Anyone catch the pilot?

It's aN HBO sci fi comedy about a space ship from the creator of Veep with Hugh Laurie playing the captain.

Zach Woods from Silicon Valley reprises pretty much his same character and is hilarious.

The pilot is a mess and takes a while to catch its footing. But there are plenty of classic lines. I have a feeling this is going to provide plenty of laughs.

Oof. That was baaaaad. What a disappointment, coming from Iannucci. I might give it another episode or two, but this one's going to be on a super short leash for me.

TCTTS said:

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Oof. That was baaaaad. What a disappointment, coming from Iannucci. I might give it another episode or two, but this one's going to be on a super short leash for me.

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I hear you. It had a very rough start. There's so much going on with the setting and nature of the show that the viewer isn't quite ready for the immediate jump into the self deprecating and dry nature of the comedy. I bet it catches its footing.

I just can't tell if the Veep vibe is going to work in this environment or not. It didn't for me in the pilot, at least. That, and I don't find this cast likable at all, save for Gad and Laurie. They somehow even managed to make Zach Woods' character kind of terrible, IMO. There's also a claustrophobic/limiting feel to the sets that I wasn't a fan of - it's not a setting where I want to spend a season or two. That said, again, I'll continue to give it a shot, simply because of all the good will that a handful involved have earned, but I'm probably out if the next couple of episodes are anything like the pilot.

I wanted to be excited about it, but if the trailer was the best stuff they could piece together I wasn't spending my time on it, I will watch this thread though, if it gets better I will give it a shot.

It's as if they said, Let's make a space version of The Love Boat without the possibility of guest stars.

Good grief that was horrible. I'm going to give it two more episodes based on the cast, but geeesh.

Didn't even make it through 1 episode...Awful!

First thing Iannucci has done that I havent liked. It was pretty terrible. He doesnt seen like a money grab person but thats what this felt like.

I didn't think it was that bad. I really liked the female engineer, she had some good lines and good reactions.

It's trying too hard and didn't work. Josh Gad appears to be improving like he just showed on set.

Zach woods was the best

All side parts were duds - think of the Veep pilot that had breakout characters Dan Amy and Mike along with known superstars.

We'll see how it improves but seems like on these HBO comedies if they work for me it's usually great to start.

My only expectation was to laugh. I didn't.

TCTTS said:

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My only expectation was to laugh. I didn't.

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Zach Woods alone had 2-3 laugh worthy lines. And the accent changing scene was at least worth a smirk.

The pilot of an HBO comedy that may not even go past 1 season being funny or not definitely isn't some hill I want to die on, but if it helps anybody decide whether they want to stick it out or not, I've seen a couple of reviews state that the first episode is the weakest of the bunch, and it really starts clicking at Episode 4.

There's an argument to made that an 8 episode series waiting halfway through the season before turning it on is not a winning strategy, and so I get if people aren't willing to wait it out. But for anybody like me that's planning to stick with it, know that it's likely to improve.

mazag08 said:

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TCTTS said:

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My only expectation was to laugh. I didn't.

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Zach Woods alone had 2-3 laugh worthy lines. And the accent changing scene was at least worth a smirk.

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Admittedly, the accent changing scene was pretty good IMO. And I usually love Zach Woods, but just something didn't quite gel with his character for me.

Were any of the characters supposed to be likable?
I came away from the first episode not looking forward from seeing any of them again.
I hope it improves.

I thought it was alright. Staying with it for now.

ag88man said:

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Were any of the characters supposed to be likable?
I came away from the first episode not looking forward from seeing any of them again.
I hope it improves.

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I think the assistant engineer was supposed to be the reasonable one.

Two episodes in and I think this might be the worst cable series I've ever seen.

The hype was great. Laurie seems to be like his character though... we should think that he is bad and I suspect he will quickly gain on us like House for his great insight.

Gad though... God he is bad. They should have put Jack Black, a doppelganger, there and this would be 100x better through a couple eps... the acting is painful and amateur

Gave it 2 episodes... I'm out.

Veep would have been a total ****show without JLD... this show is effectively Veep without JLD.

Haven't seen the 2nd episode yet and thinking I might just abandon ship.

Oof... So bad.

Episode 1 was meh. Smiled once or twice, didn't laugh. I guess I'll watch episode 2

GiveEmHellBill said:

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DannyDuberstein said:

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I thought it was alright. Staying with it for now.

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That God-awful female passenger who overhears the truth was enough for me to never watch again.

She may be the worst character in a show I've ever seen.

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I'll confess that ep 2 is still on my dvr, and from what I'm seeing above, I may be changing my mind and going straight to delete.

GiveEmHellBill said:

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DannyDuberstein said:

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I thought it was alright. Staying with it for now.

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That God-awful female passenger who overhears the truth was enough for me to never watch again.

She may be the worst character in a show I've ever seen.

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Both of the main passenger couple are horrible. Community Theater level performance with worse material.

My biggest problem is the episodes feel too short to build any real momentum.

Through 2 episodes the only thing this show has going for it is that it is not an hour long. Maybe my expectations were too high with it being HBO and Hugh Laurie. I will give them 1 more shot Sunday but so far this has been uncomfortably bad.