Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Veep: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 10, 2017

The history of television is littered with shows that for one reason or another changed their names along the way. I Love Lucy became The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, followed by The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, each name change signifying at least something of a rejiggering in overall concept if not in the persona of its lead character. Some trivia experts may remember that Seinfeld actually began life as The Seinfeld Chronicles, or that Valerie Harper’s sitcom Valerie transformed into Valerie’s Family and then The Hogan Family after Harper was dismissed from the production. Sometimes pop culture crazes contribute to a rebranding, as when Burke's Law became Amos Burke Secret Agent in the wake of the James Bond phenomenon. All of which is to say: why is Veep still called Veep? As I mentioned in our Veep: The Complete Fourth Season Blu- ray review, it seems somewhat odd that Selina Meyer’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) unexpected career path has been more or less ignored by the show’s very title, a title which may seem peculiarly focused on one job in the government when the series in fact does an admirable job skewering just about every job in the government. Veep may have strayed at least somewhat from its initial focus on the supposedly second most powerful job in the United States, but its generalist tone continues to be quite bracing as it lampoons the patent idiocy of many of our elected officials.

To catch up on Veep's somewhat long and winding road, reviews of the series' previous seasons can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

Veep: The Complete First Season Blu- ray review

Veep: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray review

Veep: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray review

Veep: The Complete Fourth Season Blu- ray review

It’s kind of interesting to view Veep’s fifth season in the context of some of the punditry that was being espoused during our own “real” (unreal? surreal?) Presidential election last year. The political class of talking heads were obviously thrown for a loop by the wild and woolly primary and general election contests last year, and many of them started hypothesizing about all sorts of “slim chance” scenarios, including an electoral college tie that would have thrown the outcome of the election to the House of Representatives. Something at least somewhat similar is at hand as Selina’s potential “election” hangs by some slim threads of chance itself.

One of the other at least tangential (and probably intentional) connections to the actual American election cycle of 2016 (and its aftermath) is a kind of funny set of circumstances arising from Selina’s impolitic (pun intended) use of a social media platform which has become a daily source of either accolades or outrage (depending on the leanings of whoever is reacting) for the current real life occupant of the White House. But this season of Veep also tends to spend quite a bit of time on matters that aren’t explicitly about the ins and outs of governing, and instead provide nice character moments for the show’s rather large assortment of supporting players.

Kind of interestingly, given this season’s early focus on some of the Constitutional arcana involved when an election doesn’t go exactly as planned, Veep more and more plays like a somewhat traditional workplace comedy where the workplace just happens to be the White House and Congress. That’s not a bad thing, by any stretch, and it perhaps gives the series a more universal feeling than it might otherwise attain. The cast has honed their interrelationship skills to a fine edge by this point in the series’ run, and even supposedly mundane interchanges are often played for significant laughs.

The show continues to offer wonderful opportunities not just for its ace regular supporting cast (including the reliably hilarious Tony Hale), but also recurring guest stars including Hugh Laurie as a charismatic threat to Selina and (especially) a wonderful Martin Mull as a slightly addle pated consultant whose folksy aphorisms often sound like non sequiturs. The show is as consistently manic as it’s ever been, but there are a couple of actually curious detours into more ostensibly dramatic fare, including a late denouement about a health scare for one character that seems like it’s going to be awfully hard to ply for much comedy.

Veep: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Veep: The Complete Fifth Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of HBO with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Virtually everything I mentioned in our Veep: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray review holds true for this season as well, with the general appearance of this transfer being perfectly workmanlike without ever really attaining any awe inspiring status. The show perhaps utilizes even more handheld elements than in some previous seasons, something that can seem to add softness to certain shots, since the camera darts to and fro so regularly. When things are calmer, fine detail pops quite well, especially in close-ups. As has been the case with this show, the fact that so many scenes play out under garish fluorescent lighting conditions actually helps to maintain very good to excellent detail levels.

Veep: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Veep: The Complete Fifth Season DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is, like its video component, a perfectly competent offering that nonetheless doesn't really offer a ton of audio "wow". A lot of scenes in this quasi-farcical show often play out with door slamming sensibilities that offer good discrete channelization of isolated effects, but as might be expected, the best immersion comes from crowded scenes where the chaos of many people interacting provides a nice spread of sonics. Otherwise, fidelity remains strong if surround activity is somewhat more limited in quieter or more intimate dialogue scenes.

Veep: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 11:29)


• Audio Commentaries

  Episode 1 with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Executive Producer/Actress), Timothy Simons (Actor), David Mandel (Executive Producer), Lew Morton (Executive Producer), Georgia Pritchett (Co-Executive Producer)

  Episode 4 with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Executive Producer/Actress), Tony Hale (Actor), David Mandel (Executive Producer), Alex Gregory (Writer), Peter Huyck (Writer)

Disc Two

• Deleted Scenes (1080i; 22:31)


• Audio Commentaries

  Episode 6 with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Executive Producer/Actress), Timothy Simons (Actor), David Mandel (Executive Producer), Brad Hall (Director), Georgia Pritchett (Co-Executive Producer)

  Episode 7 with Reid Scott (Actor), Timothy Simons (Actor), David Mandel (Executive Producer), Lew Morton (Executive Producer), Billy Kimball (Writer)

Veep: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Maybe Veep's creative crew did consider changing this show's name to Pres, but then decided some might think it was about the King (I hope you see what I did there). That famous old Shakespeare quote concerning a rose by any other name probably applies here as well, though, for whatever you call Veep, it continues to be one of the most charmingly off kilter comedies cable has to offer, one with a rather tart, barbed sense of humor that will certainly appeal to folks jaded by watching our country's "real" (unreal? surreal?) politicians on the news every night. Technical merits are generally strong, and HBO has offered more supplements for this season than has been the case on some previous seasons. Highly recommended.