Avenue 5 - Iannucci, HBO

[BlodwynPig]

which world?

[Hank Venture]

Scrubs In Space.

[evilcommiedictator]

Quite a ripoff of Star Trek Voyager innit

[Alberon]

Quite a ripoff of Star Trek Voyager innit

Neelix isn't looking so good these days though.

I've watched the first half of this, but I doubt I'll watch the rest. Everyone is too busy quipping at each other to be funny or bother with anything as boring as character development.

It's quite staggeringly unfunny. How did it get to air in such appalling shape?

[BlodwynPig]

Neelix isn't looking so good these days though.

I've watched the first half of this, but I doubt I'll watch the rest. Everyone is too busy quipping at each other to be funny or bother with anything as boring as character development.

It's quite staggeringly unfunny. How did it get to air in such appalling shape?

Isnt quipping, or the English version sniping, the modern disease thanks to SM

[Dewt]

It's quite staggeringly unfunny. How did it get to air in such appalling shape?

It is absolute tripe. It's so bad that I can't blame the writers, there's no way they thought this was okay. It has to be a sequence of executive bullshit that made it this way.

[chveik]

there's no way they thought this was okay. It has to be a sequence of executive bullshit that made it this way.

maybe they've just lost it.

[Alberon]

The Guardian has seen four episodes, so lets see if they think the show improves-

But there is – despite two not unexpected reveals in the opening three episodes – a pervasive sense of stasis about the whole affair, best symbolised by an incredibly laboured running gag about the 26-second time-lag between the ship and Earth that seems, in every instance, to play out in real time.

Like the post-flip ship itself, Avenue 5 doesn't seem to know quite where it is going or how long it might take to get there.
...
By the end of the four episodes available for review, the plot had been back and forth along a few grooves that were already beginning to feel well-worn. The rest remained a disparate collection of delights and longueurs, despite the formidable talent before and behind the cameras.

So it doesn't look like it.

Maybe things will improve in the second half of the eight-part run – and if not, well, God knows Iannucci is entitled to a slight misstep now and again.

No, he bloody well is not!

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/22/avenue-5-review-armando-iannuccis-cosmic-caper-gets-utterly-lost-in-space

[up_the_hampipe]

Someone other than myself and SMBH must have liked it. I find it hard to believe that we'd both be wrong about something.

[derek stitt]

Too clever by half this and falls flat because of it or trying too hard, each one fits. Will watch them all though.

[phantom_power]

Someone other than myself and SMBH must have liked it. I find it hard to believe that we'd both be wrong about something.

I thought it was alright. Not overly funny but a good concept with some interesting characters played by good actors.

[markpaterson]

Anyone noticed how there's two competing directing, camera and editing styles?

The first segment on Avenue 5 was shot like any common or garden drama, which to me seemed too mainstream for Iannucci – even the acting seemed very traditional and not Iannuccian.

Then we get to Earth and suddenly it's shot and acted like Veep or The Thick Of It. After that, the two competing styles persisted. It was very jarring and almost looked like two different shows cut together.

While this might work as a (questionable and weird) way of separating the two locations, after the first 10 minutes the two styles swapped around on numerous occasions, which was even *more* jarring.

It's like it was two different directors or large parts of it was reshot with network notes.

[bobloblaw]

I thought it was alright. Not overly funny but a good concept with some interesting characters played by good actors.

I also found it very watchable, laughed at the jazz/fate line, and liked most of the cast.

[Dewt]

Actually, that's incorrect.

[Jim Bob]

It's like it was two different directors or large parts of it was reshot with network notes.

Yes, it is almost like that.  Almost.

[olliebean]

But there is – despite two not unexpected reveals in the opening three episodes – a pervasive sense of stasis about the whole affair, best symbolised by an incredibly laboured running gag about the 26-second time-lag between the ship and Earth that seems, in every instance, to play out in real time.

Interesting that they thought that - it seemed to me painfully obvious how quickly they'd realised 26 seconds was way too long and contracted it massively in the edit.

[Bence Fekete]

Really liked this. And with low expectations after not enjoying much of Iannucci's output for a while.

Solid design, gag ratio, Hugh Laurie, Rebecca Front, a nice undercurrent of malevolence. The enviroment of the ship felt both modern and sarcastic. A polished start overall.

[easytarget]

I thought this was pretty good too. I like Hugh Laurie's American/English accent

[beanheadmcginty]

Pure, unadulterated festering dog eggs. Turned it off after 20 minutes and won't be turning it back on again unless Armando personally comes round my house and gives me a blowy.

[MojoJojo]

There seems to be a real split in opinion on this. I'm probably going to have to watch it.

[Alberon]

I got round to watching the second half of the episode. It a marginal improvement on complete shit.

But there's still no focus to the show, everything feels so flat and everyone seems to at the same level and tone. Nothing and no-one stands out.

[José]

they should definately do a find/replace on the credits and swap out all instances of "armando ianucci" for "armando ianucci's massive brain tumour".

[phantom_power]

I honestly don't see what some people here find so abhorrent about it. At worst it was workmanlike, not an utter disaster

[José]

moderately high expectations innit.

[Dewt]

No it's just really bad. It is a stream of writer's room zingers, none of them good, most of them seen elsewhere, and absolutely all of them empty.

It's not just that it's disappointing because we expect better of Iannucci, it's disappointing because it's objectively worse even than things like The Orville. It's worse than Hyperdrive.

[Alberon]

^
That.

[olliebean]

It's pretty much the opposite of The Orville, in that The Orville turned out to be unexpectedly good.

[ProvanFan]

I went in thinking "OBE cunt" and thought it was decent enough to watch the next one.

[canted_angle_again]

I liked it.

[mhmhmh]

So I suppose there's a theme in AI's work of the powerlessness of powerful people - Veep, obviously, and the miniters in The Thick of It and the MP in In The Loop having to deal with nutjobs at his surgery - and so perhaps the spaceship is a metaphor for America or earth and the people we think are in charge aren't and the real people are in the background but dead. Something like that.

Wasn't that funny.

Odd that it seems to have been paid for partly by Canada, getting us a couple of free Canada jokes.