the great – The Comedy Bureau

TCB Debriefing 8/30/23: Chris Fleming, The Great, Poor Things, Our Flag Means Death S2, Marry My Dead Body

August 30, 2023

chris fleming, marry my dead body, our flag means death, poor things, the great

1. Hot on the heels of his fantastic special, HELL (now streaming on Peacock), the amazing Chris Fleming is going on a nice lil’ U.S. tour starting this winter. Get tickets now at chrisflemingfleming.com.

2. The latest culling during this double strike is of The Great on Hulu, despite it garnishing plenty of acclaim and awards over 3 seasons (EW). One can only hope that things will get uncanceled after the strikes end a la “the blip” in the MCU?

3. Yorgos Lanthimos’ (the beautiful mind behind The Lobster) latest high concept satire, Poor Things, gets a fancy new poster, a featurette, and even more anticipation from us on our ends for something we were already extremely excited for.

4. Well, at least Our Flag Means Death survives for another season (we’ll see what happens in the coming months). For now, enjoy a dollop of the latest from the most ridiculous pirate tale you ever did hear/see with the season 2 teaser here. Look for the season premiere on Oct. 5th exclusively on Max.

5. AMPAS, the governing body of The Oscars, still has the unfortunate rule of countries only being allowed to submit one film in consideration for the Best International Feature category. So, it’s a big deal when a country chooses a comedy to represent its national cinema, which is what Taiwan has done with the marvelously titled Marry My Dead Body (Deadline). Off the premise alone, which is “…a homophobic cop who is forced into a same-sex “ghost” marriage to appease the spirit of a man who has passed away. Although terrified of both homosexuality and ghosts, he has no choice but to team with his ghostly spouse to solve a long-running drugs case,” this has a strong case for an Oscar, no?

6. For any and all coming up in comedy, remember that no one is keeping attendance in comedy (i.e. it’s ok to not get five sets a night or even go up every night). If anything, we here at TCB would be responsible for keeping tabs of that and there is no way in hell we’re doing that.

Pick of the Day: Vulture Festival (in LA) 11/13 & 11/14

October 15, 2021

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henry winkler, hollywood roosevelt, insecure, mira sorvino, niecy nash, romy and michelle, the great

While NYC is having it’s big ol’ New York Comedy Festival, LA isn’t just quietly having another week of the same (albeit, partially open) exciting comedy happening either.

The Vulture Festival is set to return to the Hollywood Roosevelt for an in-person edition on Saturday Nov. 13th and Sunday Nov. 14th. Vulture always assembles some of the most fun, curious, astounding panels and events for their LA based fest and this year is no different.

Just from this initial line-up announcement, there will be a “pre-union for Insecure, Mira Sorvino watching along with a screening of Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion, a panel for The Great, and an hour of Niecy Nash’s time. Of course, there will be way more announced (probably a showcase of their annual, high profile Comedians You Should and Will Know list?)

For now, you can get tickets and more info at vulturefestival.com. If you’re already all in for this, you can snag a festival pass for $300.

Little America & Female TV Leads Mark Nominations for Comedy This Year’s Spirit-Awards

January 26, 2021

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abby mcenany, elle fanning, little america, maitreyi ramakrishnan, never have i ever, radha blank, spirit awards, the forty year old version, the great, work in progress

Unfortunately, it should come as no surprise that comedy is coming up short in nominations for awards even amongst the Film Independent Spirit Awards where comedies tend to have more of a chance of inclusion. The past year saw a lot of delays and postponements in releases both big and small, leaving lots to be desired when it comes to comedy.

Also, the pandemic made comedy, in so many ways, harder to figure out than ever before.

Thus, comedy only garnered a small handful of nominations for the 2021 Spirit Awards. Apple TV+’s Little America anthology series scored Best Series and two Best Male Performance in a Scripted Series noms for Conphidance and Adam Ali. Radha Blank’s excellent The Forty Year Old Version got a nod for Best First Feature. Then, the Best Female Performance in a Scripted Series category actually had Elle Fanning, Abby McEnany, and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan nominated for The Great, Work In Progress, and Never Have I Ever.

FYI, Spirit Awards puts more emphasis to freshman TV series in case you’re wondering why What We Do In The Shadows is absent from the list.

