Rating: 4/5

Three-Word Summary: Crude political humor

As an avid Seinfeld fan, I can testify that Julia Louis-Dreyfus has had the most successful post-Seinfeld career of any of the main four actors on the World’s Greatest Sitcom.

And Veep is perhaps Louis-Dreyfus’ best accomplishment, outside of Seinfeld. On the HBO hit-series, she plays the Vice President of the United States, Selina Meyer.

The show revolves around Meyer and her rag-tag staff as they struggle with the country’s politics and politicians. Meyer is ruthless in her treatment of all around her, and you grow to truly despise her as a person; which only makes her more believable as a politician.

Veep is the type of show that obviously encourages improvisation from many of its actors. They spend much of their time insulting and degrading each other in descriptively and elaborately vulgar ways. We can only imagine that the men and women in Washington D.C. act much the same way.

Having just concluded its fifth season, Veep (and Louis-Dreyfus, specifically) have won a number of prestigious television awards to honor the show’s accomplishments. It does a remarkable job of including insightful and relevant political commentary, while also remaining crass and disrespectful.

Despite a number of plot twists and evolving character relationships, Veep stands out primarily because of the countless punchlines and dark sarcasm. Each of the characters is as despicable as the last, yet the audience identifies with them because they’re plucky and real.