VEEP on HBO - Page 3

Farva hates health food.  Random Super Trooper quote:

 

"It's powdered sugar."

"The lice...hate the sugar..."

"It's delicious."

 

Not my favorite episode last night, but even a mediocre VEEP is still good viewing to me.  Thanks to all for pointing out some gems that I forgot about though.

 

I think it might have been a minor letdown, because of how good Game of Thrones was and how good the previous episode of VEEP was.

I need a Malcolm Tucker crossover episode.

Malcolm Tucker is one of the main characters in the newest League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!

In case you're interested, a new series of The Thick of It has just finished filming (7 episodes) and is currently being edited. Should be airing later this year on the BBC somewhere. No idea when it'll hit the States.

Damn it, the current government has already gifted them enough potential fuck-ups for a year's worth of episodes. A mere 7 is just painfully cruel!

Imagine the damage Tucker would do to the VP's people.

 

That character kills me.

So everything was great about the last episode- Jonah ("Total Potal Meltdown", his serious as cancer "West Wing, Jonah." etc), Mike ("Does he ever say anything funny?"- that goofy smile on his face is what really makes it), Gary (telling Ted he's been dumped, offering his resignation, and the way he walks around the back of the sofa with Selina's rose hip tea absolutely finished me) and of course Selina.

 

Directed by MFing Chris Morris!

 

"Congressman No-Jaw!"

 

Great wrap-up.  Gonna miss this show.   

The best part involving that guy was when Gary got all alpha on him to make him leave the Veep's office.

 

And I didn't know it was the season finale. Shit.

I don't know why, but I really dug that little line that was over the credits from Sue on the phone.

 

"No she is busy tomorrow. That is plural, as in all of them."

 

A paraphrase, but these little throw-out lines are full of laughs.

 

Between this, In The Loop, and The Thick of It, Armando is kicking ass.

 

I have to watch these shows a few times to catch everything that is going on.

 

This show has the potential to go Parks and Recreation/Simpsons route with dozens of recurring characters. I liked the nod to lip-reading (?) photographer for example. 

Yeah, congressman no-jaw was definitely the highlight of a solid season finale.  I can't even remember any line of his, since he was firing them all off in succession.  There is some genius writing there.

Man, this show really hit its stride. Great stuff. I was cracking up when watching it the other night. 

It's so gratifying to watch Dan sweat.  His horror at the concept of "corpse-fucking" was awesome.

http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/entertainment/articles/2012-06/25/veep-sky-atlantic-writers-interview-the-thick-of-it

Clay Davis! Gary Cole!

 

Back in a few short weeks!

 

 

 

"I wouldn't presume they took turns."

 

"Here he is, Kanye West Wing!"

 

"Stick a thermometer up Washington's ass, see how much heat I just created."

The AV Club comments about that trailer were filled mostly with

 

 

This show's profanity should get a Nobel prize :)

I like to see a tina fey cameo on this show

Tina Fey as the First Lady could be pretty brilliant. Season 1 established that the Veep and the FLOTUS kind of hate each other, and the thought of just epic sniping between Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Tina Fey makes me giddy.

I also think wanda sykes could cool be for this show cameo wise

"I fluffed 'em, now go fuck 'em."

 

"You work for the Vice President. It's not like it's Google."

 

So happy to have this show back in my life.

http://www.chud.com/132503/the-five-best-lines-from-this-weeks-veep/

this airs on Thursday in NZ.  Trying to say "spoiler" free for the best lines, but glad its good enough to get a front page article.

Jonah remains both utterly repulsive and utterly adorable.

 

"We lost the battle but we ain't cattle! Two years time, bitches!"

That pork fest lady who was concerned about Jonah being too close to the pig really cracked me up for some reason.

 

 

"De-pork the visual!"

 

This simple statement just makes me continuously chuckle. 

 

"It's right next to the coals.  The coals are hot"

 

"Look, office of the President, so I'm staying."

 

Jonah has been stealing this season so far.

He's the best part of the show.  Furlong (or whatever that dickhead's name is) was incredible again too...I'll probably butcher this one a bit, but

 

"That's not really a metaphor....a metaphor....(gets cut off)

 

"Jesus Christ, you're annoying like a condom filled with fire ants, how's that for a metaphor?!"

 

"Actually, that's a simile..."

Just don't really like this show. It's too broad and the humor suffers for it. The Thick of It is so funny because it almost seems like it takes place in the real world. This show exists in what can only be described as a sit com universe.

Who cares? It is a sitcom universe, but there are one-liners for days.  It doesn't have to take place in a serious or "real-world" setting to be funny.

 

I understand your point, but I guess I don't think that really matters.

Humor is very personal. The show doesn't work for me but I fully believe it might be perfect for others.

 

Last season I went into depth on this, but characters like Gary to me are not so funny because they're so absurd and removed from reality, where as The Thick of It had me cracking up till it hurts when Nicola Murry talked about the "quiet bat people". It was an absurd line, but it felt like she was a real person who believably could have said what she said, and that's what made it that much funnier for me. If Nicola had been a sitcom character, that line wouldn't have done much for me.

Understood.  The Gary point, especially.  It's a different form of Buster Bluth.

