HBO’S first-rate Veep plays politics for laughs
Those rascals at HBO have gone and done it again.
With Veep, they’ve given viewers yet another outstanding adult comedy full of wit, insight and the occasional biting satire.
It’s also full of coarse language. If all those alphabet words (f-word, b-word, sword, etc.) offend you, then stay away. The language, however, is not gratuitous.
Veep debuts at 9 p.m. today and gives us insight into the harried political world of Vice President Selina Meyer, played with appropriate consternation by Julia LouisDreyfus. The first season has eight episodes.
Louis-dreyfus is perfectly cast as the hectored former senator who was a bright and rising party star until she found herself elected vice president.
Now she’s surrounded by a scrum of equally harried and incessantly texting aides. She is the sun to a chaotic orbiting clutch of young politicos all jockeying for position or favor or better parking spaces.
The series is a sometimes vicious observation of how the game is played in Washington. It’s mutual backscratching on a massive scale with broad implications. It’s a tap dance. It’s tiptoeing through minefields. It’s stomping out political fires. It’s a farce.
The comedy was created by Armando Iannucci, who was nominated for an Oscar for co-writing the 2009 British political comedy In the Loop.
Iannucci does not intend to make the office of vice president the butt of jokes.
“We needed to push away from that,” Iannucci told HBO. “[The office] is not a joke as such, but it’s what happens in politics that turns it ridiculous.
“Veep is not about someone who is not good at her job, it’s about someone with considerable talents, who is in a situation that increasingly becomes more and more ridiculous.
“She’s a former senator with a good deal of power and influence, so, suddenly to go from there to having a huge office and huge staff, but not really knowing what your days consist of, is a strange, psychological twist.”
Don’t expect HBO to be espousing a particular party line with Veep. The point is not liberal or conservative, but rather the absurdity of politics.
“You’ll never see the president, or hear what party he’s in,” Iannucci said. “The whole show is really about the process of how the White House deals with Congress, and fundraising as this perpetual machine, and the whole business of dealing with the media and travel.” Louis-dreyfus agrees. “It’s not a partisan show in any way,” she said, “and we’re not parodying any particular person, male or female. It’s really a show about political behavior, as opposed to politics. You can see people making wrong decisions for the right reasons, and right decisions for the wrong reasons. Nothing is black and white.”
About her character’s duties, Louis-dreyfus added, “Everything depends on the relationship the vice president has with the president. There have been examples of relationships that have been highly functioning and others that were highly dysfunctional. We’re playing it so that their relationship is fairly dysfunctional.”
Still, Selina Meyer is a fairly savvy player in town.
“Someone who’s in the position to become vice president is a political animal,” Louis-dreyfus said. “You can be sure of that. And you can also be sure it wasn’t their aspiration to become vice president.”
The vice president’s highly skilled yet quirky staff includes chief of staff Amy (Anna Chlumsky), spokesman Mike (Matt Walsh), right-hand man Gary (Tony Hale), and executive assistant Sue (Sufe Bradshaw).
Think of them as just like the ensemble on The West Wing, only funnier and across the street (or through a tunnel) at the ornate Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Back to Jersey. Here’s my personal opinion: Any hour spent with any real housewife of any city is an hour I will never get back. I’d rather listen to an hour of ska.
That said, The Real Housewives of New Jersey returns to Bravo at 9 p.m. today. Think of it as a lowbrow alternative to HBO’S highbrow offering at the same hour.
Bravo says, “Season 4 breaks down the walls to reveal the truth behind all the tabloid rumors. The first episode sets the stage for a dramatic season answering fans’ burning question: Why did Jacqueline Laurita not attend the Season 3 reunion?”
Burning? Seriously?