If there's one comedy show based in the White House you should watch, make it HBO's 'Veep'. This series continues to be one of the best written and funniest shows on television, and it's only coming up on its fourth season. Julia Louis-Dreyfus has struck gold once again, as she has fallen nicely into place in the role of Vice President of the United States Selina Meyer, which has won her more than one Emmy.
'Veep's' brilliant writing leads to gut busting performances of each co-star, which include Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky, Matt Walsh, Kevin Dunn, Gary Cole, Timothy Simons, and Reid Scott. It seems like each season is better than the previous season, where each plot point and each character get even more time to shine and make us laugh. Season 3 picks up where season 2 left us, which was when Selina and her crew found out that the President would not be seeking another four year term.
We first see Selina on a book tour as she scrambles with her cabinet to find the right time to announce herself running for President. She soon finds out that the Secretary of Defense George Maddox (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) and Minnesota Governor Danny Chung also want to run for President, which leads to some hilarious rivalries and confrontations. Meanwhile, Mike (Walsh) has gotten married and on his honeymoon when Selina tries to pull him away from his fresh marriage, which drives him more to do absolutely nothing.
Selina travels to England, Detroit, and Virginia in this season as she tries to pit her underlings against each other to win the job as her campaign manager, and there is no deed to low for anyone who wants the job. If you're familiar with the show, you have learned to love Jonah Ryan (Simons), the very tall jerk of a guy who always seems to be the nemesis to everyone in the White House. His story arc in season 3 is solid gold, as he is fired from his job in the White House and follows it up with starting a video political blog. He has some of the funniest moments in the show, which include a fight with a burrito.
Since Selina can't seem to catch a break, whether it be from her staff, a porn parody viral video making the rounds on the internet, SNL doing a raunchy skit about her, Selina hires Ray Whelans (Chris Meloni) who becomes her personal trainer and secret lover behind closed doors. All of these comedic moments make for some of the funniest scenes in television today. 'Veep' shows no sign of slowing down or having a lull in their series.
Every writer, actor, and director hits their mark with perfect comedic timing and precision, connecting you with these wacky characters and delivering some of the best laughs you'll have all year. This is Veep's the best season yet
'Veep' Season 3 comes with an excellent 1080p HD transfer presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio. As usual, HBO has given us an amazing image with deep rich colors and great detail. The detail is always very sharp and vivid and shows every minor nuance in the actor's faces and in their regal suits. Individual hairs in the men's beards, wrinkles, beads of sweat, and makeup blemishes show up very nicely.
Every stitch in Selina's elegant dresses show up nicely too. Colors are bright, bold, and simply pop off screen. The interiors of the White House and the VP's headquarters look solid with rich browns, yellows, and reds. When outside, the blues and greens pop nicely. Black levels are always consistently deep and inky and the skin tones are always natural. There were no instances of any compression issues either, leaving this another high score for an HBO release.
This HBO release comes with an excellent lossless DTS-HD 5.1 audio mix as well as tracks in French and Spanish. This show is mostly all dialogue driven, so the use for a big 5.1 audio mix isn't really there, but there are some moments where the city sounds of DC head to the rear speakers. Sound effects of cars driving, police sirens blaring, or police yelling at someone to put their hands up all sound great and have great directionality.
Other than that, most of this track stays on the center channel, which is always well balanced and layered. Dialogue is always crystal clear and easy to follow, even with the fast paced dialogue, and presents no problems in the form of pops, cracks or hiss. The LFE is excellent and the dynamic range is wide here, leaving this simple yet great audio mix with solid marks.
Audio Commentaries - There are four different commentaries on only four of the episodes, which are the last four episodes. The entire cast and crew deliver a fun, energetic, and informative discussion as they talk about how much fun they had working on this season and some fun anecdotes from the show. These are a great listen.
Deleted Scenes (HD, 19 Mins.) - There are 9 deleted scenes total covering 9 out of the 10 episodes. All of these scenes are quite funny and are worth watching.
Governor's Visit (HD, 3 Mins.) - Here is an interesting extra where the cast and crew welcome the Governor of Maryland to the set of their show, as he discusses Maryland's film tax credit and hard-working employees. Weird promo.
'Veep' Season 3 is the best season yet, and I'm sure the upcoming season 4 will top this one. The outrageous scenarios and characters all get in to trouble, do vile things to get their way, but in the end, do a good job for the VP. It's comedy gold that I hope never ends. The video and audio presentations are both excellent, and even though there aren't a ton of extras, these commentaries and deleted scenes are all worth watching. HBO has knocked this third season out of the park and comes highly recommended!
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