Not that we didn’t know it already, but HBO last week finally and officially canceled Armando Iannucci’s AVENUE 5. We were told at the beginning of the second season that it was going to be the end of the series, but HBO passed no comment about it when the series ran its final episode on November 28, 2022. It took them until February 10 of this year to officially declare its end and had AVENUE 5 canceled, decommissioned and mothballed. “Going to space with Armando Iannucci has been an incredible journey,” said an HBO spokeswoman. “While we will not be moving forward with a third season of Avenue 5, we look forward to many more adventures together.”
The show never really had solid ratings as VEEP did. It didn’t help that the pandemic put a long halt in the second season ever launching and by the time it did not many were watching. But it wasn’t God awful. The snark and wit were there. RT lists it as follows – the first season has an approval rating of 67% based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website’s critical consensus states, “If Avenue 5’s maiden voyage isn’t as smooth as its creative clout implies, it’s still a hilarious step in a completely new—while still enjoyably caustic—direction for creator Armando Iannucci.”[35] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.
Some outlets have noted that HBO passed the following statement only a few days after Hugh Laurie emerged as the star of Season 3 of Apple TV+’s Tehran. Even though the character was quite a bumbler as a captain the show and the vessel couldn’t be run without one and the lead was committed to something else. Yes, because he knew that the series was done and that Iannucci was readying his next project as well. We’ve already mentioned THE FRANCHISE. Plus, the series did end on a concluding note. The vessel and all aboard were spared from becoming cosmic dust and even had a nugget of highly valued lithium onboard to guarantee their return to Earth orbit.
Thank you, AVENUE 5 for a bonkers tour around space.
2 comments
There is a petition to try to save the show!
https://www.change.org/p/renew-avenue-5-for-season-3-on-hbo-max
Yes, we see that. It got a few votes in 2023 but never reached its first goal of 500 votes. It looks like you’ll just have to enjoy it in reruns until Zaslav purges it someday.