'Veep': The Grand Comedy Of Out-of-Control Power
The fifth season of Veep that premieres on Sunday is charged with the energy and anxiety surrounding the Electoral College tie in the fourth-season Presidential election that left Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Selina Meyer in doubt about her status as Commander in Chief. That crisis now provides the HBO sitcom with a manic comic propulsion that gives the new season an immediate jolt of pleasure.
The show is rarely better than when Meyer is under pressure — Louis-Dreyfus can get laughs just from the intensity with which she furrows her brow — and the opening episodes made available for review showcase the President’s lack of grace under pressure to full, hilarious effect. The premiere begins the day after voting has ended, and the President’s staff has erupted in a frantic attempt to take control of the vote count. Experts are called in to help the President seal the deal on her new term; they include Martin Mull as a folksy old pro who inadvertently ends up causing more chaos than assurance. Mad Men’s John Slattery turns up as an economic advisor (the uncertainty over American leadership is causing a Wall Street tumble) who catches Selina’s eye as a romantic prospect.
As always, anything that can go wrong will, and it’s the manner in which Meyer and her staff, especially Anna Chlumsky’s Amy, Kevin Dunn’s Ben, Gary Cole’s Kent, press secretary Mike (Matt Walsh), and long-suffering assistant Gary (Tony Hale), react to constant, inevitable bad news — mostly with obscenity-festooned fury — that provide Veep’s most sustained laughs. Any fears that the departure of series creator Armando Iannucci would result in a diminishment of quality are immediately allayed. New showrunner David Mandel demonstrates a firm command and light touch in keeping the new episodes centered around Louis-Dreyfus and Selina’s bursts of anger, her deflations of despair, and her reactions to both the stupidity and shrewd mendacity of her staff.
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I wouldn’t think of quoting specific lines, since so much of their effectiveness is tied to the actors’ delivery of them. And there’s a joke about Charlie Rose in the fourth episode that I would not spoil for anything, except to say that I choked on my coffee when the punchline popped up. Veep is the best way to momentarily forget about the real-life Presidential-race frenzy going on these days.
Veep airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. on HBO.
