I mentioned about a month ago how
much utter despair I felt watching the final season of Veep – so much so that I really questioned whether it had been
funny in the first place. A few things happened in the last weekend, before and
after the viewing of the finale, that have made me rethink my position a bit,
so I figure some Monday morning quarterbacking might be in order.
I mentioned in the previous column
that the state of our current political climate made me pretty disgusted that I
had ever enjoyed this series. It’s worth noting that in a lot of the interview
much of the cast and creative team have given have illustrated that much of
them feel rather upset about how their series, which started out as a satire
has become so much of a mirror of the current climate. Their obvious dismay
makes me realize they really didn’t like how their comedy has almost become a
documentary. The major difference, of course, being that Selina Meyer and most
of the other politicos had the good sense to keep all of their toxicity in
private.
It doesn’t, however, change the
fundamental flaw in this series which, sad to say, was the central character.
Even if you allow the possibility that Selina Meyer was supposed to be a
satirical figure, that doesn’t change the fact that she was even more
unpleasant, less likable, and far less self-aware than so many of the
antiheroes in TV. Dexter Morgan, Walter White, and Tony Soprano at least had
some realization as to how horrible they were at the center of their series.
Selina Meyer was far more destructive, and never seemed to care who she hurt or
how in her pursuit of power. Only in this case, its actually worse because her
damage involved the party that was trying to nominate her, the rest of the
country, and the free world. I didn’t really think that she could sink any
lower in her hunt for the presidency when she agreed to give Tibet back to China
I so wish I had been wrong. In the
tumult of one of the most chaotic political conventions in TV history (one that
took eleven ballots – she must have
been a Democrat), her lead continued to fluctuate when the financial scandal
her late husband had been involved
in, her accidentally going into a men’s bathroom (which isolated the
evangelicals) and a terrorist attack that involved a geometry teacher (you
don’t want to know), seemed to scuttle her entire candidacy. It led to the
heart attack of Ben (Kevin Dunn), and in the only real moment of compassion
she’s had this whole series, she sat by his bedside, and had a tearful exchange
where she clearly thought she didn’t have a next move. Then, in rapid succession, she manipulated a
woman to accuse a rival of sexual harassment, scuttling his candidacy, agreed
to kill gay marriage (never mind the fact her daughter was a lesbian) to get
the evangelicals back, and agree to give Jonah Ryan the VP slot to get his
delegates. This last move was so horrific that it shattered the perpetually
calm and mathematical Kent (Gary Cole) -
his reaction was to shout “Fuck the Numbers!”, and terrified his own campaign
manager Amy, who clearly had just the job to mess with her own boss. Selina may
have known that the VP worse for anyone to end up, but her callous disregard
clearly shocked everybody.
But in the moments before she
accepted the nomination, she reached her absolute point. Gary, the foolish,
ever devoted body man, who clearly loved her unconditionally, was set up by
Selina to take the fall for her husband’s crimes while she took her bows. In a
season where she had done some truly appalling things in her pursuit of power,
this was by far the worst.
Was their any redemption for this
series? Strangely enough, there was some in the last five minutes. In the White
House, Selina was just as obnoxious as ever as President, but there was a
moment after two aides left the room, where she started to ask a question – and
saw she was alone. All of the people who got her there were gone, and she had
nothing. For the briefest of moments – not nearly long enough – she seemed
aware of the cost. Then, of course, the Prime Minister of Israel came on the
phone, and she degraded her daughter.
But the true moment of glory came
in the final flashforward at President Meyer’s funeral. We learned that Jonah
had been impeached after becoming VP,
and that Richard Splet, the one purely good and honest person in this
entire show, has just been reelected President in a landslide after negotiated
a ‘three state solution’ in the Middle East. In a series that basically said
everyone in politics was unpleasant, there was something reassured about
Richard’s unlikely rise to power and the fact that there was some good for a
country in the future.
Selina’s funeral was an excuse to
show much of the characters nearly a quarter of a century older, and not much
better off. But somehow Gary
At the end of the day, was Veep a good series? I’m really not sure.
It was a mean-spirited comedy, emphasis on mean. And particularly during the
last season, it seemed to take every opportunity possible to turn every
flashpoint in our society – anti-vaccination, abortion, drone strikes, even
obscurely 9-11 – and turn into a joke. That’s neither particularly original – South Park was doing it for decades
before Veep even came on the air, and
doing a better – nor, more seriously, particularly funny. Maybe it wasn’t meant
to hold a mirror up to our society, but in the last few seasons, it did – and
it’s hard to get more ridiculous than some of the things in the twenty-four
hour news cycle. The one thing I am glad for sure is that Veep is, unquestionably, over. They pretty much stomped dead any
possibility of a revival with the last few minutes. The case could be funny and
they were entertaining. I just hope that if we see them again, it’ll be in
something a little less unpleasant then this.
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