# Arrested Development VS Veep **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2020, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873 "2020-04-02T11:30:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![2Bits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e95f7d/32.png) [@2Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Bits)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/1 "2020-04-02T11:30:20Z")
Two well-acted, super “intelligent” sitcoms with biting wit and morally-challenged characters. Why do I love Arrested Development (particularly the first three seasons) and mostly loath Veep? ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/2 "2020-04-02T11:58:05Z")
While I never watched Veep, there is something just so loathable about Julia-Louis whatever Dreyfus. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/3 "2020-04-02T12:10:13Z")
I like both of those shows, but I don’t find them especially similar. One thing I don’t love about “Veep” (and “The Thick of It”) is that I don’t find creative swearing to be inherently funny. I don’t find it offensive, but I’d rather have a real joke instead. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/4 "2020-04-02T13:00:29Z")
_AD_ is not remotely funny. So some guy is a total grump and isn’t happy when people tell him this. I’m supposed to laugh, why? Plus the lack of preparation gives some really poor acting, awkward pauses, etc. _Veep_ was hilarious … until it was eclipsed by real life. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/5 "2020-04-02T13:05:01Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > _Veep_ was hilarious … until it was eclipsed by real life. Agreed. It’s not funny anymore, too real. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/6 "2020-04-02T14:22:20Z")
I didn’t get into Veep after watching the first episode, but I’ve been meaning to give it another shot, because I do like Julia Louis Dreyfus and I’ve heard good things. And the first episode is often not enough to tell whether I like a show or not. I do love Arrested Development though, especially the original run. ---
**Author:** ![2Bits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e95f7d/32.png) [@2Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Bits)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/7 "2020-04-02T14:32:12Z")
To somewhat respond to my own OP… I think it’s the degree of intense mean-spiritedness I see when I watch Veep. [“Whyever do you bother watch Veep, OP, if you really find it so terribly unpleasant?”] It’s often extremely hilarious and insightful, that’s why! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/8 "2020-04-02T14:48:27Z")
I like both shows, but since I have a particular fondness for clever wordplay, I tended to prefer _Arrested Development_. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/9 "2020-04-02T14:51:41Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > _AD_ is not remotely funny. So some guy is a total grump and isn’t happy when people tell him this. I’m supposed to laugh, why? Plus the lack of preparation gives some really poor acting, awkward pauses, etc. > > _Veep_ was hilarious … until it was eclipsed by real life. You’re confused. Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm are different shows. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/10 "2020-04-02T15:15:52Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > You’re confused. Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm are different shows. Don’t correct me, it will only make me grumpier. 😉 Right, so _AD_. Could have been something. But it was way predictable. There’s a mention at the beginning of an episode that a cabin is going to be moved. You know right that instant what’s going to happen with them and the cabin. Over and over. Okay to watch, but there’s so much other non-predictable stuff out there. _Letterkenny_! ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/11 "2020-04-02T15:21:05Z")
I liked Arrested Development a lot (well, at least the first 3 seasons). I like Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and I like Tony Hale. I don’t find Veep enjoyable to watch at all, and I tried to get into it a couple of times. I could never understand the insane amount of press/buzz/awards it garnered; it just isn’t funny to me. -shrug- ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/12 "2020-04-02T15:29:47Z")
I find them to be quite different. AD, for my money, is one of the most tightly written comedies of all time, especially the first two seasons. There are just so many levels of humor going on and every time I rewatch, I seem to catch something I missed before. Veep is much more straightforward comedy, but I love it, as well. (Well, the last season wasn’t the greatest, but it maintained its momentum throughout most of its run.) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/13 "2020-04-02T15:47:25Z")
Arrested Development was good; I thought Veep was the funniest show I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/14 "2020-04-02T17:58:38Z")
I love both shows, but they’re rather different. In particular, _Veep_ is much more mean-spirited and cynical. Most of the characters in _Arrested Development_ are self-absorbed and/or naive, but they mostly care about one another at some level. Lucille is the only character who is usually gratuitously mean. In some ways _Arrested Development_ is a sweet show. On _Veep_ the main characters mostly loathe one another (and anyone else they have to deal with), and are habitually utterly vicious to each other. ---
**Author:** ![LoneRhino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lonerhino/32/1311_2.png) [@LoneRhino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LoneRhino)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/15 "2020-04-02T20:15:37Z")
Arrested Development is funny. Veep is painfully not funny. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/16 "2020-04-03T00:58:51Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I find them to be quite different. AD, for my money, is one of the most tightly written comedies of all time, especially the first two seasons. There are just so many levels of humor going on and every time I rewatch, I seem to catch something I missed before. > > Veep is much more straightforward comedy, but I love it, as well. (Well, the last season wasn’t the greatest, but it maintained its momentum throughout most of its run.) Agree pretty much with this. I don’t know why they’re being compared because I really don’t think they’re comparable at all. It took me a few shows to get “into” _Veep_, but I loved _AD_ from the get-go. I definitely agree that there are so many little things you miss the first time or two you watch an _AD_ episode. The first time I watched each episode I know I missed lots of things because I was laughing so hard. _Veep_ is not a belly-laugh show. It’s not why it makes make me laugh. But, yeah, real life has turned that whole dynamic on its head. