That's the point, there isn't a whole lot of depth to that kind of humor and it gets old quick, at least for me. Plenty of comedies take a little while to develop their characters and really get going, so it's not a death knell or anything, but that better not be the defining aspect of most characters' personalities.

lol, is there such a thing as a democrat who isn't right-leaning?

I don't get the joke. Yes, most Democrats are solidly on the left, and tend to deride right leaning Democrats (blue dog Democrats are the ones that typically fall into this category, who are mostly Southern). Are you confusing Democrats with Republicans, who are all on the right, and hardly any lean left? I know you're not from the U.S., so I just want to clarify.

This show continues to be excellent. All the characters are well-constructed, all the performances are great. I'm a little concerned that every episode is going to be the Vice President saying something stupid, then having to dig out of it - but maybe that's the view of politics the show wants to convey.

might be, given that it seems the Veep doesn't have a lot of power or responsibility otherwise, but yeah i hope they find ways to mix it up a bit more. enjoying it though, funny show.

Ep 3 was my favorite so far.

edit: The hospital scene from last night might be the funniest yet in the series, though

The profanity got to me on one of the "during the dark times" eps. Maybe this discussion just made me notice it, but yeah, hella cursin'.

My favorite thing is just Jonah, how terrible he is, and how everybody treats him.

I do find the show slightly disposable. Shows that just pile on jokes, like this, 30 Rock, Archer, all are just excellent, but I also feel like I can take a piss in the middle of an ep and not miss something meaningful (I'll miss a joke, but there's so many good jokes it doesn't feel like a huge loss, and if it's really good- the internet will tell me). More meaningfully plot heavy shows, I stay focused.

Episode 3 was definitely my favorite, as well, and I love the show.

My favorite characters are Sue, Mike, and oddly enough Jonah. I like them all for different reasons (though like isn't the word I'd use for Jonah), but I think they nail everything they're given.

The Veep is an idiot, though, and I'm not sure that's a really good shtick for her.

Amy has some great put down lines, too. Probably my favorite Jonah put down was when he said, "I'll keep my ear to the ground", and Amy said, "Be careful your ears don't pop on the way down." They edit this show so well, and editing the shot just as Jonah begins to turn with a "WTF?" expression on his face was so perfect.

This show has a great ensemble, and I just can't stop being reminded of an "adult" version of Parks watching it. The stories don't even need to be any good for it to work, it pretty much will no matter what, in my opinion.

mehhhhh

take a stance was probably the wrong phrase, I guess I just meant that for a comedy in a political setting you'd expect some political satire (beyond just 'politicians say dumb things'), and it seems like it's going to be awkward to try and avoid it. Anyway last nights episode was the first one I really liked, pretty funny. I thought it was good at both making fun of an Arizona Republican and the way a Dem VP staff would talk about one, if it can walk that line then I'll be happy.

Ship's sailed on that now. Agree that it's not a good choice.

Except it's showed both sides in equally bad light. No one's winning, which means it almost comes across as blah politics, and I think that's very similar to the middle of the road. I don't really understand how you would be able to do a show featuring political offices without at least some idea of what the people are.

That would be like doing a show about cars, but having no brands or ever showing any cars.

This show basically has the effers at Ford talking about the effers at Chevy, and the effers at Chevy talking about the effers at Ford. It doesn't really take a stance, in my opinion.

I don't think it has, really.

I'm concerned about that too. It's becoming too shallow by repeating that formula, and I think there's plenty of comedy to mine by expanding the range of plots. And they can still satirize the political system.

Agreed. I would like her more if she were smart and even a bit sympathetic, but had some problems where she put her foot in her mouth sometimes or came across as self-involved despite being not totally egotistical. That way we could get these kind of scenes where she digs her way out of a hole but we root for her to do so because she's smart and just stuck in a political system that is unforgiving.

Instead, she makes poor decisions and doesn't make us identify with them.

I think a good balance of the real part of her character was the way she treated her daughter. It was nicely done, her discomfort around her, and didn't make her seem stupid, only totally self involved. I think her main issue is that she's a narrow thinker, and doesn't really get how her actions affect others. I'm guessing it would make sense that that would become a part of her character's growth, but I'm not really sure that's what they're going for.

I mean it was pretty overt that she's a democrat after this ep, right? Or do we think that she could still plausibly be a close to center republican?

She's definitely a democrat, but a very wishy washy one. She's the type of democrat most democrats don't like.

good show...nice ensemble. Loved this week's episode.

I feel like episode 3-4 were a lot better than the first two. I do understand where you guys are coming from when you say that you're concerned that every episode seems to follow the same formula of Veep does something stupid, but I'm not sure what other path they can follow, they've made it very clear that the VP office is pretty worthless. The answer is always no when she asks if the president calls, her speech in the first episode and the dog in episode three got shat on by the White House, the photo op at the yogurt shop was almost completely abandoned by the press, she was immediately ignored by everyone when the President's heart attack turned out to be a false alarm, etc etc. Given how worthless they've made the position, it's going to be difficult to find genuine conflicts to satirize, how many Senate committees can she form? Making her into a gaffe prone Biden or Quayle type seems like the corner they've written themselves into, whether it gets stale or not depends on how much they continue to flesh out the surrounding characters imo.

The real problem is that the sitting VP in nearly all cases is usually the party nominee, after 8 years. Of course, hell would have frozen over before that happened for Cheney, and it's pretty unlikely to happen for Biden.

She is making herself look so bad that she could literally get dropped on the second run, which is already being intimated at with the Governor guy. I imagine there will probably be some episode where that all gets to a fever pitch, and she actually asks Jonah what he thinks she's doing wrong (he may be an a-hole, but chances are that he really does know what he's doing). He'll tell her, and then she'll try to fix it, failing frequently, but will be slowly moving forward, until she becomes President in the 8th season, and accidentally blows up the world.

In a CYE episode JLD did say she wanted to be on HBO solely so show could use profanity

The guy fisting himself analogy the clean jobs/filibuster reform Senator made during their meeting in the second episode was the worst, just so ridiculously forced. Seemed like they toned it down after that and actually tried to write jokes instead of just relying on the incongruity of politicians being crude as their main comedic device.

This show is really good. The way Gary mouths "No more Selina?!" was probably my favourite moment of the night, or Jonah at the metal concert.

Jonah at the metal concert was great.
Without taking a specific view point this episode showed the type of satire Veep has in it's arsenal. Selina's decision at the end to give up on Clean Jobs so she could appease someone who doesn't even recognize the sacrifice she made in hopes it might advance her career a little bit is the core of how Ianucci views politics.

I will probably never watch this show, but is the president never shown or heard like Maris in Frasier?