Veep and TV Bosses

Before looking at the first season of Veep, I thought I'd look at some of my favorite and least-favorite TV-comedy bosses.

 

• Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell), for instance, is cringe-inducing at times on The Office in his blundering and inability to manage, but as The Office went on, his character is fleshed out and next to some of the characters (the bears, beets, and Battlestar Galactica- loving Dwight Schrute, for one), Michael looks downright normal.

 

 

• On the other hand, Arthur  Carlson (Gordon Jump) is so bumbling and fumbling and clueless that I couldn't really sink my teeth into WKRP in Cincinnati.  I know that he didn't totally have his position by merit, but there's very little spark of intelligence, so it seems the radio station runs in spite of him, and the surrounding characters aren't memorable enough for me to stay tuned.

• One of my favorite TV bosses is the despicable Louie DePalma (Danny Devito) on Taxi.  Louie is enough of a villain that the cabbies he manages have no choice in some episodes to rally against him.  Since he is so vile, there are also episodes where he has to go along with the group, and it's fun to see him squirm. 

 

• The show that I found most consistently funny last year was Brookyn Nine-Nine, and the dynamic at the start was that Captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher) and Detective Joel Peralta (Andy Samberg) wouldn't get along because Peralta's a free-wheeling detective and Holt is very disciplined.  They clash many times during the season (Peralta doesn't want to wear a tie, for example), but Holt is well-played in that he's pretty much deadpan, so when he loosens up, it's even funnier.

• Finally, one boss who is consistently funny (because he's so exaggerated) is George Steinbrenner on Seinfeld.  Shown only from the back and voiced by Larry David, George is often left shaking his head after leaving Steinbrenner's office (if he's not leaving it, in one case, to go to a mental institution at Steinbrenner's orders)

So is an incompetent boss (even in a comedy) a bad thing, especially when the boss is the Vice President of the United States?  I'd say Veep leans more in the direction of The Office (since it's HBO, a much more vulgar version, of course).  As the season progresses, I started to wonder about the backstory of Selina Meyer (Julia Louis Dreyfus).  The credits show headlines from a run for president that didn't turn out well (a meltdown is hinted at), and she now leads an office that is nowhere near respected (in fact, a potential candidate for governor explicitly tells Selina that he does not want her endorsement).  To say she's awkward around people is an understatement, so at some point she must have done something right to even be considered a presidential candidate.

The staffers in her office also turn out not to be the most capable, leaving Selina without a real "ideas" person to lean on, so between the fact that the president dumps undesirable projects on her office and there's here's no real competence in her office, Selina's chances for success don't seem too high.  Julia Louis Dreyfus is funny throughout the season reacting to all this madness, and Tony Hale is particulary good as her "body man", frequently whispering tidbits (some quite absurd) as politicians and other notables approach

I thought the last few episodes were the strongest, as the personalities became more defined and the stakes were raised, so I'm looking forward to seeing the newer seasons.