I gave up on the show after the first season - just didn’t hook me - but have read a little bit about it since then. I understand Selina is now President. What happened? The more details, the better. Did we ever actually see her predecessor, or was he always an offscreen presence?
Thanks.
The President was always off-screen. He’s decided to step down because of his wife’s mental health, so Selina is now at-bat. The show is a masterpiece of subtlety and satire, so you may want to go have another look. The interaction between Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tony Hale is an education in comedy performance art. See this article. The season 3 finale was hilarious.
I just started watching VEEP.
I absolutely love the dry comedy and the great timing.
Definitely my favorite show right now.
Man, I love Veep. It’s the opposite of House of Cards; rather than a mastermind playing three dimensional chess in his head, it’s a bunch of shallow narcissist worrying about who has the nicer office. I think it is much closer to the truth. My favorite episode is when she has Gary break up with her boyfriend.
Not only do you never see the president, you never know what party Selena belongs to. It really doesn’t matter.
Agreed, totally. I didn’t warm to it quickly, but since I love everything else the UK writers have done, I persevered. I’m so glad I did. Julia and Tony are up there with the Kelsey Grammar and David Hyde Pierce in the comedy masterclass stakes, imo.
I’ve been watching it since the beginning and I’m curious how it will be now that she’s POTUS. Part of the humor was in the stupid shit that the vice-president is relegated to do and how powerless she was.
Apparently some of the scenes are ad-lib. The linked article talks about a scene between the two of them where they are talking in the hallway. Selena abruptly walks away from Gary while he’s still talking and enters another room. She holds her purse out and drops it, clearly expecting him to be there to catch it. Just before doing the scene, they agreed that he would catapult himself into the room and do just that.
Thanks, everyone.
Hmm. What, in particular, is wrong with the (now former) First Lady?
The specifics of her mental illness were vague but sufficiently severe to prompt a suicide attempt that was hushed up.
The president had been embroiled in a scandal. There were some American students taken (one of whom was a CIA spy). The US rescued them, but then it was revealed that the CIA had a spy among the students, putting the real students at risk. The president flirts with resigning, meanwhile his wife slips into a depression and tries to kill herself. The president resigns to take care of her.
Most of this happens off screen, although Selina’s involvement in overseeing the rescue operation was a plot point. It kind of parodies photo of the cabinet room the killing of Osama bin Laden.
BTW, I also love the movie In the Loop, by the creator of Veep.
I think the first episode of season 4 showed great promise with the new premise.
Though they don’t outright say it, I think it’s pretty clear she’s a Democrat since she gets into trouble with her Clean Jobs initiative because she puts oil people on the committee and powerful folks in her own party are pissed with her about that.
But yes, it doesn’t really matter.
People - the president and first lady did not die!
I agree with this too. I’ve seen the first season of House of Cards, plus a couple of episodes of the second season. And I’ve seen about six episodes of Veep.
I describe it the same way to people - it’s the opposite of House of Cards, but I think it’s closer to how Washington actually works: a bunch of people being blown by the political winds, and trying to make themselves look good and on top of things.
I love this show for all the clever insulting intra-office banter, but I find myself fast-forwarding over any cringe-inducing scenes where Selina Meyer has to appear in public, which so far is pretty much every scene where she appears in public. How this character got elected Senator in the first place with such a maladroit and tone-deaf public speaking style is elusive.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t be more comfortable in the book depository next door?”
I liked that line, but I was more surprised that there was actually a window that offered such a view of the Oval Office (or at least this TV show portrays such). I figured he was being sent off on a snipe hunt for a fictional “First Lady Lookout Perch” or whatever they called it. As best I can figure, the real-world equivalent of that window is somewhere in the Domestic Policy offices.
I watch it, but I wouldn’t miss it. It’s got some good pointed political humor mixed in with some social satire which isn’t always as good. Dreyfus makes everything she’s in worth watching, the rest of the cast seem so-so to me. It may not be a barrel of laughs, but it’s a well produced sitcom with an unusual perspective. The tough part now will be that the character is now the Pres instead of the Veep, because VPs are naturally comic characters.
Thanks, all.
I guess I’m an outlier, because I forced myself to get through the first season by convincing myself it would click at some point. It never did. Aside from a few quiet chuckles, I just didn’t find it funny. I kept hearing how it was the “new Arrested Development”, but it didn’t even come close for me. I have a friend that appears in one of the episodes in the new season and I’m probably just going to watch that one episode and call it quits.