Yesterday, both Veep and Silicon Valley ended their most recent seasons, their 6th and 4th respectively. Both shows are already solidly within the great comedies of the last 10-20 years, particularly Veep. Both are personally well in my own Top-15 of TV shows, with Veep somewhere in the second half of the Top-10. But both shows ended their seasons on somewhat of an interesting note, resetting themselves after largely their most aimless, softest, least memorable seasons to date. The parallel nature of each this year, splitting the groups into various pieces throughout each season, never going too deep in any one direction, and largely hitting reset in the final episode, all the while slightly underwhelming given their previously great expectations, made me think if both shows are close to running out of steam and if we care too much about plot in comedies in general.
Let's talk about the first point first. Veep built up to the crescendo of Selina being president, a role she assumed late in Season 3 when the President resigned suddenly. It never lost a sense of perspective as Selina went from largely irrelevant VP in Season 1, through candidacy to assuming the top office in the land was commendable. It stayed just as grounded, just as close, and easily just as funny, despite the scope of the issues facing Selina and team getting progressively larger. But when they, at the time I thought smartly, made Selina lose the election (despite spending Season 5 going through interesting machinations to cement this fact) and go into post-presidency, it seemed like an interesting avenue to take. Instead, it led to a hodgepodge of a season with a few interesting sub-plots (Selina's library, Jonah's brief run as renegade rep) mixed in with way too disconnected ones. And now they hit re-set and Season 7, apparently, will be about Selina on the campaign trail again.
Silicon Valley was much of the same. On the whole, the first two seasons built Pied Piper from a small garage-band start-up to a major funded property. Season 3 tore that down to where they lost their primary tech and had to pivot. Season 4 continued this tear down until the Pied Piper team felt ass-backwards into a 9th life and reset the group all together (albeit losing TJ Miller). Now we enter a 5th season basically where the show started, with the gang trying to build Pied Piper into something, with the 'new internet' being basically as obtuse as the original compression algorithm.
Both of these shows were somewhat tired, if for different reasons. For Silicon Valley, it was the feeling that we've seen all this before. The show has always been a bit repetitive with so many episodes being centered around the group nearly losing everything before being saved at the 11th hour, but as we get to the 19th and 20th instance of that particular note, it becomes somewhat stale. Also, to be perfectly honest, the show just wasn't as funny this year. The Gilfoyle vs. Dinesh storylines weren't as sharp. Not having evil genius Gavin Belson and instead fighting-for-his-job Belson was not as fun. There were a few nice highlights, like the continuing rise of Big Head and Laurie's own VC, but on the whole it was just slightly worse.
Same with Veep, which is starting to show some of the pains of when you lose your showrunner and creator. The show was more tired in its insults and character behavior. None of the people on Veep are easy to root for, but it seemed that more of the invictive barbs were more malicious than normal. Then again, here is a show that just finished its 6th season. Few great sitcoms make it this far (admittedly, Veep does just 10 episodes a year), and the few that do that retain their effectiveness are rarely so plot-driven.
The only shows that I think maintained their effectiveness this long into their run as comedies that I've seen come down to two names: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (12 seasons) and Seinfield (9). Neither show really cared about plot, or at least season-long arcs. Sunny has done this at times, and probably has way more continuity and callbacks to cannon than Seinfield did, but still largely episodes were isolated, characters didn't grow. Sunny was always flatteringly compared to Seinfield. There's a reason why these shows work because when there is no real continuity, it is easier to just focus on jokes instead of plot.
Both Veep and Silicon Valley had focused on season long arcs, and if anything, while Veep struggled without one this past season, Silicon Valley got more aimless because of the presence of one. Silicon Valley really doesn't need a plot or ultimate end goal to work towards. If anything, if the Pied Piper team ever achieves big success, it may lose all relatability (hard to be too relatable if the group has to deal with eight-figures of funding and hiring 50-100 employees). Veep may need that structure back.
Definitely two years back, when Veep was in its 4th season and Silicon Valley its 2nd, I found the hour those two held as far superior than the hour that Game of Thrones had before it (in its 5th season). In reality, I was more looking forward to my hour of comedy than hour of Westeros. Last year they were close to equal, with Game of Thrones maybe taking a slight lead towards the end. The shows were split up this year, and with these two in the rear-view mirror, my yearning for Westerosi plot-driven escapades is greater than ever.
