Two puckish new television series play tricks with typically straight-faced forms: “Avenue 5,” which premieres Sunday on HBO, is a disaster story set on an interplanetary cruise ship; “Medical Police,” already streaming on Netflix, is an international thriller with a bioterrorism theme. Like “Veep,” “Avenue 5” is more about power dynamics than it is a pointed satire of its milieu, a story of mediocrity running a big ship. AdvertisementA running gag about a 26-second communications delay with Earth is also the engine that produces the accident that sets the ship off course and into a television series. (Netflix money allows for actual international locations, though whether they represent the places they’re said to, I couldn’t say.) In most respects, and like most Iannucci projects, “Avenue 5” has little to no heart; sentiment is not the point.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 17, 2020 22:07 UTC