S05.E01: Veep vs. The Walking Dead

[yeswedo]

Quote

In the Season 5 premiere, the celebrity players are Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky, Matt Walsh, Christian Serratos, Josh McDermitt, and Lauren Cohan.

[Corgi-ears]

Spoiler

Welcome back, show! Girl civilian was a dumb-dumb, but I guess she at least was not the one who looked vaguely like Eric Trump.

(Huh. You can already watch the episode Through Methods, and I didn't realise it hasn't aired yet. Thanks for pointing it out, sugarbaker design. Have spoilered the above; apologies.)

Edited June 21, 2017 by Corgi-ears

[sugarbaker design]

Where did you see it?  It airs tomorrow night.

[weightyghost]

It aired on Tuesday night on CTV in Canada

[Primetimer]

Zombie hunters face Veep's politicos in Hollywood Game Night's Season 5 premiere.

View the full article

[swimmyfish]

Team Veep got off to a shaky start, but I really like how well they all worked together. They won that round of Where You Going? with plenty of time to spare, and I'm a little disappointed that they didn't get to keep going just to see how much they could've beaten the other team by. Although I did like how aggressively the driver on Team Walking Dead asked her passengers where they were going. She really wanted to win, and I appreciated that.

I don't know how you get Diana Ross as a clue in Celebrity Name Game and don't mention The Supremes, but I did like that they finally started giving hints based on the actual names (like 'noise a dog makes' for Charles Barkley). I also liked that Girl Civilian wasn't shy about passing immediately if she didn't know the answer - I think it was a good strategy on both sides for that round, and maybe if the Civilian had had more of a sense of urgency she actually would have won? 

I was not a big fan of all the ball jokes, although I think the ball pit was a good add to Smash the Buzzer - it makes it safe for everyone to dive for buzzer, regardless of impractical footwear or short skirts.

Is the monotone game new? As an old person, even the subtitles didn't help me figure out most of the songs, but that was a good game (very much like last week's EHG game time, in fact!) and a nice way to incorporate a musical round without having Jane sing.

Overall, I think this was a pretty fun episode and I am excited this ridiculous dumb show is back for the summer! 

Edited June 23, 2017 by swimmyfish
curse you, auto-correct!

[Irlandesa]

19 minutes ago, swimmyfish said:

s the monotone game new? As an old person, even the subtitles didn't help me figure out most of the songs, but that was a good game (very much like last week's EHG game time, in fact!) and a nice way to incorporate a musical round without having Jane sing.

It's not new.  They've done it before.

The game was fun.  It was nice to see teams that were equally matched except for that final game where Team Veep crushed it.  I think the contestant could have been better for the star game but some of the clues could have been better as well.  Like black basketball player?  Blonde actress? 

[jhlipton]

1 hour ago, swimmyfish said:

I don't know how you get Diana Ross as a clue in Celebrity Name Game and don't mention The Supremes, but I did like that they finally started giving hints based on the actual names (like 'noise a dog makes' for Charles Barkley). I also liked that Girl Civilian wasn't shy about passing immediately if she didn't know the answer - I think it was a good strategy on both sides for that round, and maybe if the Civilian had had more of a sense of urgency she actually would have won? 

I was not a big fan of all the ball jokes, although I think the ball pit was a good add to Smash the Buzzer - it makes it safe for everyone to dive for buzzer, regardless of impractical footwear or short skirts.

Is the monotone game new? As an old person, even the subtitles didn't help me figure out most of the songs, but that was a good game (very much like last week's EHG game time, in fact!) and a nice way to incorporate a musical round without having Jane sing.

Overall, I think this was a pretty fun episode and I am excited this ridiculous dumb show is back for the summer!

General description and profession, followed by name clues (unless it's really obvious [like Footloose -- how does anyone not know that???]) seems to work best.  I wonder if saying "her daughter is Tracy Ellis" might have helped, but Kayla seemed pretty clueless about a lot of celebs.

I thought "Hold My Balls" was a lot of fun, especially as Mat got loaded up with huge or vibrating balls and Mr Mullet (Brent?) got a basketball and a soccer ball!

Monotone game isn't new but at least they mixed up some old school songs ("Midnight Train to Georgia", "Natural Woman", and, newer, "I Touch Myself") in with the Bruno Mars and Justin Beiber.

Very silly show -- I was laughing all the way thriugh.

[BobH]

Glad the show is back, and doubly glad the podcast is back with it, and coming out so promptly.

I kind of groaned in the opening when they showed the new "backyard" set, and some of the game snippets they showed from future episodes look a bit ridiculous, but I was pleasantly surprised with the ball pit variation on "Smash the Buzzer".

I could have done without all the "ball" single entendres in the one wholly new game, "Hold My Balls", but the game wasn't too bad.

[The Crazed Spruce]

Hey, I'm just glad that the show airs in a timeslot early enough that I can actually watch it live for a change....

(And I double-checked my podcast app, and it looks like this is the only HGN podcast out there. So thumbs up for cornering the market! :) )

[joanne3482]

I got confused by Hold My Balls. My understanding was the winning team got to hold another ball and so whomever dropped the balls the other team got all the points? So it seems like the better strategy would be to lose? 

[sugarbaker design]

1 minute ago, joanne3482 said:

My understanding was the winning team got to hold another ball

The losing team got to hold another ball.  The Veep team kept losing, the Veep guy had to hold another ball.

