Matt Smith reviews the third episode of Veep season two…
Veep is an interesting series in that it treads carefully the line between comedy and drama, while also treading the line between farce and tragedy. Too much of one and it’s too dogged, too depressing and ends up too slow and focused on character. Too much of the other and it gets too zany, jokes getting in the way of plot and characters becoming shells and archetypes of what they should truly be.
Treading the line carefully, but falling this week, is Selina Meyer. She makes a visit to a military base and then makes a speech about hostages trapped abroad. Meanwhile, Sue (Sufe Bradshaw) has to make her own appearance at a hearing concerning office efficiency.
It sounds boring when it comes down to the plot, and that’s one of the beauties of the series. If this were played straight, it’d just be an extremely dry character study. Veep is that with one-liners. The selfishness of human beings is a main theme running through both Veep and The Thick of It, and Veep once again never lets a character receive too much good fortune and therefore have the chance to be virtuous for anything other than their sake. And that runs through the main plotline of this week’s episode.
Despite the seemingly darker and cynical description of the humour, it fortunately never gets too callous. The one-liners are all usually funny and always smart and pithy. The finale, though, does feel like a dark sitcom (‘He was two days away from retirement!’), and it’s too light on consequences when the end comes so quickly after the main plotline is resolved. Next week the events that took place probably won’t be mentioned, taking one of the negatives about sitcoms (characters not growing and events not really mattering once they’re over) and brashly expecting the audience to forget just as easily.
Along with that, sometimes the comedy strays towards making everyone in DC look like a stand up comedian. Pop culture references abound at times, usually because someone looks like someone else. Unfortunately the one-liners are the only thing some of the minor characters get to do this time around.
While the series is a hilarious take on real world events (hostage crises and situation rooms bring to mind both Carter and Obama), another element that makes Veep seem more real is that everyone has their own objective, their own mission and selfish reasons to do what they do. This week it’s all about Selina; and while that’s no bad thing the lack of supporting character arcs is a little bit of a shame.
Just like Selina Meyer, this week’s episode treads the line carefully and does fall at times. But, like the sitcom, this week’s episode is entertaining enough that the next episode will bring viewers back. Due to the straining for reality combined with the conventions of the most unrealistic TV format around this episode seems like a mixed bag when you think about it for more than a few minutes. Maybe that’s an analysis that’s gone too far, but Veep always felt like a series that didn’t just play for laughs but tried to say something about it’s chosen subject. This week the sitcom format of thirty minutes has left too little time for both laughs and commentary. This week the episode feels like a lighter, fluffier example of satire.
Matt Smith – follow me on Twitter.
Originally published November 7, 2013. Updated April 15, 2018.
