Ship Shape

I caught the new HBO show Avenue 5, created by Armando Iannucci.  He's best known for political satire, such as Veep, but this is the tricky genre of sci-fi comedy.

The concept deals with a huge spaceship--Avenue 5--that's traveling around Saturn on an eight-week pleasure cruise.  The artificial gravity goes on the blink and by the time it's fixed the ship is off course, and will be out in space for years. (Do they have enough food?  This wasn't discussed in the pilot.)

The captain is played by Hugh Laurie (who had a recurring role in Veep).  He's British but he puts on an American accent to give the passengers more confidence. Unfortunately, his title is just for show--he doesn't really know how to run a ship that runs itself (with the help of engineers, though the best one died during the accident).

Other characters on the cruise include Herman Judd (Josh Gad), the spoiled and not-too-swift billionaire who owns the ship; Matt Spencer (Zach Woods), head of hospitality who doesn't really like his customers; Iris Kimura (Suzy Nakamura) who seems to be (wasn't quite sure) a high-placed, hardworking aide to the Captain as well as to Judd; and a number of other crew members and passengers.

I thought the show was entertaining if not hilarious.  It features the cynical characters and acerbic dialogue Iannucci is noted for, though it's not as harsh as Veep.  I'll continue to watch, but I hope it gets better as it goes along.

Also, Curb Your Enthusiasm is back for its tenth season.  The first episode was solid--better than what I remember from the last season.  There were a lot of different gags, though my favorite was Larry figures out another way to keep people away (and who doesn't want to keep people away?)--wear a MAGA hat.  It certainly works in Los Angeles.  Also, there was a #MeToo plot about women thinking Larry was harassing them.  It utilized the fact that Jeff Garlin can be mistaken for Harvey Weinstein.

Last year the overall plot dealt with Larry putting on his musical Fatwa!  This year the arc seems to be about a store he's bought in a strip mall with the plan to put the next-door coffee house out of business.  Or perhaps it's about Cheryl coming back into his life.  Either way, it's good to have the show back.