{"id":640993,"date":"2023-04-24T10:05:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T15:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/24\/avenue-5-is-funny-but-needs-more-variety\/"},"modified":"2023-04-24T10:05:22","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T15:05:22","slug":"avenue-5-is-funny-but-needs-more-variety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/24\/avenue-5-is-funny-but-needs-more-variety\/","title":{"rendered":"Avenue 5 Is Funny But Needs More Variety"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span>Courtesy of HBO<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/header>\n
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The HBO series Avenue 5<\/em><\/a> is a sci-fi comedy about a cruise ship that gets knocked off course on its way to Saturn. Humor writer Tom Gerencer<\/a> was impressed by the show\u2019s witty dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some extremely funny lines in Avenue 5<\/em> that I couldn\u2019t help laughing out loud on,\u201d Gerencer says in Episode 463 of the Geek\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/em><\/a> podcast. \u201cMy hat is off to the great comedic minds behind the scripts.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Podcast<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

Avenue 5<\/em> is the brainchild of Armando Iannucci<\/a>, creator of Veep<\/em>. Fantasy author Erin Lindsey<\/a> was amused by Avenue 5<\/em>\u2018s zany absurdism, but prefers the humor of Veep<\/em>, which operates on many different levels. \u201cFor me, it doesn\u2019t matter how much I like the flavor, I want more than one flavor, and I just felt like the jokes were almost all the same flavor,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Geek\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/em> host David Barr Kirtley<\/a> agrees that Avenue 5<\/em> would benefit from a more varied approach. \u201cI feel like there should be one character who\u2019s normal and sincere, and who we identify with,\u201d he says. \u201cSo that there\u2019s a contrast between the absurdity and non-absurdity. Whereas I feel like everything in this is absurd\u2014all the characters are absurd, all the scenes are absurd, and everything about the ship is absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n

But science fiction editor John Joseph Adams<\/a> loves Avenue 5<\/em>\u2018s wacky humor, and is looking forward to seeing where the show goes from here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Office<\/em> and Parks and Rec<\/em> both ended up as two of my favorite comedies of all time, but the first seasons were not good,\u201d he says. \u201cI think the first season of Avenue 5<\/em> is way better than either of those. So if Avenue 5<\/em> has any kind of growth from Season 1 to Season 2 on par with what either of those shows did\u2014which were run by similarly talented teams, so it\u2019s reasonable to expect that they could make such improvements\u2014I think that could be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the complete interview with Tom Gerencer, Erin Lindsey, and John Joseph Adams in Episode 463 of Geek\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/em> (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.<\/p>\n

Erin Lindsey on accents:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of have a thing about accents. I notice them a lot, I do accents, I\u2019m just really into them. One of the things that always impressed me about Hugh Laurie<\/a> is that in his however many jillion seasons of House<\/em>, you almost never, ever questioned that he was American. His American accent is amazing. And so these first couple of episodes, you have him running around playing an American captain, and my first question was, \u2018Why?\u2019 And my second question is, \u2018Why is he so bad at it? Has he lost his touch?\u2019 So he totally sold it. He did a great job of a Brit doing an almost-but-not-quite-perfect American accent. And it turns out that that\u2019s in fact what\u2019s going on. Which I loved. I totally loved that.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Barr Kirtley on plot:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like in Season 2 they\u2019re going to have to have a story, and there\u2019s not really a story in Season 1. You go and look at the episode synopses, and it\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019ve never seen such short episode synopses.\u2019 I just feel like there needs to be some sort of mystery on the ship, something where you\u2019re wondering what\u2019s going to happen next. The structure right now really reminds me of Gilligan\u2019s Island<\/em><\/a>, where every episode there\u2019s some hope that they\u2019re going to get back sooner than they thought, and then something goes wrong, and then it turns out it\u2019s going to be longer than they thought, and it\u2019s just kind of that over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Gerencer on cruise ships:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was playing video games, and loving it, and there\u2019s this little boy next to me, and he\u2019s playing video games in a suit, and these two kids run through the arcade, chasing each other, and one of them bumps the little kid in the suit with an elbow, and barely touches him. \u2026 The father of the kid in the suit bends down and grabs one of the children who was running, and starts shouting, \u2018My son is a child prodigy! He plays the violin in concerts around the world, and if you\u2019ve damaged his arm I\u2019m going to sue your parents until there\u2019s nothing left!\u2019 He screamed this in this 8-year-old boy\u2019s face. That was an eye-opening moment for me. I was like, \u2018Who am I on this boat with?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Gerencer on the Starship Titanic<\/em><\/a> novel:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI started googling it, and at some obscure online bookstore I found a copy of it that said it was by Robert Sheckley<\/a>, and like an idiot I emailed the guy who owned the bookstore and said, \u2018Hey, if that\u2019s true that\u2019s a really rare book. Can I buy it?\u2019 It disappeared off the site that day, and the guy never answered any of my emails after that. I was like, \u2018Hey, I was checking back on this,\u2019 and he never answered me again. \u2026 It was ironic to me because the Titanic<\/em> was something they said was unsinkable, and it sunk, and then Douglas Adams<\/a> made this game about it that was supposed to be awesome\u2014because he\u2019s Douglas Adams\u2014and then that vanished, and the two books also vanished.\u201d<\/p>\n

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More Great WIRED Stories<\/h3>\n