The Final Season of Veep, a show that started in 2012 (seriously, in Obama's first term) is coming up in a few weeks. The final season of Game of Thrones, which started in 2011, is coming up in about a month.
Both shows, for better or for wrose, defined comedy and drama in the 2010s. Shorter seasons (10 episodes each year - excepting the last couple GoT years). Such cultural relevance, Such acclaim. Pushing HBO back into the forefront of standard TV. The 2010s were defined by streaming taking over, starting in earnest in 2013 with NETFLIX's first push into original content, but in the end, the best comedy, and most lasting (if not best) drama were on good ol' HBO.
That they end the same year is something poetic, after both had to take 2018 off. For different reasons, mind you. Game of Thrones because it was just too daunting to put all that out so quickly, and for Veep because Julia Louis-Dreyfus was successfully battling cancer. In a sense, maybe they needed that break, as both shows hit creative nadirs, to some degree, in their most recent season. Sure, they were still good shows, but nowhere near their best. And for that, I do have some serious reservations on each show.
Game of Thrones seems more pressing just because how much has been driven by plot, and how much of that plot lost itself once it outpaced George RR Martin's books - doing so late in the fifth season / early in the sixth, and completely running free in teh seventh season. Suffice it to say, George RR Martin does not write that stupid Wight heist. The shows fewer episodes also entirely changed things, with people seemingly teleporting across Westeros after the six prior seasons taught us how daunting any travel across that continent was.
For Veep, it was partly losing its original creator, partly losing Selina's connection to active office, and partly because our actual political scene went from relatively calm to completely batshit during the run of the show. It became increasingly hard to satirize politics when actual politics and storylines crossed Selina's politics in the middle of the night and went far beyond anything Armando Ianucci and the leftover team could concoct.
On my personal ranking of TV shows, I have Game of Thrones ranked #9, and Veep ranked #8, and unlike the seven shows ahead of them, I've watched these two from start to finish (the closest I came in the rest was Breaking Bad, starting live in Season 3). These aren't the first long-running shows I've watched more or less from beginning to end - that was probably How I Met Your Mother. These are just hte best shows I've watched from beginning to end, and I do have a clear checklist of how I want them to finish.
For Game of Thrones, I want an appropriate conclusion to the Jon / Daenarys reveal. I want someone to kill Cersei but make it meaningful. I don't care if the Night King wins, but I want some connection to the three-eyed raven or Arya or some of the Stark kids that they've spared unlike the scores of others that have died.
For Veep, it is more simple, I want Selina to win her election, and I want something that doesn't try to parody Trump. He's un-parody-iable in reality. They should not even make mention of him - certainly Julia Louis-Dreyfus is no Trump supporter (as she made clear in her acceptance speech in DC for winning the Mark Twain Prize last year); the best thing is to avoid parodying any Trump event.
For both shows, I just want a nice send-off. When Game of Thrones aired, I was 20 years old - 21 for Veep. I remember starting Veep without knowing who Armando Ianucci was, and knowing Julia Louis-Dreyfus just from Seinfeld. It was quick, but damn did I learn just how brilliant she was and he was.
For Game of Thrones, it took a while to truly appreciate the astounding production value. For years, we critique the show due to plot and character development, but let's not lose sight of the fact the show has put on movie-level staging and effects for 8-10 hours year after year.
I won't forget these shows, especially as the world of TV continues to get more and more stratified. There honestly may not be another TV show for a long time that is as much a cultural touchstone as Game of Thrones, adn while Veep is definitely mnot at that level, it is about as high as a smart comedy can get in this day and age. These are two tentpole TV shows, two all-timers, and they're both slated to end within weeks of each other, and I truly hope they go out as high as they can.
Both shows, for better or for wrose, defined comedy and drama in the 2010s. Shorter seasons (10 episodes each year - excepting the last couple GoT years). Such cultural relevance, Such acclaim. Pushing HBO back into the forefront of standard TV. The 2010s were defined by streaming taking over, starting in earnest in 2013 with NETFLIX's first push into original content, but in the end, the best comedy, and most lasting (if not best) drama were on good ol' HBO.
That they end the same year is something poetic, after both had to take 2018 off. For different reasons, mind you. Game of Thrones because it was just too daunting to put all that out so quickly, and for Veep because Julia Louis-Dreyfus was successfully battling cancer. In a sense, maybe they needed that break, as both shows hit creative nadirs, to some degree, in their most recent season. Sure, they were still good shows, but nowhere near their best. And for that, I do have some serious reservations on each show.
Game of Thrones seems more pressing just because how much has been driven by plot, and how much of that plot lost itself once it outpaced George RR Martin's books - doing so late in the fifth season / early in the sixth, and completely running free in teh seventh season. Suffice it to say, George RR Martin does not write that stupid Wight heist. The shows fewer episodes also entirely changed things, with people seemingly teleporting across Westeros after the six prior seasons taught us how daunting any travel across that continent was.
For Veep, it was partly losing its original creator, partly losing Selina's connection to active office, and partly because our actual political scene went from relatively calm to completely batshit during the run of the show. It became increasingly hard to satirize politics when actual politics and storylines crossed Selina's politics in the middle of the night and went far beyond anything Armando Ianucci and the leftover team could concoct.
On my personal ranking of TV shows, I have Game of Thrones ranked #9, and Veep ranked #8, and unlike the seven shows ahead of them, I've watched these two from start to finish (the closest I came in the rest was Breaking Bad, starting live in Season 3). These aren't the first long-running shows I've watched more or less from beginning to end - that was probably How I Met Your Mother. These are just hte best shows I've watched from beginning to end, and I do have a clear checklist of how I want them to finish.
For Game of Thrones, I want an appropriate conclusion to the Jon / Daenarys reveal. I want someone to kill Cersei but make it meaningful. I don't care if the Night King wins, but I want some connection to the three-eyed raven or Arya or some of the Stark kids that they've spared unlike the scores of others that have died.
For Veep, it is more simple, I want Selina to win her election, and I want something that doesn't try to parody Trump. He's un-parody-iable in reality. They should not even make mention of him - certainly Julia Louis-Dreyfus is no Trump supporter (as she made clear in her acceptance speech in DC for winning the Mark Twain Prize last year); the best thing is to avoid parodying any Trump event.
For both shows, I just want a nice send-off. When Game of Thrones aired, I was 20 years old - 21 for Veep. I remember starting Veep without knowing who Armando Ianucci was, and knowing Julia Louis-Dreyfus just from Seinfeld. It was quick, but damn did I learn just how brilliant she was and he was.
For Game of Thrones, it took a while to truly appreciate the astounding production value. For years, we critique the show due to plot and character development, but let's not lose sight of the fact the show has put on movie-level staging and effects for 8-10 hours year after year.
I won't forget these shows, especially as the world of TV continues to get more and more stratified. There honestly may not be another TV show for a long time that is as much a cultural touchstone as Game of Thrones, adn while Veep is definitely mnot at that level, it is about as high as a smart comedy can get in this day and age. These are two tentpole TV shows, two all-timers, and they're both slated to end within weeks of each other, and I truly hope they go out as high as they can.
