Featured TV on DVD Review: Veep: Season 4
April 17, 2016
Veep: Season 4 - Buy from Amazon: DVD and Blu-ray
Veep stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who at the beginning of the show, was the Vice President of the United States. Things have changed. So far during the show's four-year run, it has earned excellent reviews and this past year was one of the biggest winners at the Emmys. Does it deserve this praise? Or am I in the minority here?
Veep is a more difficult show to review than Silicon Valley was for two reasons. Firstly, we hit spoiler territory much faster. Secondly, there are way too many characters to talk about individually.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Selina Meyer, who is the titular Veep. In the third season, she decides to run for president once the current president's term is over. However, at the end of season three, the president resigned and Selina rose to the highest office in the land. Unfortunately, that didn't stop her from losing the first two primary contests.
Season four begins with the primary contest in full swing with Selina Meyer mired in third place. She's trying to be president while also running in a primary. This would be a difficult task under the best of circumstances, but she's surrounded by incompetent morons. There are some people who know what they are doing, like Amy Brookheimer or Sue Wilson or Ben Cafferty. However, most of the people she interacts with are either idiots, like Gary Walsh, or not exactly loyal, like... well, a lot of them. ... Possibly all of them.
After a bumpy start to the campaign, Selina hitches her campaign to the Family First bill. At first, the bill looks very popular, but after a series of missteps, including using hacked medical records and accidentally outing a young girl with HIV, it becomes an albatross. They need to do something to boost the campaign, so they bring in a ringer for her V.P.
Veep is a show that has a huge amount of talent both in front of the camera and behind it. There's a reason it won five Emmys last year, include Best Comedy Series. However, as much as I love the show, I feel the need to warn people. This style of humor is not for everyone. The characters tend to be less than sympathetic, to put it mildly. This starts right at the top with Selina Meyer, whose only political skill might be passing the buck. Oh boy, does she do that well. Other story lines are cringe-worthy making the show hard to watch if you don't like that style of humor. If you haven't seen it, I would suggest watching the first episode on VOD. It's free if you have Amazon Prime.
On a side note, I've seen more than a few people complain that Donald Trump's campaign has made the show seem too tame by comparison. What should be a biting satire is made mild by reality. I can't say I disagree with that sentiment, but the show is still very good regardless of the Reality TV competition from real world politicians.
The previous three releases all had excellent extras with audio commentary tracks, deleted scenes, featurettes. However, this time around, there are only deleted scenes. That's a real disappointment.
Veep is the perfect show for people who don't like people. There is almost no one on this show you can cheer for. However, there's also no one on this show that isn't amazing to watch and the writing is equally amazing. Unfortunately, the extras on the Season 4 DVD and Blu-ray are much weaker than past seasons, so it isn't a Pick of the Week contender.
Video on Demand
The Show
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Anna Chlumsky, Kevin Dunn, Tony Hale, Hugh Laurie, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Patton Oswalt, Donald Trump, Sufe Bradshaw