Veep

Series two, episode one
‘You work for the VP. It’s not like it’s Google.’ Amy’s sister more or less nails the spirit of ‘Veep’ with this single line, distilling the essence of our diluted, disrespectful, mutually abusive relationship with the political classes.

As we rejoin Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), she’s on a roll. The midterms are underway and – while the President is deeply unpopular – she seems uncharacteristically unable to put a foot wrong. Indeed, she’s longing for an expanded role. This is clearly a huge mistake, but it’s great fun finding out why.

As season two begins, the main principals of ‘Veep’ remain as relentlessly dislikeable as ever – like ‘The Thick of It’, this is a show peopled exclusively by selfish, venal, cynical, jargon-spouting, back-stabbing, brown-nosing tossers. But the writing – in this instance, by Armando Iannucci and Will Smith – remains relentlessly, inventively hilarious and the performances are naturalistically spot-on.