A thread for Armando Iannucci's VEEP

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.