25 Most Hotly Anticipated New TV Shows Of 2020
8. Avenue 5
Brought to life by the godlike genius of Veep and The Thick Of It creator , Armando Iannucci, Avenue 5 is a bit of a departure for him.
Reportedly set four decades in the future on a spacecraft called the Avenue 5, the show will feature Hugh Laurie as Ryan Clark, as the ship's captain. The Avenue 5 is a cruise liner, taking tourists on a leisurely trip around the solar system - but when disaster strikes, a gobby stowaway becomes the de facto voice of the passengers onboard.
Josh Gadd plays the billionaire owner of the ship, Zach Woods the hapless PR guy on board, Leonora Critchlow the ship's engineer and British comedy mainstay Rebecca Front the fly in Captain Clark's ointment. It's an odd choice for Iannucci's next big project, as the man's made a name for himself with his eviscerating take on political comedy. Still, Laurie is a comedy legend, Woods does that one thing he does very, very well indeed, Front and Critchlow are both proper talents who've never been given their due and Gadd... is a talking snowman, whatever part he plays.
It all sounds a little Red Dwarf, but the trailer is classic Iannucci, so hopes are cautiously floating that when this hits TV screens next months it'll be a worthy successor to his high profile previous projects.