The Armando Iannucci-created, David Mandel-showrun & Julia Louis-Dreyfus-led scathing satire exited an America very different from the one it debuted to back in 2012 SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of tonight’s Veep series finale. Plus this article contains language inappropriate for almost anyone, but that’s Veep, isn’t it? Game of Thrones doesn’t end until next week, but tonight’s series finale of Veep showed a very different way to snare another type of Iron Throne with maybe even more bane and acerbity on the floor. In the past few weeks, there’s been a plethora of declarations of a “satisfying” ending by series regular Reid Scott and others on the Julia Louis-Dreyfus-led scathing HBO political satire. But there is no way that you saw the well played concluding twist, which is a welcome mat on the way out to the “mind fuck” to quote party chairman Roger Furlong (Dan Bakkedahl), that the frequently verbally and otherwise bawdy Armando Iannucci-created and David Mandel-showrun comedy excelled in. Coming off a damnable comeback campaign that dominated this final season, the end of Veep started with a deadlocked convention for the Democrats, an unintentional transgender flag of support, and a possible deal for the ticket between the perpetually petty Louis-Dreyfus’ former President Selina Meyer and her rival Senator and later POTUS Kemi Talbot (Toks Olagundoye). The lightening paced Mandel-penned seventh episode of the seventh and last season almost ends with the inflammatory and idiotic Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons) getting the number two job and the parasitic ex-President back in the Oval Office – but that wasn’t the real last sleight of hand. Jumping ahead 24-years after Meyer is elected to her own full term, the crackerjack end of Veep ends with the funeral of the first woman POTUS attended by now sitting President, Nobel Prize winner and former idiot savant Richard Splett (Sam Richardson). The resting in the vaginal shaped and temporarily blocked crypt is knocked off the news cycle with breaking news of “American icon” and Philadelphia 2 (not a real movie, yet) star Tom Hanks’ death. Killer, just killer. A throwback to the pilot plus Being There meets A Face in the Crowd meets the Iannucci-created and Peter Capaldi starring In the Loop killer and more. I’ll just say you’re welcome. I will miss every moment. — David Mandel (@DavidHMandel) May 12, 2019 And that’s an ending coming out of the abhorrent end of Meyer’s race for her old job and a non-fictional America that has changed so much since Veep‘s 2012 premiere. After a rising tide of territorial deals with China and a Muslim Math teacher as the main suspect in a JFK bombing, the loathsome Ryan finds his once DOA Presidential campaign getting a stampede of delegates coming his way in the “runaway Ferris wheel of a convention,” as Reid’s also loathsome opportunistic operative Dan Egan declares to the recently anointed Iowa Governor Splett. The return of the reptilian once VP Tom James (the masterful Hugh Laurie), another heart attack by Meyer’s “hatchet man” Ben Cafferty (Kevin Dunn) and a decisive sexual harassment scandal injected a toxic human heart into the “Veep” titled last episode of Veep. But, with no disrespect to the masterful cast of Reid, Dunn, Simons, the Kellyanne Conway channeling Anna Chlumsky, multiple Emmy winner Tony Hale, Sarah Southerland, Gary Cole, and Matt Walsh’s Mike McLintock now CBS anchoring talking head, this ensemble was screamingly owned by multiple Emmy winner Louis-Dreyfus with one raging and conniving rant after another tonight. All of which is to say, in a near constant scrimmage for indecorum with the current real-life occupant of the Oval Office the past couple of years, the once hapless Vice-President, incompetent and abbreviated POTUS, former and once again Commander-in-Chief, Louis-Dreyfus’ Meyer managed to become even more venal and somehow scrupulous as the seasons went by. It certainly served her and the viewers well, as the end tonight of Veep proved after a seventh and final season that successfully let the brakes off and gunned it the whole way through to a media frenzy conclusion that would fit in perfectly on today’s cable newers. With an eerie packed bid for the Democrats’ White House nomination of self-serving and clueless aspirants like Meyer and the vaccination and math refuting – – please TV Academy voters, give Mr. Simons the Emmy he so deserves – – Ryan, Mandel and crew were clearly full of fuel not to leave a single hyperbolic opportunity unexplored, an aim they were seamlessly successful in. As we saw in a monologue for the ages in a series packed to the rafters when Meyer ordered her former top aide and Ryan’s campaign manager Amy Brookheimer (Chlumsky) to make Ryan her VP. “There is no safer place to stick Jonah Ryan in all of Washington D.C. than the Vice-Presidency,” Louis-Dreyfus says, shiv in high heeled hand and words Mike Pence may secretly agree with. “Being Vice-President is like being declawed, defanged, neutered, ball gagged and sealed in an abandoned coal mine under two miles of human shit.” That’s how you claim your seventh Emmy. That’s, with great thanks Mr. Mandel, how you end a satire.