Edited June 23, 2017 by sugarbaker design

[paigow]

Final round was horrible....Those charities should demand payment from their respective celebrities. 

[iMonrey]

I've never seen Walking Dead so that cast was unknown to me, but I love Veep and it was great seeing them out of character. Tony Hale is so different than any of the characters he's known for. Is Anna Chlumsky pregnant, or did she recently have a baby? That looked like a maternity dress, but she said she was wearing spanx, and I wouldn't think she'd be diving around like that in Smash the Buzzer (although I'm not sure she ever did dive).

I would not do well on Monotone because I'm just not up on current songs. I couldn't name a Justin Bieber song if you put a gun to my head. And while I thought the bonus round was a wash, I have to admit I'd have had a lot of trouble with some of those celebs too. (But yeah . . . the Supremes, dumbass!)

[HurricaneVal]

I have to tell you I drew a great, big, huge blank on The Supremes.   It was on the tip of my tongue, but I just couldn't pop it out.  I kept thinking "The Chiffons" which totally was not right.   Then my mind went to "Michael Jackson's godmother" but then I thought "I'm not sure that's right...."

 

Yeah.  I'd suck in those speed rounds.  I'm not "up" on the latter day celebs, and I definitely would have performance issues with the pressure of the timing clock.

[weightyghost]

On 6/23/2017 at 4:11 PM, iMonrey said:

Is Anna Chlumsky pregnant, or did she recently have a baby?

She gave birth last summer, so depending on when this was filmed she could have been a few months post-baby. 

I love Lauren Cohen but despite her enthusiasm, she is never good under pressure. Not sure why she was chosen for the final (though she did better than I expected her to) since she was the worst out of the three. It was a combo between not the best civilian, somewhat hard people, and not the best clues (though they were powering through when they realized saying things like "what a dog does" was the way to go). 

I never cared for Smash the Buzzer because it always showed how inappropriately dressed the women were for this show so the ball pit took that away and made it hilarious. 

The fact that the contestants can just say a full lyric in the monotone game and still be deemed correct is stupid. "it's too late now to say sorry" is not the same as "sorry". 

[peeayebee]

I finally watched this ep. I basically liked it, but I didn't know anyone on The Walking Dead team since I don't watch that. I can't stand the guy's mullet. But Team Veep was great. It's fun to see Matt Walsh be so competent while his Veep character is anything but.

I was surprised Tony Hale did so poorly in Celebrity Name Game. One problem, of course, was that he and Lauren (?) were sometimes competing with each other. This game only really works if one person takes the lead, and the other fills in the gaps.

[ae2]

On 6/23/2017 at 4:11 PM, iMonrey said:

I've never seen Walking Dead so that cast was unknown to me, but I love Veep and it was great seeing them out of character. Tony Hale is so different than any of the characters he's known for. Is Anna Chlumsky pregnant, or did she recently have a baby? That looked like a maternity dress, but she said she was wearing spanx, and I wouldn't think she'd be diving around like that in Smash the Buzzer (although I'm not sure she ever did dive).

I would not do well on Monotone because I'm just not up on current songs. I couldn't name a Justin Bieber song if you put a gun to my head. And while I thought the bonus round was a wash, I have to admit I'd have had a lot of trouble with some of those celebs too. (But yeah . . . the Supremes, dumbass!)

All the cast were pretty likable this episode. It's always weird to see Tony Hale out of character, because his characters are just so weird and he's just so normal.

Pretty certain Anna never dived. She sort of half ran half stumbled to the buzzer.

On 6/24/2017 at 9:02 PM, weightyghost said:

The fact that the contestants can just say a full lyric in the monotone game and still be deemed correct is stupid. "it's too late now to say sorry" is not the same as "sorry". 

I'd like to see a change made here. Since most of the songs get to the chorus/title before someone guesses, there's very little real challenge right now. And it's not a super-fun game where you're less worried about the challenge of it than the silliness, so may as well make it challenging.

On 6/26/2017 at 11:56 PM, peeayebee said:

I finally watched this ep. I basically liked it, but I didn't know anyone on The Walking Dead team since I don't watch that. I can't stand the guy's mullet. But Team Veep was great. It's fun to see Matt Walsh be so competent while his Veep character is anything but.

I was surprised Tony Hale did so poorly in Celebrity Name Game. One problem, of course, was that he and Lauren (?) were sometimes competing with each other. This game only really works if one person takes the lead, and the other fills in the gaps.

The mullet is part of his character's look on The Walking Dead. So don't judge Josh McDermitt on it!

I thought that he and Lauren played okay together. Not perfectly in sync, but whichever one had the stronger clue would speak up pretty quickly. And they realized very early on that the contestant did better with name-sound clues rather than celebrity trivia. I give them a lot of credit for that.

[Black Knight]

I am laughing that the first clue for Lindsay Lohan was "played Elizabeth Taylor." Sure, that's the first...fifth...hundredth thing anyone thinks of in regards to her, Lauren!

And agreed on Lauren being the worst of the TWD players. She made a hash out of the first game and the car game, and didn't even try in the ball pit game until she was the last one. Christian was a better player by far, but I think the female civilian was fooled by demeanor - Lauren acts so aggressive while Christian comes off as a little frail and nervous. But massive points to both actresses for knowing enough about this show not to wear high heels. Looking at you, ANNA...

The ball pit game always features one category in which everything Jane says is correct, and as soon as I heard Trump tweets I knew that would be it. Clearly none of the players, civilians included, watch the show regularly.