It started out funny in the yoghurt place but the pacing of her getting sick and hustled into the limo was too fast to let the joke really settle in.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:28 (twelve years ago) link
i think the cast are still feeling out how this works (though obviously we don't know what order these were shot in ...)
the gastric bug ending still had comic potential that was somehow missed or fudged through bad timing, confused performances, weird camera movements etc
i think this is kind of the point ... the british show's schtick is that shabby fuckups never make for great comic climaxes but are always just shabby fuckups. ianucci's scripts have a slightly off relationship to sitcom cliché; i'm not convinced this works as well as the thick of it does - but, then, the first series of that show (of which there have been two series, numbered one and three) has an awkward and off feel about the early episodes too. to some degree this evaporates in rewatching -- i feel like knowing the moment of pettiness the first series 'builds' to somehow retrospectively justifies the tenor of it.
― thomp, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:35 (twelve years ago) link
(thick of it has yet to utter the names of any of the political parties -- but has been way more tied to certain specifics of labour govt. 1997-2007 than this is tied to the american political scene, unless i'm missing all the tells)
― thomp, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:38 (twelve years ago) link
you're right about that being the point and it's a difficult thing to pull off. it's just not working yet. early days.
― jed_, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:38 (twelve years ago) link
I just think black during the day is a little jarring though somewhat less jarring than the closing sequence.
it wasn't until here that I realized what "lbd" was and was trying to convince myself that no matter how much my mind suggested it, it probably didn't stand for "labial buffing device"
― I'M THAT POSTA, AAAAAAAAAH (DJP), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 16:17 (twelve years ago) link
I love that your mind suggests such fancies as 'labial buffing device'.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 16:19 (twelve years ago) link
yeah it's obviously about the democrats! not weird to me at all that they're not referring to the parties, though, cause it's not about that aspect of politics
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 19:00 (twelve years ago) link
which aspect is that exactly
― thomp, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 20:51 (twelve years ago) link
the tribalistic speeches for public consumption
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
watching this in a double-header with Borgen is kind of head-chafing, FYI
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:11 (twelve years ago) link
Labial buffing greatly to be preferred?
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:17 (twelve years ago) link
can't i have both?
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:18 (twelve years ago) link
Only if you get them in a back massage chair
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:21 (twelve years ago) link
have not seen this but am suspicious of the choice to make it vague what party anyone belongs to. or is it not vague, upon viewing?
― goole, Tuesday, April 24, 2012 2:56 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this annoys the hell out of me
― max, Tuesday, May 1, 2012 3:17 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this is exactly the same as the thick of it, party affils rendered via types of deportment, wit, affect &c so u see a woman w/ a jewish name and u don't have to think 'republicans can be jewish, too'
― Ms Tum-Bla-Wi-Tee (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:36 (twelve years ago) link
second episode rather better, still think POTUS is even more hateful than VEEP but impressed to the degree to which iannucci and friends have cloaked themselves in another flag
― Ms Tum-Bla-Wi-Tee (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:38 (twelve years ago) link
i coulda sworn that ttoi used party affiliations! but i guess not
― max, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
it did, very much so.
― jed_, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:50 (twelve years ago) link
I don't think of it as naming them but that's not what I'm watching it for
the first series of that show (of which there have been two series, numbered one and three)
First series was three eps, second series was 3 eps. I promise you this is how they were made internally, and are sold separately to OS broadcasters by the Beeb. (Ianucci was given money for one half-hour pilot and managed to turn in two episodes on the budget - they then said "blimey, if you can do a third on whatever change everyone at the table has in their pockets, we'll show them all," and he said "deal.")
― ┗|∵|┓ (sic), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 00:11 (twelve years ago) link
i keep reading this as a cryptic crossword clue, and i don't even do cryptic crosswords
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 09:56 (twelve years ago) link
I'm kind of surprised that I like this as much as I do.― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White)
― "in this super-sexy postracial age" (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 15:39 (twelve years ago) link
loved jld's reaction when she gets a whiff of the white house
― give me back my 200 dollars (NotEnough), Thursday, 3 May 2012 16:20 (twelve years ago) link
i liked ep 2 but it still feels somehow straitjacketed, not sufficiently unhinged; hoping for more appearances by washpo asshole
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 May 2012 17:58 (twelve years ago) link
Best episode by far, on par with the great Thick of It episodes.
― abcfsk, Monday, 7 May 2012 16:21 (twelve years ago) link
not really but still great as shown by
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/may/07/veep-episode-three-review-catherine?newsfeed=true
― nakhchivan, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 00:36 (twelve years ago) link
definitely much better!
― caek, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 07:17 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/us/politics/for-a-blunt-biden-an-uneasy-supporting-role.html?hpthis show is informing my understanding of biden in a weird way
― (Name Withheld to Avoid Hassle) (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 12:03 (twelve years ago) link
i think my problem with veep is that there is no drama. if a problem arises, it gets sorted p quickly by the generic white guy or doesnt really matter? which i guess is the joke but it doesn't give me anything to care about.
― Thoughts? You must have loads. (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 16:35 (twelve years ago) link
"have you ever read faulkner before?"
