Matt Smith reviews the season finale of Veep season three…
So, Selina Meyer is in trouble. Can she show she’s human by pretending to be human?
The season finale has left Meyer in a bit of trouble, as she struggles in the polls to be in the running for President. Can she, in the rich tradition of a farce, have everything be turned around for her, by the writers that are the staff that make Veep work?
The modern politician is once again lampooned by the show. In one scene, after announcing that she doesn’t have time to talk to someone, Meyer practices talking to people in a mirror. Veep is full of these moments, showing how politicians are seen as too busy trying to get votes to do anything that would actually get votes.
So during this double bill, top becomes bottom and left becomes right. With everything happening in a crazy whirl, what’re the odds that Selina Meyer can be back on top? Pretty good, if the fourth series being commissioned is anything to go by. Just like how Veep follows the tradition of the farcical sitcom, it also follows the tradition of making the same thing but making the situation bigger. While the first series she struggles with being the Vice-President, this time around she’s given the oval office with similar-style problems coming up.
While it never goes fully into drama, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is fantastic in this episode. The emotional rollercoaster she goes through as she learns she won’t be President, then gets given the news that she will be in just a few days, is something to watch. And it’s topped off with a small but perfectly primed piece of satire showing what it’s sometimes like to live in America.
But with the first female President being unveiled, is Veep actively trying to predict the future? While situations the writers have come up with have somehow turned out to actually happen soon after, it feels like the show could be setting itself up for some satire that’s a little too on the nose with the emergence of Hillary Clinton.
In both a perhaps realistic and fitting move, the final part of the finale goes from uplifting happiness to utter anger. Will Selina Meyer be able to hold it together as leader of ‘the most powerful nation in the world’?
Overall, the season finale does well, even if the end destination for its title character seems a little obvious as that’s where it seems like she’d never be in the beginning. And it does present a problem when it comes to the title of the show. Will she still be President by the time season four comes around? And if she is, how will she deal with Jonah?
Matt Smith – follow me on Twitter.
Originally published September 18, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
