--- title: Review: Armando Iannucci Goes Sci-Fi in HBO's 'Avenue 5' description: The satirist's latest comedy is light years away from 'Veep'—and that's what makes it so intriguing. canonical: https://time.com/5766641/avenue-5-hbo-review/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-01-16T21:34:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T08:04:31.955Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Armando Iannucci Goes Sci-Fi in HBO's Hilarious 'Avenue 5' og:description: The new space comedy is light years away from 'Veep,' the creator's previous show—and that's a good thing og:url: https://time.com/5766641/avenue-5-hbo-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b15449c2c7696af/698a08f4457a527c99d636bc/hugh-laurie-andy-buckley-rebecca-front_0.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: hugh-laurie-andy-buckley-rebecca-front_0 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Armando Iannucci Goes Sci-Fi in HBO's Hilarious 'Avenue 5' twitter:description: The new space comedy is light years away from 'Veep,' the creator's previous show—and that's a good thing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b15449c2c7696af/698a08f4457a527c99d636bc/hugh-laurie-andy-buckley-rebecca-front_0.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # HBO's _Avenue 5_ Transports _Veep_ Creator Armando Iannucci's Dark, Profane Humor to Outer Space  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Jan 16, 2020 9:34 PM CUT  'Avenue 5' 'Avenue 5'Alex Bailey/HBO  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Jan 16, 2020 9:34 PM CUT In science fiction, the future generally comes in one of two varieties: idealized or dystopian. But what if the world to come turns out to be very much like the present, a mixed bag full to bursting with joy, sorrow, innovation, hubris, funny jokes, toxic marriages, yoga, family obligations, ugly resort wear, the majesty of nature, rampant inequality, much-needed distractions, accidental death? What if the defining attribute of humankind isn’t goodness or evil but incompetence? It’s an argument [Armando Iannucci](https://time.com/5179752/armando-iannucci-death-of-stalin/ "undefined") has been making for his entire career—not just in brilliant political satires like [_Veep_](https://time.com/5540861/julia-louis-dreyfus-interview/ "undefined"), [_The Thick of It_](https://entertainment.time.com/2012/09/10/the-morning-after-back-into-the-thick-of-it/ "undefined"), [_In the Loop_](http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1912854,00.html "undefined") and 2017’s big-screen historical spoof [_The Death of Stalin_](https://time.com/5115909/russia-bans-death-stalin-film/ "undefined"), but also through three decades’ worth of collaboration with Steve Coogan on the chronicles of bumbling, parochial, not-entirely-translatable British media personality [Alan Partridge](https://time.com/47991/alan-partridge-hits-the-big-screen/ "undefined"). And it’s the presumption that connects everything the British writer and producer has done in the past to his surprising new HBO show _Avenue 5_, a sci-fi comedy set on a luxury “space cruise” to Saturn in the year 2060. Premiering Jan. 19, _Avenue 5_ joins the titular ship midway through its eight-week journey, as couples clad in loud tropical patterns feast, fight, engage in organized leisure activities and gaze into the starry abyss through the vessel’s disconcertingly large windows. At the helm—but more often entertaining passengers over drinks—is Ryan Clark, a dashing captain played by a smartly cast [Hugh Laurie](https://time.com/4293581/hugh-laurie/ "undefined"). Also onboard is the craft’s owner, Herman Judd (Josh Gad, marrying tech-bro petulance with vulgar, Guy-Fieri-like bravado), who issues whiny demands from a Trumpian gilded office suite under the supervision of his exacting deputy Iris Kimura (Suzy Nakamura). If this were _The Love Boat_, Matt Spencer (Zach Woods, fresh off a hilarious run as the weirdly earnest Jared on [_Silicon Valley_](https://time.com/45921/silicon-valley-review-hbo/ "undefined")) would be its cruise director. (One of the show’s best recurring gags is a series of videos in which he promotes various events and amenities. “Do you love to drink?” he inquires in one, tray of beers in hand. “I know my dad did.”) He’s also a self-proclaimed nihilist who offers no comfort to his charges when things start to go bad. And go bad they do. Without giving too much away, _Avenue 5_ opens with a technical mishap that just keeps snowballing, thrusting heaps of additional responsibility onto anxious engineer Billie McEvoy (Lenora Crichlow, a charming British actor who hasn’t had a role this rich since her stint as a ghost on _Being Human_ ended in 2012) and threatening to extend the voyage by upwards of three years. It soon becomes clear that not everything on the ship is as top-shelf as it looks—Ryan included. Panic takes hold of passengers and crew alike, as Rav Mulcair (_Luther_ alum Nikki Amuka-Bird) and her mission-control team struggle to manage both logistics and optics from Earth. Somehow, the most competent person onboard appears to be an officious middle-aged passenger named Karen (the wonderful Rebecca Front, from _The Thick of It_) who may or may not be a stowaway. Though the plot moves a bit slowly in the beginning, that pace allows Iannucci to roll out plenty of other amusing characters, from a randy retired astronaut to the snobs at NASA to a remarkably pretty flight crew. _Avenue 5_ gets sharper with each of the four episodes sent to critics, which bodes well for what lies ahead, when the bulk of the world-building is done. It isn’t _Veep_, sure, but there are traces of Selina Meyer in Ryan; both are smug, two-faced charlatans entrusted with far more power than they deserve. The show also benefits from Iannucci’s dark, profane, literary sensibility. A maid folds an irritating couple’s (Jessica St. Clair and Kyle Bornheimer) towel into the shape of an anus. (“The puckering’s beautiful,” Matt marvels.) A botched space burial results in the coffin endlessly orbiting the ship; later, a comedian pauses his stand-up set in an awkward gesture of respect as it floats past the window. While Iris talks in corporate truisms (“A problem is just a solution without a solution”), Matt can’t contain his excitement at hurtling toward the void: “This is fate, and it’s freestyling with us. This is like… jazz fate.” _Veep_ became the perfect satire for a particularly incompetent moment in American politics. Yet in many ways, _Avenue 5_ presents a bigger challenge for Iannucci and his writers. Their cast of characters is huge, every room on the vast spaceship they’ve dreamed up has its own function and vibe, they can’t rely on current pop-culture references for jokes and they have to imagine what Earth is like two generations on—a task that yields silly hairstyles and a few small, clever surprises. Iannucci may still be finding his space legs, but I, for one, would follow his sense of humor to the ends of the known universe. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5766641/avenue-5-hbo-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5766641/avenue-5-hbo-review/"},"headline":"HBO's Avenue 5 Transports Veep Creator Armando Iannucci's Dark, Profane Humor to Outer Space","datePublished":"2020-01-16T21:34:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:04:31.955Z","description":"The satirist's latest comedy is light years away from 'Veep'—and that's what makes it so intriguing","url":"https://time.com/5766641/avenue-5-hbo-review/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b15449c2c7696af/698a08f4457a527c99d636bc/hugh-laurie-andy-buckley-rebecca-front_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b15449c2c7696af/698a08f4457a527c99d636bc/hugh-laurie-andy-buckley-rebecca-front_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"hugh-laurie-andy-buckley-rebecca-front_0","caption":"'Avenue 5'","creditText":"Alex Bailey/HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5766641/avenue-5-hbo-review/","name":"HBO's Avenue 5 Transports Veep Creator Armando Iannucci's Dark, Profane Humor to Outer Space"}}]}] ```