Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment Benelux, HBO
Episodes: 10
Duration: 30 min (per episode)
Veep: Season 3 (DVD) – Series Review
Lately, there’re quite a few comedy series that rely on artificial laughter to encourage the audience. We’ve already reviewed some of those series (like Two and a Half Men and 2 Broke Girls). Veep however, makes the viewers decide on their own if something is funny or not and tells the story of Vice President Selina Meyer and her crew at an incredible speed.
First of all, if you’re wondering what ‘Veep’ exactly stands for: it’s a sort of nickname for the Vice President of the United States (in short VP). So this series mainly focusses on the chaotic career and life of Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the VP of the United States. Selina is a pretty impatient and outspoken woman who knows what she wants and how she wants it. Her goal in life is to gain the greatest social status and what’s a better way to achieve that than through politics? Together with her crew and daughter, she tackles political debates, makes hard choices in what cause to support and all of this while constantly walking around with the biggest smile in the world (although it’s a fake one most of the time). In season 3, something big is going on. The President of the US decides not to run for President again and as you could’ve guessed, this presents a golden opportunity for Selina. Time to run for President and become the most powerful person on the planet! As with any political election, there’s need of a campaign and while everyone is focusing on more pressing matters, the Veep’s assistants Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky) and Dan Egan (Reid Scott) are fighting over who gets to be the campaign leader. The constant bickering gets everybody on edge and while Selina does everything in her power to make sure she gets the most wanted seat in the world, everybody goes a bit nuts because of the pressure.
The whole season mainly focusses on the possible Presidentship of the VP but there’s still a million more things going on at the same time. Multitasking while watching this show might prove a bit of a challenge as you really need to keep up with the pace to get everything out of it. The pace is incredibly fast and just doing something else for only 1 minute can make you completely confused. If you’re not used to series like this, it may feel a bit awkward at first as it seems like you need double the amount of eyes and ears but luckily, you get accustomed to the speed quite fast. One of the perks of moving through the story like a torpedo is that the chance you’ll get bored with the plot is almost non-existent. At all times, there’s something going on and most likely, several events crisscross each other. So there’s definitely enough content to keep you busy throughout the episodes.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a perfect fit for the character Selina Meyer and most of the time, the spotlight is pointed at her. The fact that she doesn’t try to be particularly funny makes her so much more hilarious in the situations she finds herself in. Because politics is a rather serious subject most of the time, you wouldn’t expect to find so much to laugh about in an environment like that but Veep season 3 doesn’t disappoint in this regard. Anna Chlumsky and Reid Scott are two cast members you’ll constantly see as well, but as said before, Julia remains the point of interest in every scene and sometimes it feels like the other cast members have been put in the background too many times. A moment of fame for Timothy Simons (Jonah Ryan), Tony Hale (Gary Walsh) or Matt Walsh (Mike McLintock) would certainly bring joy to a lot of fans of the series. Still, even though they’re not as prominent as Julia on screen, they all contribute to the series in their own way and acting wise, there’s nothing to remark.
With the DVD box come a few extras like deleted scenes and some commentary on the series. It’s always pleasant to check those out after finishing the whole season.
Conclusion
Veep season 3 is a bit different compared to the comedy shows you already know. The pace is incredibly fast and you really need to pay attention to prevent utter confusion. Still, thanks to the speed, the plot never gets boring and it makes the series progress a lot in only one episode. It’s a bit of a shame that all attention goes to Selina while the other characters are certainly interesting enough to get to know a bit better. Overall, Veep season 3 is a good follow-up for the series and stays true to its own way of bringing humour to the public.
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