Also my complaint is not that it's like/not like ttoi. My complaint is that it's nowhere near as good.
― caek, Thursday, 2 May 2013 09:27 (eleven years ago) link
do i need to know anything about british politics to get into The Thick Of It
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Thursday, 2 May 2013 09:32 (eleven years ago) link
No
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 2 May 2013 09:51 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― give me back my 200 dollars (NotEnough), Thursday, 2 May 2013 09:59 (eleven years ago) link
you'll be fine h4a, check it out
― caek, Thursday, 2 May 2013 10:10 (eleven years ago) link
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
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Thursday, 2 May 2013 10:27 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― love bullets featuring skylar grey (some dude), Thursday, 2 May 2013 12:00 (eleven years ago) link
jld elevates this into something far superior to ttoi imo
― NI, Thursday, 2 May 2013 18:28 (eleven years ago) link
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)
― NI, Thursday, 2 May 2013 18:29 (eleven years ago) link
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
― chilli, Friday, 3 May 2013 01:28 (eleven years ago) link
not seen him in that but his twitter account is a hive of smug 6th form bants
― NI, Friday, 3 May 2013 14:09 (eleven years ago) link
so like his ttoi character?
― abcfsk, Friday, 3 May 2013 14:43 (eleven years ago) link
― 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.
― daft on the causes of punk (schlump), Friday, 3 May 2013 18:15 (eleven years ago) link
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
― NI, Friday, 3 May 2013 23:55 (eleven years ago) link
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)
― NI, Saturday, 4 May 2013 00:07 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 4 May 2013 16:20 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― caek, Saturday, 4 May 2013 17:04 (eleven years ago) link
right
― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Saturday, 4 May 2013 17:16 (eleven years ago) link
they even published the scripts from the early episodes
― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Saturday, 4 May 2013 17:17 (eleven years ago) link
come on though, the swears became as hackneyed as 'rock on tommy' by the end
― NI, Sunday, 5 May 2013 00:36 (eleven years ago) link
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
― NI, Sunday, 5 May 2013 00:38 (eleven years ago) link
it sounds like you just didn't really like ttoi?
― caek, Sunday, 5 May 2013 00:43 (eleven years ago) link
"i just had to sign a 2 year lease on a nissan cube"
― johnny crunch, Monday, 6 May 2013 03:31 (eleven years ago) link
"it actually comes out as the number two."
― stefon taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Monday, 13 May 2013 04:18 (eleven years ago) link
<3 dave foley
― stefon taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Monday, 13 May 2013 04:26 (eleven years ago) link
i'm giving up on this :-(
― caek, Sunday, 19 May 2013 19:59 (eleven years ago) link
really! i think it's improved greatly this season!
― klaus dingeldore's rhinelander monkey keeper father (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 19 May 2013 20:12 (eleven years ago) link
why did the midnight caller ask for mike again? he wanted him so much that he basically bribed VPOTUS. why??
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 19 May 2013 20:16 (eleven years ago) link
ohhh to get rid of jolly green jizzface perhaps
sometimes you just have to write it down and then you know
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 19 May 2013 20:17 (eleven years ago) link
it's got more ambitious this season i suppose. it's still not gotten funny imo.
― caek, Sunday, 19 May 2013 21:19 (eleven years ago) link
i love it
― Mordy , Sunday, 19 May 2013 21:24 (eleven years ago) link
xxposts -- common interest in boating i thought made him think of mike as someone appealing to work with.
― stefon taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Monday, 20 May 2013 05:27 (eleven years ago) link
Anyone else notice how ramped-up Jonah's douchiness was in the last one? Thought it was great.
― yuoowemeone, Friday, 24 May 2013 07:21 (eleven years ago) link
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
― johnny crunch, Monday, 10 June 2013 22:57 (ten years ago) link
i thought this was one of the better eps.
― i didn't even give much of a fuck that you were mod (forksclovetofu), Monday, 10 June 2013 23:19 (ten years ago) link
little more than a month away from returning, very excited
― anonanon, Friday, 28 February 2014 20:32 (ten years ago) link
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.
― xelab, Friday, 28 February 2014 20:44 (ten years ago) link
silicon valley episode was amazing
― Roz, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 15:12 (ten years ago) link
It's been a great season so far.
― sitting on a claud all day gotta make your butt numb (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 15:44 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Roz, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 18:07 (ten years ago) link
"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!
― xelab, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 18:24 (ten years ago) link
Jonah is the Chang of this show and he is following a Chang-like trajectory
― anonanon, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 22:15 (ten years ago) link
i dont even know what that means but it cant be good
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 00:39 (ten years ago) link
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.
― anonanon, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 01:00 (ten years ago) link
who was Chang?
― akm, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 06:55 (ten years ago) link
a character in TV sitcom Community
― Gritty Shakur (sic), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 08:17 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Roz, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 09:43 (ten years ago) link