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 16:39 (twelve years ago) link
Well the issues seem to be continuing on.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 18:32 (twelve years ago) link
This last one was great.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 11:18 (twelve years ago) link
― Thoughts? You must have loads. (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 16:35 (Yesterday) Permalink
yeah i thought a big sticking point between the thick of it & this might be that TTOI has such a good handle on the drudgery and texture of day to day british politics, & with this they were just going to use the correct issues as a backdrop. but now there are a couple of things competing it works a little better as a backstory.
thought this was better anyway, too, although some of it's still weirdly leaden, or just generically sit-com-ish. i liked someone saying someone had a face like a guy who'd been stabbed in the groin.
― blossom smulch (schlump), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 15:34 (twelve years ago) link
I have only just started watching this but I got some lols off the first episode and will def keep watching.
It's like a West Wing about dumb people, lol.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
I think most of the government issues/storylines in TTOI were as throwaway as the ones here but Malcolm made them seem like they were of insane importance to execute properly. The gimpy White House guy turning up to go "ummm, the first lady is getting a dog, plz dont get one" just doesn't make you care. Instead I was just sitting there, kinda bored. Ok, so she doesn't get a dog. Or she can get one for her daughter and just not have a press conference about it. Woop.
― Thoughts? You must have loads. (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
I think most of the government issues/storylines in TTOI were as throwaway as the ones here but Malcolm made them seem like they were of insane importance to execute properly
but I think that the kind of throwaway they were was so well-observed - third sector pathfinder initiative, expert-buttressed slapdash policy assemblages, fetishistic plays for an idea of 'coalface' or earthy politics - & i think the veep stuff is more generic: filibuster reform, oil contracts. part of what's amazing and oppressive about the thick of it is the limiting, nihilistic view of policy as something that no-one really understands or is invested in, which is exclusively valuable as ideological bragging ground, & for which there's no correlation between handling and presumably-profound-consequence. it's what makes the office feel like a bubble floating away from everything, which maybe, in veep, the whole white house thing makes less necessary, but which i think veep would be poorer without having an analogue for.
― blossom smulch (schlump), Thursday, 10 May 2012 09:40 (twelve years ago) link
otm
― Thoughts? You must have loads. (a hoy hoy), Thursday, 10 May 2012 13:41 (twelve years ago) link
it's a show about nothing
― (Name Withheld to Avoid Hassle) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 10 May 2012 15:09 (twelve years ago) link
The closing bit with greetings was excellent. Also, "you're the widow."
― s.clover, Friday, 11 May 2012 05:12 (twelve years ago) link
sterling, i would fuck the shit outta julia louis dreyfus i wold treat her like a princessalso thank you for asendin me that daily worker
― dylannn, Friday, 11 May 2012 08:27 (twelve years ago) link
forks i think schlump's post and a hoy hoy's make a very good case that this is NOT a show about nothing (despite its subjects being unmoored from the realities that are supposed to inform their work)
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 11 May 2012 10:10 (twelve years ago) link
Chris Morris directed a couple of the later episodes - I'm interested to see if they have any kind of stamp on them. The show has such a distinctive look and flow that I can't imagine there's too much variation on the theme, but I like to see him doing stuff, no matter what it is.
― Walter Galt, Friday, 11 May 2012 10:27 (twelve years ago) link
oh yeah that's encouraging, i think. i thought a lot of four lions was kinda perfunctory but his tone is always interesting
― blossom smulch (schlump), Friday, 11 May 2012 10:29 (twelve years ago) link
tracer: seinfeld ref
― (Name Withheld to Avoid Hassle) (forksclovetofu), Friday, 11 May 2012 11:53 (twelve years ago) link
right i got that
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 11 May 2012 13:19 (twelve years ago) link
was 'the new adventures of old christine' any good
― thomp, Friday, 11 May 2012 14:31 (twelve years ago) link
/ what else has julis louise dreyfus been doing for the past decade
"There were two incarnations of Watching Ellie, neither of which met with any success. Both focused on the character of cabaret singer Ellie Riggs (Louis-Dreyfus), with markedly different approaches.The first was directed by Ken Kwapis, known for his innovative work in single-camera sitcoms such as The Larry Sanders Show, Malcolm in the Middle and The Bernie Mac Show. Each 22-minute episode was meant to portray a 22-minute slice of Ellie's life, in real time. In the earliest episodes, a clock was even shown in the corner of the screen. Thirteen episodes were filmed but only ten aired before the series was put on indefinite hiatus (the remaining first-season episodes have never aired). During its use, the clock had the unfortunate effect of reminding the audience that a half-hour situation comedy only contained twenty-two minutes of content."
― thomp, Friday, 11 May 2012 14:32 (twelve years ago) link
nobody in this show knows how to use email
― raw feel vegan (silby), Monday, 14 May 2012 05:39 (twelve years ago) link
but I guess if the White House used email instead of Jonah the show would be less funny, email isn't funny
― raw feel vegan (silby), Monday, 14 May 2012 05:40 (twelve years ago) link
hey theres this extreme metal band playing over at labyrinths tonight just real fucked up noise they dont even have a name you wanna check it out
― johnny crunch, Monday, 21 May 2012 23:55 (twelve years ago) link
The show's come together nicely, I think.
― Simon H., Monday, 21 May 2012 23:57 (twelve years ago) link
has gotten better & better 4 real
― johnny crunch, Monday, 21 May 2012 23:59 (twelve years ago) link