A thread for 'The Thick Of It' (and 'In The Loop' as well)

bravo

great to hear armando talking about the next series in such concrete terms, too

where was he talking about the next series?

comedy awards

i liked that they gave the part of probably the nastiest character we've ever seen on the show ('the fucker') in tonight's episode to tom hollander who seemed to be the silliest and most hapless in the thick of it/loop world. fantastic bit of acting as he made me feel queasy very quickly. shame he wasn't in it more as an entire episode of him would be apalling in a good wway.

There was a hint of what he was capable of in that department when he went off on Toby for showing up late and hung over to his meeting at the State Department. A spitting aggressiveness paired with a weird soft neediness that is very unsettling.

I will admit feeling a little let down. It seemed too easy after the cliffhanger last week. Still terrific, obviously. Favorite line is probably "It's a show for people who tried coke once but didn't like it. Well, that's a bullshit description but you know what I mean."

where was he talking about the next series?

There was a mini-doc on the red button too, where they usually have the deleted scenes.

no jamie in this series ;(((

Julius was fucking brilliant in this episode.

the onion bahji bit had me it stitches

Yeah. the punchline, which the whole bit was building to, was just perfect. These actors must freaking love getting to play these scripts. What a feast.

a feast of onion bahjis

did iannuci say anything about when the next series will be broadcast? are they going to wait to see who wins the general election?

It makes dramatic sense for the next series to focus on fighting the election... Which would require a pretty quick turnaround.

Also The Fucker has obviously been set up as the main antagonist for next series. Can't wait to see him and Malcolm clash.

from what i can make out, iannucci is doing a show for hbo, and my surmise is, it'll be a TTOI-style thing set in the us dept of treasury. but he has said there'll be more UK TTOI. an election special would be great but idk if they could pull it together, and he doesn't seem to have said one way or another.

i get the feeling that tom hollander is hot-ish property and im not sure he'd be a major player in another full series. though that would be great.

in the past, such as they have one, they've kind of skipped over the major political events (or at least shown only the foreplay). i wouldn't be surprised to see them skip the election, kind of like how entourage never shows the movies being made.

i get the feeling that tom hollander is hot-ish property and im not sure he'd be a major player in another full series. though that would be great.

― Smokey and the S'Banned It (history mayne), Sunday, December 13, 2009 11:50 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

my sentiments exactly

really loved this movie

did the programme get broadcast in the U.S. at all? do we have any fans of that on this thread?

Think we're more likely to get two longer specials than a full series. The tension between new psycho tabloid Tory boss and touchy-feely Tory dude could be fun as well. Loved the floppy-haired twat running after the new big man as well.

i watched series 1 and the specials over the weekend too by the way. i love how many times the floppy haired one mentions things are "like queen" or "like freddie".

Think we're more likely to get two longer specials than a full series.

there's also chatter about an alan partridge film so yeah.

and also another series of 'charm offensive' -- putting that in the calendar fo sho *cough*.

tbh i think this last ep should have been a long one, with malc out of the running for a while longer. half an hour felt like too little, though i loved the in-at-the-last-minute-ness of The Fucker.

did the programme get broadcast in the U.S. at all? do we have any fans of that on this thread?

― caek, Sunday, December 13, 2009 6:58 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i dont think it got broadcast in the US but i torrented it and love it, even if i only understand like 60%

i understand maybe 40% btw capaldis accent and the britishisms but what i do get is rofl

― max, Friday, July 24, 2009 10:24 AM (4 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

looks like my understanding has increased by 50%

i was kind of skeptical of the actress who played nicola in the first couple episodes but she really knocked it out of the park at the end didnt she

i dont know if that euphemism translated--she "really bowled a good innings" at the end

Max - she's a familiar face on British TV, particularly in Ianucci shows.

I agree that Malcolm's exile didn't last long enough (onscreen at least), I wanted to see exactly what he would do out of the political game... but the Fucker was the icing on the cake. Once we realised who The Fucker was my housemate and I practically high-fived each other.

(He's based on that former NOTW editor whose name escapes me, right?)

looks like my understanding has increased by 50%

― max, Sunday, December 13, 2009 6:09 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

really appreciate the accuracy of this, btw

haha max, that was going to be my next question.

i actually struggled with understanding bits of jamie last season too, so don't feel too bad. but really i'm curious about how much of the things they are satirising are generic/international, and how much you think "i can tell they're taking the piss out of sth there, but i don't really know what"

Coulson, yeah xp

btw, i think hit for six is the preferred nomenclature, but is not an exact synonym for out of the park.

Jamie's even better when you get the little Scottish injokes

eh i spend enough time on this board to get some of the references. i wont claim to get any of them--i gotta say its a testament to the strength of the acting and writing that i can still get the joke even w/out getting the reference.

i think a lot of 'types' are pretty international, or at least cross the atlantic reasonably well. the parliamentary system is different than ours but the same kinds of "wankers"/"masturbators" always end up in government.

*claim to get all of them

honestly feel like good comedy is still funny even when you don't know what it is they're taking the piss from

I think this whole season felt like 45/60 min drama eps edited down to 30 min sitcoms. Was expecting a bit more to the season finale.

"wankers"/"masturbators"

really excited at the prospect of iannucci making an american version for HBO

btw, i still think ianucci's peak is "my fly's got no nose" "how does he smell" "he's got a thousand eyes, and that compensates"

beatoffers

they should do a 1-hour election special the way they did w/ the power transfer, and then the next season post-election.

Iannucci claimed in the podcast linked upthread that the HBO thing was about an internet start-up.

rly? that's a let-down. he was talking elsewhere about doing a treasury dept thing iirc.

I think this whole season felt like 45/60 min drama eps edited down to 30 min sitcoms. Was expecting a bit more to the season finale.

― Stevie T, Monday, December 14, 2009 12:16 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah, id go w/ this.

The manic pace with no time for breath is part and parcel of The Thick of It though. It only became a problem when they started to focus heavily on the Malcolm situation. The earlier episodes of this series, and the radio show in particular, were perfectly formed.

kinda surprised to see the mild negativity about the last episode; the specials & this series have been way darker and more fraught than the bumbly, hugh abbott earlier stuff, and someone upthread mentioned them progressing into the nicola's-kids-school content that maybe even isn't meant to be funny. i don't think going slower in the last ep and making room for the pre-election warfare makes a funny show less funn, it gives some gravitas.

Also I lolled at useless touchy-feely Tory guy going all "fly, my pretties, fly!" only to be immediately decapitated.

i just think they could have savoured tucker's absence for longer, maintained the suspense, is all; it was still a great episode. the radio show was one of the best eps -- the ending, with tucker and bald tory exchanging scandals wasamazing, and the topper is, it's tucker's fiftieth birthday. it's his life.

I genuinely thought we were going to see a wife or kids or something at some point this season but, nope, he lives in the office except when he's greasing newspaper editors up with ghee.

I'd need to watch it again but I thought for a second when he arrived home and told the press to mind his hedge there was someone looking out his window.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pd5w4/The_Thick_of_It_Series_3_Episode_8/

0:44 - kid looking out through the window