SHIP OF FOOLS (AVENUE 5)

 

HBO's science fiction comedy 'Avenue 5' features a shit show and I'm not using that term figuratively.

Set 40 years in the future, excrement actually is flung into space on the maiden voyage of an interplanetary cruise ship.

But this occurs after the spaceship is knocked off course, turning what should be an eight week cruise into one that could last for three years.

In true Armando Iannucci fashion, the poo that flies around the viewing gallery of Avenue 5 eventually starts to form into a likeness of Pope John Paul II - mesmerising its passengers.

Just like 'The Thick of It' and 'Veep,' Iannucci's sitcom is about the shit show that happens when disastrous events engulf characters in authority and leave them frozen with fear.

Hugh Laurie stars as Ryan Clark, the initially suave captain of Avenue 5.

Clark is a popular figure at the start of the show, charming passengers on the vessel which is owned by Josh Gad's narcissistic, sociopathic billionaire Herman Judd.

That popularity quickly erodes when the space cruiser suffers a loss of gravity and is knocked off course.

Avenue 5's Chief Engineer is sent out on a space walk to sort out the problem and ends up dying, with his body orbiting the craft much to the horror of the crew, their passengers and people back on Earth, following the voyage.

As events spiral out of control, we quickly realise Judd's cruise ship is a PR disaster and is mostly illusion.

Clark has no background in space travel and is an English actor pretending to be an American captain, barking out nonsense orders to a crew also made up mostly of actors in a control room that is not really steering the ship.

Lenora Crichlow's more knowledgeable second engineer Billie McEvoy helps cover up this fact but when the cracks start to show, Clark's fake American accent slips as he succumbs to stress.

Rebecca Front's pushy passenger Karen Kelly is one of the first to twig what is going on and soon bargains her and her husband Frank's way to better living quarters and a de facto role on the ship.

Ethan Phillips' Spike Martin, an ex-astronaut who spends his time boozing and womanising on Avenue 5, presents a risk of exposure. 

The crew, therefore, devote time trying to hoodwink him.

However as the series wears on, the illusion gets harder to maintain wuth the realisation sinking in among the passengers and their furious relatives back home that the spaceship may take three years to complete its voyage.

The oxygen supply is also at risk and there are also concerns they may not have enough food.

Back on Earth, Nikki Amuka-Bird's head of mission control, Rav Mulcair is left to deal with an angry public as relatives realise Avenue 5's dream voyage is turning into a real nightmare.

She frantically tries to persuade the US Government to launch a rescue mission but even this turns out to be woefully inadequate.

As you would expect from an Iannucci sitcom, 'Avenue 5' becomes increasingly frantic and farcical as its main characters don't just succumb to stress but are completely overwhelmed by it.

Temperatures rise and the main players become more shouty and sweary as setback after setback rains down upon them like an unrelenting meteor storm.

As with 'The Thick of It' and 'Veep,' Iannucci revels in the eccentricities and ineptitude not just of his main characters but of fringe and supporting characters as well.

For example, Zach Woods is amusingly incompetent and insensitive as the head of customer relations, Matt Spencer - frequently putting his foot in it as he interferes in passengers' lives.

Suzy Nakamura is forced to bite her tongue as Judd's right hand woman, Iris Kimura who is there to nurse his man baby wounds and massage his ego.

Daisy May Cooper is Sarah, a spectacularly dim member of Avenue 5's fake crew.

Sarah often struggles with knowing when it is appropriate to be herself, to be her made up self or to keep her mouth shut.

Himesh Patel plays a dreadful stand-up comedian hired for the voyage, Jordan Hatwai whose act dies onstage every night.

Andy Buckley is Karen's put upon husband, Frank.

Jessica St Claiar and Kyle Bornheimer are Mia and Doug, a warring couple whose marriage is falling apart at the start of the cruise but are then left to face the prospect of three more years in each other's presence.

All of these pieces come together to form a jigsaw that looks great, that definitely has its moments but which never completely satisfies.

Iannucci has deployed a team of writers including Daisy May Cooper and her brother Charlie of 'This Country' fame, Georgia Pritchitt and Will Smith who collaborated with Iannucci on 'The Thick of It' and 'Veep,' Ian Martin and Peter Fellows who he worked with on 'The Death of Stalin' and Peter Baynham, his fellow performer on the satirical show 'Friday Night Armistice'.

The result is a show that has a lot of bite but which takes some time to properly chew it's way through its plot.

It's not until the final two episodes of the nine episode run that you actually feel 'Avenue 5' properly hits its stride. 

Nevertheless Iannucci and his fellow directors, Natalie Bailey, Peter Fellows, Annie Griffin, Becky Martin, David Schneider and William Stefan Smith do a decent job marshalling the cast and crew across the nine episodes.

The series looks slick, thanks to Even Voter's cinematography and Simon Bowles' sharp production design.

Science fiction, even when it's comic, requires s pompous theme tune and Adem Ilhan delivers on that score.

The performances, it also has to be said, are pretty strong too.

Laurie is well suited to the role of Clark and relishes being cut loose in a more sweary, Basil Fawlty-esque role.

Crichlow is a good foil for him, while Woods, Nakamura, Patel, Amuka-Bird, Buckley, St Clair, Bornheimer and Phillips attack their roles with gusto.

Front, who was so good as an out of her depth Labour Government minister in 'The Thick of It,' is particularly effective as Karen.

Daisy May Cooper is excellent as Sarah, deploying that gormless, Spike Milligan-style look to great comic effect.

Neil Casey amuses as an engineer, Cyrus who is appalled by Clark's lack of knowledge when tasked with actually steering the ship.

Paterson Joseph also turns up as passenger who emerges as a rival billionaire to Judd, easily getting under his skin.

Gad, however, occasionally gets a little tiresome - once again bringing his Jack Black tribute act to proceedings.

However, on the whole, he just about gets away with it.

When 'Avenue 5' first aired in January, the world was only beginning to hear about Covid-19.

By the time, it ended its run lockdown was being imposed in countries across the world.

An Anglo American sitcom about people being confined to quarters while a disaster unfolds around them, therefore, has resonance in 2020.

So too does a comedy featuring leaders who, in the face of catastrophe, are shown to be all illusion and offering little substance.

'Avenue 5' might be the most prescient show of 2020.

With at least one more series in the pipeline, 'Avenue 5' is brimming with potential.

If Iannucci and his co-creators get the formula just right, it might yet become a comedy classic.

('Avenue 5' was broadcast on HBO in the United States and Sky One in the UK and Ireland on January 19-March 15, 2020)