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

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

Deliberately zoomed in on for a split second.

Loved detail in the performances: the halfheartedness of Tucker's "Fuckbob Shitpants"; the half beat between Nicola's "Honi soit qui" and "malky fuck". Which subtleties, to get back on my David Haig hobby horse, make DH's approach stand out as much broader than it maybe actually is.

Julius was fucking brilliant in this episode.
Yes.

i didn't really like the way everything reverted so quickly. malcolm has pretty much exactly the same job and same office as he did before. i know this was the point really but agree it seemed too fast/anticlimactic.

would happily watch half an hour of The Fucker tho.

Julius on the decks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqIZ-PZX8yg

this movie was great

yup

agreed

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2010/01/28/10413/thick_of_it_special_dropped

congrats to In the Loop for the Oscar nod.

they just can't get the cast to behave, amirite

is thick of it online or do i have to torrent

i started watching it here but the picture quality is awful
http://tv.blinkx.com/show/the-thick-of-it/MtE2rQdfPrVdVqwQ

season 3 is on iplayer at the moment if you can get a UK IP, otherwise yeah, torrent.

why bbc iplayer h8 america

pay ur tea rates imo

“We’re all tremendously thrilled to get this nomination,” writes Armando Iannucci, the writer and director of the satire “In the Loop,” a nominee for best adapted screenplay. “‘In The Loop’ was just a simple little film about how Tony Blair’s an idiot, so it’s nice to see Tony Blair’s idiocy get such international recognition.

“‘In the Loop’ was just a low-budget independently funded film, so the nomination must be proof that with limited resources but an enormous amount of profanity, you can achieve anything. Personally, it means that I will become unbearably arrogant in my belief I should have complete artistic control over all my projects, to the point that I must never be let near a camera again.”

haha.

I was having lunch with some friends and our producer rang and said, you know, “Yay! You’ve got the nomination.” I had given myself a very busy schedule so that I wasn’t looking at computer screens and stuff and I actually forgot about the announcement. Then I got the call and ran out to take it, rang my family and before I knew it an hour had passed and they had taken my lunch away. The highs and lows of Oscar season.

What for exactly, if you don't mind me asking?

script

Wow really. In The Loop is awesome and if we ever fap, I will buy you drinks all night.

haha

http://incontention.com/?p=21964

:( british version of rickrolling

haha

all that needed was british accents and a laugh track and people coming in and out of rooms very quickly

"today you have laid your first big fat egg of solid fuck."

This was pretty good, but it was a long episode of "The Office," paced as such.

nah. makes as much sense to compare it with 'festen'.

but iannucci sorta kinda pre-empted 'the office' ne way with 'i'm alan partridge'. wasn't quite there but p much.

i dunno what you mean re pacing -- fast? slow? iirc 'the office' doesn't really build up to a big crisis like this film, doesn't involve parallel action and conversations between two continents, etc.

havent watched the film yet but finished the series and 2 specials. malcolm tucker is the best tv character in forever

wait, is there another series after the nicola one?

no.

for unfathomable reasons, seasons one and two are three episodes each.

so technically it's series one, series two, the two specials, then series three.