# HBO's Avenue 5 - Hugh Laurie, Josh Gad. {Season 2 starts Oct 10, 2022}
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, hbomax-wb-dc
**Created:** [January 21, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766 "2020-01-21T19:58:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/1 "2020-01-21T19:58:21Z")
First epi was this past Sunday 1/19/20. Gad plays Herman Judd, an Elon Musk type billionaire, but less bright, that has established a space tourism group where hundreds of people ride on a space cruise ship around Jupiter and back to earth over a two month time frame. Laurie plays the captain of the ship, with questionable credentials.
Looks like it’s only scheduled for 4 episodes.
It was okay. There were a few funny parts, but I think I’m going to pass on the rest. If it gets picked up for a second season, I’ll be surprised.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/2 "2020-01-21T20:03:40Z")
Note that the show is from Armando Iannucci, who is the genius behind The Thick Of It, Veep and other shows.
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/3 "2020-01-21T22:14:02Z")
I liked it, especially as a spoof of WALL-E and The Love Boat. Josh Gad as an ignorant Elon Musk is a good analogy.
Did you see his interview with Stephen Colbert last week? Josh was explaining the setup for the show, and Hugh Laurie’s role. Stephen then asked him, “and who are you?” Josh’s reply was great:
I’m Josh Gad; I’m your guest this evening.
which had Colbert broken up in laughter.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/4 "2020-01-22T05:49:21Z")
I saw the first ep and thought it was OK. I do think it dragged in places and some of the humor just seemed a bit out of place for the premise. I don’t understand why Zack Woods’ character is such a dick, other than just to be a dick. Josh Gad and Hugh Laurie are great. And it’s always nice to see Ethan Phillips not being Neelix.
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### Author:  [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/5 "2020-01-22T07:27:03Z")
I enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to more. I kept wishing Jack Black was in the “Elon Musk” role, but I loved all the other characters.
Too bad about Joe.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/6 "2020-01-22T12:22:32Z")
It was okay. I get that they want an ensemble cast but I found the passengers to be borderline unwatchable. Mrs Busybody and her husband (“we get very good insurance rates!”) are particularly bad.
The show would be better if the guests were treated as a single faceless antagonist and the focus was entirely on the crew.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/7 "2020-01-22T16:24:04Z")
The reviews say it gets better by the third and fourth episodes. I have to hope so, because this first episode didn’t work at all.
The same guy wrote _Veep_. There the characters were entertainingly awful, but totally believable in the context of their jobs. Now they’re neither. That’s got to change.
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### Author:  [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/8 "2020-01-22T19:56:27Z")
I liked it but agree that it dragged in bits. I typically give promising shows a few episodes to find their feet, often a lot of the character setup you need to do in the beginning is the antithesis of what makes comedy work. There’s enough pedigree with the show runner and cast for me to give it a couple more episodes.
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### Author:  [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/9 "2020-01-22T20:20:21Z")
From the previews (which, admittedly, I didn’t watch closely) I was expecting more of a [Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B](https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Golgafrinchan_Ark_Fleet_Ship_B) (Douglas Adams) show. This may still turn into that, especially as seasons progress. It might even be an improvement. I’ll give it a season to see if I like it.
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### Author:  [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/10 "2020-01-23T16:36:31Z")
It had a few moments, nut dragged quite a bit, which for a half-hour show could be a disaster if they can’t tighten up the writing.
I loved the crew characters, but both of the passenger couples fell completely flat. Now that I think about it, cutting out all scenes with the two couples would make a nice tight script!
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/11 "2020-01-23T23:02:52Z")
Enjoyed the 1st episode. Funny and nice and short.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2020, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/12 "2020-01-24T12:17:12Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#):
>
> nut dragged quite a bit
Sounds painful! 😃
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### Author:  [@Scoobysnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoobysnax)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/13 "2020-01-29T08:17:32Z")
It seems that the interest in this show has dropped off quickly. While there were a few funny moments in the second episode, this show is not really pulling me in. There are far too many annoying characters and none of them are particularly likable. I am going to give it one more episode before removing it from my queue.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/14 "2020-01-29T12:49:59Z")
There are only four episodes scheduled, so if you’re going to watch through the third one, why not just watch the last one as well?
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2020, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/15 "2020-01-29T23:51:38Z")
Trapped on a space cruise ship owned by Space Trump.
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### Author:  [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2020, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/16 "2020-01-30T19:52:55Z")
Second episode was a little better with the zaniness level raised. The crew relations guy singing “Starman” during the funeral had me in tears on the floor :D.
The secondary passenger characters are still totally unfunny and uninteresting however.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/17 "2020-01-30T19:58:31Z")
So they did a funeral for the dead crewman, who was ejected in what we were told was a solid-gold coffin weighing something like 800 pounds, only to find that the coffin ended up orbiting the ship. And then later, when three passenger corpses were also ejected and they also ended up orbiting the ship. So is the science accurate?
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/18 "2020-01-30T20:15:48Z")
I love Iannucci’s work but this isn’t doing it for me. I quit half way through the second episode.
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### Author:  [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/19 "2020-01-30T20:46:23Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> There are only four episodes scheduled, so if you’re going to watch through the third one, why not just watch the last one as well?
There’s only four episodes?
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### Author:  [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2020, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-avenue-5-hugh-laurie-josh-gad-season-2-starts-oct-10-2022/846766/20 "2020-01-30T22:00:39Z")
Wow, I totally thought Josh Gad was Jack Black!
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