A fond and appropriately bitter farewell, then, to the beautifully shriveled heart of HBO’s pitch-perfect Washington satire “Veep,” which ended Sunday night with the fullest possible symphony of f-bombs, c-words and manic maneuverings, as its anti-hero, Selina Meyer (the incomparable Julia Louis-Dreyfus), finally got what she always wanted — the presidency of the United States — only to have live coverage of her state funeral (24 years later) interrupted by the breaking news that actor Tom Hanks had died.
Selina’s victory didn’t come easily, because nothing in Selina’s inglorious career as a public servant ever did. You’ll be thrilled to know that she never found happiness.
But viewers certainly did. In a satisfyingly conclusive, supersized episode (written and directed by “Veep” showrunner David Mandel, who took over from the show’s creator, Armando Iannucci, a few seasons back) “Veep” luxuriated one final time in history-making swerves of political fate, echoing the bizarre events that had previously landed Selina in the Oval Office for a term that was so short it’s why they invented asterisks.
This time, Selina’s party (the show was always coy about which party she belonged to) was split among feuding nominees, leading to the first deadlocked convention in almost 70 years. Selina had to scrape and connive her way to her party’s nomination at its 2020 convention in Charlotte. The harder she tried to win over more delegates, the more she lost — leading to the horrifying prospect that the imbecilic, upwards-failing Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons) might secure the nomination.
Jonah’s improbable rise with voters this season was “Veep’s” lone, slight nod to real-life American politics and the Trump administration.