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/17 "2020-04-03T01:11:18Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Agree pretty much with this. I don’t know why they’re being compared because I really don’t think they’re comparable at all. It took me a few shows to get “into” _Veep_, but I loved _AD_ from the get-go. I definitely agree that there are so many little things you miss the first time or two you watch an _AD_ episode. The first time I watched each episode I know I missed lots of things because I was laughing so hard. > > _Veep_ is not a belly-laugh show. It’s not why it makes make me laugh. But, yeah, real life has turned that whole dynamic on its head. Yeah, Arrested Development was the first show I’ve truly binged. I discovered it somewhere mid-second season in early 2005, found it so absolutely fucking hilarious that I managed to dig up all the other episodes until that point in the season and watched in straight in a day and a half. That’s the only time, actually, that I’ve really binged on any series. It just hit every funny bone for me. Now, I understand it’s not for everyone, but, holy shit, is it funny. Now that I think of it, I may have done something similar with _Soap_. Slightly more spread out, but, fuck, those first couple seasons until they hit the weird alien plot line … golden. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/18 "2020-04-03T01:39:36Z")
> [@pool](#): > > While I never watched Veep, there is something just so loathable about Julia-Louis whatever Dreyfus. You’re entitled to your opinion, but in mine, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is pretty much the reason _Seinfeld_ was watchable (Jason Alexander is talented but his character is utterly obnoxious) and her performance in _VEEP_ is breathtakingly hilarious. I put her quasi-Amy Klobuchar impression right up there with Tracey Ullman’s [Dame Judi Dench](https://youtu.be/hNEfI6JnMJI), and I could watch that all day. > [@Colibri](#): > > I love both shows, but they’re rather different. In particular, _Veep_ is much more mean-spirited and cynical. Most of the characters in _Arrested Development_ are self-absorbed and/or naive, but they mostly care about one another at some level. Lucille is the only character who is usually gratuitously mean. In some ways _Arrested Development_ is a sweet show. On _Veep_ the main characters mostly loathe one another (and anyone else they have to deal with), and are habitually utterly vicious to each other. I don’t know if I’d say that about _Arrested Development_; pretty much all of the characters except for George-Michael are on the spectrum of malignant narcissists (even Michael, who plays the nice guy and good son while passive-aggressively harboring resentment and yet never cutting the cord for the benefit of his son). But while _Arrested Development_ has clear elements of classic comedy in the Shakespearean sense of the term (and I mean that literally; note Buster’s references to his “uncle-father” and all of the shenanigans that center around mistaken identity, and you see clear references to pretty much all of the Bard’s comedies) _VEEP_ is pure and unforgiving satire, and it takes no prisoners, making fun of politicians, lobbyists, opportunists, and the people who vote for them. The only remotely decent person on _VEEP_ is [Minna Häkkinen](https://youtu.be/HAItaBPQHAs), and by the time we are introduced to her the audience is so inculcated that everybody has ulterior motives and screams profane insults at each other behind closed doors that it seems that she just has to crack and show her true colors at some point. _VEEP_ isn’t really supposed to be funny in a set-up-and-deliver joke manner; it’s basically a torrent of insults between horrible people who, regardless of how absurd the writers try to make them, are recognized by people who actually work in government, except always as someone else. _VEEP_ is a mirror into our current polarized, can’t-be-too-nasty politics, and if you don’t think it’s funny it is probably because you aren’t cynical enough to be resigned to the notion that it has to be like this. _Parks & Rec_ is basically the softball version of _VEEP_, and I can certainly understand why someone would prefer that show with its shallow-and-flawed-but-essentially-decent characters to the cesspool that is _VEEP_. But as much as I am Ron Swanson (except I drink Laphroaig instead of Lagavulin because I am a slightly more perfect example of manhood) I find _VEEP_ to get far more deeply knowing laughs from me. It’s basically the _Catch-22_ of political comedy. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/19 "2020-04-03T03:00:32Z")
Both superb shows, and among my favourites. I think the really interesting comparison is between VEEP and The Thick of It as both originate with Armando Iannucci. Veep seems to me more concerned with actual political process, or at least it provides an external realistic framework within which the characters have to work their magic. In The Thick of It the characters are political (except Terry Coverley who is above all that) but the formal processes are essentially irrelevant apart from elections ushering in changes of government and cast. The action could as easily have been set in a company executive or the military. If you are interested in comedies about the political process but are not a fan of the language then I’d strongly recommend Australian series Utopia, set in a national infrastructure organisation. Very excellent. And, as Malcolm Tucker would say, ‘fuckety bye’. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrested-development-vs-veep/850873/20 "2020-04-03T03:30:32Z")
I could never get into _AD_, stupid people doing stupid things stupidly, and it took me a while to get into _Veep_. Viewers need to watch until they understand the dysfunctions that drive each character into the particular pit of awfulness they inhabit. It’s the difference between them and Dan Bakkedahl’s Sen. Furlong, who’s an asshole and that’s all we know about him. \*Veep \*got better and better because once regular viewers knew the characters the writers could skip all the establishing steps and just run them at top speed. The series probably peaked with Season 4, showrunner Armando Iannucci’s last. It never worked as well with Selena as President. Season 6, after she lost the presidency, was unwatchable, because the characters were just as despicable but there were no stakes or consequences through their actions, Season 7, the last, worked far better because it showed the naked hunger for power that drives so many politicians and that gave meaning to all the nastiness. Garry Trudeau’s _Alpha House_ is very similar to \*Veep \*but toned down to an approximation of the way human beings speak. I’ve just started it but it was far easier to slip into than _Veep_.