Isn't art supposed to be divorced from subservience to the diktats of ideological correctness?

Women in tech have a very specific agenda to see more women in tech. They have every right to be concerned that a popular show about the tech world shows it as overwhelmingly male. They are rightly concerned this will scare women out of jobs in the tech industry. Mike Judge does not share that agenda. He's making fun…

There was no self contained plot this week which is unusual as the writers set up the pieces for the next two episodes. That means there isn't that much to say about tonight's episode, except to say that I have total faith that the payoff will be exceptional. This is my favorite show on television, even if tonight's…

You bring up fair points. The way I saw it, Vic was always Sarah's mark. She was running from him because she stole his money, if I remember correctly, not because it was an abusive relationship. Vic was painted as an asshole who could be abusive, but he never really had the power in that relationship to begin with.…

The show is indeed sweet. Too sweet, really. Kate knows that being a trophy wife has negative associations with gold digging and that people will judge her harshly for it. Kate is struggling with this in an episode that makes it emphatically clear she's not a mother. Diane's kids are basically already raised and Bert…

So after two weeks I think its clear that Last Week is actually a news and opinion show that's funny, and not HBO's Daily Show. Daily Show and Colbert, great as they might be, are comedy first.

I see where you're coming from, now. Still, if the broad ambition of your show is to satirize the American politics you can only do that so much without having a campaign. That's what the political process largely is. The reality is that's what a large part of being vice president is: preparing to run for president.…

The switch to a campaign format, which I think was absolutely eventually necessary in order to properly satirize politics, necessitated some changes in some of the cast's function. Gary Cole and Ben are essentially brand new characters this year in terms of their function in the ensemble, but everybody else has mostly…

I know its kind of blasphemous to say with the AV Club crowd, but Veep is a much stronger show than Community. Just because both characters serve a similar role in the ensemble doesn't mean that Veep will misuse him the same way Community misused Chang. Each of his new jobs has served a specific satirical purpose and…

I feel like they've made explicit references to Dan's Sociopathy before so this did not bother me. That this was his way of opening up to his boss was pretty fucking funny. That it worked to get Selina to open up was a nice kicker.

I disagree. You're right that the show feels more American, but I bet that's because Iannucci has a more insightful take on American politics after having studied it more. All the satire is much more specific this year and I think that benefits the show.

The writers know Alison/Felix is the show's most fruitful pairing so they jumped through a hoop to get Felix back home. That scene rang a little false to me too.

I have to disagree with Ms.(Mrs.?) Framke's read. The series doesn't at all appear to me to be about gendered violence. Consider that the boogeymen in this show are institutional forces representing science and religion. Dr. Leekie has far less power in the Dyad institute than Rachel. Alison's Donnie gets very little…

Just checking in. I'm not a regualr viewer of this show but it shows enough promise that I periodically still check in to see if it can become great. It's not there yet, judging by this episode.

You don't have nearly enough data to make that claim. A lot of other variables besides star power go into a film's box office performance that it becomes impossible for a non-industry observer to estimate a star's value to a project. Stars are brands. Brands have values. Stars matter. Also a star's brand value doesn't…

Depp is responsible for the projects he chooses to undertake.

That's just not true. Movie stars are still expected to do publicity and studio's expect to be able to market movies around star talent.

No but they do say "Oh Johnny Depp is in that movie? I don't care" which is essentially the same thing as "forget that movie" in that it doesn't result in a ticket being purchased. I don't put all of the blame on Depp's shoulders but that doesn't change the fact that he chose those projects and failed to make them…

I think it's strong policy in general to not write off movies that look good. Johnny Depp's presence no longer makes a movie look good. Doesn't mean he'll never be in another movie that looks good for other reasons.

At this point in Depp's career that would be a shock. It was a shock for John Travolta and Mickey Rourke too. Your point is that I can't predict the future? That's true, I guess. I can't.