Veep: The Complete Series

“Life gives you Yemen, you gotta make Yemenade”

If Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing can be remembered as one of the best dramas, let alone politically-themed dramas ever committed to television, Veep is the hilarious Vice President of that series. From Curb Your Enthusiasm showrunner David Mandel and starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the politically ambitious Selina Meyer, the series ran seven seasons for a grand total of 65 episodes. And unlike any number of actual real-life career politicians, the series knew when to stop and go out on a high note. 

As we already reviewed the first five seasons of the series, I encourage you to step back a second and check those out - just in case you somehow don’t know what this show is or what to expect.

Veep: The Complete First Season

Veep: The Complete Second Season

Veep: The Complete Third Season

Veep: The Complete Fourth Season

Veep: The Complete Fifth Season

For my vote, Veep is the funniest political satire this side of the lone season of That’s My Bush. You don’t have to be steeped in politics to enjoy the show. You don’t have to be a diehard liberal or conservative to have a laugh. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy this masterfully constructed world where the slightest misstep or errant statement could have real-world ramifications - no matter how stupid or unglamorous. What I especially love about this entire series is how one issue after the next Selina Meyer always manages to step in the gigantic political dog turd on the sidewalk. Even if she sees it coming, somehow, someway, she’s going to be tracking that issue on her shoe heel. 

Through every blunder she has her trusty team right beside her to help… make things worse. We’ve got the loyal bag man Gary (Tony Walsh), the honest loyalist Amy (Anna Chlumsky), the sleazy climber Dan (Reid Scott). But spicing up the mix are regular turns from the likes of Gary Cole, Kevin Dunn, Sam Richardson, Diedrich Bader, Clea Duvall, and Hugh Laurie to name but a few. While we can watch a show like The West Wing and dream about the possibilities of what a competent government could look like, we can watch Veep and enjoy how dysfunctional it all really is. The series took home 17 Primetime Emmy wins, six of which were justifiably awarded to Julia Louis-Dreyfus. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
For those who waited to the bitter end of the election cycle, Veep: The Complete Series elects for a 13-disc Blu-ray set from Warner Bros. Each disc in this is recycled from the individual seasons, so if you already have those, there’s nothing new about the 13 BD50 discs. The thing that is new, is the packaging they elected to shove all the discs into an oversized megapack case. This means the set won’t sit on your shelf next to your other Blu-ray discs very cleanly. Why they couldn’t just take the already available standard two/three-disc cases and wrap them in a paper slipcase is beyond me. And speaking of paper sleeves, this giant oversized case does in fact have a thin paper slipcase.

And because we have the same discs from before, we’re getting the same transfers as before. I’ve heard some “but why not 4K yadda yadda” about this series, and truthfully I have no real idea, but watching through the series, it’s never one I’ve felt loses anything by remaining in 1080p. Often this is a numbers game, if they think it’ll sell X number of copies to justify its release on the format, they’ll go for it. If not - they don’t. As is in 1080p, I think Blu-ray serves the series beautifully. Outside of some location shots or gallas or ballrooms, most of the action of the series takes place in the tight confines of an office. The production design and costume work might be well made and details, I’ve never thought “Wow, what would this look like in 4K?” To that, each episode looks great with clean details, bright healthy colors, and solid black levels to lend a sense of image depth. The series always had a pseudo-documentary vibe like The Office only without the confessionals and fourth-wall-breaking camera looks. There's some occasional motion blur and some slight softness here and there, but otherwise it looks terrific, like we as the audience are some sort of official camera person for Selina's administration. 

And like the video, the same DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio tracks return - which is just fine. This series never really had a HUGE surround footprint as it mostly keeps to the front/center channels. It’s a very dialog-driven series, the vast majority of the jokes or payoffs for a gag setup are dialog or an auditory effect. When you’ve got a scene that takes place on location or segues to a big ballroom with a lot of extras, that’s when the surround footprint really makes itself known. Otherwise, those extra channels serve for more atmospheric, scene-setting incidental effects. Overall each episode sounds great and serves this show’s needs nicely.

Bonus features for the series have never been what you’d call “bountiful” but they are interesting enough to pick through. As the series runs its course, the number of bonus features sort of ebbs and flows. The first season is loaded with commentaries and featurettes that gradually become fewer or more sporadic but then come roaring back for the final season. As such, the various Cast/Crew commentary tracks are your best pieces to enjoy offering a little behind-the-scenes illumination while also being pretty damned entertaining on their own. 

Season One:

• Audio Commentary “Fundraiser”
• Audio Commentary “Frozen Yogurt”
• Audio Commentary “Katherine”
• Audio Commentary “Chung”
• Audio Commentary “Nicknames”
• Audio Commentary “Baseball”
• Audio Commentary “Full Disclosure”
• Audio Commentary “Tears”
• Deleted Scenes
• The Making of Veep
• Anti-Obesity PSA and Outtakes
• Governor Chung Retraction adn Outtakes

Season Two:

• Audio Commentary “Midterms”
• Audio Commentary “Hostages”
• Audio Commentary “First Response”
• Audio Commentary “D.C.”
• Deleted Scenes

Season Three:

• Audio Commentary “Special Relationship”
• Audio Commentary “Debate”
• Audio Commentary “Crate”
• Audio Commentary “New Hampshire”
• Deleted Scenes
• Governor’s Visit

Season Four:

• Deleted Scenes

Season Five:

• Audio Commentary “Morning After”
• Audio Commentary “Mother”
• Audio Commentary “C**tgate”
• Audio Commentary “Congressional Ball”
• Audio Commentary “Kissing Your Sister”
• Audio Commentary “Inauguration”
• Deleted Scenes

Season Six:

• Audio Commentary “Omaha”
• Audio Commentary “Georgia”
• Audio Commentary “Justice”
• Audio Commentary “Qatar”
• Audio Commentary “Blurb”
• Audio Commentary “A Woman First”
• Audio Commentary “Groundbreaking”

Season Seven:

• Audio Commentary “Iowa”
• Audio Commentary “Discovery Weekend”
• Audio Commentary “Pledge”
• Audio Commentary “South Carolina”
• Audio Commentary “Super Tuesday”
• Audio Commentary “Oslo”
• Audio Commentary “Veep”
• Character Retrospectives
• Inside the Final Seasons

It’s tough to do a political satire right. It’s easy to make fun of government, that’s no secret, but it’s damned hard to do it in a way that doesn’t pull punches but isn’t mean-spirited. I think what made Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Salina Meyer such a fun character is the bipartisan humor of her various uncomfortable situations. Everyone who shows their face in this series is an equal opportunity target for a gag. In the real world, these gags would be career-ending missteps or political suicide. In Veep, it’s all just hilarious comedy one episode after the next. On Blu-ray, Warner Bros. casts a vote for a complete series collection that essentially repackages all of the previously available discs just in time for the upcoming elections. Regardless of where you sit in that race, it’ll be nice to have this series on election day to have a laugh! The A/V is solid from one episode to the next and the bonus features - especially the commentaries - are worth digging through. Highly Recommended