Documentary Now! - General Discussion

[Flannery Tanner]

The Jinx could be fun, but Armison plays Robert Durst in the new Kimmy Schmidt and they might not to go to that well too many times.

[formerlyfreedom]

Coming back September 14.

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IFC/Documentary Now! kicks off its new season on September 14 with a send-up of the 1993 political docu The War Room, about Bill Clinton’s campaign for POTUS in ’92. Bill Hader reprises his James Carville, while Fred Armison, spectacularly be-wigged, is George Stephanopoulos.

[Primetimer]

Getting mad that I still have to wait for the spoof of The War Room, tbh.

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[kricka]

YESSSSSSSSS.
WooHoo!

[annzeepark914]

Counting the days (hours?) until Season 2 begins!  I love these two characters...SNL's great loss.

[chitowngirl]

The on stage breakup was reminiscent of The Replacements.

[VCRTracking]

Season 2 premieres with a parody of The War Room the documentary about the 1992 Presidential election. The thing I noticed most was the hair: Bill Hader's bald spot as the James Carville stand-in and Fred as the George Stephanopoulis stand in. The perfect early 90s hair on Mary Beth the female member of the campaign team and episode writer's John Mulaney's hair in the post ep interview. Favorite parts is Hader putting racist lawn jockeys on the lawns supporter's of the opponent and Armisen's obsession with Kathy Ireland.

Loved the fake MTV news report they made a few weeks ago. Tabitha Soren has not aged!

Edited September 15, 2016 by VCRTracking

[VCRTracking]

A Guide To Every Doc Mocked In Bill Hader & Fred Armisen's "Documentary Now!" Season 2

https://www.fastcocreate.com/3063619/a-guide-to-every-doc-mocked-in-bill-hader-fred-armisens-documentary-now-season-2 

Edited September 15, 2016 by VCRTracking

[annzeepark914]

You beat me to the punch about the lawn jockeys.  I thought they were going to hop out and steal signs.  When I saw the first lawn jockey....aw geez, perfect!  I love these guys.  They really know how to skewer certain people but in a funny way, not mean.

[cpcathy]

I think it would have helped had I seen The War Room, which I did not. While I could not adore Hader's take on Carville more, I know a lot was modeled after the original doc, and I didn't get a lot of it.

[VCRTracking]

Well, this might help a bit:

[biakbiak]

I adore The War Room so I loved this episode.

[glowlights]

Documentary Now! is the best show in FOREVER and I am so happy it came back strong for the new season!

[annzeepark914]

I never saw War Room but as soon as I heard Bill Hader's "accent", I knew who he was supposed to be.  Had to read an article about The Bunker to learn that Fred was paying George Stephanopolis.  Hader can effortlessly slip into such a wide variety of characters.  That talent of his reminds me of Dan Akroyd.

[VCRTracking]

Documentary Now! Isn't a Parody. It's Not an Homage. It's a Different Style of Comedy.

[Mumbles]

The Bunker was such a spot-on homage to The War Room. Bravo. I had been in and out of this show last season so I dvred a bunch when the channel did a marathon this morning. Just watched Dronzzz - amazing. I urge you to catch it on demand or on Netflix if you haven't. It really nailed know-it-all hipsters.

[Irlandesa]

My goodness this show.  This.  Show. 

I enjoy documentaries but I haven't seen a lot of them so many of those they cover are unfamiliar to me.  Sometimes that matters.  Take last week, for instance.  Even though I recognized what it was covering and the people in it, it just wasn't clicking with me for whatever reason.  Maybe I'd like it more on rewatch.

But then there are episodes like tonight's where seeing the original doesn't feel as necessary.  That was a surprising amount of emotion packed into a short 20-something mini-film. 

[VCRTracking]

Wow, this ended up a very heartfelt episode. It makes me want to check out Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

I've never ever thought of putting butter on rice but now I'm going to try it.

I want to go to find a local place like the other son's fun restaurant.

Laughed out loud when they showed that Arturo was in an improv group when he was in college in Chicago!

Edited September 22, 2016 by VCRTracking

[LeighAnne]

Because, as FX President of Entertainment John Landgraf famously said, we are living in the era of Peak TV, there are TV shows for everyone.  I feel like Fred Armisen/Bill Hader/Seth Meyers have reached into my brain and made a show specifically for me.

I like documentaries and have seen so many that there's stuff in Documentary Now! that may not be that funny to someone who doesn't watch a lot of documentaries but is hilarious to me.  In "Juan Likes Rice and Chicken" there's a Working Hard to Achieve a Goal section that I feel like I've seen hundreds of times; not just in Jiro Dreams of Sushi, but also in dance documentaries (like Pina) or fashion documentaries (like Unzipped), where we see a person doing their work, and slowly, step by step, they go a little farther, they get a little better, and the Philip Glass/Thomas Newman/James Horner score gets louder, and the string section (there is always a lot of string music during the Moment of Triumph) crescendos, and the camera (of course) goes into slow motion, and we see:

Fred Armisen and Harvey Guillen shooting raw chicken pieces at a wall.

Thank you, show, for making me laugh out loud.

Next week:  the Eric Bogosian/Spalding Gray monologist parody, which seems like catnip to someone like Bill Hader.

Edited September 22, 2016 by LeighAnne

[LeighAnne]

They're doing a Stop Making Sense parody this season, so Fred Armisen and Bill Hader debuted their psuedo-Talking Heads band, "Test Pattern," on Late Night with Seth Meyers:

Art + Student = Poor

[beadgirl]

It's the little details that make this show so great.  "I spoke to Diego today." "Did you have a seance?"  Ha!  And yet I got so emotionally invested, I was really rooting for Arturo.  And what a sweet ending!

I had no idea Armisen spoke Spanish so well.

