Veep, 2012-2019.
Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons, Matt Walsh, Sufe Bradshaw, Kevin Dunn, Gary Cole, Sam Richardson, Sarah Sutherland, and Clea DuVall.
SYNOPSIS:
Even if you’re not very interested in politics, you’ll likely find a lot to like in HBO’s series Veep, which has been collected in a complete series box set on Blu-ray for the first time. The extras are heavy on commentary tracks and deleted scenes, which will give you a nice overview of the show’s evolution by the time you’re done with all seven seasons. Highly recommended if you’re a fan.
A few years ago, I did a rewatch of Veep and got some comedic mileage out of telling people it reminded me of when politics was just a regular shitshow, as opposed to a nuclear grade shitshow.
As I type this, that nuclear grade shitshow continues as a man who lost the popular vote twice and spurred a violent assault on the US Capitol has a very real chance of becoming President again.
I won’t belabor the current situation, but I’ll just say this: I want to go back to a time when the Democratic and Republican nominees for President were both sane candidates and election-related shenanigans don’t involve evacuating the Capitol building. (Yes, I know about the infamous “Brooks Brothers riot” in 2000, but that seems tame compared to the events of January 6, 2021.)
That’s the environment lampooned so brilliantly in Veep, which stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer, the current vice-president with a desire to eventually reach the White House. Her staff includes well-meaning chief of staff Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky); inept director of communications Mike McLintock (Matt Walsh); slimy deputy director of communications Dan Egan (Reid Scott); and people-pleasing personal aide Gary Walsh (Tony Hale).
Timothy Simons plays the role of Jonah Ryan, an ineffectual White House liaison who annoys the staff every time he shows up and who later becomes a Congressman. His character arc is one of the best in the show, in my opinion.
During the course of Veep’s 65 episodes spread across seven seasons, Meyer deals with a wide variety of scandals, interpersonal politics, and other headaches in her quest to become President and cement her legacy. I won’t be more specific than that, to avoid spoilers, but I’ll just say that the series takes viewers on a roller-coaster that, yes, features a ton of improbable events but also puts a funhouse mirror to the kinds of things that probably really happen in a Vice-President’s office. (Key words: funhouse mirror.)
Veep previously appeared on Blu-ray in individual season sets, so this is the first time the entire series has been compiled in one collection. I’m not aware of any new bonus features being created for this release, but the content included in the previous season sets was plenty for fans.
You’ll find 13 discs in this collection, with a pair of platters for each season except the final one, which was the shortest with seven episodes. The extras are the standard fare. I’d love to see a nice long documentary looking back on the show at some point, but what you’ll find here is enough to keep you busy for a while.
The first season’s discs kick off the extras with a bang. You’ll find 12 commentary tracks spread across the eight episodes, along with 25 minutes of deleted scenes, a 13-minute making-of featurette, and five minutes of outtakes.
The deleted scenes found here, and this is true of the excised footage included with later seasons, highlight moments when the ensemble cast did a bit of riffing. Veep was scripted, of course, so the improv wasn’t on the same level as a show like Curb Your Enthusiasm, but those bits of footage showcase the actors’ comedic chops in certain situations. And that makes sense, given the level of absurdity found in many of the show’s plot points.
The extras start to pare back a bit, of course, as you progress through the next five seasons. Not every episode gets one commentary track, let alone two, and season four has none. You’ll still find plenty of deleted scenes throughout, though, which is nice.
However, the final season ups the ante for the grand finale, with commentary tracks for all seven episodes, including a pair of tracks for the series ender. You also get about nine minutes of retrospective thoughts on the show, including, of course, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s comments about the evolution of her character.
And there you have it. Politics will continue to be a great source of inspiration for shows like Veep, but let’s return to the shitshow it’s always been and try to forget about the lunatic trying to break the country. (My money is on him being a perfect storm that won’t be easily recreated, thankfully.)
Brad Cook
