Avenue 5 [HBO / Armando Iannucci]

pixelburp

So this is Iannucci's next vehicle, and it's ... ... a Space Comedy; who'd have predicted that? More predictably is the style of comedy, which the trailer teases, containing the the writer's trademark acerbic, profanity laden wit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emu0I2hNfUk

The Black Oil

Trailer, yo. Always find it interesting how many series Laurie gets involved in post-House (8 years, ~ 24 episodes).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Zr3f-_Ft8

pixelburp

So strange to see Iannucci's style of humour (presumably minus the swearing for the sake of the trailer) in an ostensibly SciFi setting. Looking forward to this, though think it's just the two of us Black Oil

maudgonner

Three! But I won't really be happy unless Jamie from The Thick of It turns up and liberally distributes Glasgow Kisses.

JP Liz V1

It starts on Sky One on Wednesday January 22nd at 10pm

The Black Oil

pixelburp wrote: »

So strange to see Iannucci's style of humour (presumably minus the swearing for the sake of the trailer) in an ostensibly SciFi setting. Looking forward to this, though think it's just the two of us Black Oil

I would be quite happy to try a uniform like Laurie's at some stage. Purely for research purposes, in case I end up in space.

Agent Coulson

Agent Coulson

Starts tonight in the States.

Unearthly

This and curb your enthusiasm on same night

Nice

bnt

maudgonner wrote: »

Three! But I won't really be happy unless Jamie from The Thick of It turns up and liberally distributes Glasgow Kisses.

He’s not there so far, but Rebecca Front (Nicola Murray) is, playing one of the guests. Named Karen, which I don’t think is a coincidence. (It’s a meme, ma’am.). Ethan Philips too, this time without the ST:Voyager makeup.

Credit Checker Moose

Zach Woods was good too. A good solid opener of an episode.

Slydice

1: Feels a bit like Soap Opera. The idea of what's gone wrong and what it could mean looks promising though

steve_r

Really underwhelmed by the first episode. It seemed really messy going from the ship and passengers to mission control to the team doing repairs.

Hugh Laurie was good and I like what they did with the character, I think there's potential there.

I love Zach Woods and Rebecca Front, but their characters did nothing for me and I don't think there's a lot of depth there.

The bickering couple was such a cliche and I was a bit disappointed in Armando for it.

Jack Black was his usual, whacky, rubbish self. Cannot stand him.

I'll stick with it for loyalty to Armando. I felt Veep was poor at the start but when I rewatched it, the show worked a lot better when I was familiar with all the dynamics so hopefully its the same here.

is_that_so

Not sure about this either. Agree it was all over the place and some of the setup could have been done without the automatic zany humour routine.

heebusjeebus

steve_r wrote: »

Jack Black was his usual, whacky, rubbish self. Cannot stand him.
.

LOL, it wasn't even Jack Black. It's his understudy, Josh Gad.

steve_r

heebusjeebus wrote: »

LOL, it wasn't even Jack Black. It's his understudy, Josh Gad.

Worse again

Venom

Enjoyable but not quite sure what to make of this show and was expecting more bite considering who is behind it. Hugh Laurie, Zack Woods, Lenora Crichlow and mission control lady were great, Ethan Philips and Josh Gad were awful with the rest of the cast being forgettable and cliché. Roll on episode 2.

I enjoyed it. Some laugh out loud moment.

Captain: Wow, you are bendy, really bendy. Oh its broken, sorry.

I LOL'ed.

Irritating, persistent woman is irritating though. And the unhappy couple are irritating too. Blow all three out an airlock and this could be more enjoyable.

Thelonious Monk

I didn't really like it but I'll stick with it, didn't have an Ianuccian feel to it at all.

Basq

Expected much better from Armando Iannucci..

.. first episode was poor!

Welsh Megaman

Just watched the first episode, some good one-liners - shows promise.

And the appearance of Zach Woods has already made it more infinitely enjoyable.

bnt

Second episode was slightly better, I thought, some good lines. Very watchable, though I think it has yet to find its feet.

I'm disappointed by the lack of even basic science, answers to questions such as ... where the hell are they? They say there's a 26-second transmission delay, which puts the ship at about 26 x 300,000 = 7.8 million km from Earth. That's pretty close in astronomical terms e.g. the closest Mars ever gets to Earth is about 56 million km, or over 7 times that distance. They're going to end up a lot further away than that as time goes on.

Better Than Christ

"Joe's social skills were... I mean the man could barely finish, in terms of sentences"

I don't know why, but I love that line so much.

Welsh Megaman

Second episode was OK, Josh Gad’s character is just a little too over-the-top though.

brevity

It’s fine.

Basq

Third episode was more of the same..

... it's meandering around without being laugh out loud funny. It's such a great comedic cast and they feel wasted - which I'd never thought I'd say for an Iannucci creation.

