HBO renews 'Girls' & 'Veep' for season 2
Freshman shows have gotten HBO its best comedy reviews in years
HBO has ordered a second season of "Girls," along with more "Veep."
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HBO has renewed both of its new Sunday comedies, "Girls" and "Veep," for second seasons, each with 10 episode orders.
Though HBO has largely renewed its freshman shows on the Tuesday after their debuts in recent years, that pattern hasn't been absolute, and in this case there was the added complication that "Veep" debuted a week after "Girls," and that HBO likely wanted to renew them at the same time to avoid making the other show look/feel bad.
Neither show gotten huge ratings by HBO standards ("Veep" got 1.4 million viewers in its very first airing, and "Girls" 872,000), but HBO judges by many standards, including how a show does in multiple airings across the HBO universe (including On Demand and HBO Go) and also on what it does for the HBO brand. And as the two best-reviewed new HBO comedies in years, these two have been very good for the brand. In particular, "Girls" was subject not only to many rapturous reviews (like mine), but so many profiles of creator/star Lena Dunham that it became one of HBO's most-covered comedy launches ever.
And even though the reaction to "Girls" has been very mixed (though the people who stuck around after the pilot have for the most part been much more positive about episodes two and three), HBO is the kind of channel that can support a divisive, niche-appeal show that will speak to some people incredibly well while scaring away others, as opposed to the broadcast network model where the goal is to appeal to as many people as possible, even if it's in a very shallow way.
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April 30, 2012 at 3:32PM EST Reply to CommentThere is a God.
keith
April 30, 2012 at 3:45PM EST Reply to CommentVeep is okay but I'm finding the swearing odd. On The Thick of It there were (broadly) two types of people - posh English people and tough Scottish people. The posh ones swore for shocks and the Scots swore for punctuation. That made sense. I'm less familiar with American culture but the swearing doesn't sound right to me.
DEPSexton
April 30, 2012 at 4:02PM EST Reply to CommentJust watched the first two episodes of Veep today and found it much more enjoyable than I expected. Wasn't sure how much politics was actually going to be involved in the show, but it seems like a perfect amount.
Girls was enjoyable, but I feel that they would benefit from male characters that you don't want to punch in the face every time they turn up on screen.
Definitely glad that HBO have picked both of these shows up for at least a second season.
Prettok Tell me about it. Lena Dunham's character would be better off dating King Joffrey.
April 30, 2012 at 4:29PM ESTBiddle Prettok you made me do a genuine LOL
April 30, 2012 at 7:17PM ESTDerpy Herp
April 30, 2012 at 4:31PM EST Reply to CommentSomeone give me the straight dish. I found the Girls pilot to be okay, but I didn't really like the characters all that much or find it very funny. Do you think I enjoy the subsequent episodes?
Ed G. In my opinion, such that it is because I don't like "Girls" at all, the show reminds me of a standard joke of Craig Ferguson; "Amateur porn is not done by amateurs, it's porn with ugly people."
April 30, 2012 at 4:42PM ESTherpy derp LOL @ Ed G. Yea, honestly I find the main character to be repulsive. Her appearance isn't the problem so much as just her narcissistic attitude
April 30, 2012 at 4:47PM ESTbelinda I think it warrants a few episodes before you write the show off entirely.
April 30, 2012 at 5:46PM ESTdarthzombie I honestly hated the pilot, disliked every character and didn't find the episode funny in the slightest. The next two episodes changed my mind. I still don't like the characters(pretty sure they aren't suppose to be likeable) but has some funny lines and situations throughout. And the second episode title had me sold on wanting to like it more...
April 30, 2012 at 11:31PM ESTLee I watched the "Girls" pilot and that was it for me. I really don't understand the appeal of shows like this which chronicle the tedious, mundane lives of completely un-extraordinary people who think they're extraordinary. I wanted to like it, given Judd Apatow's involvement, but it had absolutely no humorous content.
May 1, 2012 at 1:52PM ESTI do like "Veep", however, due to the strong writing and comedic casting of JL-D, Tony Hale and Matt Walsh, not to mention the visual appeal of Anna Chlumsky. And it's actually a funny comedy! JL-D thinking that she has become the president, only to end up having a gastro-intestinal "accident" after eating sub-par "yoghurt", is comdy gold!
Hobbes I will continue to watch "Girls" though I do hope they tone down the sex scenes (to quote Valerie Cherish, "I did NOT need to see that!"). That said, it's amusing and interesting so I'll keep watching it.
May 1, 2012 at 4:43PM ESTAnd I really like "Veep." The second episode had me LOLing often. I like all the sniping between/among characters. The writing and cast are both excellent.
mandy I must find the stupidest things funny because this show has drama yes but i laugh my ass off watching girls. Each girl has her own funny life going on. I think the show is meant to remind you how ironicly funny life is and how much stuipd drama comes from finding yourself in the adult world after college. Even more so if your a girl. Show after show your left with what will happen next. What will hanna do now/next.
