Avenue 5: What the Must Watch reviewers think
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows alongside 5 Live presenter Nihal Arthanayake.
This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan share their thoughts on Avenue 5, Armando Iannucci's new sitcom which stars Hugh Laurie as the captain of a galactic cruise ship.
Episode one is on Sky One on Wednesday 22 January at 22:00 GMT, and on Sky One Demand and Now TV.
Have you watched it? What did you think? Leave your comments below...
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(Photo: Sky Atlantic)
Hayley says: "I don’t know where it’s going but I’m on board"
“It’s got all of the nonsense you deal with when you work for a big company – all the sort of bureaucracy – and it’s fed through the Armando Iannucci absurdity machine and it comes out as joke after joke.”
“This is one of the shows that could be a disaster, it could go so wrong, but it’s full of the right people and it's funny and it’s got amazing lines.
“If somebody famously does weird offbeat things, like Armando Iannucci, they then get a free pass to do something that baffles in the first episode.
“I don’t know where it’s going but I’m on board. It might not be brilliant yet but I trust it to go somewhere. I’d say it’s a Must Watch.”
(Photo: Sky Atlantic)
Scott says: “The most baffling opening I’ve seen to a show in ages”
"I have no idea where it’s going. This is the weirdest show. Normally you get a gut instinct two or three minutes in about whether this is a show that’s going to be a big success or whether it’s going to fail. With this one I only had that feeling 29 minutes in to the 30 minute episode.
"They spend 29 minutes trying to get the overall premise because there’s a lot of explanation, a lot of exposition and a lot of characters being introduced.
"The set up is there, the jokes are there but it feels like an hour show that’s been squeezed into half an hour.
"It’s the most baffling opening I think I’ve seen to a show in ages. Is it a Must Watch? I’m going to say ‘not yet.’"
(Photo: Sky Atlantic)
Avenue 5 starts on Sky One on Wednesday 22 January at 22:00 GMT, and then on Sky One Demand and Now TV.
Must Watch is available as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds, or through your podcast app.
In this week's episode the team also review Avenue 5 and Chris Packham: 7.7 Billion People and Counting, and speak to The Masked Singer star Teddy Sheringham.
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