

I have a feeling it will be bad for her mother. Just a hunch.

This episode was on fire. Everything about the Jonah Ryan campaign. Dan + Jonah + Richard + Jonahs uncle. Genius.

this was maybe the funniest episode of the show ive ever seen tbh

Gary's whole Washington's 50 Hottest, too.

the take when he walks in on them fucking

the tirade to nickerson wa so good

"If I do win, I will have my administration come to your shitty little district and shake it to death like a Guatemalan nanny. And then I'm gonna have the IRS crawl so far up your husband's colon he's going to wish the only thing they find is more cancer. So, can I count on your vote, or do I need to shove a box of White House M&Ms up your stretched-out, six-baby vag?"

again, hale's take when she gets to the "more cancer" line is priceless.

the take when he walks in on them fucking

so good. had to rewind and watch again.

is this the best season? better w/o IannuccI? the humor is pitch black, but I can't remember laughing this hard, this consistently, at anything in a while

i was thinking the exact same thing. finally caught up to the most recent episode + holy shit so funny.

I thought this season started off badly but it has massively improved. Is Iannucci fully wrapped up in his Stalin project now?

oh shit i had not heard he was working on a stalin project but sign me up i am v v interested

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4686844/

Jeffrey Tambor as Malenkov, Palin as Molotov, Paul Whitehouse as Mikoyan

some casting there!

buscemi as krushchev!!!!

you couldn't really find an actor who looks more completely unlike Krushchev, but I'm sure there must some logic to it.

I'm guessing historical verisimilitude is not the goal here

hopefully it'll be a bunch of commies calling each other cocksuckers

apparently based on a comic book that is darkly humorous and drawn from historical research. seems to cover the couple days immediately after stalin's death, the frenzied maneuverings of the prominent party members

I would be surprised if it's completely in a veep/thick of it vein, but no idea why I think that.

there is plenty good dark humour to be mined from that era. I bet Simon Russell Beale will be an awesome Beria, that much is guaranteed.

God, this show is great

Kent is in a biker gang!

I bet Simon Russell Beale will be an awesome Beria, that much is guaranteed.

okay i'm there for a movie w a lot of beria in it. hoping it opens with stalin breathing his last and beria turning on his heel in triumph hollering MY CAR!

^^^ just hunted up my copy of svetlana's twenty letters to a friend to refresh my memory of this scene (hardly a reliable source as its interest is in making beria out to be the mesmerizing source of the whole terror but i take my anecdotes where i can) and the book is LITERALLY FULL OF SPIDERS JESUS CHRIST

https://www.splettnet.net/
the scene from the mikado

Wow, this season finale felt like a series finale, and a solid series finale at that. I know they're doing at least a season 6, but not only can I not see how they'll manage that, I'm not sure there's a point.

it was a funny season, but the vast divide between this show's depiction of clubby, insider Washington and the reality of contemporary American politics is starting to wear

I found myself really really bored w the plot, tho still enjoying ~3-4 genuine laugh out loud moments per ep

martin mull bit at the end was choice

Is this the only example of a sitcom that got broader and cheaper when the showrunner changed, but still kinda worked?

its not a sitcom

It's HBO.

it is definitely a sitcom wtf. it fits every classical definition.

JLD is so amazing in the finale

I don't think it got broader and cheaper. Isn't one of Iannucci's claims to fame his ample and creative use of shocking profanity and crass insults?

I think the characterization got broader and more one note (e.g. Ben, who basically turned into Norm Peterson). And the plotting became more farcical and Curb-like - no surprise given the showrunner. The cheapness was in some of the joke targets - I can't imagine Iannucci doing a running Alzheimer's gag, for example. A bit hacky. I don't think profanity and insults are signs of broadness - especially not profanity as self-consciously rococo as Iannucci's.

My point being - despite essentially becoming a trashier show, I thought it was still great! I

...which is unusual. Usually trashier = worse.

I don't see how they do another season. This was a fitting and very funny finale.

it is definitely a sitcom wtf. it fits every classical definition.

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, June 29, 2016 3:33 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i guess there are situations involved with comedic potential, yes.

but it doesn't generally run with a/b/c arcs as strongly as i think of with sitcoms, and of course the plot moves forwards every episode rather than 'resetting'. so i guess if like half-hour funny shows in general are sitcoms, sure. but it seems sort of weird to stack this up against 1600 Penn and Cheers or whatever

I think Armando Iannucci wrote Brexit

I miss this show already.
Agree with Chuck_Tatum, it did get more formulaic but it worked anyhow. Would watch Richard T Splett in anything.

I think Armando Iannucci wrote Brexit

I've been imagining an In the Loop-esque version of the machinations leading up to it.

Loved that it was Richard Splett with her through the long dark night.

"oh god I hope I didn't fuck Richard"

I've been imagining an In the Loop-esque version of the machinations leading up to it.

― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Wednesday, June 29, 2016 3:15 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same

Actually, I've got to push back against this season being somehow trashier or broader. It's been a while but didn't like the second episode of the first season have her shitting herself in the back of a limo?

the crass person in me enjoyed martin mull calling whats-his-face 'buttfucker' all the time

i'm guess i'm going to dip back in but what i didn't like about the first ep is that ALL the characters (aside from splett i guess) have become little wind-up insult machines. i guess it must be fun as hell for the actors to get to say those lines but it's like everybody's become the foul-mouthed wiseass. you only really need a couple of those, otherwise there's no texture to things, there's no shock. but like i said everybody seems to love this series so i will ch ch check it.

