Veep is a fantastic show, easily in my top 10 comedies ever. It's super prescient and has a unique style of humor all its own, filled with creative insults and sheer unadulterated chaos. It's great stuff, though its slow first season still has some growing pains to overcome.
Veep is a show about the vice president of the United States of America, Selina Meyer. A selfish jerk who feels she's been locked out of the government process and is stuck racing around the not-White House trying to put out fires. Season 1 mostly focuses on Selina trying to implement a Clean Jobs bill, despite being continuously blocked and shut out by the president. It's a solid first storyline, though we don't get too much time to really explore it before the bill gets shut down in the fifth episode. This season also introduces the many side characters who are a part of Selina's team. They're all pretty likable and mostly have their own subplots that end up getting resolved in the penultimate episode. Keep in mind that I said penultimate episode, the one genuinely large issue I have with Season 1's plot is that it resolves pretty much everything (even tying up the loose ends around the bill) in the second to last episode. The finale feels fairly tacked-on and inconsequential by comparison.
The big problem with Season 1 of Veep is that it's just too short. Having watched many comedies, I've noticed that their first seasons tend to be some of the weakest due to the growing pains of the cast and writing, so whenever a sitcom's first season is really short (The Office, Parks And Rec), it's usually not very good since it doesn't have the time to grow into its own. Veep actually has a better start than the aforementioned shows, as its unique brand of chaotic comedy is established right from the very first season. My favorite thing about Veep (especially in the first four seasons) are those scenes where Selina and the team are frantically trying to put out fires only for more problems to pop up, as they slowly get more and more panicked to the point where they start screaming at each other. It's always a good time and those kinds of scenes are there right from the very beginning of the show. However, it's not until halfway through Season 1 where the writing starts to make me laugh a lot more consistent, and by the time the season starts to really get into its groove, it's already over.
Highlights:
Nicknames: This was the first really good episode of Veep for me, with a nice balance of comedy and story. For the former, there's the hilarious subplot of Selina getting heated at the nicknames people callher online. For the latter, there's Selina having to vote against her own bill, showing her at her most bitter and disillusioned yet.
Full Disclosure: As mentioned above, it's the penultimate episode where the main storyline of Season 1 gets resolved, and with all the secrets and tensions lingering in the air at this point, you get an episode that feels like it's almost entirely one of those "chaotic scenes" I brought up earlier in the review. There's the pregnancy test, the Macauley scandal, Amy potentially getting fired, and it all gets paid off in a grand sequence in Selina's office that's simultaneously tense and hilarious. Seriously, why wasn't this the finale?
Overall, Season 1 of Veep is a solid start for the series, doing a great job of introducing the characters and establishing the show's humor. However, it's also really short, ending right when it's starting to get really good, and has a pretty underwhelming final episode.
2/5 Stars
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