<doc-sep>Veep Close this dialog window Streaming Options Julia Louis-Dreyfus calls it “the perfect bookend to the series.” Tony Hale warns ominously: “You reap what you sow.” And Timothy Simons sums up: “It’ll be a nice reminder that Veep was incredibly funny—and holy f—, those are not good people.” Those are just a few of the ways that the stars of HBO’s darker-than-a Game-of-Thrones-battle comedy describe the send-off of self-concerned Selina Meyer. Airing Sunday at 10:50 p.m., the supersized series finale of the Emmy-nabbing, critically beloved political comedy wraps up seven seasons of staff gaffes and devastating insults while revealing whether vain, amoral VP-turned-president-turned-civilian-turned-candidate Selina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) can defeat opponents formidable (Toks Olagundoye’s Kemi) and foolish (Simons’ Jonah), and return to (what she thinks is) her rightful place in the Oval Office. A few days ago, Veep showrunner David Mandel dropped seven hints about the finale. Below, the stars of Veep reveal how they felt about ending the show now, what pressure these Veep vets felt to make a fitting finale, what it felt like to film the last-ever episode, and what possibly awaits these malicious misfits in the final installment. On the decision to end the show after seven seasons Julia Louis-Dreyfus: When we were having lengthy conversations and soul-searching conversations amongst ourselves, and we tried to think about, “What would season 8 be? How could we map out season 7 and then season 8?,” it felt incorrect. It felt like we were stretching story for the sake of doing another season. The storytelling dictated the end of the show. It felt right. Tony Hale (Gary): They had a really great idea for the ending and they wanted to wrap it up, and we didn’t want to extend our welcome. But the emotional side of me who loves these people — we’ve just created such a vibe and a chemistry — was like, “Let’s keep going.” So I had to separate those two a little bit. Sarah Sutherland (Catherine): I wasn’t stunned just because it really felt like we were getting away with murder. We were on this show on HBO that had done so many seasons, and I don’t think was developed with the intention of having gone so many seasons. So, every renewed year just felt like such a blessing. And I think it did feel like it was the right time. Sam Richardson (Richard): In my head, I always thought we were going to do eight seasons, honestly. Like a two-term president. So that was my first [reaction]: “Oh, I thought we were going to do eight.” But the thing is to go out on the highest note. And I think seven does that, really. All the stories just converge, and this is the right way. Matt Walsh (Mike): I was surprised because I always felt like, “We’ll at least do eight,” for some reason. In truth, I would do the show forever. It’s a joy, the writing is the best, the characters are good, and people really care about it. That rarely happens that you have both a good show and passion for it. But I also understand that very rarely do you get to step out on your own terms. This afforded us a season where we could wrap up the character and the stories and have it land somewhere that we like. So, it’s bittersweet… You never want to overstay your welcome. It tarnishes a bit the work you did before that. Gary Cole (Kent): With all the weapons we had in place, yeah, sure, we could’ve done two or three more [seasons]. But you want the show to be remembered for the edge and the tone it had. Reid Scott (Dan): When they gave us that news, at first I was like, “Oh, s—. I’m out of a job. And within five minutes and probably a glass of whiskey later, I was like, “No, you know what? This the right thing to do. We’ve created something so beautiful. Don’t cheapen it.” On the pressure to cement the show’s impressive legacy Louis-Dreyfus: There was enormous pressure. Everyone felt it. We had to stick this landing on every level. Every level. Because everyone knew this was it. And I think everyone —everyone — across all departments felt fiercely protective of the work we’d done to this point. We had to demonstrate with this finale that the show was worthy of this protection. Scott: You’ve got to tie up storylines, you’ve got to tie up character arcs, you’ve got to give a satisfying finish for the audience, and that’s incredibly hard. That being said, I don’t think any of us in the cast doubted for a minute that they weren’t going to deliver because they always do. It’s always in the eleventh hour. That’s just the nature of Veep. But they always deliver. And when Dave told us what he had planned, I remember all of us being like, “Oh