Veep: Season 1 [DVD] [2012] [2013]

Selina Meyer is the Vice-President of the United States of America, in theory one of the most powerful positions in the world. In practice, she is a spare tyre kept busy with trivial makework and assigned a staff of dysfunctional backstabbers.Veep is an American comedy series created by Armando Iannucci, a renowned British comedian and satirist. Veep can be regarded as a companion work to Iannucci's BBC series The Thick of It, which explored the dysfunctional workings of British government via a fictitious government department and the people who run it. Like The Thick of It, Veep has no laughter track and its comedy comes from the situations the characters find themselves in, either through bad luck or through their own ill-conceived actions.Veep is centred on the character of Selina Meyer, played with aplomb by Julia Louis-Dreyfus (best-known for her recurring role as Elaine on Seinfeld). Meyer is a former Presidential candidate whose failed to make the cut and feels she has been given a powerless role to prevent her being a threat to the President. It's also suggested that the President's wife (who, along with the President, is never seen) hates her, and several storylines revolve around Meyer inadvertently upstaging the President's wife through fashion or headline-grabbing 'cute' moves like getting a dog. Almost every episode features a moment where Meyer asks if the President has called, only to be told no.The bulk of the comedy comes from Meyer's staff: Gary Walsh (Tony Hale), her neurotic personal aide; Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky), a well-meaning but slightly inept fixer who ends up taking the fall for some of Meyer's misjudgements; Mike McLintock (Matt Walsh), Meyer's director of communications who, bizarrely, insists that he owns a dog when in fact he does not; Dan Egan (Reid Scott), a new, ambitious and ruthless staffmember who is not quite as smart as he thinks he is; and Sue Wilson (Sufe Bradshaw), Meyer's secretary who seems to regard politics (and almost everything) with bored contempt. Completing the regular cast is Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons), the liaison with the White House, a fantastically creepy and self-obsessed man specialising in inappropriate behaviour and inventing useless new acronyms (FDOTUS for the President's potential new dog). What makes the show work is that not all of these people are shown to be completely useless (otherwise they wouldn't be in their jobs), but that they prove unable to adapt to rapidly-developing situations. In particular, the older staff-members have no idea on how to deal with blogs and Twitter and spend vast amounts of time obsessed with style and spin rather than the substance of their policies.Performances are uniformly excellent, with Louis-Dreyfus bringing her A-game and convincing as a politician of ambition and substance whose career has taken an abrupt left-turn into near irrelevance, resulting in frustration and annoyance. This is brilliantly show in a sequence where the President falls ill, so Meyer is called into the White House's emergency situation room, where she is almost overcome by the plush furniture, flashing lights and people treating her like she's the most important person on Earth. When the President recovers, Meyer is dumped back to her previous task, eating yogurt at a dessert store in a futile effort to show how down with the people she is. The gap between the two positions has never quite been nailed so ruthlessly as this. Special mention must also be made to Timothy Simons, who makes his character despicably punchable whenever he appears but you also want to hear what fantastically inappropriate thing he's going to say next. He's the Joffrey Baratheon of the West Wing, though fortunately without the power to execute anyone.The season has a nicely-developed storyline about Meyer desperately trying to get some policies - any policies - through government to show she's not completely useless. An innocuous tweet about cutlery in the first episode snowballs out of control, taking with it several government bills and congressional hearings, whilst an apparent crisis in Meyer's personal life threatens to upset her career until she dumps it on one of her aides. The story, characters and dialogue are all sharp and very funny.Compared to the genius of The Thick of It, Veep more than holds it own. Veep isn't quite as knives-out nasty as The Thick of It at its most vicious, mainly due to the lack of a character comparable to Malcolm Tucker (although foul-mouthed Congressman Roger Furlong, who appears late in the season, shows hints that he might go that way). But Iannucci's decision to make the new show stand on its own feet without resorting to his old stand-bys is both a brave one and one that works. There are a few episodes that don't quite gel together and it's arguable if some of the staffmembers would get away with what they do without being fired on the instant, but overall this is a very strong opening season.

Armando Lannucci's "The Thick of It" - American style. Those who did not like that are unlikely to like this, fans of the former able to make interesting comparisons.Newly appointed Vice President Selina Meyer is determined to make her presence felt. Not easy with the President virtually ignoring her - except, at very short notice, delegating activities he would not touch with a barge pole. She struggles to prepare herself in time, her staff representing varying degrees of ambition and incompetence. Cue for much frenzied rushing around and many expletives. (Avoid this show if swearing offends.)At its best the show is very funny with a tour de force from Julia Louis-Drefus at the head of a talented cast - witty one-liners and timing a joy.Although wildly exaggerated, inevitably one wonders how close to reality are aspects depicted. How many politicians share Selina's ability to mutter highly offensive asides, then turn the next instant to greet an old enemy as a friend? (At one point she is mortified to learn the photographer forever hovering is able to lip-read.)How genuine in real life are those public appearances - effusive greetings, smiles, back slapping, prolonged handshakes, expressions of solidarity? How genuine those "from the heart" televised addresses to "fellow Americans"? Relish the extra features that contain two such addresses + Selina's devastating real thoughts during rehearsals.)Greatly acclaimed, with awards in abundance, "Veep" has enjoyed many seasons. It saddens, so far at any rate, I find this a show hard to warm to. Despite several funny moments, everything seems too frenetic, somewhat wearying, the central character so foul-mouthed - it impossible to believe she was ever considered fit for the job.In the show's defence, fans can argue that, both sides of the Atlantic, stranger things have happened in real life.They are right, this quite a thought.

Whilst in the UK, we are used to treating politics as grubby and not too noble (The Thick of It/Yes Minister) US networks have tended to go along the idealistic line (The West Wing). This has left a huge void to fill, which Brit Armando Iannucci and his team have done perfectly.The chaos and the self-centred nature are spot on and ensemble cast have melded from the beginning. Add to that some wonderful lines (many of which are too profane to quote here - so beware if you are easily offended) and you have an insightful, laugh out loud comedy.

Like everyone who has run out of series of "The Thick of it", I turned to this series. Perhaps it is inevitable that it will suffer by comparison, but given the fact that Armando Ianucci is at the helm my hopes were high, as they always are when his name is attached to anything. Well...it pales badly by comparison. The dialogue is nowhere near as sharp, and the attempts to BE sharp come across as forced and too self-conscious; they don't so much come from the characters as are overly-contrived lines crammed into the actor's mouths (although occasionally The Thick of it suffered from this over-wrought quality, too). In a mix that is so much blander than the English series, the vulgarity that is occasionally blurted feels out of place, and misjudged. To be fair, Julia Dreyfuss saves the day here and there, which is why I can give it 3 stars, as she is an expert at the fleeting, subtle and poorly disguised look of desperation and horror. But beyond that it lacks the iron pillar of Malcolm Tucker at its centre, and the characters that surrounded him, all of whose humanity was tragically convincing. If the English series had never existed, perhaps this would seem like an incredible show. But once you have experienced DoSac you can't go back...