Avenue 5
Avenue 5 is a tv series that aired on HBO January to March 2020. It's a 30 minute sci-fi 'comedy' with 9 episodes. It stars Hugh Laurie (the guy from the TV drama House, and the excellent comedy Jeeves and Wooster).
I have 'comedy' in quotes because I never actually laughed out loud, but the final episode of the season got a couple chuckles from me. I think this is referred to as Cerebral Comedy. It is also full of acerbic wit, funny characters, and an intriguing look at the friction found between competent people and the guys in charge. Additionally it is profanity loaded, but funny not in what is said, but how it's worded. Something that the creator of the show (Armando Ianucci) is known for. The episodes are not stand alone like a situation comedy, and it's better to watch it as a long movie than as individual episodes over several days.
With that said, it was only 9, 30 minute episodes, and it was totally binge worthy. Hugh Laurie is a fantastic actor, and the premise is interesting. In fact the whole thing keeps you guessing as to what's going to happen next, the entire time. For TV that's an accomplishment all by itself.
The series takes place in the relatively near future (40 years?) on the Avenue 5, an interplanetary space cruise ship, on its 8 week maiden voyage. The captain Ryan Clark, 'the hero who saved Avenue 3', is played by Hugh Laurie. During the first episode an accident occurs that shifts the projected orbit of the ship, injuring passengers, some severely, and killing one crew member. The result is that their planned slingshot maneuver in the outer solar system is irrecoverably damaged, and the new return time is now several years.
I just realized this is Gillian's Island in space!
What does make this funny are the small comments about various other disasters in comparison. 'worse than when Google folded', 'as bad as when the Pacific became toxic', and other comments such as, 'remember when we had cows?'
The comedy also revolves (orbits?) around the few competent crew members, the mission control back on Earth which is 26 light minutes distant, and the series of increasingly difficult decisions that creates increasingly mind boggling results.
It's these little things that make the show enjoyable to watch. But be warned it's a slow reveal as to who is actually what, and able to do whom. I'm looking forward to season 2, as yet unannounced.
Spoiler warning:
During the series the situation continues to go from bad to worse, we learn the captain is actually just a figurehead actor who is good at making passengers feel confident, and the initial fatality was the head engineer and actual captain of the ship. Then it's revealed that unbeknownst to the captain, the bridge crew are also all actors, and the ship is actually mostly automated, with a few engineers who work out of sight running it.
Additionally, as a passenger, is the owner of the company, Herman Judd (played by Josh Gad), a barely literate, but with huge social media presence, idiot, who's underlings arranged everything this way because he ordered the ship to have a good looking bridge crew.
Also on board is Spike Martin (played by Ethan Phillips, who you might remember as Neelix from ST Voyager), who is a retired astronaut on board to provide education seminars to the kids. He was one of the first 30 astronauts to land on Mars (actually number 30, but the first Canadian!).
If you don't have HBO, then you can find it here after you start up your most powerful ad blocker: https://projectfreetv.fun/series/avenue-5/
I wouldn't try torrenting it, or anything else, it's not secure or private. I'm not advocating piracy, but I've heard that the dmca doesn't apply to streaming. Not a lawyer, you're responsible for your own ass, like usual.