There’s no telling what sort of signal this will give as to the rest of awards season and how comedy will fare. For now, you should watch all of what was nominated if you haven’t already (Never Have I Ever, Work In Progress, and The Forty Year Old Version are worth watching ASAP).

The Spirit Awards will be given out Thurs. Apr. 22nd, hosted by Patton Oswalt.

Get the full list of nominees here.

The Great Is Every Bit The Follow-Up to “The Favourite” That You’d Want It To Be

May 18, 2020

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elle fanning, nicholas hoult, the great, tony mcnamara

Hulu’s latest comedy series is probably one of the bolder moves that they’ve pulled this year. That’s saying something considering the unabashed pandemonium and gore-filled dark comedy of another brand new original series of theirs, Solar Opposites, from Rick and Morty co-creator, Justin Roiland.

The Great is a very liberal and highly satirical retelling of the rise of real life historical figure Catherine the Great and it comes to us from the mind of Tony McNamara, the co-writer of one of our personal favorite films from 2018, The Favourite (another adjective-only title, alt-history period piece). Very much like The Favourite, The Great follows a lower classed woman, seeking a higher purpose and power while surrounded by dangerous ineptitude. Actually, the gross incompetence and extravagant waste afforded by monarchy is possibly even more ramped up than it was in The Favourite. Peter III of Russia, played by Nicholas Hoult, is a pure, unfiltered walking id afforded with unchecked power and privilege, often thinking of life in the binary terms of either having or not having sex.

[Spoiler ahead] The liberties, with which McNamara very transparently takes to make The Great “occasionally” true, really play up the absurdity to a quite shocking comedic effect. A bear given as an initial gift to the titular character, Catherine, played by Elle Fanning, ends up being shot to death as a test subject for Peter’s new pistols.

Episodes for The Great run near an hour, which categorically tosses it up between comedy and drama, but those lines, very thankfully are getting very blurred (ex. the romantic drama that’s on the tip of many people’s tongues right now, Normal People, only has half hour episodes). The Great is clearly a great, savage satire and we get to enjoy an hour of it at a time (or more as you’re probably going to binge watch it).

All episodes of The Great are streaming now on Hulu.

This Teaser for Hulu’s The Great Seems Like Spiritual Sequel to The Favourite

March 24, 2020

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elle fanning, hulu, nicholas hoult, the great, trailer

There’s a certain mischievous panache to Hulu’s upcoming historical comedy that reimagines the rise of Catherine the Great aptly titled, The Great. If you watch this teaser and see said panache and are even somewhat reminded of the fantastic satirical historical comedy The Favourite, that might have something to do with The Favourite co-writer Tony McNamara being at the helm here.

Given that this is also following a struggle for power by a very clever woman at a time centuries ago when women were afforded much much less equality than now, this very easily could be considered as a sequel of sorts to The Favourite. Also, we could it seeing being a spiritual prequel to Death of Stalin with the bits of sharp dialogue we’ve gotten to see thus far.

In any case, we’ll be looking forward to seeing The Great drop on Hulu on Fri. May 15th.

Hulu’s The Great, Another Period Piece Comedy from Co-Writer of The Favourite Tommy McNamara, Gets a Teaser

January 21, 2020

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elle fanning, the great, tommy mcnamara

The Favourite really blew up the notion of what a period piece could be and how subversively comedic and raunchy you could be within what had previously be a very rigid sub genre of film and TV.

Tommy McNamara co-wrote The Favourite with Deborah Davis and is now at the helm of another satirical reimagining of a power female historical figure, Catherine the Great. The series is being called The Great and will definitely take liberties to twist the knife for comedy’s sake from moment to moment.

McNamara was careful to point out that The Great does play with facts, saying the show is accurate in various spots but, “we’re not trying to make a historically accurate document.” (via Deadline)

For now, there is only this announcement teaser, but you can get a sense of what McNamara has up his sleeve with Elle Fanning as Catherine the Great.

On a separate note, is this the start of McNamara creating various works that are titled only by superlatives and are dark comedies of historical figures, particularly of women?

Look for The Great to premiere on Hulu come Fri., May 15th.