Since it was announced that Hugh Laurie, of all people, would be joining Veep, there's been a mixture of bated breath and puzzlement. Bated breath because, well, he's a big catch, and puzzlement because, after House, why would he bother?
Veep (Sunday, HBO Canada, 10:30 p.m.) is on one of those comedic rolls that the show has gotten better at forging into subtle but scathing satire. And Laurie is ideal for it, playing the vice-presidential candidate Senator Tom James, now running with U.S. President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) for re-election.
In this role, Laurie is bringing his old comedy game, the one many know not from House, but from Blackadder, Jeeves and Wooster and A Bit of Fry & Laurie. There's a lightness to his touch that is sheer brilliance.
The series, now in its fourth season, has had its ups and downs. At times, it seemed to hesitate about outright mockery of U.S. politics. Now it is much tougher. And in the current episodes, it has expanded out from its core premise as, essentially, another workplace comedy that happens to be set in the White House.
It does that workplace material at the moment, but the episodes about the party convention followed by the beginning of the election campaign have broadened its scope.
Right now, the best workplace comedy element to Veep comes in those segments set at the lobbying firm where former deputy director of communications Dan (Reid Scott) now works, desperately trying to parlay his old White House connections into money-spinning deals. For, like, the zucchini industry.
Currently, Dan has been joined there by the still-in-a-breakdown Amy (Anna Chlumsky). The absurdism of the banter and anxiety in the ceaselessly grey lobbying firm is just delicious.
But it is Laurie as the seemingly smooth-but-empty politician who is pushing the series into the realm of genius. Following periods of utter chaos and mayhem for Selina, his smoothness is outrageous. He might be dim, he might be subtly evil. Nobody quite knows. But he sure can light up a campaign pancake breakfast.
At this point, Selina is forming the strong impression that Senator Tom James would make a better president than her. Certainly, he's a better candidate, all ridiculous "fun facts" to spout at just the right moment. Coming as it does after Amy's excoriating breakdown and dismissal of Selina, the show's comedy is veering toward a scorching indictment of everything about U.S. politics.
There is also a blitheness to the satire that is rolling out so fast it is breathtaking. The scenes in which Selina had to find a new vice-president candidate after Doyle (Phil Reeves) stepped down were brilliantly done. As Selina and her team made frantic efforts to find the right candidate, they were routinely interrupted with news about a man being executed and the execution failing. This is based on a real story and its insertion into the comic plotting amounted to deeply mordant humour.
What is being attacked on Veep, at the moment, is everybody and anything. The politicians are narcissistic jerks or fools.
The White House and campaign staff are buffoons ceaselessly battling on the basis of ego and privilege. And the voting public is being mocked, too. On an early campaign stop with running mate Tom James, Selina is asked by a voter, "Are you two going to get married?"
Laurie as the perfect politician embodies the acid humour completely. He's so smooth, cheery and sensible that he is utterly menacing. That's the great stroke of Veep this season – the tomfoolery and office antics are being overtaken by something much darker, and Laurie is it. Sublime casting on what is now a truly superior, searing comedy.