i was thinking the exact same thing. finally caught up to the most recent episode + holy shit so funny.
― Mordy, Thursday, 9 June 2016 19:30 (seven years ago) link
I thought this season started off badly but it has massively improved. Is Iannucci fully wrapped up in his Stalin project now?
― calzino, Thursday, 9 June 2016 19:34 (seven years ago) link
oh shit i had not heard he was working on a stalin project but sign me up i am v v interested
― Mordy, Thursday, 9 June 2016 19:36 (seven years ago) link
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4686844/
― calzino, Thursday, 9 June 2016 19:41 (seven years ago) link
Jeffrey Tambor as Malenkov, Palin as Molotov, Paul Whitehouse as Mikoyan
some casting there!
― calzino, Thursday, 9 June 2016 19:43 (seven years ago) link
buscemi as krushchev!!!!
― Mordy, Thursday, 9 June 2016 19:44 (seven years ago) link
you couldn't really find an actor who looks more completely unlike Krushchev, but I'm sure there must some logic to it.
― calzino, Thursday, 9 June 2016 19:50 (seven years ago) link
I'm guessing historical verisimilitude is not the goal here
― it me, Thursday, 9 June 2016 20:50 (seven years ago) link
hopefully it'll be a bunch of commies calling each other cocksuckers
― Mordy, Thursday, 9 June 2016 20:51 (seven years ago) link
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
― the unbearable jimmy smits (jim in glasgow), Thursday, 9 June 2016 20:54 (seven years ago) link
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.
― calzino, Thursday, 9 June 2016 22:07 (seven years ago) link
God, this show is great
― a poon shaped mule (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 21 June 2016 04:20 (seven years ago) link
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!
― le Histoire du Edgy Miley (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, 21 June 2016 04:24 (seven years ago) link
^^^ 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
― le Histoire du Edgy Miley (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, 21 June 2016 05:00 (seven years ago) link
https://www.splettnet.net/the scene from the mikado
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Tuesday, 21 June 2016 06:31 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 28 June 2016 11:41 (seven years ago) link
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
― it me, Tuesday, 28 June 2016 15:07 (seven years ago) link
I found myself really really bored w the plot, tho still enjoying ~3-4 genuine laugh out loud moments per ep
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 28 June 2016 15:13 (seven years ago) link
martin mull bit at the end was choice
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 28 June 2016 17:56 (seven years ago) link
Is this the only example of a sitcom that got broader and cheaper when the showrunner changed, but still kinda worked?
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 29 June 2016 01:57 (seven years ago) link
its not a sitcom
― R.I.P. Haram-bae, the good posts goy (s.clover), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 04:29 (seven years ago) link
It's HBO.
― nickn, Wednesday, 29 June 2016 04:53 (seven years ago) link
it is definitely a sitcom wtf. it fits every classical definition.
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 07:33 (seven years ago) link
JLD is so amazing in the finale
― lettered and hapful (symsymsym), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 08:19 (seven years ago) link
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?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 29 June 2016 12:22 (seven years ago) link
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
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 29 June 2016 13:19 (seven years ago) link
...which is unusual. Usually trashier = worse.
I don't see how they do another season. This was a fitting and very funny finale.
― Taking dumps on a person's car is something children do (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 13:54 (seven years ago) link
― 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
― R.I.P. Haram-bae, the good posts goy (s.clover), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 14:01 (seven years ago) link
I think Armando Iannucci wrote Brexit
― lettered and hapful (symsymsym), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 18:07 (seven years ago) link
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.
― kinder, Wednesday, 29 June 2016 20:09 (seven years ago) link
I've been imagining an In the Loop-esque version of the machinations leading up to it.
― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 20:15 (seven years ago) link
Loved that it was Richard Splett with her through the long dark night.
― Any Given User (Eazy), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 20:36 (seven years ago) link
"oh god I hope I didn't fuck Richard"
― Taking dumps on a person's car is something children do (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 20:45 (seven years ago) link
― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Wednesday, June 29, 2016 3:15 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
same
― jason waterfalls (gbx), Wednesday, 29 June 2016 21:31 (seven years ago) link
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?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 30 June 2016 17:39 (seven years ago) link
the crass person in me enjoyed martin mull calling whats-his-face 'buttfucker' all the time
― carthago delenda est (mayor jingleberries), Thursday, 30 June 2016 17:48 (seven years ago) link
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.
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 30 June 2016 19:20 (seven years ago) link
It's very Seinfeld, trapped in a circle of hell together.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 30 June 2016 19:33 (seven years ago) link
hell is other people, especially at work
― maura, Thursday, 30 June 2016 19:53 (seven years ago) link
Haha ok I forgot the pantshitting episode
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 30 June 2016 20:51 (seven years ago) link
they corrected from that though, rather than setting a tone for the next four years
― glandular lansbury (sic), Friday, 1 July 2016 00:47 (seven years ago) link
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/
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 1 July 2016 09:40 (seven years ago) link
^ ty
― glandular lansbury (sic), Friday, 1 July 2016 11:12 (seven years ago) link
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
― oh, amazonaws (wins), Saturday, 2 July 2016 15:24 (seven years ago) link
lol
splett2 at splettnet dot net
― oh, amazonaws (wins), Saturday, 2 July 2016 15:26 (seven years ago) link
what we do now echoes in spletternity
― Taking dumps on a person's car is something children do (Sparkle Motion), Saturday, 2 July 2016 19:10 (seven years ago) link
the christmas at camp david episode is just about the most excruciating thing i've ever seen
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 01:45 (seven years ago) link