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Avenue 5

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews

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64

USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 48 Ratings

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5.7

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5.7	Your Score
5.7	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 48 Ratings

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Avenue 5: Housekeeping

Now Playing: Avenue 5: Housekeeping

Avenue 5

Series Details & Credits

HBO | Release Date: January 19, 2020

Summary: Captain Ryan Clark (Hugh Laurie) and his crew must deal with its angry passengers when the cruise space ship experiences a variety of problems during their five-week voyage to Saturn in this comedy created and written by Armando Iannucci.

Genre(s): Comedy, Science Fiction

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Stream On

Recent Episodes

tbd
S2:E8. That's Why They Call It A Missile
Air Date: November 28, 2022
tbd
S2:E7. I Love Judging People
Air Date: November 21, 2022
tbd
S2:E6. Intoxicating Clarity
Air Date: November 14, 2022

See all Seasons and Episodes

Metascore

64

Positive:

16

Mixed:

13

Negative:

2

Critic Reviews

100

The Independent Sean O'Grady

Jan 23, 2020

Season 1 Review: Avenue 5 is not just good – it’s galactically good. Read full review

80

The Telegraph Benji Wilson

Nov 30, 2022

Season 2 Review: Season two introduces a madcap chat show hosted by a cross between Max Headroom and Janet Street-Porter (Lucy Punch having a blast). It’s very funny, very silly and a welcome addition, but it also calls attention to the fact that the best bits of Avenue 5 are all on the Avenue 5. When it’s earthbound it founders. When it looks to the stars it soars. Read full review

75

Colorado Springs Gazette

Terry Terrones

Jan 17, 2020

Season 1 Review: “Avenue 5” is a surefire hit and will bolster HBO’s reputation as the best place to go to view unique, well-thought-out comedies. Although there were some comedic inconsistencies in the first four episodes I watched, when the humor hits the mark, and it does quite frequently, “Avenue 5” is laugh out loud funny. Read full review

67

IndieWire Ben Travers

Jan 16, 2020

Season 1 Review: The more the series embraces its own twisted instincts, the better it gets — scenes in the third and fourth episodes are more surprising, more engaging, and even smooth themselves out while Iannucci ratchets up the madness. Read full review

60

Reason.com

Glenn Garvin

Jan 18, 2020

Season 1 Review: It's like the miscegenated offspring of a quickie three-way between Lost in Space, Love Boat and Veep: sometimes funny, often inane, and usually obsessed with conjugation of fornicational verbs. Read full review

60

Variety

Caroline Framke

Jan 13, 2020

Season 1 Review: Some of them [characters], most notably Gad’s petulant Judd, are best in small doses. Others, like Laurie’s shapeshifting captain and his unexpected foil of Billie, get better and better the more we get to know them. ... If “Avenue 5” wants to get more mileage out of its premise, it’ll have to find some newer gears within it for its excellent cast and intriguing characters to play with beyond pure frustration. Read full review

37

New York Post

Michael Starr

Jan 16, 2020

Season 1 Review: Hugh Laurie — steering the (space)ship here as bearded Captain Ryan Clark — can’t save this HBO series from its over-reliance on leaden jokes and cardboard-cutout characters. Read full review

SEE ALL 31 REVIEWS

Write a Review

5.7

User Reviews

10

goettel

Mar 9, 2020

I can only guess the low scores here are SJW sores. This is an excellently written show, with great lines and delivery. A worthy gap-filler until the next season of The Orville drops.

3 of 7 users found this helpful34

10

SahilSanti

Apr 13, 2022

This show is what we need. It is exasperated, clinically depressed and overwhelmed, frustrating and exposes the worst part of the service industry ... the idiotic entitled customers. It's a brilliant show if you have the intelligence to appreciate the timing and wit. I hope we getThis show is what we need. It is exasperated, clinically depressed and overwhelmed, frustrating and exposes the worst part of the service industry ... the idiotic entitled customers. It's a brilliant show if you have the intelligence to appreciate the timing and wit. I hope we get 10seasons...not to mention we get one of the greatest quotes of our generation as only Hugh Laurie can deliver....'Can everything just Fk off'… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

9

Jstinson07

Jun 5, 2022

Great way to kill some time. Show has a great sense of humor and should’ve gotten another season.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

5

metabad

May 31, 2020

It's baffling that this show was created by Armando Iannucci who also created 'Veep'.
Maybe he wanted to do something silly and hoped to get away with it due to the success of 'Veep'. Well, it worked, kind of.
Not the show itself. That didn't really work. The first episode is not good andIt's baffling that this show was created by Armando Iannucci who also created 'Veep'.
Maybe he wanted to do something silly and hoped to get away with it due to the success of 'Veep'. Well, it worked, kind of.