Veep and Silicon Valley have etched their places in my pantheon of great TV shows. Veep will be hard pressed to go any higher than where I mentally have it (somewhere around #7-10). Silicon Valley might with a great finish (showrunner Mike Judge has said he's mentally preparing for 6 seasons). But both won't go higher because they are not impervious to the same ills that have cost so many shows previously. If not for the sheer ability and quantity of talent embedded within each shows' cast, it would be more dire. Instead, the entertainment comes with seeing how the brilliant comedic minds can outdo the writing and plot they're provided.
Let's talk about the first point first. Veep built up to the crescendo of Selina being president, a role she assumed late in Season 3 when the President resigned suddenly. It never lost a sense of perspective as Selina went from largely irrelevant VP in Season 1, through candidacy to assuming the top office in the land was commendable. It stayed just as grounded, just as close, and easily just as funny, despite the scope of the issues facing Selina and team getting progressively larger. But when they, at the time I thought smartly, made Selina lose the election (despite spending Season 5 going through interesting machinations to cement this fact) and go into post-presidency, it seemed like an interesting avenue to take. Instead, it led to a hodgepodge of a season with a few interesting sub-plots (Selina's library, Jonah's brief run as renegade rep) mixed in with way too disconnected ones. And now they hit re-set and Season 7, apparently, will be about Selina on the campaign trail again.
Silicon Valley was much of the same. On the whole, the first two seasons built Pied Piper from a small garage-band start-up to a major funded property. Season 3 tore that down to where they lost their primary tech and had to pivot. Season 4 continued this tear down until the Pied Piper team felt ass-backwards into a 9th life and reset the group all together (albeit losing TJ Miller). Now we enter a 5th season basically where the show started, with the gang trying to build Pied Piper into something, with the 'new internet' being basically as obtuse as the original compression algorithm.
Both of these shows were somewhat tired, if for different reasons. For Silicon Valley, it was the feeling that we've seen all this before. The show has always been a bit repetitive with so many episodes being centered around the group nearly losing everything before being saved at the 11th hour, but as we get to the 19th and 20th instance of that particular note, it becomes somewhat stale. Also, to be perfectly honest, the show just wasn't as funny this year. The Gilfoyle vs. Dinesh storylines weren't as sharp. Not having evil genius Gavin Belson and instead fighting-for-his-job Belson was not as fun. There were a few nice highlights, like the continuing rise of Big Head and Laurie's own VC, but on the whole it was just slightly worse.
Same with Veep, which is starting to show some of the pains of when you lose your showrunner and creator. The show was more tired in its insults and character behavior. None of the people on Veep are easy to root for, but it seemed that more of the invictive barbs were more malicious than normal. Then again, here is a show that just finished its 6th season. Few great sitcoms make it this far (admittedly, Veep does just 10 episodes a year), and the few that do that retain their effectiveness are rarely so plot-driven.
The only shows that I think maintained their effectiveness this long into their run as comedies that I've seen come down to two names: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (12 seasons) and Seinfield (9). Neither show really cared about plot, or at least season-long arcs. Sunny has done this at times, and probably has way more continuity and callbacks to cannon than Seinfield did, but still largely episodes were isolated, characters didn't grow. Sunny was always flatteringly compared to Seinfield. There's a reason why these shows work because when there is no real continuity, it is easier to just focus on jokes instead of plot.
Both Veep and Silicon Valley had focused on season long arcs, and if anything, while Veep struggled without one this past season, Silicon Valley got more aimless because of the presence of one. Silicon Valley really doesn't need a plot or ultimate end goal to work towards. If anything, if the Pied Piper team ever achieves big success, it may lose all relatability (hard to be too relatable if the group has to deal with eight-figures of funding and hiring 50-100 employees). Veep may need that structure back.
Definitely two years back, when Veep was in its 4th season and Silicon Valley its 2nd, I found the hour those two held as far superior than the hour that Game of Thrones had before it (in its 5th season). In reality, I was more looking forward to my hour of comedy than hour of Westeros. Last year they were close to equal, with Game of Thrones maybe taking a slight lead towards the end. The shows were split up this year, and with these two in the rear-view mirror, my yearning for Westerosi plot-driven escapades is greater than ever.
Veep and Silicon Valley have etched their places in my pantheon of great TV shows. Veep will be hard pressed to go any higher than where I mentally have it (somewhere around #7-10). Silicon Valley might with a great finish (showrunner Mike Judge has said he's mentally preparing for 6 seasons). But both won't go higher because they are not impervious to the same ills that have cost so many shows previously. If not for the sheer ability and quantity of talent embedded within each shows' cast, it would be more dire. Instead, the entertainment comes with seeing how the brilliant comedic minds can outdo the writing and plot they're provided.
