Veep

[Murdoch]

That was a really strong pilot, and I'm glad to see Louis-Dreyfus in another series as New Adventures of Old Christine was a guilty pleasure of mine.

[Roger Ryan]

The pilot for Veep is as well. I thought it was pretty good.

Very similar to the writer/director's feature IN THE LOOP which I thought was hysterical. I imagine subsequent episodes will smooth out some of the awkwardness which is often inherent in pilots, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[Murdoch]

I know there are some The Thick of It fans on here, and I just had to say that the second episode of this season was the funniest thing I've seen all year. I'd be hard-pressed to find a better comedy right now in television or film. In short,

Spoiler

everyone likes pyramids!

[Sloper]

It was very good indeed - maybe I'm crude but I loved the 'Tinker Tailor' joke especially. Rebecca Front is great as the tragically incompetent protagonist, but I still miss Chris Langham.

Anyway, it's a huge relief to see this new series getting off to such a good start after the enormous disappointment that was Veep.

[Murdoch]

I've only seen the first episode of Veep, but I liked it a great deal, especially the running gag of no one being able to get in touch with the President.

As much as I loved the blithering Hugh, Nicola's neuroses and the reactions they garner have been my favorite moments of the series thus far.

[Sloper]

I sometimes find that the smallest, most insignificant moments are the funniest - like Nicola's infuriated expression after Ben Swain makes the 'pebble' sound. The camera lingers on it just a little bit too long, to great effect. One of the show's strengths has always been its skilful use of close-ups.

I watched the whole series of Veep, in the hope of figuring out what I didn't like about it. Maybe it just felt like those subtle little irrelevant moments were missing, or maybe the characters just weren't as interesting - the dynamic between Hugh, Malcolm, Olly, Teri, Nicola, Glenn and others in The Thick of It has always been very strong, and somehow this didn't happen in Veep. You'll think I'm a troll, but I really don't like Julia Louis-Dreyfus - she was a weak link in Seinfeld, she mugged in Arrested Development, and seeing her in Veep clinched it for me. She's cartoonish, and that really doesn't fit with this style of comedy. But the show seems to have been a big success, so I realise I'm in a minority there. I liked Anna Chlumsky - here and in In the Loop, she's displayed a real talent for deadpan humour.

Just to lower the tone, did anyone see Charlie Brooker's detective spoof, A Touch of Cloth? It's very silly and lowbrow, but I thought it was hilarious; having just sat through and been a bit disappointed by The Killing, and having watched many of these sorts of shows during family visits over the years, it was a real pleasure to see the 'dark' crime drama getting the Naked Gun treatment.

[matrixschmatrix]

You'll think I'm a troll, but I really don't like Julia Louis-Dreyfus - she was a weak link in Seinfeld, she mugged in Arrested Development, and seeing her in Veep clinched it for me. She's cartoonish, and that really doesn't fit with this style of comedy. But the show seems to have been a big success, so I realise I'm in a minority there. I liked Anna Chlumsky - here and in In the Loop, she's displayed a real talent for deadpan humour.

I don't think you're a troll. I think you're a crazy person.

[flyonthewall2983]

Just to lower the tone, did anyone see Charlie Brooker's detective spoof, A Touch of Cloth? It's very silly and lowbrow, but I thought it was hilarious; having just sat through and been a bit disappointed by The Killing, and having watched many of these sorts of shows during family visits over the years, it was a real pleasure to see the 'dark' crime drama getting the Naked Gun treatment.

The trailer is hilarious.

[flyonthewall2983]

April 14th

[Murdoch]

The new season premieres on April 22nd.

I've run through the last two seasons and the show has grown on me. Compared with The Thick of It, I think it tries to tone down the characters' viciousness with sympathetic moments - Selena's daughter being ostracized by her mother's self-obsession, Amy's dad being in the hospital - which don't really gel with the rest of the show (or maybe I just feel that way because of The Thick of It's relentless vitriol). But there are great lines ("district of cunts" comes to mind) and I find the series quite re-watchable, can't wait for the new season!

[domino harvey]

I watched an episode from the second season I think and it was just so overwhelmingly negative and mean-spirited that I just had no interest in continuing. I was curious to check out the Thick of It but if it's somehow even more "vitriolic" I guess I can safely skip it too

[swo17]

Did you happen to see In the Loop? That might be a better metric for what you'll think of The Thick of It and its main draw, the Malcolm Tucker character.

