Veep

The final season of HBO’s Emmy-winning political satire delivers a Selina Meyer at her misanthropic, misogynistic best — a woman who fully embraces her destiny to be as selfish, ambitious, and outright venal as the men who came before.

There really was no doubt that Veep was going to kill it in this final season. ... This season seems to delight just a little bit more in turning the mirror on present-day American politics, and there are some astoundingly funny send-ups along the way. There is also some sublime humor that proves all targets are in play

A joyful, wild, hilarious, insane — and darker — romp through the debasement of running for political office, as only "Veep" could imagine.

The show may make a point of not aping or mimicking Trump, but its gleeful celebration of pragmatism and hypocrisy, of self-serving politics bent on power at any cost, and dismissive scorn for institutions great and small is perfectly attuned to the times. It almost hurts to laugh. But laugh, helplessly and abundantly, you do.

Ever resonant, ever timely, and always smart about who’s on the receiving end of its sharp-tongued wrath, the bracing comedy is eye-opening to the bitter end.

I’ve seen three episodes of the final season, and each is a pleasure. I didn’t always laugh out loud at Team Meyer’s various misadventure, though I did often enough—and I consistently found myself almost nodding along to its rhythm.

It gleefully wallows in its own world, suggesting nobody in Washington really knows what makes it tick. While Louis-Dreyfus is just as Emmy-worthy as ever, it’s Simons who rises to this season’s top.

Veep might have outlived its time, to the extent reality has seemingly eclipsed its jaundiced form of satire. In terms of providing laughs when they're sorely needed, though, it couldn't have picked a better time to mount its last campaign.

Veep is still as hilariously cutting as ever. Its performances are fantastic, its rhythm and density are unparalleled, and its sense of the absurd is still sharp, especially in moments where it mocks political events. ... The Jonah plotline is hard to stomach--because it’s meant to be that way--and yet the rest of its stories feel like they’re playing by political rules. That doesn’t make Veep any less watchable.

The HBO comedy’s exceptionally devilish final season. ... More than ever, the show’s quest for laughs overlaps with a quest for offense; it sometimes seems like the show’s ticking through a list of sensitive topics to riff on.

Veep is and always was a cruelly satisfying, fully original journey into Washington’s darkest behaviors. Banish any thought that its brilliant star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, would return to the series after a personal cancer scare inclined to soften Selina Meyer for even a subliminally sentimental exit. Instead, and with great satisfaction, it appears Veep will go out at its nastiest and bitterest best.

While it may not be quite as insightful or scathing as it once was, “Veep” is still one of the best shows on TV, largely because it has arguably the best ensemble, all of whom return at the top of their game.

The #MeToo movement would seem impossible to riff on, yet Veep’s gloriously inappropriate writers have found a way.

As can sometimes be the way with Veep,I greatly admire its speed, wit and vicious eye for the sheer ridiculousness of the many awful situations it presents, and am simultaneously just a little bit relieved when each episode is over.

Veep, in its last season, comes full circle, a final trip that's as predictable as it is nonetheless enjoyable.

In its last hurrah, Veep is an unimpeachable hoot. [1-14 Apr 2019, p.13]

Not everything is perfect in this final season, as the series barrels towards its end with as many epitaphs as it can manage per minute, but its acknowledgement of the foibles of its leads in meta terms reminds us that this is a show that exists on its own terms.

On top of returning to the familiar, season seven feels more connected to current issues, as well. ... Where Veep is headed is hard to tell.

Veep remains one of the great comedies of this, or any, era. And these new episodes often left me howling. But as Selina lunges for the brass ring one last time, there are nearly as many cringes to be found as laughs. Enjoy, but beware.