Not the show itself. That didn't really work. The first episode is not good and the show only gets slowly better after that, but not really good enough.

Too many of the characters are not well written, especially Josh Gad's character.
Yes, he's very successful and rich, yet kind of dumb at the same time. We get it. How much jokes can you get out of such a one note character? I fear, we're gonna find out.
The rest of of the characters are based on good ideas but aren't well developed. So they lack wit and poignancy.
The humor actually provided is a little too dry for my taste. Or simply not funny enough?

I'm very generous with my rating only because of episode 8, the "We're not really in space" episode. I hope there's more where that came from.
Episode 9 was ok and I waited for the next episode until I realized that this episode was the season's anticlimactic finale. Very underwhelming.

Well, the show got renewed for a second season, waddaya know.
Let's hope for the best or maybe they'll at least correct the biggest problems...… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

4

Promotions

Oct 5, 2020

On paper this looked very exciting but unfortunately it failed to deliver. I've been a big fan of Armando Iannucci's writing for a long time but I feel he failed to live up to his high standards here. Most episodes might raise a smirk or two but nothing that extended to a laugh.
Some of theOn paper this looked very exciting but unfortunately it failed to deliver. I've been a big fan of Armando Iannucci's writing for a long time but I feel he failed to live up to his high standards here. Most episodes might raise a smirk or two but nothing that extended to a laugh.
Some of the casting was poor I thought. Josh Gad as a Jack Black wannabe just didn't work. The normally excellent Rebecca Front seemed out of place playing an American "Karen" as was her on screen husband David Wallace, sorry I mean Andy Buckley. Also some others seemed uncomfortable in comedic roles and personally I wouldn't trust them to deliver an Amazon package never mind a funny line. On the plus side, Nikki Amuka-Bird as Rav was very good and was one of the few here to come out of it with any credit.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

3

kirkender

May 10, 2020

I try to give these prestige comedies from HBO some time to find their footing, because they all start badly, but Avenue 5 is one of the worst. Veep was at least grounded in political theater which builds comedy over time. Avenue 5 is grounded in Elon Musk's fever dreams and its disgusting.I try to give these prestige comedies from HBO some time to find their footing, because they all start badly, but Avenue 5 is one of the worst. Veep was at least grounded in political theater which builds comedy over time. Avenue 5 is grounded in Elon Musk's fever dreams and its disgusting. It's shiny-peak-space-capitalism with a bunch of bumbling monsters masquerading as people. I know this is the point, but it is not fun to watch at all. It is a chore and it makes me want to burn down the 1% even more. Also the sci-fi science is bad. It's like if you took Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and took everything good out of it and injected hate and stupidity.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

0

MrMorden

Dec 17, 2022

As a fan of space shows, I was excited when found. That excitement was short lived. Is this supposed to be comedy? Sci-Fi? It's garbage. More lefty drivel from HBO.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SEE ALL 18 REVIEWS

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Seasons & Episodes

64

Series Overview
Season 2

tbd
- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: October 10, 2022
- tbd
  S2:E8. That's Why They Call It A Missile
  Air Date: November 28, 2022
- tbd
  S2:E7. I Love Judging People
  Air Date: November 21, 2022
- tbd
  S2:E6. Intoxicating Clarity
  Air Date: November 14, 2022
- tbd
  S2:E5. Let's Play With Matches
  Air Date: November 7, 2022
- tbd
  S2:E4. How It Ends: As a Starter and a Main
  Air Date: October 31, 2022
- tbd
  S2:E3. Is It a Good Dot?
  Air Date: October 24, 2022
- tbd
  S2:E2. What an Unseasonal Delight
  Air Date: October 17, 2022
- tbd
  S2:E1. No One Wants an Argument About Reality
  Air Date: October 10, 2022
Season 1

64
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: January 19, 2020