[cpcathy]

I was convinced throughout the entire show that the guy who played Juan was Armisen's actual father! They seemed to resemble each other, but then, I'm a sucker for that kind of casting.

[annzeepark914]

Yo quiero Juan Likes Rice and Chicken.  I had a grin on my face throughout the whole dang thing.  Now I can't wait for next week's episode cause it looks like Bill Hader will be sporting a whole new character.  So far, Bill has killed with his James Carville & Little Edie impersonations.  I just love this series (& I never saw the real documentaries they're based on).  I can rarely find anything on TV to watch so this (and good ol' Fargo) is right up my alley ;>)

Edited September 22, 2016 by annzeepark914

[VCRTracking]

[biakbiak]

11 hours ago, cpcathy said:

I was convinced throughout the entire show that the guy who played Juan was Armisen's actual father! They seemed to resemble each other, but then, I'm a sucker for that kind of casting.

Fred's dad is half German and half Japanese so probably not the look they were going for.

[JTMacc99]

On 9/22/2016 at 11:58 AM, beadgirl said:

It's the little details that make this show so great. 

I was thinking the exact same thing!  The writing and acting is just smart. Silly, but smart.

[biakbiak]

I thought Parker Gail's location is Everything was amazing. I love Swimming to Cambodia but I thought this take on the unreliable narrator was excellent. I died when it cut to the cat waiting to give his side of the story (see I am also an unreliable narrator). I thought Bill had a perfect take on Spaulding. 

Interesting that this episode was essentially their "bottle episode" and only happened because they ran out of money.

Though thinking of Spaulding always makes me sad, this episode made me laugh!

[Phishbulb]

"Can we hear you say all the street names again?"

"What??!?!?"

"I'm kidding."

[VCRTracking]

I love the unexpected ending!

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I love Swimming to Cambodia but I thought this take on the unreliable narrator was excellent. I died when it cut to the cat waiting to give his side of the story (see I am also an unreliable narrator).

The subway token clerk is what really had me ROTFLing!

[annzeepark914]

Since there's something weird technically going on at the episodes forum, I'll post here.  Bill Hader RULES.  He can do anyone and Wednesday night, he just took over Spaulding Gray.  This was as good as their Grey Gardens mockumentary IMO.  Loved the subway token collector (complete with the sounds of the trains rumbling through).  I wish this show were on every week!

[ApathyMonger]

Loved Location is Everywhere. Hadn't seen any Spaulding Grey monologue stuff before, but I watched Swimming to Cambodia on Youtube before this, and it was great.

The "Polite Laughter" flashing sign was a great touch.

[annzeepark914]

I can't enter anything into the Episodes thread for some technical reason.  The video of Bill Hader keeps showing up.  Anyhow, did anyone like last night's episode of the traveling salesmen?  I didn't...at all.  Too much angst to be funny.  Sure, it was ridiculous, to be going to people's homes to sell globes but for a half hour?

[cpcathy]

I enjoyed it but nothing this season so far has reached the brilliance that is "Sandy Passage."

[VCRTracking]

"I shoulda been a fireman!"

I liked it on a technical level. The recreation of old black and white film stock and the sound quality.

The funniest scene to me was the boss rehearsing a pitch with Armisen's character.

I recognized the older salesman as the dad from Life Goes On.

[cpcathy]

I loved Hader ordering cigarettes off the menu.

[Primetimer]

This week, they parody 'Stop Making Sense', with a little help from Maya Rudolph.

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[VCRTracking]

It's hard to top the performances in Stop Making Sense. "Life During Wartime" always gets me pumped up. I love Bill Hader's characters' song.

[Primetimer]

You want to make sure you're doing everything right when you're parodying 'Stop Making Sense'.

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[cpcathy]

Did not care for this at all. The only thing I enjoyed was Hader's character making a face at the Balinese music.

[nottopbravo]

I think that the one thing that is understated on this show is:  The closer you know the source material, the more you appreciate this show. 

[VCRTracking]

 

 

Edited October 13, 2016 by VCRTracking

[annzeepark914]

I got weary of it after 15 minutes.

[BetterButter]

Hear Documentary Now!’s full Talking Heads parody album

[12catcrazy]

Totally, totally in love with this show!  If you've seen the original documentaries they are basing these on, you'll have even more of an appreciation on what they're doing.  

Some months ago, my companion and I started watching "Salesmen" and we had to turn it off due to total boredom.  Now we wish we would've seen it through after watching "Globesmen".  

[Phishbulb]

Yeah, I think with this episode more than any of them it really would depend on you having seen "Stop Making Sense" for you to really appreciate the episode. The humor was in how closely they mimicked the original and especially the style of Talking Heads' music. There were other '80s/new-wave sort of parodies in there as well; Hader's song sounded more like Devo to me and "Flashing Lights" had kind of a Cars feel. And the talk-singing song that Fred did was Tom Waits for some reason.

The music's pretty nice to listen to on its own actually. The one song they didn't include was the song supposedly written by Maya's character, which is actually a pre-existing song written by Matthew Sweet. 

Edited October 15, 2016 by Phishbulb

[Primetimer]

As its second season wraps up, watch Bill Hader try his hardest to earn some more funds for Pinnacle Pictures.

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[VCRTracking]

Lot of nice cameoes  in the season finale, but Peter Bogdanovich had the best joke.

Edited October 27, 2016 by VCRTracking

[Dowel Jones]

Losing out to your own star for an Oscar named after you.  That's tough. 

[12catcrazy]

What was the movie they were goofing on in the finale episode?  Bill Hader kind of looked like Robert Evans - was there a documentary made about him? 

[Dowel Jones]

Evans did have a memoir movie called The Kid Stays in the Picture.  I saw it once but can't remember if it matches up to this.