my god, that is wild. That’s big. Can we pull that off? That would be so f—ing cool if we can actually do that. But can we actually pull that off?” Timothy Simons (Jonah): I don’t think anybody was concerned about the history book part of it as much as they were concerned about sticking the landing — wanting to get it right in the last one. Everybody was in that zone of wanting to make sure that everything stayed true to the show itself. Just because it’s the last episode or just because you’re coming toward the end, you can’t all of a sudden switch it up to make it a historic thing. What’s going to be satisfying is: Did the show stay true all the way through? On filming the final episode Kevin Dunn (Ben): It was a very tough episode to write, and they just kept hammering it and hammering on it, even while we were shooting it, to make it work the right way and to really go out with a bang. They never stopped. They just kept writing until the last scene was finished. Anna Chlumsky (Amy): The last two weeks, which started with the last table read, Julia set the tone. She allowed us all to just let open the floodgates. It just gave everybody permission to feel exactly what we were feeling, whether it was anxiety, or upset, or gratitude, or laughter… I still have dreams at least four times a week about those days. Clea Duvall (Marjorie): I was scared to read it. I wanted it to be good… We all cried all the way through the last table read and cried the entire week we were shooting it. I couldn’t look at Tim Simons or Tony the entire week without crying. Simons: It’s like a very joyous firing squad. Hale: I didn’t expect to be as emotional as I was. You’re sitting there and you’re just remembering the many years of being in Baltimore [where the show was filmed for the first four seasons], when we were all away from our families and we became our own family. And we would hang out at night and go to Julia’s hotel room and play cards and drink wine, and then moving to L.A. and going to each other’s houses — the stuff outside of work. Then being on set and laughing and eating together and just catching up on each other’s lives. You’re just remembering all of that and then you’re thinking, “Oh, right. Now that chapter is closed.” Louis-Dreyfus: We all hung out in Selina’s office for a long time afterward. I’d taken the wig off and I had my hair all pulled back because it’s got all this gunk in it, and Dave and I had our heads together, and I felt like we’d just been through labor and delivery. I felt like we, as a group, had just given birth to this wonderful, ginormous baby. We were exhausted, physically and emotionally spent, but incredibly happy. It was a happy depletion and… letting go. On how the final episode wraps up the series Duvall: It’s not what I thought it would be and it’s exactly right. I feel like I’m going to cry just thinking about it. It’s very appropriate, and I think it will be very satisfying in the dark way that Veep is satisfying. Louis-Dreyfus: It’s a lovely match to the full run, a lovely match to the very beginning. It makes sense on so many levels for every single character. A lot of attention was paid to every single character in the show. A lot of though was put into, “Where do we want them to end up?” And I’m very proud of them. I think Dave and all of our writers did an absolutely magnificent job in terms of attention to detail. A lot of tender loving care was put in. By the way, it’s as dark as it could possibly be while, I hope, remaining very funny. But it’s incredibly dark. Chlumsky: I didn’t expect what we did…. I looked at Dave and I was just crying. I just kept telling him, “That last joke is like a love letter,” and he was like, “We’re fans!” It was really cool. I hope that people feel the way I do, where they love it and see how poignant and really just loving it is. Richardson: I think people will walk away feeling satisfied. So satisfied, and surprised.…. People get what they deserve. And a lot of people maybe get to be who they’ve always been. And you just didn’t realize it. But if you looked through, it’s like that’s who they’ve been the whole time… “Epic” is a perfect word for it. It really does have a grand ending. Sutherland: It is very Veep-y. It is an atypical structure of an episode but it’s something that is so funny… I think it’ll be outrageous and funny, and it will give people who love the show a little bit of what they want — and a sense of closure. Walsh: It’s an epic ending. It’s not happy for everybody, I can say that. Hale: If you invest in power and only thinking about yourself, and that’s the only account that you’re investing in, you will sow pain and sadness. Dunn: It was very surprising. I didn’t see how they were going to wrap it up, first of all. Things were kind of evolving and then all of a sudden, you’re on episode 6 and it was like, “Well, how do we put an end to this?” I think it was a pretty brilliant way of what they did to