Veep

No surprise, Louis-Dreyfus and one of the best ensemble casts of the 21st century are as sharp and fast and flat-out hilarious as they’ve ever been. This show makes me laugh out loud--even when I’m equal parts in awe and appalled by a 2019 television show with the, um, brass to feature running jokes about mass shootings and abortion.

Every year, it has seemed like Veep wouldn't be able to top itself, but the innovative and unrelenting comedy just kept doing it anyway, every year, without fail.

The dialogue is, as always, ribald and inspired. [10 Apr 2015, p.59]

As it turns out, Veep might be even more hilarious if it didn't hit so uncomfortably close to the truth.

This season is so much more effective that it’s practically a master class in how tweaks can transform a series--and in how hard it is to judge a sitcom early on.

Almost everyone speaks in the same rat-a-tat voice, which, as some discovered with Aaron Sorkin on “The Newsroom,” can begin to yield diminishing returns. The series also remains a bit too precious in sidestepping issues of partisanship, a conceit that has grown somewhat more tolerable over time. For all that, the Emmy-winning Louis-Dreyfus remains an inordinately gifted comedic actress.

Mistaking vulgarity for comic edge and very thinly stretched punnery for wit, Veep is less a trenchant satire about contemporary politics than it is a relentlessly mean-spirited spectacle about crummy people.

what a ride. sharp dialogues. consistently clever. a comedy, about what? politics and it nails it. every episode delivers, making politics feel deservingly entertaining.

This is a really good show that borders on greatness with its clever insult style of comedy.