Veep

[CaptainWacky]

Is also back tonight I just remembered okay!

[CaptainWacky]

Anna Chlumsky is very attractive.

[The Tomtrek]

I agree with what you said about Anna Chlumsky being very attractive.

[CaptainWacky]

Poor Catherine.

[Eggs Loki]

Agreed - but a real President wouldn't let their child film them anyway, because of National Security etc.

John Slattery was good casting -- that man could fuck just about anything he wants.

[CaptainWacky]

Kent explaining The Matrix was the best.

Bob going so senile so quickly was a bit over the top? Or maybe I'm trying to spot differences to the show since Armando Iannucci left. It just felt a bit more wacky than usual. But Jonah's deadpan "earlier today he told me Jews cause hurricanes" was funny.

[Eggs Loki]

I think maybe because it's only a half-hour show with so many episodes per season, that they do short-cut things in terms of revealing the plot sometimes. But they gave hints of Bob's senility last week. But yeah, without Iannucci things are a little more ham-fisted.

Mike announcing the Chinese embargo on foreign adoptions was very Curb Your Enthusiasm.

[Eggs Loki]

Is it me or is the comedy getting blacker and blacker? Selina's behavior seems to be bad for bad's sake now. I hope she loses the election, lol.

[CaptainWacky]

I hope Catherine ends up as president somehow.

[CaptainWacky]

Peter MacNicol is good.

[Eggs Loki]

Agreed -- adding Peter MacNicol to something always makes it better.

It's funny (strange), I see Hugh Laurie on the screen but I don't think "hey, that's Hugh Laurie!"

[CaptainWacky]

So I've watched all of The Thick Of It now (the original British series Veep is based on) and it's interesting to look at some of the differences between the two. Probably.

I think the most noticable thing is TTOI feels a lot more...grounded? Realistic? Sometimes (probably especially this year) Veep can use sit-com like storytelling. Like say that bit a few weeks ago where Catherine spilled Mike's special water and didn't tell him (for some reason) and he went out to do a press conference and instantly it effected him and he started acting weird. I don't think things like that happened in TTOI? I'm not saying Veep is "dumbed down" or anything like that but in some ways it can feel more traditional than TTOI (and it has background music in the scene transitions!) Thought I think The Thick Of It felt a bit more like Veep towards the end.

I also think Veep can kind of go too far with making the characters seem like horrible sociopaths. Malcolm in The Thick Of It is obviously sweary and aggressive and does some very bad things, but you get the sense he actually believes in something and everything he does is for the good of his party. And he's shown to not actually be a total sociopath in real life as we get moments like him being nice to his secretary and being charming around real people. When he got fired at the end of series 3 I felt bad for him. Whereas someone like Dan in Veep will throw a sandwich away in front of a homeless man and when he had a breakdown I just laughed at him instead of feeling bad.

(Not saying that no one in Veep has depth though, most of the characters have had moments where they're more than their jobs.)

Only things I didn't like about The Thick Of it.

1) I didn't really get the point of "The Fucker" at the end of series 3. I mean it was a funny scene but I felt like I was missing something, like I was supposed to recognise the actor or something.
2) In series 4 they do episodes that only focus on one party for the first four episodes of the series and I prefered it when we saw both sides reacting to the same thing at the same time. It made those episodes feel a bit slow. Plus it meant two episodes without Malcolm. But it resulted in the excellent inquiry episode so it's a minor complaint really.

ANYWAY THEY'RE BOTH GOOD SHOWS.

[The Tomtrek]

[video]

[CaptainWacky]

He's fucking fucked his sister.

[Eggs Loki]

I agree about Veep -- I've never thought it was as OH MY GOD BOW DOWN BEFORE THIS MOST AWESOME SHOW EVER as the rest of the world. Some of the humor is fast and sharp and witty, and I love fast-talking shows in general. But Veep will also sink to sitcom cliches at least once a week, expecting to be forgiven because its overall batting average is high. This is especially true this year, now that Ianucci isn't in charge anymore.

Also agree that the characters are too arbitrarily hateful. I've said it before that I don't last long with this kind of "how long can you stand watching this awful behavior" comedy, which started with Larry David and Seinfeld and continued with Curb, and alpha-male comedies like Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I love flawed characters, but not overtly evil ones. Am I supposed to root for Selina? Or root for an assassination? Seinfeld knews that the only just way to end the show is to send those self-centered creeps to jail. Why do writers think that audiences would want to invest years in a show like that if they end up having to apologize for themselves at the end?

The same thing just happened with The Good Wife, and it really pissed me off. IKn the finale, the writers made this moral judgment against the main character and left us with the message that Alicia started out on the show as a victim, but in the end became the victimizer. But until that last 30 seconds of the final episode, they wanted us to root for Alicia as she grew and became more confident in her life and career over 7 years, because hey, the show is about her, right? But it turns out, she was actually a bitch who deserved to get slapped. What the fuck?

I'M RANTING BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO WORK LOL.

[Eggs Loki]

I never saw The Thick Of It, I didn't even know Veep was based on something else lol.

BUT I LOVE PETER CAPALDI OKAY

[CaptainWacky]

Well, I don't agree about Seinfeld (the finale was considered a disappointment becuase everyone was out of character in it, the characters weren't actually horrible people for most of the run) but I know we've had the same argument AT LEAST FOUR TIMES so there's not much point going into it.

[CaptainWacky]

Amy is the best character. More Amy please.

[Eggs Loki]

THIS JUST IN: CatherEEN iz a lezBEEN!

[CaptainWacky]

[video]