It's very Seinfeld, trapped in a circle of hell together.

hell is other people, especially at work

Haha ok I forgot the pantshitting episode

they corrected from that though, rather than setting a tone for the next four years

for those of you wanting an In The Loop style version of (one aspect of) the Brexit crisis this gets pretty damn close

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1371058/inside-story-of-tories-borexit-how-bojos-career-was-left-in-tatters-a-week-after-he-thought-hed-be-next-pm/

^ ty

i'm guess i'm going to dip back in but what i didn't like about the first ep is that ALL the characters (aside from splett i guess) have become little wind-up insult machines.

This was largely the case from the beginning though! And in the thick of it too tbh, obv that had Malcolm & Jamie as more extreme examples but p much every character was ready with a punny epithet every other line. But it's hardly like they're indistinguishable in either show.

I really like this series & didn't realise iannucci had left but was coming to post that Jonah appearing to shout at the bowling alley clerk with Down's syndrome & Catherine appearing to kiss her mother were such clunking sub-Curbisms that I felt embarrassed for the show

Agree that sple✧✧✧@splett✧✧✧.n✧✧ is a joy, also surprised not to see more praise of Gary Cole's performance as Kent, which is consistently brilliant imo

lol

splett2 at splettnet dot net

what we do now echoes in spletternity

the christmas at camp david episode is just about the most excruciating thing i've ever seen

Veep has plenty of characters who aren't wind-up insult machines - Splett, Catherine, Gary, Mike, even Kent's humor mostly comes from other things like his pathological need to correct people and point out weird facts.

oh my god it's real https://www.splettnet.net/

Twenty years on, the No 1 album is by Radiohead (from the 90s), our funniest TV show is Frasier (from the 90s), my favorite jeans are starting to get real worn these days (from the 90s), i subsist entirely on a diet from my storehouse of hungry man tv dinners (from the 90s), and my busted hip from a golfing mishap (from the 90s) is forever back back back

Veep has plenty of characters who aren't wind-up insult machines - Splett, Catherine, Gary, Mike, even Kent's humor mostly comes from other things like his pathological need to correct people and point out weird facts.

Those characters are there for other people to insult.

Maybe, but they're also funny on their own

I guess I feel like everyone - particularly the Veep - having such virtuosic insult skills undermines their essential ineptitude, which is the main pillar of the show

I'd like to think they spend so much time on zings and insults that they forget to actually do their jobs, let alone well. They're either so venal and craven and narcissistic, or completely jaundiced and cynical. Self-preservation above all else. And from Jonah to Selena, they seek power not to do good but just to vengefully shit on everyone below them.

I guess I feel like everyone - particularly the Veep - having such virtuosic insult skills undermines their essential ineptitude, which is the main pillar of the show

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand)

The Kelly Bundy Syndrome, supposedly as dumb as a rock but able to pull off amazing zings against Bud.

im not suggesting their insult skills are plausible but the show's rationale for it seems to be that the culture of politics is one in which youre allowed to be egregiously offensive to your colleagues at all times and so it's basically just practice that makes them so good at it.

By my count there is only one character whose sole purpose is to be the butt of insults--Congressman Furlong's aide Matt

man today feels like the finale of this

the georgia episode this season it feels like they hit their stride again, after sort of establishing the pieces in play this season. so many great lines this ep.

I saw she was credited as a producer but didn't think any of the leftover British writers were still doing scripts this year? (Isn't it just her and Smith now?)

Minna is so incredible

I'm surprised in the era of reactionary thinkpieces this show isn't v controversial?

"It's actually my favorite joke ever!"

Minna is so incredible

otm !!

This episode was fantastic, probably because, with the exception of Dan and Amy, they got the band back together.

lol Minna is so funny. I thought that she was always secretly disdainful of Selina, but it's even funnier that she thinks that she and Selina are best of friends.

And she's so relentlessly upbeat even though her 'best friend' hates her and her son tried to drown himself in an ice hole.

"there are literally no laws in Georgia. and I'm using the term 'literally' correctly"

my favorite joke though was at the beginning when Selina won't take a picture with the guy and his daughter and he just says "I don't have a camera anyway."

oh, Georgia the country, not Georgia the Veep writer

lots of good individual jokes in this but also some really lazy stuff (like ^), that definitely feel like the product of longtime American sitcom pros making a show in LA vs amused foreigners making a show about and near DC. "in post-communist Georgia, election fix YOU!"

<3 Splett

Scab Calloway! lol

That finale did a hell of a lot of expository lifting. Can't wait for Jonah's campaign!

fantastically filthy season; lost a bit of heart but stayed funny. agree with you maura, curious to see the new reset universe.

great season yeah. felt totally resurrected after the s5 finale but ended up if anything deepening its world (while remaining just as funny as ever) - second half of the season in particular

the finale was a bit of a mess but i still like this show. yeah they are spinning the same wheels but it's still funny. Selina has always been a horrible person focused entirely on her own ego and the show has never shied away from this. weaker shows would have turned her into a cartoon villain by this point, glad that she's still believably horrible.

just finished the season. surely this is the funniest show currently on tv?

"He's not exactly on the yes-fly list"

Selina has always been a horrible person focused entirely on her own ego and the show has never shied away from this. weaker shows would have turned her into a cartoon villain by this point, glad that she's still believably horrible.

eheh, yeah. she's a terrible human being. yet somehow they manage to make her likeable... even to people who are not Gary Walsh !

Is the season worth watching, then? I enjoyed the first episode but general exhaustion (with the show and US politics in general) has kept me away.

yeah, it's good.

In regards to her horribleness they've been leaning way too hard into the terrible-mom thing but yeah otherwise they've kept it totally plausible

it's maybe the best season yet tbh and they're starting to do serious world building all over the place which has just been fantastic