Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

This comment is more amusing than educational, but for anyone who hasn't already, I recommend watching the Coen Brothers movie Burn After Reading.

When you watch it, you get the strong sense that this, rather than Jason Bourne or James Bond, is the movie that comes the closest to depicting what the intelligence community is actually like: nobody knows anything and everyone's bumbling about helplessly while they pretend to be omniscient, except they have a lot of leeway to (figuratively and literally) bury the bodies when things go sideways.




There's a beautiful exchange at the end of the movie:

JK Simmons: What did we learn, Palmer?

Aide: I dont know sir.

JK Simmons: I don't fucking know either.

JK Simmons: I guess we learned, not to do it again.

Aide: Yes sir.

JK Simmons: I'm fucked if I know what we did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlA9hmrC8DU (spoilers in the video)

EDIT: (Also RT has the quotes mostly wrong..)


Similarly: Politics is Veep not House of Cards.


Rather, politics is Veep while thinking they're as clever and devious as House of Cards.


Generously, politics is The Thick of It. All kinds of scheming and malice, but none of it ever amounting to anything.


Same creator as Veep! I think he left Veep though and the show is becoming more cartoonish as a result.


I had no idea! That's reason enough for me to watch the first part of Veep then. The commercials had implied it was all cartoonish, but I should have known that's always the way of commercials.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2025 batch! Applications are open till May 13

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: