Hit US political satire ‘Veep’ back for final curtain call

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NEW YORK, March 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – When “Veep” premiered in the middle of
Barack Obama’s presidency, its brand of dark satire — and its take on
narcissism in American political life — seemed at odds with reality.

Seven years on, the award-winning HBO comedy — which embarks on its final
season on Sunday, midway through Donald Trump’s first term — seems
positively prescient.

The sitcom’s wacky storylines of yore are almost charming when compared to
the daily barrage of news from the Trump White House.

In season seven, the only one shot since Trump took office, bumbling former
vice president and president Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is once again
running for the Oval Office.

And her coterie of incompetent staff are back for more crass laughs,
profane insults, wildly inappropriate zingers and hilariously meaningless
campaign slogans.

Meyer is facing a number of primary challengers, including one-time White
House staffer and long-time nemesis Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons), who is just
as useless and infinitely more dislikable.

The final season almost wasn’t: Louis-Dreyfus, who won six consecutive
Emmys for the role and is also a producer of the show, was forced to halt
filming for months to battle breast cancer.

The 58-year-old actress is back to work.

The action in season seven is intensified by the context of Trump’s
America: the rise of the bombastic real-life Republican has lent the show an
extra shot of venom — and absurdity.

– ‘Weird life-imitating-art thing’ –

Over the years, “Veep” — created by the Scottish writer Armando Iannucci,
and taken over in 2015 by showrunner David Mandel — has boasted its fair
share of quasi-prophetic moments, including an episode on a government
shutdown.

At one point, Meyer uses the slogan “Continuity with Change,” which
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull picked up and used almost verbatim
in 2016.

Louis-Dreyfus — whose professional acting days began at age 21 on the
legendary NBC comedy sketch show “Saturday Night Live” — told a recent media
roundtable that predicting reality “started from day one on this show.”

“Thus began this sort of weird, life-imitating-art thing that became a
phenomenon of our show,” said the actress, whose career exploded in the 1990s
when she starred on mega-hit sitcom “Seinfeld.”

On the day of Trump’s shock election in November 2016, Louis-Dreyfus
recalls with a touch of alarm a profane line she had to say about the “horror
show” of democracy while filming.

“We were having script issues to begin with,” she said. “This exacerbated
those issues.”

Mandel recently told Entertainment Weekly that while Trump’s election did
not spell the end of “Veep,” “it didn’t hurt.”

“The things that the show prided itself on — miscues, missteps, misspeaks,
incompetent staff — they are hourly now,” he said.

– The world today ‘is not funny’ –

So, how will the new campaign for Meyer — whose political stripes have
always been vague, though many believe she resembles former Republican vice
presidential candidate Sarah Palin — end?

Trailers for the final season are careful not to reveal the outcome, and
Meyer’s rapid-fire insults are as cutting as ever, but it appears likely that
America will not emerge looking good.

In the end, the characters all have weak morals — a far cry from the
heroes of the hit series “The West Wing” (1999-2006), which presented the US
government as principled and keen to preserve its role in the world.

Even Netflix’s dark “House of Cards” (2013-2018) featured an eloquent-if-
ruthless president, with a few higher-minded motives.

“Veep” drops any semblance of patriotism or pageantry, instead depicting
politics at its most coarse and cynical.

The actors stress that “Veep” parodies a universal political cynicism and
egotism, but as real-life politics more closely resembles its satire, they
say it’s time for the curtain to fall.

“The things that would have torpedoed a political career just do not count
anymore,” Simons told journalists.

“The show is funny — but to live in this world right now is not funny.”