A thread for Armando Iannucci's VEEP

We're still an episode behind but I was worried we weren't going to see Minna in this series and I was so overjoyed when she turned up.

selina's pawn sacrifice was as wrenching, and as pointed, as anything we've seen on Game of Thrones

the more I think about it the better this season was. Great way to go out.

They absolutely nailed the final Gary scene

What a great final episode. What great old age make-up!

WHO WANTS MARGARITAS?!

I wonder if or how they would have ended the show differently if Trump were not president?

the scene where she is yelling at amy in the skybox, where she delivers that entire monologue with her teeth bared, was incredible

i also laughed so hard at the funeral coverage being pre-empted that i completely missed the "star of philadelphia and philadelphia 2" joke that apparently happened

so what's the best show on hbo now? barry?

Gentleman Jack on HBO

i'll check it out this week! thanks for the tip

for all that this became an operatic wonder of selina in excelsis, the best line was splett about jonah's beets mystery

really one of the best finales i've seen. some absolutely magnificent scenery chewing in the skybox scene. respect that they went out on a high note of cynicism and bile.

When Gary asks her if she wants six almonds and she yells "No!" so loudly it blows him back across the room.

as tiresome as I sometimes found Congressman Furlong and Will, the “I like jizz” line in the coda was amazing

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/05/game-of-thrones-veep-selina-meyer-daenerys-targaryen

i appreciate that they let andrew live

i don't watch GoT but I did think during the Veep finale 'this must be better than whatever that other show is doing'

it was!

as tiresome as I sometimes found Congressman Furlong and Will, the “I like jizz” line in the coda was amazing

― the public eating of beans (Sparkle Motion), Tuesday, May 14, 2019 9:58 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lol “He just ain’t what he used to be”

This was an excellent finale. I thought that the only way this show could do the horror and absurdity of our current moment any justice would be to make Jonah president but the way it actually played out was great and true to the characters.

Tom Hanks bit at the end was the perfect capstone.

Also loved that Mike McClintock apparently ended up having an extremely long tenure at CBS

I had avoided checking this thread lately but now that I have finished watching the whole final season I must say I'm very surprised by the good reviews here.
I thought the whole season was a mess and worst of all, not very funny and very forced (until the final episode, mostly).
And I have loved this show from the start... Maybe I missed something ?

The Gary issue at the convention and final was great though.

I didn't buy Amy's turn, but I thought the rest of the season did a really good job completing Selina's transformation from desperation to by-all-means-necessary dangerous, even past the broad limits of her cynical team. This was also the first season to reflect directly current US politics, which it blazed through and past quickly, but in some ways that made the insanity resonate even more for me.

Says something that Richard and Mike fail up so impressively.

Yeah it gets very dark (and even moving eventually, who'd thought THIS show would !) but I don't know, most of the season wasn't funny for me.

“Do you think all great leaders are just sociopaths living a lie?”

this is a line from this week’s SUPERSTORE but it probably sums up VEEP

This was an excellent finale. I thought that the only way this show could do the horror and absurdity of our current moment any justice would be to make Jonah president but the way it actually played out was great and true to the characters.

i think part of the point the show was making is that selina is only marginally better than jonah--she did un-free tibet and end gay marriage, after all.

Yeah I liked that everyone was predicting either splett or Jonah as the inevitable victor, and they ended up doing both and neither with the actual outcome of this election even more depressing

The post Iannucci seasons aren’t the best but I thought this was a really strong finish with a lot of enjoyably daft fan service at the end. Kent’s “fuck the numbers” outburst, like glen’s at the end of the thick of it, shows the hollowness of soulless politicos having their deathbed network moment

I greatly enjoyed the last season but ... the show's natural ending was the end of season 5.

The only issue I really had with the season was that Jonah's character seemed suddenly a lot more puerile than the eariier seasons. But I haven't seen those in a while.

xpost she permanently banned gay marriage!

That's like double secret probation.

The only issue I really had with the season was that Jonah's character seemed suddenly a lot more puerile than the eariier seasons. But I haven't seen those in a while.

Was he that stupid in the first seasons? I always thought of him as the outsider/thirstier version of Dan.

Jonah was always stupid. He got stupider, but strategically.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6zB4VJznEU

But yeah, he (and Mike) got ridiculous, in the best way, like they were some combination of stoned (in Mike's case) or brain-damaged (in Jonah's).

I’m kinda tempted to change my iPhone text notification sound to Peter MacNicol hissing “shut the duck up!”

They definitely adapted mike’s character as they went along, I remember the iteration of him in the pilot being a loser but quite sharp-witted?

Stupid phone lol

Gary is bad tbh (character and performance) this is consistent

― blog haus aka the scene raver (wins), Sunday, 2 July 2017 18:28 (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah gary this season didn't feel right. they really tried to play up the angle of him being in love with selina, where it was never really about that previously. some weird nod to his arrested development character maybe

plus i know it's always been a bombardment of gags but it felt muddled and almost exhausting at times, so much dialogue done so quickly, im sure i missed a shit ton of jokes.

― NI, Sunday, 2 July 2017 19:11 (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I meant Gary was always bad - bad idea - they shouldn't have done it

― blog haus aka the scene raver (wins), Sunday, 2 July 2017 19:21 (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

we've all seen a Smithers before this was just terribly conceived and executed from the beginning

― blog haus aka the scene raver (wins), Sunday, 2 July 2017 19:23 (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I still hold this opinion tbh, found the whole approach to this character really annoying and forced pretty much start to finish and would not have minded his being written out in like s2. The betrayal was nicely done tho

Agree. I get why Gary was there, and it did give the finale its biggest payoff, but I always found him hard to watch.

They definitely adapted mike’s character as they went along, I remember the iteration of him in the pilot being a loser but quite sharp-witted?

― milkshake chuk (wins), Friday, May 17, 2019 8:50 AM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah mike's change was noticeable. he was always incompetent, but less of a buffoon in the earlier seasons. he was a lot meaner in the beginning, but his softening i think can be explained by his getting married and adopting (several) kids.

Really ? I find him and his relationship with Selina pretty fun throughout the series.
As for Jonah, yeah, he was pretty OTT stupid since the beginning... it just got worse, as impossible as that may seem.
At one point during this season, I was afraid Dan might become serious/nice regarding Amy... thankfully he didn't !

Yeah, Mike, especially with the wife/adopting kids issues might be the character I find the most annoying.

xpost
I was talking about Gary/Selina.

I like the broad, wacky cartoon characters (Jonah, splett, mcnicol) but even in comparison to those something about the physicality of the guy who plays Gary is really jarring to me and rubs me up the wrong way. I always hated the gag of him leaning in and murmuring something in selina’s ear that everyone else can clearly hear, and that was pretty much the only gag for a long time.

We all know a Mike in our workplace, which might explain his particular strain of annoyance.

I love Gary. You all are bonkers.

“Hard to watch” is a good phrase for how I feel, he bugs me on like a visceral level

I like Tony Hale ("guy who plays Gary") too.

I always hated the gag of him leaning in and murmuring something in selina’s ear that everyone else can clearly hear

I mean yeah, but obv the audience needs to hear what he's saying, I can suspend my disbelief for that.

in my brain it was like nobody could hear him because he was so bland that you needed to "attune" to him like some sort of magic sword, otherwise his voice sounded like camo