Veep: Series Premiere

I have never particularly cared for pilot episodes. With the nature of episodic television, pilots are generally so caught up in establishing the world in which the characters live in that we never really get a feel for the characters themselves. Most of the time, you have to take the episode with a grain of salt, and hope for glimpses of quality that can be further developed in future episodes. This is all to say how relieved I was when the first episode of Veep began, and within five minutes, I saw an ensemble of unique and distinct characters, each fully developed and wonderfully idiosyncratic.

The show revolves around the day-to-day life of Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the Vice President of the United States, who spends more time putting out political fires created by her inept staff than anything else. Aided by her Chief of Staff, Amy (Anna Chlumsky), and her Director of Communications, Mike (Matt Walsh), Selina spends the majority of the first episode attempting to neutralize minor catastrophes, including one that includes the Vice President inadvertently dissing the plastics industry via Twitter.

What sticks out most about Veep is the tightly written script that features the kind of intelligent and fast-paced dialogue you would normally only find in an Aaron Sorkin series. In fact, Veep almost feels like the result of an alcohol-infused one-night stand between The West Wing and Parks and Recreation. From the beginning, it’s clear that the writers made the right choice in not explaining how this group of scatterbrained individuals could make it this close to the top levels of the U.S. government, and instead, they just present this world to us as absolute, which we gladly except.

For a show of this intelligence, there is nothing more conducive to its success than the comic timing of the performers. Without exception, the actors in the main ensemble are pitch-perfect in their roles, especially Julia Louis-Dreyfus, one of the most talented comedic actresses on television in the last 25 years, and Tony Hale, who is so unbelievably funny and subtle in his role as the Vice President’s personal aide that you even manage to forget about Buster Bluth and his hook hand.

The pilot episode of Veep should be the template on which all future comedy pilots are written. From the get-go we are thrust into the chaotic world of Selina Meyer and her group of political Bad News Bears, and the characters are presented to us fully realized. When a TV series starts off by presenting the audience with such a strong grasp on who its characters are and how they interact with each other, it boasts a confidence that most shows aren’t capable of boasting, and it is a promising start for what I believe will be the best new comedy series of the year. When the Director of Communications says “Well, what if Tom Hanks dies?” when trying to convince the Vice President that her blunder may not make the front page of the news, there’s really nowhere to go but up.