A thread for Armando Iannucci's VEEP

Richard is an A+ addition to the show; dude's comic timing is excellent
i like that the more power JLD gets, the worse of a human being she becomes
the basic iannucci principle seems to be that the best thing about absolute power is that you don't have to take responsibility for your actions

this show is never not funny per se but sometimes the cringe comedy style is grating

I feel like this show is missing a malcolm tucker type and that's a notable if not crippling deficiency - although ben the chief of staff comes close

& while this is obviously a satire I have to say that literally everything gary does has long since passed the point of being remotely plausible behavior by a human, even for a sycophantic assistant in the beltway - maybe it's just how one-note tony hale is idk

idk i find hale's character believable. aren't there so many ppl in politics - actual politicians, and staff, etc - that you wonder how they made it so far considering how bizarre they are? and the answer is normally that the entropy of the system creates a condition where you met the right person and ten years later you're still working with them.

adding hugh laurie's character was a total masterstroke imo, he's the malcolm tucker of this bullshit

"I don't care if you're a 1950s radio broadcaster. your fozzie bear's been ripped up and used to smuggle heroin. *points to ken* and nazi doctor...*points to gary* and I don't even know what the fuck you are!!!*

not quite as good as malcolm's "sanitarium for the fuckin deaf" rant but close

ben is great but he has a weariness and lack of concern w/power that you wouldn't see in malcolm

malcolm was like the omar of ttoi, the villain with a heart of gold, everyone on earth petrified of him, a supernatural being almost, with the power to bestow life or death

richard is completely all-time at this point

feel like the show has gotten a little slower, more telegraphed, more curb-y, not a bad thing though necessarily

yea Jonah & Richard are amazing

I lol'd that they really had Jonah w/ a Nissan cube after making that reference a few seasons ago

also lol'd so much @ jld can u guys just pick up all this shit tomorrow and fuck u america

chlumsky's kiss-off speech coupla eps ago was weirdly unsatisfying, maybe her character is too uptight to properly deliver it i dunno. it reminded me of ben stiller's equally damp rant to the stewardess at the end of meet the parents, you're supposed to identify with what they're saying, this voicing of long suppressed irritation, but when they've done you're just kinda eh is that all you got?

Richard is definitely the star turn. His low-key introduction last series was a turning point.

Hard not to see the inquiry that will close this season as anything other than a rerun of S4 TToI though.

well it won't be called an inquiry, so that's different..

I was always worried they'd put in a Malcolm and so happy they haven't. They've really impressed with finding new types of characters who fit in oddly well. Ben was early on and always delivers gold of course, but Richard is a whole new thing. Dude's face is amazing.

re: chlumsky rage, i think part of that stems from the show having such disdain for literally everyone that it's not even going to give that character the big fuck-you/truth to power moment, in part because im not sure chlumsky's character actually hates what she does for this completely inept/undeserving candidate - just hates not being listened to when her ideas are always relatively practical

The introduction of Selina's friend that led to Amy's ragequit was, I assumed, AI's take on the Carole Caplin saga.

also lol'd so much @ jld can u guys just pick up all this shit tomorrow and fuck u america

― johnny crunch, Tuesday, June 2, 2015 8:29 AM (36 minutes ago)

this was so great

this ep was all time, this show is all time, everything abt veep is just the best

http://33.media.tumblr.com/eb073abb06432a3d3fb7ebb3ee79b560/tumblr_molvosSNMS1s7gnr1o1_400.gif

"sure, i love money. but i also love a little lady called the united states of america"

amazing ep imo, i was loling throughout

"crouch cream

"easy cream? it's, um, it's searchable"

Knee-Z!

when she asks richard where the abuse happened and he responds "on the two spheres" i lost it. richard definitely all-time

i started cackling the moment i saw him, before he'd said a word

this is one of the show's best episodes ever

I stand by my point that literally every gary behavior beggars belief - which doesn't mean it isn't funny. it is.

the list of jonah insults had me dying

"benedict come in his own hand." "supercalifragilisticexpialidickcheese."

actually I take back my gary point for this episode, but this is one of the only times he's been believable and human

Fuck yes

scrotum pole
One erection
Wadzilla
Transgenderformer
Jonah Ono

"cloud botherer"

I've been a few weeks behind this season but managed to get up to this week's episode today, and so glad to see the acclaim for Richard itt - I've been marvelling at how he's grown so quickly and well to be the funniest guy in the show this year

i started cackling the moment i saw him, before he'd said a word

gotta rewatch to see if they framed him out in the first couple of Jonah / lobbyists scenes for this very purpose

great episode. Ben is such an unflappable asshole.

"Are you going to keep answering questions with one word answers?"
"No. (long pause) I am not."

I died at Richard raising his left hand instead of his right. "Oh sorry... I was practicing in the mirror."

richard was the only part of this episode i enjoyed.

lolled at Ben's perfect delivery of "If I had kids... which, actually, I do... this bill would be my baby”

CONTINUITY with CHANGE

What a great season.

one of the greatest things this year was everyone in Selina's machine becoming increasingly furious at Tom for being apparently decent and evidently competent - hope whichever writers remain have initial plans to work some more amusement and tension out of the situation under the Ianucci-less regime

i am, frankly, wary of life without armando

agreed on that count, i worry they might lean more on the cringe-comedy tactics that are more a staple of hbo prestige comedy

xp - yeah, it's an interesting conflict because they're not used to a politician with actual interest in, well, doing things, because selina's staff members either have no interest in doing things (ben) possess zero self-awareness (kent, to some extent amy and sue) or are mentally unstable (gary)

i was loling so hard at the panicky google search for what happens in an electoral tie

"the 22nd amendment negates the 12th amendment"
"why so many amendments!?!? get it right the first time, people!!"

god, julia louis-dreyfus is amazing.

I didn't know Iannuci was leaving after this season, hope the team after will be able to keep the quality up.

Just binge-watched this. It's gotten so good. otm re Richard, he's a delight

I had forgotten how many characters this thing has until last night's premiere, when they kept showing up. So funny.

There's a bunch of really good characters on this, but honestly I'm mainly watching for Richard T. Splett at this point. And he didn't disappoint!

lol I don't know why I said T, my middle name is John.

can we get a strikethrough in the thread title

Robert Slattery is great. Martin Mull is great. But the best addition to the roster this season is Clea DuVall. It's never not funny to have her hovering in the background. Along with Catherine and her camera. They've been on point with sightgags this season, behind Amy in the election office was a posters saying 'Meyer for President' and 'Latinos for Selina', which I found cynically funny.