There's definitely a different feel this season: the shooting and editing are less overtly faux-doc, and the scripting does utilize a setup/punchline structure more frequently than before. Great dialog and wonderful performances, just like last season, but it does seem as though it's trying to be just a tad more conventional (in American TV terms).

The criticisms to this year's season are valid, but come on, that episode was hilarious.  "Motherboarding"

 

I wonder how many people who think this is "American TV Sitcom" are missing the jokes.  I live in NC and trust me, that is some very subversive humor.  The water system is loaded with pig shit that all flows downhill giving everyone horrible allergies, it's exactly what local NC policy makers would talk about to the VP, thinking it's totally normal talking about "with frequency" ... and the people, old, young, black, white are HUGE ... "I'm guessing there will be a lot of flesh to press."

 

"It's not a fucking petting zoo" was as absurd as anything from the Thick Of It or Monty Python for that matter.  The accent and impatience were dead on, but there's no way that lady would throw in an F bomb talking to a well dressed stranger in a public setting.  The "fucking" was just icing on the case ... I was on the floor laughing.

No I get the jokes, I just don't like the packaging or the tone. Again, I am a big fan of Iannucci's other comedies. I very much get his humor. This Veep show is the like the US Office compared to the Thick of It's UK Office. I just vehemently don't like the sitcom world of this show when paired with this type of humor.

I've liked sitcoms, but this sort of middle ground is painful for me. Again, comedy is very personal though so I'm just speaking for myself.

In fairness to the US office, it really does get good right during the middle years - there's a playfulness to the US Office and Veep that I find very admirable .  It's like Ahab meeting the English Captain in reverse; the Englishman treats selling paper and managing government bureaucracies very seriously, yes, very seriously indeed .... yes, it's a comedy but there is context of course!  Always mind context, let's not just be silly.  But the American is just having fan because TELEVISON! and HAMBURDGER!
 

I love Seinfeld, I Love Lucy, and other fun, somewhat wacky television sitcoms, but for whatever reason when the British humor is mixed with the American tone, I find it really grating, like nails on a chalkboard. Again, that is just me.

In any case it's a pleasure to discuss the show with someone so articulate, so cheers and I will say that I am looking forward to watching more. The Veep is one of the very few shows I actually watch, so that already speaks pretty highly to it's qualities (there are some funny performances - though I hate Gary), it's just that by my own personal standards and tastes, it's not really hitting the sweet spot.

 

Swearing shouldn't really come as a surprise when Iannucci is involved, so I'm still trying to figure out why Pork Fest Lady was so damn funny. I think despite her simple country ways it seemed like she instinctively knew that Jonah was a massive douche, and that's why she talked to him that way.

Furlong is a legend.

 

"I'm running out of nice juice to spray at these shit munchers"

 

"Stop trying to polish my dick you fucking four eyed fucking failure".

 

I do so love well done swearing.

Easily my favourite episode so far.  Directed by Chris Addison (Olly from The Thick of It), who also directed one of my favourite of the last Thick of Its.

Aside from the great lines (SCROTUS, procrasturbate) had some genuine heart.  Her mini breakdown before the mission, and then "I losta  man his leg" was really well done.

 

Great stuff.

Yeah, this one was a high point. "Oh, the noodle analogy! You guys are gonna love this." Cole smugly drawing out the stupid analogy to coincide with the microwave dinging, and Kevin Dunn calling him on that cheesy bullshit, gold.

 

Man I laughed at the latching onto of "robust"; god, now there's a word I wish I saw less of.

 

And, I just learned that Pork Fest Lady from last week was Assistant Principal Marcia Donnelly from The Wire!

That was a robust episode.

 

My one pet peeve is that they shouldn't have ANY previews for next week episodes as they (editors, HBO?) end up spoiling a lot of the great lines/insults.

Julia improving terrible small talk was cringe-worthy greatness.  And I hope her sniping with Clay Davis continues. 

 

Is there any exchange that more succinctly encapsulates the Iannucci style than this one?

 

"What are we doing here?"

"Let me rephrase that - what the fuck are we doing here?"

 

Wow, had no idea. He did a great job.

 

Fave bit this week was when oblivious Gary opens the door, an utterly monstrous Selina roars "CLASSIFIED!!!", then Gary slams the door shut in that perfect horror movie way. And I like the cop from Community here almost as much as evil air conditioning repair guy from Community. "It's like explaining gravity to a chicken!"

 

Also need to mention how much Kevin Dunn has surprised the shit out of me comedically (an actor I had long ago grown accustomed to tolerating as the perpetually annoyed/angry superior). I can't remember the lines exactly but him leaving to get a refill after Selina's comment about situation room appropriateness was fantastic.

Oh God, another thing that fucking killed me, Selina's shit eating comment about Apocalypse Now, what was it- "Dark. But I like it!"

 

Never watched Seinfeld, tried a few times but just couldn't get into it. Feel ashamed it took me this long to find out what a brilliant comedic actress JLD is.
 

 

He did last week's, too.

Agreed that this was the best of the season.  Godo all the way around.  Kevin Dunn is fantastic.  Seeing his huge coffee mug again cracked me up.

 

All the robust puns were classic as well.