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“They need each other.” - Reid Scott

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You should be sad

VEEP (2012 - 2019) Season 4 | Episode 3 "Data"

I think Anna never won an Emmy because I wanted her to win.

This is a sufficiently regular occurrence that I think I owe Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth) and Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) and Denzel Washington (Fences) personal apologies.

I actually Anna Chlumsky brings a similar nervous energy to her interviews as she brought to her performance of Amy - it’s just that with Amy all of that energy is directed inwards, whereas when she’s being herself she tends to babble and bubble over a bit.

That’s not a criticism by the way - Anna Chlumsky seems very extroverted and lovely, and I think when she’s nervous she almost becomes even more so. And I can now say from personal experience that doing a TV interview is nerve-wracking, even if you’re used to giving presentations or talking to groups of strangers.

I remember watching the interview she did when she was with Reid Scott, and I thought it was noticeable how much more relaxed and at ease she seemed - presumably because she had someone with her she knew and was comfortable with.

Beyond that, I think it can be dismissed that for some of the years she was nominated she was up against Kate McKinnon’s performance as Hillary Clinton - a performance which probably felt emotionally comforting to a lot of people at the time. Now, I’d argue that Chlumsky is more skilled as an actress (McKinnon is delightful but generally plays a version of herself), but I don’t think there’s any winning that competition.

It probably didn’t help that right around the time when people started to feel that Chlumsky was overdue and was really owed her award, the writing went bad. Now, I think that Chlumsky did a lot to redeem the scripts she was given (especially in 7.03), but I don’t think there’s any getting away from the fact that for long stretches of seasons 6&7 the writing was either bad or absent - and while the writing for Amy is less offensive in season 5, she still doesn’t really get to do much beyond being tortured by Dan after about episode four.

If she’d ever been given a script as good as Convention or Tehran* in the later years, things might look very different.

I thought the Veep livestream with JLD and Reid Scott was so interesting and enlightening, and I wanted to post some of my (admittedly jumbled) thoughts about it, just as a way to process it all. 

Mostly I was completely struck right by the fact that immediately RS commented on how the characters changed from the first season to the seventh season, especially Dan and Mike. Like, he basically summed up (and incredibly specifically!) exactly what changed…reflecting on how S1 Dan would never have a moment like S7 Dan, throwing stones in a lake and wondering about his future, how he would never question what his future was. He literally said S1 Dan would never be so vapid. And JLD chimed in with RS’s observations about Mike, how he’s a lot more acerbic and sharp in the earlier seasons, compared to later—I think they did actually use the word dumb to describe S7 Mike. 

RS used the word “growth” to describe these changes (I think he meant in the sense of, like, “evolution over time” as opposed to “progress”, but who knows). It was very evident that he doesn’t view the changes in Dan’s character as something that “bad” as in, negative for the show or a betrayal of how he viewed Dan’s character. He described Dan’s ending in the show pretty definitively and with good humor, joking “good work Dan” when JLD brought up his twenty-year old wife, emphasizing that Dan ended up in the right place, that he would never run for office once he discovered his true fate as a Laguna Beach real estate mogul. 

I think it’s very illuminating how RS describes himself too, pretty dark and sardonic (it was interesting and kind of cute how he said he didn’t mind the social implications of the lockdown at first, purely as opportunity to hole up and be with his family and not be out in the world….) It seems like he sees the character through a similarly dark lens, and enjoyed taking him to a darker (and dumber) place in the later seasons. And perhaps Dan’s more human qualities, especially in regards to Amy, are not what unlocked the character for him. When he acknowledged Amy and Dan’s Sam-and-Diane-esque qualities, he also qualified the comparison too, saying he enjoyed how the show kind of inverted the classic love-hate journey…both he and JLD talked about the enduring dysfunction of everyone on the show, and their inability to maintain healthy relationships. 

I don’t know. I don’t really have a response or anything to all of this. It was just intriguing hearing him talk about the show so frankly, and I was impressed by how thoughtful and reflective he was. As I’ve said before, this kind of stuff is fascinating but also distinctly extra-textual, and there’s never really one interpretation of a text, anyway. More broadly, I think it speaks to the fundamental difference of being outside something, in the process of creating it, versus engaging with a “finished” creative product. It just changes your perspective. As anyone who has ever created any piece of art can attest to, you always see it differently than your readers or viewers. Just in Veep’s case, that change in perspective has been exacerbated by the dramatically different artistic approach to the final season.

I also think it’s interesting how these individual chats highlight how distinct the relationships between the different members of the ensemble are. I didn’t see JLD’s chat with Tim Simons, but the one with Tony Hale had a very different energy. It was a lot more banter-y…they have a very established rhythm, simply because they literally spent seven years filming almost every scene together. And RS and JLD naturally had a different chemistry together that manifests in a different way…at times, this felt almost like an interview, like, literally JLD thinking of questions to ask to keep the conversation going. Not that it was awkward or bad, not at all! They’re obviously incredibly close, their goodbyes were so heartwarming…I loved when she asked about his kids, it’s so clear they bonded over being the parents of two boys. It just translates differently to this kind of setting.

And tbh, an hour is a long time to vaguely reminisce, especially if they’re scrambling for questions. Although I feel like there were plenty of questions coming in?? Idk, I have no idea how these Instagram livestreams work. Also, now they have to do one with Anna Chlumsky..although I feel like the Dan/Amy content would just be more of the same. I mean, there are only so many scenes they remember filming together…only so many ways they can talk about the abortion scene and why Dan and Amy didn’t end up together. But otherwise it would be so much fun! I would love to hear their perspective on being the only two women in the ensemble. 

Amy being so in love with Dan in s7 still sort of works for her arc? It makes more sense than Dan’s arc does, but I guess sex psychopath Dan is the equivalent of Amy suddenly picturing a white picket fence ending for her and Dan and constantly flinging herself at him? S1 Amy would NEVER. And S1 Dan would NEVER. 

“And perhaps Dan’s more human qualities, especially in regards to Amy, are not what unlocked the character for him.” This is really interesting too. I kinda got that impression through his interviews even from the early seasons. I was just hoping that it would because that’s how I viewed Dan as a viewer/fan of Dan and Amy.

@thebookofmaev

What’s so funny to me is that none of the versions of s7 really work. What we saw- Sex psychopath Dan not caring about Amy doesn’t track with the earlier seasons. Anna’s version of the show doesn’t track because of how she was treated all season. Reid’s version doesn’t track because we never see Dan wondering whether or not he should leave politics. He’s too busy sleeping around. He never even questions it, it’s all about sex even when he’s contemplating his future. And then in a split second decision, he decides to leave it all behind.

In my head, I like to think that it’s an extended breakdown but that also doesn’t fit with Dan ~getting a win at the end. Maybe s7 is so broad, which is why all of these can exist simultaneously (just not very well)? They all have such different interpretations.

I always thought of them as a mix between Sam and Diane and Josh and Donna. But they were always way more compatible than Sam and Diane. I don’t mind the inverted love-hate relationship or them not ending up together. I just wish they had done it in a way that made sense or if it didn’t make sense, at least didn’t result in the horrible treatment of Amy. That’s what bothers me the most. Their dynamic was just so unbalanced. There were so many different ways they could have written that storyline where it still pushed boundaries without being so misogynistic and grotesque. But it’s ~funny. 🙄 DM can fight me on this!