A thread for Armando Iannucci's VEEP

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