Still, good to see the hugely talented Daisy May Cooper outside of This Country.

Slydice

Watched 2 and 3: This is getting interesting. Feels like the show is

slowly aiming to peel away the glossy facade the passengers

and maybe even the audience might have had to begin with. Could get

pretty grim after three years.. or not.. maybe they'll pull together and work something out.

Hrmmm.. interesting.

bnt

Given how vicious Armando Ianucci projects can be, this has the potential to get extremely vicious. Think Lord Of The Flies, in space with better dialogue. If there's one thing lacking so far, it's memorable insults, something we know he can do (and then some).

Welsh Megaman

Watched episode three, could get VERY interesting.


Josh Gad has tweeted...


https://twitter.com/joshgad/status/1222573208450129920?s=21

Slydice

4: What a **** episode!

youcancallmeal

First 4 episodes are only okay, a few laughs. The characters are one dimensional(so far) which is fine in a comedy if the plot moves it along but it isn't really.

Slydice

Feels like they wanna draw out the dual comedy-terror aspect for a bit but I don't think it'll keep the audience.

Picking one side or the other is probably the way to go but I'm guessing they'll lose some audience from the side they don't pick.

Maybe the series is stuck..

Agent Coulson

Renewed for a 2nd season.

Welsh Megaman

Something had better happen with that married couple who are always arguing, haven’t found them remotely funny so far.

Agent Coulson

It has more negatives than positives for me at the moment and I think the only reason I am sticking with is the talent involved knowing they can produce good things.

Venom

Episode 5 was one of the worst things I've seen on TV in a long, long time Considering the talent in front and behind the camera, I'm at a loss at how god awful this show is turning out to be.

Wibbs

I'd be agreeing with you V, but maybe it's going over much better in the US? It reminds me of an extended Saturday Night Live skit. Saturday Night Live is hugely popular in the US, but really doesn't translate beyond their birders. Any time I've watched it I found it as funny as murdering kittens. Even when real comedy talent is involved.

Unearthly

I stopped watching after the 2nd episode. Doesn't look like it got better going by here. Shame

B.A._Baracus

I like it.

You're all nuts :pac:

Venom

Wibbs wrote: »

I'd be agreeing with you V, but maybe it's going over much better in the US? It reminds me of an extended Saturday Night Live skit. Saturday Night Live is hugely popular in the US, but really doesn't translate beyond their birders. Any time I've watched it I found it as funny as murdering kittens. Even when real comedy talent is involved.

I had a look on Reddit and a few other forums and the feedback seems split between some thinking it's the greatest thing ever made and a slightly larger amount thinking it's utter garbage

Slydice

5: I don't know where this is going.. feels either abolsolute horrors or maybe.. nowhere

Agent Coulson

I think I'm done after that episode.


It has me wondering is it so bad on purpose with the talent involved it should be at least halfway decent, so are they making a show so bad just to see what they can get people to watch on name value alone.

Welsh Megaman

I enjoyed episode 5, just for the scenes with the stand-up comedian - not being allowed to tell any jokes, getting abuse/criticism from all angles.

Noticed that Peter Baynham had a hand in writing that episode, he’s always on form when collaborating with Iannucci.

Slydice

6: Not sure what the point was but now I feel tired.. maybe that was the point

Welsh Megaman

God, the baby is going from a womb surrounded by bodily fluids to a ship surrounded by bodily solids.

JP Liz V1

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Renewed for a 2nd season.

Is it doing well in ratings?

Slydice

hrmmm.. seems to be holding steady..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_5

0.571 -> 0.500 -> 0.297 -> 0.275 -> 0.386 -> 0.371

From what I remember, most shows take a dip in viewers at first.
Three episodes left. I'd guess a lot will depend on how they've crafted the story.

Slydice

7: Awe that's not gonna end well.

Guessing they'll do this eject-move just before the resupply shuttle gets to them then they lose Rav as their mission controller or she somehow gets standed on the ship up there with them.. with the resupply shuttle joining the orbit of everything else.

Thinking I'll see the show through to the end of season one but see how things are shaping up before jumping into season two.

Welsh Megaman

Enjoyed last night’s episode...Harrison ripping into ‘Fudd’, could get interesting now that Rav has gone into space.


#papalpoop

bnt

Episode 8 is out in some locations... I have seen it, did not quite believe what I saw. “People are stupid” does not seem adequate.

I thought Sarah had some kind of common sense survival instinct, but apparently not.

:eek:

Slydice

8: Well this is going all wrong!

bnt wrote: »

Episode 8 is out in some locations... I have seen it, did not quite believe what I saw. “People are stupid” does not seem adequate.

I thought Sarah had some kind of common sense survival instinct, but apparently not.

:eek:

What they did :eek: Then the ending! :eek:

One episode left in season 1