Photo courtesy Haddad Media.
After our long wait, Season Six of Veep has finally aired on HBO! As anticipated, all is not well with now ex-President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a full year after being turned out of the White House by the House of Representatives. Post-presidency life is proving to be difficult, and Meyer responds with her characteristic foul-mouthed vigor.
Attempting to build her post-presidential foundation and sell her memoirs are proving to be a challenge for the ex-president. At the height of frustration, Meyer tells her family she is running for the White House again, only to have that door slammed shut as donors and her political party have turned against her campaigning again.
Showrunner David Mandel explains this was an important point to make at the outset of the season.
“If we didn’t squash the idea that she could run again right away, then her path would still be, ‘I’m going to run again.’ She’s moving forward and desperate with finding these things, like a manuscript for her book and a library, because she has to. If the audience doesn’t think she has to then they’ll be thinking, ‘Oh, she’s just going to run.’ We had to take that off the table.”
The rest of the crew starts out the season scattered across the country, except for her loyal staffer Gary (Tony Hale), who remains by the ex-president’s side. Chief of Staff Amy (Anna Chlumsky) is engaged to her new boss, Buddy Calhoun (Matt Obert), as she runs his campaign for governor out West. Press secretary Mike (Matt Walsh) is a stay-at-home dad caring for his adopted Chinese orphans. And even Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons) keeps crying foul at obstacles thrown in his direction as he pretends to still have cancer to boost his new career as Congressman.
“Only Jonah would use his cancer. His comeuppance really comes from that moment with Dan,” said Mandel. “He’s a young Congressman looking for ways to separate himself and make a name for himself, and that’s exactly what he’s going to try and do.”
Back to Meyer and her thoughts on her life post-election? “This is the worst place an ex-president has ever been stuffed, and I’m including JFK’s coffin,” she gripes.
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