Meet the Press
Veep – Season One (2012)
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
watched on HBO GO
I watched more “on the air” TV this past fall and spring than I ever have. I enjoy a little more access than I used to and I wanted to keep up with the shows that people talk about. For the most part, regular patronage is a mess, at least without a DVR or a better cable package. Depending on the week, Cougar Town aired at 8:00, 8:30, or not at all. Advertisements interrupt. Breaking Bad is expensive on iTunes.
All told, the hustle isn’t worth it. Comedies are more fun in sustained weekend-long, three-disc benders. Dramas seem endless stretched over months. Did Jon Snow do anything besides wander through the arctic this season, girl with the Girlfriend hood by his side? Game of Thrones, inexplicably, sapped my interest in books I’ve already read and looked forward to seeing onscreen.
Or maybe the best isn’t very good. Wasn’t Parks and Recreation funnier when Ron Swanson’s staff moved as a unit? But then the group splintered to pursue individual projects, and now each week is a catalogue of interminable asides. Can Andy, April, Ben, and Chris all die in a house fire? Can we call off the patriotic speeches?
The comedy was… mushy, even in Community, beloved for its rapist’s wit. Cougar Town has Grayson, at least, but also that absurd son, the attention hog. I like Cougar Town, actually, in spite of the kid. It also works great as a half-hour distraction every once in awhile; the “weekend rule” doesn’t apply.
That’s the problem with not reviewing each show as a season: I run them all together impatiently. I think Breaking Bad probably peaked with season three, but I’ll be paying for the fifth on Sunday, gladly. The first episode of this year’s Eastbound & Down was the best since season one. The rest was just like season two: unnecessary, tiresome, and except for Stevie (and maybe Andrea, the college girlfriend), a reminder of how much a character like Kenny needs a strong woman like April onscreen with him at all times. That first season is a wonder, but this? Endlessly renewed, endless guest stars, and Will Ferrell, bloated planet, spiraling into the sun? Too much.
Then there was Veep. I was suspicious at first. The British pedigree might not translate. The preview wasn’t funny. It’s incredibly easy to waste time on HBO GO. I’d watched both McEnroe/Borg: Fire & Ice and Game Change the week before; I defended Luck to near strangers.
Veep does not need my defense. Whatever I expected, this was much better: quick on its feet and warm as a day at the beach. I think the worst you can say about a lot of popular comedies is that they use the same humor as car commercials, innocuous but insincere. Which is fine, until a Party Down or Archer appears and demonstrates what writers and actors can do with unlikable characters deeply loved by their creators.
There isn’t a member of Selina Meyer’s team I don’t want to spend time with. Plots don’t revolve around arbitrary outside machinations (an easy device for any political series), but minor personal setbacks and failures brought on by the regrets, ambitions, and sympathetic selfishness of a very funny cast. Veep could take place anywhere: a fast food restaurant, a space station, World War II. It’s set in Washington, presumably, because office sets are cheap to build, and the city of Baltimore doesn’t charge too much for a day of filming at Camden Yards.
Showrunner Armando Iannucci is thanked in the preface to Alan Moore’s latest League of Extraordinary Gentlemen adventure, a bitter book that includes a reference to the cable spy show Burn Notice. Burn Notice, as I’ve said before, is a low-stakes lark. I like that Moore is aware of it, although whether he actually tunes in for Michael Westen’s Miami romance or merely includes it as so much mattress ticking, I can’t say. But because of Iannucci, I’ll give Moore the credit he might not deserve. Veep makes you want to see the best in people.
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
watched on HBO GO
I watched more “on the air” TV this past fall and spring than I ever have. I enjoy a little more access than I used to and I wanted to keep up with the shows that people talk about. For the most part, regular patronage is a mess, at least without a DVR or a better cable package. Depending on the week, Cougar Town aired at 8:00, 8:30, or not at all. Advertisements interrupt. Breaking Bad is expensive on iTunes.
All told, the hustle isn’t worth it. Comedies are more fun in sustained weekend-long, three-disc benders. Dramas seem endless stretched over months. Did Jon Snow do anything besides wander through the arctic this season, girl with the Girlfriend hood by his side? Game of Thrones, inexplicably, sapped my interest in books I’ve already read and looked forward to seeing onscreen.
Or maybe the best isn’t very good. Wasn’t Parks and Recreation funnier when Ron Swanson’s staff moved as a unit? But then the group splintered to pursue individual projects, and now each week is a catalogue of interminable asides. Can Andy, April, Ben, and Chris all die in a house fire? Can we call off the patriotic speeches?
The comedy was… mushy, even in Community, beloved for its rapist’s wit. Cougar Town has Grayson, at least, but also that absurd son, the attention hog. I like Cougar Town, actually, in spite of the kid. It also works great as a half-hour distraction every once in awhile; the “weekend rule” doesn’t apply.
That’s the problem with not reviewing each show as a season: I run them all together impatiently. I think Breaking Bad probably peaked with season three, but I’ll be paying for the fifth on Sunday, gladly. The first episode of this year’s Eastbound & Down was the best since season one. The rest was just like season two: unnecessary, tiresome, and except for Stevie (and maybe Andrea, the college girlfriend), a reminder of how much a character like Kenny needs a strong woman like April onscreen with him at all times. That first season is a wonder, but this? Endlessly renewed, endless guest stars, and Will Ferrell, bloated planet, spiraling into the sun? Too much.
Then there was Veep. I was suspicious at first. The British pedigree might not translate. The preview wasn’t funny. It’s incredibly easy to waste time on HBO GO. I’d watched both McEnroe/Borg: Fire & Ice and Game Change the week before; I defended Luck to near strangers.
Veep does not need my defense. Whatever I expected, this was much better: quick on its feet and warm as a day at the beach. I think the worst you can say about a lot of popular comedies is that they use the same humor as car commercials, innocuous but insincere. Which is fine, until a Party Down or Archer appears and demonstrates what writers and actors can do with unlikable characters deeply loved by their creators.
There isn’t a member of Selina Meyer’s team I don’t want to spend time with. Plots don’t revolve around arbitrary outside machinations (an easy device for any political series), but minor personal setbacks and failures brought on by the regrets, ambitions, and sympathetic selfishness of a very funny cast. Veep could take place anywhere: a fast food restaurant, a space station, World War II. It’s set in Washington, presumably, because office sets are cheap to build, and the city of Baltimore doesn’t charge too much for a day of filming at Camden Yards.
Showrunner Armando Iannucci is thanked in the preface to Alan Moore’s latest League of Extraordinary Gentlemen adventure, a bitter book that includes a reference to the cable spy show Burn Notice. Burn Notice, as I’ve said before, is a low-stakes lark. I like that Moore is aware of it, although whether he actually tunes in for Michael Westen’s Miami romance or merely includes it as so much mattress ticking, I can’t say. But because of Iannucci, I’ll give Moore the credit he might not deserve. Veep makes you want to see the best in people.
posted by NPK at 1:27 PM
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