I normally wouldn't have written a review for this episode, but seeing it at a lowly 7.3/10 had me very surprised, so here I am. I wasn't sure if VEEP would be to my liking considering how very little I knew about it beforehand, but these worries were quelled nearly immediately. The immediate dry, underplayed chaos left me very entertained, and the cast plays the grounded but funny situations to perfection.
The dialogue comes off as mostly natural, although at times it can seem forced and/or rely too heavily on HBO's lack of censors. A lot of the humour stems from characters being frustrated/displeased with one another, which may come across as repetitive to some, but in my opinion provided constant laughs.
In the characters, Louis-Dreyfus works comedic wonders as the leading woman, Hale plays a toned-down version of his lovable ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT character to great effect, Chlumsky has a surprisingly very entertaining role as a regularly bland character archetype, and Walsh provides the most laughs with his dry and cynical apathy to everyone and everything. The rest of the cast did not have much to work with and as a result are not as strong, but the main four more than make it work anyway.
A complaint I do have is the camerawork, which is often too snappy and varies too wildly in zoom, resulting in a slight sense of motion sickness. However, this hardly takes away from the sharp writing and excellent acting.
In the end, a show I am very glad I decided to try. Not perfect, but much better than I anticipated and as far as I can tell thus far, very underrated. I look forward to watching more.
The dialogue comes off as mostly natural, although at times it can seem forced and/or rely too heavily on HBO's lack of censors. A lot of the humour stems from characters being frustrated/displeased with one another, which may come across as repetitive to some, but in my opinion provided constant laughs.
In the characters, Louis-Dreyfus works comedic wonders as the leading woman, Hale plays a toned-down version of his lovable ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT character to great effect, Chlumsky has a surprisingly very entertaining role as a regularly bland character archetype, and Walsh provides the most laughs with his dry and cynical apathy to everyone and everything. The rest of the cast did not have much to work with and as a result are not as strong, but the main four more than make it work anyway.
A complaint I do have is the camerawork, which is often too snappy and varies too wildly in zoom, resulting in a slight sense of motion sickness. However, this hardly takes away from the sharp writing and excellent acting.
In the end, a show I am very glad I decided to try. Not perfect, but much better than I anticipated and as far as I can tell thus far, very underrated. I look forward to watching more.