[Murdoch]

The Thick of It may be the most mean-spirited show I've seen, with characters cutting down each other at every turn. I know it's not for everyone, but I love it. In the Loop is probably the most approachable but there's a mean-spiritedness to whatever Iannucci does.

[MichaelB]

I wouldn't say that it's so much "mean-spirited" in itself as an extremely clear-eyed look at exceptionally mean-spirited people (or rather, people whose jobs and career ambitions leave no room for basic decency).

[Roger Ryan]

Exactly. All of the comedy comes from the characters' complete inability to mask their own self-interests regardless of the situation. VEEP refuses to present even a single character to act as an audience surrogate (who could potentially be the innocent target of any "mean-spiritedness"); all of them are equally self-absorbed or, at least, willing to sell their souls to remain in the vice president's orbit.

The inexplicable ridicule that the character of Jerry Gergich has to endure on PARKS & RECREATION does strike me as mean-spirited. The ridicule generates some laughs, but I wonder why the otherwise likable department mates resort to this kind of cruelty. VEEP has no such problem as everyone gets what they deserve.

[MichaelB]

Incidentally, since we're talking about Malcolm Tucker and since Peter Capaldi was subsequently cast as the new Doctor Who, is there anyone out there who hasn't seen this hilarious trailer that someone put together within hours of the casting annoucement?

And for extra laughs, have a look at the comments that think it's a sneak preview of his actual Doctor Who performance...

(Spectacularly NSFW, needless to say.)

On the subject of Armando Iannucci being responsible for "mean-spirited" projects, it's perhaps worth mentioning that he doesn't remotely come across that way in real life (I've interviewed him myself). Instead, I get the impression that he's genuinely appalled by venality and casual corruption in high places, as well as the linguistic obfuscations that people use to justify behaviour that by any moral yardstick is clearly unjustifiable.

[domino harvey]

The inexplicable ridicule that the character of Jerry Gergich has to endure on PARKS & RECREATION does strike me as mean-spirited. The ridicule generates some laughs, but I wonder why the otherwise likable department mates resort to this kind of cruelty.

The series has explored this many times, and the joke is essentially on his co-workers, as he's a counter to the typical workplace sitcom scenario in which the office/work are the central hub of one's life-- Jerry (or "Larry" now) has a ridiculously happy and popular life outside of work, with a beautiful wife and kids and a sense of fulfillment none of the other characters seem to be able to maintain. He's the perfect target because he's impervious to their bad attitudes and every group of people working together needs a common target of derision. Certainly a large part of his accidental complicity in their meanness is from not being aware enough, but I don't think he'd care too much even if he knew-- he's shown that work is just work, a pretty human and relatable trait, and his obliviousness to his co-workers' nastiness just shows how little effect they have on him. Why feel sorry for Jerry when he doesn't?

[mfunk9786]

I don't know why you keep calling him Jerry, the man's name is Larry

[Murdoch]

Personally, I don't see "mean-spirited" as a criticism given our current political climate. If anything, I can't imagine any other approach than taking Veep's documentary-like take on a group of foulmouthed backstabbers. As much as I love P&R but there's only so much earnestness I can take and I find the viciousness of Selena and her minions more compelling, especially considering the setting of national politics and D.C. My main criticism is that the show veers away from party politics and instead acts as a catchall indictment of the system as a whole. I think if it did tackle U.S. politics as the carnival sideshow it is the show could move from good to excellent.

[tenia]

Veep just ended with quite a bang, in a shortened season that while feeling like another rehash of the usual tropes (Team Meyer screws up, Jonah gets totally out of control, Mike doesn't understand anything, glorified cameos pass by), the characters are so fluid in their roles that the whole thing just ends in a smooth riot. It's still extremely vitriolic, but as someone who enjoyed this pretty much over the past 6-seasons run (there was one season I liked less - season 4, IIRC), this last season hit all the right notes, down to the epilogue and credits sequence.

[Roger Ryan]

I didn't think the series could get even more acidic, but this final season was merciless and the hit-to-miss ratio for laughs was quite high. The show even found a fresh way to address the actual sitting U.S. President by using the "Jonah Ryan" character as a surrogate. The finale was, indeed, a blast, and it feels like the series was just the right length, ending before the humor began to wear too thin.