The fifth season of VEEP is now on DigitalHD and it truly is as relevant as ever in terms of comedy, content and truth. Season five especially shows the ugly side of politics, the constant screw jobs going on and the end goal for candidates. It’s such a beautiful horror show of a comedy with some political truth more than likely sprinkled in.
Let’s get this thing started.
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Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is on the verge of losing her election against rival Bill O’Brien (Brad Leland) thanks to constant imploding from her cabinet, enemies of her state and her own untalented self — mostly her cabinet and enemies, though. Along with dealing with her broken cabinet, led by the sabotaging efforts of Tom James (Hugh Laurie), Selina has to juggle with a lost/emo/rebellious daughter and an ongoing recount that forces her to kiss the asses of her delegates that simply want to see her unseated as President of the United States.
In short, she has a lot going against her.
Season five is a lot faster pace than season four, or maybe even previous seasons. The writers and directors seemed to be focused on a similar pattern of getting Selina ahead in her plight to re-claim her figurative crown as President only to have something or someone slap down her efforts. While this seems like something that is predictable during this season, and it is in the literal sense, the characters they put into the formula make the situation entertaining, even though it will end the same way. For example, Selina hires Tom James to beef up her re-election, only to have him sabotage it slowly behind her back. Another example, Ben Cafferty (Kevin Dunn) hires his own campaign mentor, Bob Bradley (Martin Mull) to come in and help out with a Nev-AD-a voter recount, as well as help to stall it long enough to find some missing votes, but his efforts, which appear strong/positive at first, end up bitting the cabinet in the butt hard. Again, it’s a reoccurring pattern in storytelling, but the interchangeable characters and their particular situations make for good entertainment.
Now, if there is one incredibly impressive part of season five to point out, it’s the flow of the entire story. Last year, season four provided me some issues with constant interest and some episodes were better than others. Some episodes in season four would put the pedal to the metal with flow and humor, while others seem to drag with funny moments here and there, but felt like they were stalling a bit for time because of empty ideas. It was odd, but some shows seem to suffer from this when they lose focus on their end goal or don’t have a firm plan from beginning to end. It’s generally due to poor planning or bad writing (sometimes both). Writing comedy isn’t easy and doing it within a large story can be downright difficult at times. Season four seemed to suffer from these things through out.
Thankfully, season five isn’t like this.
Season five has a clear goal of showing you the painful gauntlet that Selina and crew have to endure, inside and outside the group, to get to the final decision that will end up changing the show’s dynamic. The writing seems to be seamless from show to show and the pacing is so darn consistent that it truly never stops. Everyone who wrote for the show seemed to be onboard with a solid idea that they never drifted from. Because of those efforts, the show just goes and goes perfectly. I think I binged the entire season in a 24-hour span, which is unusual for me because I’m almost never attached to any show not having the Marvel logo in front of it (sans Agents of Shield — fell asleep a lot). Loved the pacing so much on season five, as it really forced the writers and directors to think about every move of the characters methodically.
With all this praise, is there anything to complain about? Not really. There were a lot of storylines that needed a bit tightening, but that’s a show for you. You can patch such things up in upcoming seasons. All the characters were treated properly, the world seemed very respectfully contained and, as mentioned above, the clear end goal was never detoured. In short, season five was a solid season.
Overall, if you’re a fan of VEEP and haven’t caught up with season five yet, then you’re in for a treat. It does a great job with everyone and this stories that come with them. I personally cannot wait until season six hits. Hopefully it emulates five.
