Veep: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray review

HBO Home Entertainment
By Mike Bax

“I feel like I’m on a life support machine, and they keep pulling the plug to charge their phones.” Amy (Anna Chlumsky)

Also: Hagrid’s Nutsack

Veep is one of those shows that is bittersweet. At ten episodes per season and each only a half hour running time, one tends to feel like the ride ended way to soon when it’s over.

Right out of the gate, Veep Season 1 episode one established itself as wildly funny, boasting an ensemble cast. Four years in, and the show continues gaining momentum. I wonder if there was any talk of a show title change this season? Vice President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is not the ‘Veep’ this season, but has stepped in as President of the United States. Hilarity ensues over the hiring of Tom James (Hugh Laurie) a wholly endearing Vice Presidential nominee (and the obvious choice for a competent leader in the White House) making for some comedic moments between Meyer and James throughout the season.

All of the episodes in this season make for great entertainment. I enjoyed episode 9 significantly, as it veered away from the usual format of the show, presented in snippets of interview footage of all of the main characters around a senate investigation. Patton Oswalt is a lovely addition to the cast this season as Teddy Sykes: The Chief of Staff to Vice President Doyle.

Veep: The Complete Fourth Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of HBO with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1 with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. There’s nothing on this show that really utilizes the high end of these spectrums – it’s not really that type of show. The colours pop in places, but overall this is a dialogue heavy show, shot in mostly office settings. There wasn’t really anything that wowed me because I didn’t expect it to. At a point in this season, both Dan Egan (Reid Scott) and Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky) wind up doing scenes in a stark white office setting that yields some almost washed out lighting for all of their scenes. It was a pleasant change from what I’d call the norm for the show set-pieces.

The only extra included on Veep: The Complete Fourth Season is approximately 15 minutes of deleted scenes that are well worth the time to watch once you have finished the season. Veep Season 5 premiers on Sunday April 24th.

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