Contrary to everyone’s fears,Avenue 5is backwith a second season. It took almost two years to get to us, but the pandemic delayed many other productions. The Armando Iannucci-created dark comedy is just as much a hoot in its second innings as it was in its first! The sci-fi HBO series brings Iannucci’s signature wit to a dystopian future world where Earth is running out of vital resources, but bougie dreams like space cruises are entirely attainable.
The first season ended on a major cliffhanger, with the fate of those aboard the luxury space cruise Avenue 5 hanging in a literal vacuum. The high-octane hilarity of the second season has been deliciously good so far. And that is why you should absolutely be binging this absurdistspace comedythat made its debut in 2020, right before the world plunged into a pandemic and massive involuntary lockdowns reflecting the (somewhat prophetic) predicament of the Avenue 5 passengers.
Avenue 5 Is Pure Space Shenanigans
Most of the OG cast is back with a bang, barring Himesh Patel, who played Jordan Hatwal in season 1, the stand-up comedian constantly trying to escape the spaceship to no avail. But there’s more than enough chaotic fun going on to miss one character. Season 1 ended with the self-appointed leader of the passengers, Karen Kelly (Rebecca Front), making a ginormous gaffe. While trying to correct course, they end up derailing the ship even further. What was going to be a fun-filled eight-week vacation in space turned into a forced isolation of eight years!
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Captain Ryan Clark (Hugh Laurie) is barely holding things together, while Head of Customer Relations Matt Spencer (Zach Woods) continues his despondent descent into nihilistic madness. Josh Gad’s billionaire owner of Avenue 5, Herman Judd, is keeping up with his brilliant parody of useless wealth-amassers with nary a talent to boot. Nikki Amuka-Bird’s Head of Mission Control for Avenue 5 on Earth, Rav Mulcair, is stuck on the ship and more neurotic than ever.
Chief Engineer Billie McEvoy (Lenora Crichlow), Associate Owner of Avenue 5 Iris Kimura (Suzy Nakamura), and former astronaut and first Canadian on Mars, Spike Martin (Ethan Phillips), are still trying to get the ship back down on Earth along with Capt Ryan. But the odds just keep stacking up against them.
From the TOTOPOTUS (The Office of The Other President of the United States) run by the missile-happy billionaires Beth Bezos, Mike Zuckerberg, and Dusty Musk (together they ratify all the President’s key decisions) to ethical dilemmas involving cannibals and lithium shortages, the Avenue 5 folks cannot seem to catch a break. Amidst all the madness,Frank Kelly’s (Andy Buckley)impromptu in-ship cooking channel and an actual TV show based on the Avenue 5 mishap keep some of the unbothered passengers entertained.
Apart from all the meta shenanigans, there is also a proposed “death lotto,” a mini “outbreak of fascism,” and a near-disastrous journey towards the good ol’ ball of fire, the Sun, thrown into the mix. We also see the rise and fall of a new leader, Isaac (Alex Lanipekun), who crumbles long before his promised takedown of a farcical totalitarian rule on the ship comes to fruition. But what comes out of all this beautiful bedlam ispure comedy gold. This is a show like no other on TV right now.
Will There Be a Season 3?
Fans of the dark satire were shocked to hear last May that most of the cast had been released from their contracts to pursue other projects. This led to speculation that the second season would be its last outing. However, Iannucci was just as surprised by these rumours as the fans. He mentioned in an interview withEWthat, as far as he is concerned, this is not the end of the underrated gem.
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Iannucci clarified that HBO only renews a show once the previous season has started airing and the cast contracts ended as per terms. Still, the pandemic is mostly to blame for the untimely hoopla. He explained:
“Because we got delayed by the pandemic by about 18 months, we knew that meant everyone’s contracts would run out, because they’re contracted for a certain period. We just thought, everyone’s got 101 other things to be doing, so it would be unfair to kind of keep them on hold in limbo. But everyone wants to do more. HBO are very keen. We’ll make more when we can corral everyone together again. Everyone’s up for it and we’ve already got ideas and thoughts about what happens next.”
While that assurance is comforting, HBO should be doing more to promoteAvenue 5, a show that is ridiculously funny but nearly impossible to find on anyone’s radar. We shouldn’t have to lead a fan campaign every season to get it to #6seasonsandamovie.
Avenue 5, a Sky Original series, is accessible on Sky Comedy and NOW TV in the UK, and HBO andHBO Maxin the US.
