HBO’s Funniest Sci-Fi Series Was Buried By Real World Events And Unfairly Cancelled

By TeeJay Small
| Published 10 seconds ago

Back in 2019, as I was catching the final episodes of Silicon Valley on HBO, I recall anxiously waiting to see what each member of the hilarious ensemble cast would do next. This was especially the case for Zach Woods, whose off-the-wall performance as Jared turned me into a lifelong fan. Just as the credits rolled on the final episode, I was treated to a promotional ad for a new HBO original series called Avenue 5, with Zach Woods front-and-center. I was hooked before the pilot even hit streaming, and I stayed hooked right up until a global pandemic, industry shutdowns, and a writers strike doomed the series before it could reach its natural conclusion.

In case you missed it, Avenue 5 was an absolutely hilarious comedy series created by Armando Iannucci, centering on an interstellar cruise ship loaded with entitled rich passengers. Iannucci is a brilliant Scottish filmmaker best known for creating HBO’s Veep and directing the 2017 satire The Death of Stalin. Zach Woods is joined in the cast of Avenue 5 by an all-star line up of comedic heavy hitters, including Josh Gad, Rebecca Front, Suzy Nakamura, and House‘s Hugh Laurie.

Your Typical Cruise Trip, IN SPACEEEEE!

The premiere episode of Avenue 5 opens on a not-so-distant future, where space travel is as common as taking a cruise across the Caribbean. The titular space ship is owned by a billionaire doofus named Judd (Josh Gad), who insists on burning through his fortune and sticking his gold-plated name on just about anything he can reach. Right at the start of the show, the Avenue 5 ship is knocked off course by a technical malfunction, increasing their return-to-Earth timeline from eight weeks to three years.

As the wealthy passengers enter into a panic, they are soothed by the confidence of Captain Ryan Clark (Hugh Laurie). Unfortunately, Clark is a huge fraud, whose entire role on the ship is a public relations facade. The true captain, who engineers the Avenue 5’s course, was killed during a routine spacewalk, leaving the ship completely rudderless. As the show progresses, Clark attempts to receive hands-on training from engineer Billie McEvoy, in order to get everyone home on time. But, as he receives this crash course, the ship is bombarded with issues, including failing oxygen levels, latrine overflow, and conspiracy-minded VIPs.

The Right Show At The Wrong Time

The first season of Avenue 5 premiered in January 2020, just in time to get absolutely kneecapped by news of an impending global pandemic. By the time the season concluded, nationwide shut-downs had already begun, and producers began to fear that the live action film industry would never return to normal. When the writing staff were finally able to get together to pen season two, there were already rumblings of an incoming WGA strike, which officially took hold in 2023. By the time the second season released, many of the core stars had already outlasted their contracts, and audiences had lost hope for the show.

Just a few months after season two concluded, Avenue 5 was officially cancelled at HBO. The series ended on a quixotic cliffhanger, but still delivered a satisfying finale for super-fans. While it’s an unbearable shame that we’ll never get to see the series play out to a proper conclusion, it’s still well worth the watch for sci-fi and comedy fans alike. If you’re interested in checking out this off-the-walls comedy of errors, be sure to pull up Avenue 5 on HBO Max today.