put the cap on it. Scott: Veep is not a maudlin show — it’s not even a sentimental show — so it’s not like, “Oh, what a sweet fond farewell.” It dials Veep all the way up, so it’s a fitting end for the series in that Veep has never pulled punches. This episode is no different. Veep has always been irreverent. This episode is no different. Veep has always pushed the envelope. We always bend it without breaking it. This episode is no different. There are a lot of finales that I’ve seen that are like, “Wow, that really stands on its own. It doesn’t even fit in with the rest of the series for some reason.” This does. And it’s very satisfying. Cole: It satisfied me. Simons: It stays true to itself…. It will probably fit into that thing of, “This really made laugh. I loved spending time all those people. And holy s—, they are the worst group of people who I’ve ever seen.” Close this dialog window Streaming Options Related content:<doc-sep>
The 'Veep' Finale Was Hilarious, Vicious, Depressing as Hell and Absolutely Perfect By Dustin Rowles | TV | May 13, 2019 | While another HBO series is sh*tting the bed as it goes down in flames, Veep came up with an absolutely perfect series finale this week, one that was both shocking and yet weirdly predictable. During a contested Democratic Convention, Selina Meyer sold out her last remaining principle (agreeing to outlaw gay marriage in exchange for a few delegates) and recklessly chose Jonah Ryan as her Veep before throwing Gary (and her entire staff) under the bus in exchange for the nomination (poor Gary went to prison, her fall guy for the Meyer Fund controversy). By completely selling her soul, Selina Meyer gained the Presidency back (for one term), but it came at a cost: She had no friends remaining, found herself surrounded by political enemies, and she alienated even her daughter, leaving President Meyer alone, embittered, and sad in the Oval Office. Twenty-four years later, when she was laid to rest, many of those closest to her didn’t even come to her funeral (Jonah had been impeached, while her daughter was too busy celebrating her death over margaritas). In the end, even her death was overshadowed by the death of the beloved Tom Hanks, the perfect final nail in the coffin of her legacy. It could not have been a more fitting way to end the series that, in so many respects, mirrored the Trump Presidency that Veep has been satirizing all season long: Selina Meyer got everything she ever wanted, and it left her completely miserable. It’s also worth noting that Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who has six consecutive Emmys for her work on Veep, managed to dial it up yet another notch, lashing out in furious anger in some scenes, and yet at Ben’s hospital bed and in selling out Gary, we could feel a genuine sense of sadness buried beneath the Selina Meyer facade. In some ways, we could feel the emotion of ending the show after eight years. Indeed, everyone on this show should get credit for their work this season (and Peter MacNicol should get a guest Emmy despite only appearing for 5 minutes, all told), but they may as well rename the Best Lead Actress in a Comedy the Julia Louis-Dreyfus Award. She was stunning, and the writing on this series — led by showrunner David Mandel — was next-world amazing. There were a tremendous amount of great lines in the series finale, but for maximum impact, I’m going to limit myself to the best ten. — Roger Furlong (to Jonah): Because you were born with three umbilical cords wrapped around your neck, Hep-C Kevin McHale. — Roger — May the best man win. Will — And may the hairiest man zip tie me to a slaughterhouse drainage grate and make tender hate to my rear and mouth, in that order, at his leisure. — Ben (to Amy) Your offer is about as good as a Siracha enema. — Selina — In the words of the great Eleanor Roosevelt, I would rather cheese grater my clit. Ben — So, put a pin in it? Selina — That, too. — Jonah — I love America, but it is time to face facts. This is a horrific country that is falling apart because it is full of people who are different from me. — Jeff — The Jews have a word for this feeling I’m feeling right now. I can’t remember it. It sounds like three Germans cumming inside something it doesn’t want them to. Beth — Aw, Jewish is such a beautiful language. — Selina (to Michelle York, in a doozy of a speech) He will never see you as anything other than the TGIFriday’s hostess on Proactive who lets him bend you over his desk while you close your eyes to avoid coming face to face with that framed photo of his family in Aspen while he drowns your Little Mermaid back tat in a pool of jizz and admires his own reflection. I just hate to see smart women throw away their political career for men who only see them as the gash of least resistance. — Amy — Do not, under any circumstances, make Jonah Ryan your VP. Selina — There is no safer place to stick Jonah Ryan in all of Washington D.C.