Ummmmmmmm

[lizbee]

Opening sentence of a review of The Death of Stalin:

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was a pure tyrant, but what if his committee of cronies were just as bad?

Yes. What if. We'll just never know.

(The Astor has an In the Loop/The Death of Stalin double feature in May, and I am mildly sad that my attention span doesn't stand up to two movies. I enjoy Iannucci's movies a lot more than his TV series, which makes it a bit unfortunate that he mostly does TV.)

Comments

[prof_pangaea]

wait, what TV series of his do you watch other than The Thick of It?? have you seen Time Trumpet???

[lizbee]

wait, what TV series of his do you watch other than The Thick of It??

NONE. I tried The Thick of It, I tried Veep, I was like, "These are very funny and clever and I absolutely do not want to be around these characters for more than the length of a movie." Even a short season is too much.

[ironed_orchid]

I'm sure people have told you this already, but The Thick of It changes a lot in season 3.

[lizbee]

No! I had no idea! How does it change?

[ironed_orchid]

Okay, so vague spoilers but there's a Christmas special between seasons 2 and 3 which is AMAZING called The Rise of the Nutters which is about a leadership challenge. And then Hugh (the minister) is replaced with a woman, and there's a different dynamic. But the biggest change is in Season 4 where Malcom Tucker is scrutinised and there's an inquiry into his actions. Oh, and they ditch a lot of the mockumentary aspects that were in the first season.

Yes, there are still a lot of unlikable characters and toxic workplace interactions, but the characters are now multidimensional.

[lizbee]

That actually sounds like it would make a big difference in my enjoyment! Can I skip season 2? (I think I've seen ... most of season 1? I'm not sure.)

[ironed_orchid]

I would recommend watch from The Rise of the Nutters onward.

[ironed_orchid]

Which is where I start if I ever feel like watching again.

[sabotabby]

Season 2 (and 1) are only like 3 episodes long, IIRC.

I am biased, though, as I loved every second of it.

[capalxii]

You can skip 2. The characters are still not the best people but they do get more layered and there are consequences and such

[prof_pangaea]

yes!! nicola murray is the new minister who's brought in as the replacement minister for the department at the beginning of s3! i agree you should ideally watch "rise of the nutters" first because 01: it's fantastic and 02: it sets up the die situation the party is in for s3 and how much shit nicola doesn't know she's stepping into - but also you can totally skip it if you want to get straight to s3. all you really have to do is remember those last labour party years with gordon brown as leader and then the catastrophe of the 2010 election and you'll be all set for s3 and 4

[prof_pangaea]

i actually have this problem with veep but NOT with TTOI for some reason -- i think bringing in nicola murray helped because her character is not actually a completely terrible person, she's just kind of normal and in way over her head and almost but not totally inept