Review: Julia Louis-Drefyus in HBO's 'Veep'
'Seinfeld' alum shines in new political satire from 'Thick of It' creator Armando Iannucci
Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tony Hale in "Veep."
Credit: HBO
Many jobs are what you make of them. When you become Vice President of the United States, though, the job is what the President lets you make of it. Sometimes, the VP gets invested with tremendous power, as President Bush the younger did with Dick Cheney; other times, the VP is marginalized as quickly as possible, as President Bush the elder did with Dan Quayle.
Selina Meyer, the heroine (of sorts) of the new HBO comedy "Veep" (Sunday at 10 p.m.), desperately wants to be a Cheney, but is instead more of a Quayle.
We frequently see Selina enter her office asking her assistant if the President has called. The answer is always no. She's so disconnected from the man in charge that he's never actually glimpsed in the series, instead represented by a twentysomething goon named Jonah whom everyone in Selina's office despises, even as they recognize that his low-level job in the west wing makes him more powerful than all of them combined.
But Selina never stops dreaming of mattering, even if her pet issues are either dry (filibuster reform) or obscure (replacing all the plastic cutlery in Washington with more environmentally-friendly forks and knives made of corn starch), and even though she's too busy putting out fires of her own creation to get anything else done.
"Veep" was created by Scottish writer/director Armando Iannucci, whose political satire series "The Thick of It" won awards and devoted fans in the UK before being spun off into the continent-spanning film "In the Loop." Now he's doing a series set in the United States, with a beloved star in Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer and other familiar faces like Tony Hale (as Selina's body man Gary) and "In the Loop" holdover Anna Chlumsky (as her chief of staff Amy).
The accents are different, as is the system of government, but the angle and withering sense of humor are the same. Iannucci's satire isn't about ideology.(*) His characters aren't liberal or conservative. (It's never even hinted what party Selina is in.) They have no beliefs other than a desire for more power — or, when that fails, to hang onto the power they currently have, at all costs.
(*) Inevitably, some people who haven't seen the show have assumed it's some kind of Sarah Palin parody, when, gender aside, Selina has about as much in common with Palin as she does with Estes Kefauver.
When Selina gets word that her toothless Clean Jobs Commission is on the verge of being approved, she boasts, "That is so great for me!" Amy, who still has a thimble of idealism left running through her veins, asks, "And the country?," prompting Selina to clumsily pivot and say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah! That's what I meant!" When she's briefly placed in charge of the country while the President is experiencing chest pains, it's all Selina can do to hide her glee.
And it's not even that she's necessarily a bad person. There's a sense that she once had beliefs that, like those of most of her colleagues and underlings, were slowly ground down after years of being part of the political machine.
As Jonah (Timothy Simons) neatly sums up the apathy and priorities of this town, "When a sexual harasser dies, we sign his wife's card! That's how Washington works!"
It's a fantastic role for Dreyfus, capturing that same Elaine Benes sense of a person who thinks they're smart constantly realizing they're doing something colossally stupid. She tears into Iannucci's dialogue, particularly the creative profanity he had so much fun deploying in "The Thick of It."
There's a kind of collective glee coming from the ensemble, really. Matt Walsh goes to town with the role of Selina's press secretary Mike, who's all but given up on taking any pleasure in his job. Realizing everyone at a party knew a piece of bad news before he did, he sighs, "I'm like the last guy in 'Human Centipede' in this."
Hale has struggled since "Arrested Development" to find a role that didn't make him into a total cartoon, but he finally has the right part as Gary, whom everyone on the staff mocks even as they recognize his unrelenting loyalty to Selina and his unusual skillset. (As Amy explains with admiration while watching Gary aide Selina on a receiving line, he's "like a human teleprompter for small talk.")
In its first three episodes, "Veep" feels like a cut below what I've seen of Iannucci's UK work, if only because it lacks a galvanizing figure like Peter Capaldi's wicked, staggeringly vulgar bureaucrat Malcolm Tucker. But other characters get to utter some hilariously Tucker-esque lines(**), the ensemble works incredibly well together — in marked contrast to Selina's dysfunction, competitive staff — and there's a briskness and intelligence to the whole shebang.
(**) If your strongest memory of Chlumsky is still from "My Girl," then it's particularly bracing to hear Vada Sultenfuss cuss like a longshoreman.
Though the theme song sounds a bit like it could have been part of the score of "The West Wing," this isn't a remotely optimistic show. The Washington that Selina Meyer knows is the place where, at any moment, she can be warned that "the utensils are politicized."
Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupBalaji K
April 20, 2012 at 9:28AM EST Reply to CommentGirls premiere was disappointing. I hope Veep is better.
floretbroccoli
April 20, 2012 at 10:23AM EST Reply to CommentI don't suppose there's any hint of a guest appearance by Capaldi? I've loved hin going all the way back to Local Hero. One of my favorite things about Craig Ferguson is that he was in a band with Capaldi in Scotland.
Zach R.
April 20, 2012 at 10:28AM EST Reply to CommentHere's hoping this show is actually funny unlike the last comedy premiere HBO had.
mook
April 20, 2012 at 10:40AM EST Reply to CommentI am so excited for this show.
If we get one line as classic as "Difficult, difficult, lemon, difficult" or "Fuckety-bye-bye, then.", I'll be ecstatic.
LJA
April 20, 2012 at 10:54AM EST Reply to CommentWait, I can't get past the sentence that says "Scottish writer/director Armando Iannucci." That guy's not Italian?
Iain Lots of people with Italian names in Scotland.
April 20, 2012 at 11:41AM ESTLoretta_ Same exact thought process went through my head.
April 20, 2012 at 11:43AM ESTmook Same way we have African, Asian, and Indian names in America, LJA...
April 20, 2012 at 1:32PM ESTfraac Ha. I supposed in America 'Scottish' means someone descended from Scots, whereas in Britain it means someone from Scotland. Search Youtube for The Armando Iannucci Shows - full episodes are up.
April 20, 2012 at 1:53PM ESTAlan doesn't mention it but Iannucci was also producer of The Day Today, Brass Eye and all Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge stuff. Basically all the best British comedy of the last 20 years.
boffo Oh, he did Alan Partridge, too? Loved that show.
April 20, 2012 at 3:55PM ESTlem Indycar racer/ mr. Ashley Judd -Dario Franchitti: Scottish
April 20, 2012 at 9:47PM ESTGeoff There was a strong immigration of Italians to Scotland after the War.
April 24, 2012 at 12:00AM ESTLamps8
April 20, 2012 at 8:09PM EST Reply to CommentEven if it's half as amazing as The thick of it, it will be one of the funniest shows on tv. Can't wait.
PS: everyone should watch the thick of it
CinemaPsycho
April 21, 2012 at 2:29AM EST Reply to CommentCan't wait to see this. In the Loop made me laugh hard more than any other comedy in the last 5 years. "Hey, baby from Eraserhead!" had me on the floor. Really wish more people had seen that movie.
Drea
April 21, 2012 at 2:52AM EST Reply to CommentAnything is better than GIRLS
J
April 22, 2012 at 3:49PM EST Reply to CommentI'm looking forward to people being puerile and reactionary on the internet about a new half hour of television! It's so important that this happens, and it's great that this can happen all the time! I cannot wait for bold, unconsidered damnations based on five minute sequences and actors' resumes! Let's make this happen, people!
MT
April 22, 2012 at 9:19PM EST Reply to CommentI hope that this show is a firm believer in the carrot and stick approach.
805
April 23, 2012 at 12:13PM EST Reply to CommentVeep is great. I laughed a lot during the first episode. HBO needed a funny woman badly.