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President Patient Zero
We’re not unreasonable, no one’s going to eat your eyes.
The TV shows Veep and House of Cards used to be my escape from reality. Depending on my mood I could either have a zany comedy or a dark Shakespearean drama. Until Kevin Spacey ruined it. (It’s okay though, because Robin Wright is still just delicious). Both of these shows ran from about Obama’s second term to somewhere in the middle of Trump’s (hopefully only) term of office.
And therein lies the problem.
House of Cards didn’t really experience a jarring tonal shift because it was already a vitamin D deficient Shakespearean drama dedicated to the malevolent machinations of a pair of heartless antiheros, but Veep really did. Veep started out with Selina Meyer playing a selfish and spoiled plutocrat, but one who despite her narcissistic tendencies still cared for the environment and her daughter. Season one opens with her trying to replace plastic utensils with biodegradable ones in order to ease in her environmental policy and when Catherine is introduced Selina is embarrassed that she hasn’t spent enough time with her, but seems to genuinely want to be her mom.
Contrast this with her portrayal in the last season where she trades environmental legislation for convention votes, sells out her daughter and her grandson, and capitalizes on…