June 26, 2012 at 2:06AM ESTwallywalters
April 30, 2012 at 4:45PM EST Reply to CommentWhat are the renewal chances for Breakout Kings? (And why did A&E burn off both of this season's last two episodes last night?)
M
April 30, 2012 at 4:49PM EST Reply to CommentI know some people are complaining that Girls isn't funny, but it's pretty clearly meant to be more of a dramedy in the vein of the Showtime "comedies." Veep, on the other hand, is pretty clearly going for laugh out loud funny, but so far hasn't even produced a chuckle from me.
Pizpot Gargravarr I haven't watched more than the pilot of either show but I got a few laughs out of Veep. I can't remember whether I laughed during Girls, but my problem wasn't with the comedy, but (as others have said) that none of the characters are particularly likeable and some of them are extremely unlikeable. I found the style and the story interesting but I can understand what Feinberg meant when he said he could see himself turning on the series at any moment.
April 30, 2012 at 6:25PM ESTI'm going to give both shows the benefit of the doubt and keep watching for now, but if the leads in Girls don't become more sympathetic I can see myself giving it up pretty quickly.
Joe I seem to be in the minority around these parts but I've found "Girls" to be consistently laugh out loud funny, or at least I've found the last 2 episodes to be so, & I've found the dramatic beats to work as well. "Veep" on the other hand I've found amusing but it rarely gets me to do more than smirk.
May 1, 2012 at 5:17AM ESTbelinda
April 30, 2012 at 5:44PM EST Reply to CommentYay! Thank you HBO
Pizpot Gargravarr
April 30, 2012 at 6:15PM EST Reply to CommentWhat? Judd Apatow produces a tv show that isn't cancelled in the first season? Insanity.
Saulo
April 30, 2012 at 7:19PM EST Reply to CommentFor me 'Girls' is brilliant because it is realistic and that 'Sex and the City' poster on the wall sends us the main message: we're not trying to be a show like that or make you laugh or simply have fun.
I think of it as a (amazingly) scripted 'Big Brother'-esque reality show: Hannah and her friends are all struggling to find their place in the world and there's a camera following the group 24/7.
And of course HBO won't cancel Girls because Lena Dunham is a lock to win a Golden Globe and both her and Julia may be nominated for Emmmys - and then lose to Amy Poehler (hopefully).
Roadshow
April 30, 2012 at 7:41PM EST Reply to CommentI am delighted.
I am in awe of Lena Dunham.
When I see those credits come up at the end of the show; "Written by, Directed by, Created by..." I marvel at all this woman has done.
Jealous dot com.
Delighted Girls is back and pleased that HBO has room for Dunham's voice.
Veep is also good. Yay for that too.
*
Ruxandra Wholeheartedly agree. Lena Dunham is amazing and I do love the characters, they remind me of some of my friends. They're not perfect, not really charming, but they get under your skin
May 1, 2012 at 4:21AM ESTMrMojo
April 30, 2012 at 10:36PM EST Reply to CommentI really want to like both shows but can't get into either. The characters on Girls are all unappealing and annoying. And I haven't even come close to laughing once while watching Veep.
fresser28 Totally agree. Girls is bad, and doing more to paint 20-somethings as entitled, unpleasant cretins than anything else within recent memory.
May 1, 2012 at 2:53AM ESTVeep is the real disappointment though, because I love Louis-Dreyfus and I thought The Thick of It was funny in a horrible, venal sort of way. Veep, however, is not. The supporting cast is forgettable, Louis-Dreyfus is just playing a combo of Elaine/Christine who gets to swear a lot, and everyone is as uninvolving and unpleasant in their own ways as the girls on Girls.
What the hell is wrong with HBO? They've been on a downward trajectory ever since they canceled Rome and Deadwood.
RL
May 1, 2012 at 4:45PM EST Reply to CommentAnyone who doesn't like Girls because they don't like the characters doesn't get the point of the show. They're not supposed to be great people. They're not especially pretty, nice, or funny...kind of like real people.
Apatow's previous works (freaks & geeks,undeclared) have always featured flawed characters. None of the main characters are perfectly moral/attractive/nice/etc but they are appealing because they are relate-able due to their realism.
I may not be a girl, or be like any of the "girls" characters in particular, but I know the "types" these girls represent: The worldly, the responsible, the clueless/naive, and the spoiled. Sometimes I can find aspects of each of them in people I know.
I (perhaps 'we') are accustomed to seeing women portrayed on TV in a glamorous light. Watch any reality TV show. Females on TV are typically rich or pretty or charismatic/redeeming in some way. "Girls" reveals to us the less glamorous world of the fairer sex.