‘Tears’ put a cherry on top of a fantastic first season of Veep, a poignantly hilarious half-hour about the 24/7 news cycle, public opinion, and how the slightest over-reaction to anything positive or negative can be disastrous for politics. It was a almost-perfect culmination of the show’s first eight episodes, capturing the satirical genius of creator Armando Iannucci in marvelous fashion.
It all revolves around Selina’s endorsement/non-endorsement of an Ohio governor candidate, who teeters back and forth on what he wants the vice-president to say while she’s in Cleveland. If that wasn’t enough to damage her confidence, her staffers are busy exploiting the opportunity to appear ‘vulnerable’ and sympathetic by engineering an interview designed to make her cry. The emotion of the episode changes wildly from instant to instant, from elation, to anger, to sadness, to joy again… and as a cynical show, we always know things will end after the shoe drops and everyone is too tired and pissed off to really do much of anything.
What I enjoyed about ‘Tears’ was the way it captured that feeling of the other shoe dropping on Selina six or seven times through the episode, every time digging the hole deeper and deeper, even in the moments where she thinks she’s catching a break. Like a lot of politicians, Meyer is so concerned with the appearance and superficialities of her job, that she becomes inept at actually doing her job, becoming more like the rubber balls that she mentioned in her interview, than an actual human with morals and pride.
I have a lot of random thoughts I want to share about the episode and the season as a whole below, and since this review is already a day and a half late, I’m going to save myself the embarrassment of lazy transitions and attack this all, bullet-style:
– I really love how everything that happened this season returned in the episode, whether it was shown, mentioned, or simply alluded to. Selina’s comment about being “knocked….. back”, everything Dan did coming to bite him in the ass, right down to Amy reminding the VPOTUS of her original advice regarding the slickster on the team.
– Veep does a great job playing off of our expectations of plots, even on minor things: did anyone think Mike wasn’t going to get fired this season? Funny thing is, he manages to survive every shit storm, most of the time because he’s inept and aloof. Amy and Dan make the snap decisions, and they are the ones who catch all the shit. It’s been mentioned he’s had a long career in politics, and it may very well be a note on how the least intelligent seem to hang around the longest in some political circles. Hilarious.
– Amy and Jonah are kind of put in the backseat this episode, which was a little disappointing. Jonah’s always good for some over-thought analogies and passive sexual advances though; “if you need a booty to call on, we could…”
– speaking of Amy, I think her character turned out to be the weakest and most underdeveloped, and needs to be fleshed out next season. We never get a sense of her personality or why she’s so loyal to Selina (something we learn about everyone else but Sue), and for the most part, she’s a mouthpiece to the social media reactions and someone who makes big eyes when things get stressful.
– on some level, I think Iannucci feels bad for the multitudes of political staffers slaving their lives away in dedication of someone else’s career. It might be the most overt part of the satire (politicians shit on the regular people, working for them or voting for them), but it also feels like the most sympathetic – if a show like Veep has such a thing.
‘Tears’: A-
Season grade: A-
What did you think of Veep‘s season finale, and the first season as a whole? Feel free to leave your thoughts/comments below!