I Watch TV: Avenue 5
The space cruise ship Avenue 5 goes wrong while on an 8 week cruise to Saturn, and finds that it will take longer to return to Earth; estimates keep changing but 3 years or 6 months are the numbers that get bandied about. As might be expected the passengers are generally rich and entitled, and the owner is a bizarre billionaire with weird blond hair who thinks that his ideas are brilliant and that everything can be solved by him demanding it. The Captain is a figurehead hired by Joe, the Chief Engineer who effectively did the actual captaining. The bridge turns out to be a set and the bridge crew are actors for the sake of passenger tours.
It’s a bit grim and unpleasant when it concentrates on the characters (who range from horrible to acting badly because they are out of their depth and at the end of their tether), perhaps overly pointed when it’s being satirical and blinkingly strange when it just puts weird ideas out there and has you look at it, as in when anything is put outside it remains in orbit around the ship, and this includes several dead bodies.
And when all those come together and Hugh Laurie snaps because it’s horrible, on point and deeply weird it’s the most extraordinary comedy on TV.
Watch This: For a space comedy not afraid to be banal or dark or satirical or just plain odd
Don’t Watch This: If terrible people doing things that range from horrid to dumb turns you off
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