My Cultural Highlights: VEEP

In these days of Netflix-induced coma, my single greatest achievement is never giving a damn about either Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones. Veep, however, is where I have never been strong enough. And now that it is over, after last week's brilliant finale, there is an awful sense of loss I last felt when Don Draper was conjuring up a Coca-Cola commercial in that field in America.

So just to put things into perspective:

1. Twin Peaks
2. Mad Men
3. Peep Show
4. The Wire
5. Veep

I guess I always had a thing for Armando Iannucci's humour, and while I do not necessarily believe that Veep was better than The Thick of It (Iannucci's original British series), it was still outrageously good. The sort of show where you have to see each episode a number of times to fully appreciate the script and get every little joke and reference. And you would still miss a lot - Veep was that well-written.

My love for Veep stems from the great sense of humour that was always able to walk the fine line between foul-mouthed and profane. This is all part of Iannucci's well-established aesthetics you could witness right from the very first episode on Armando Iannucci's Show (which is titled "Twats", obviously) and down to the brilliant Death of Stalin (which got approval from Stephen Kotkin, no less). Besides, I have always loved Iannucci's directing style that basically involves actors inhabiting this semi-documentary environment, living their lines rather than acting them.

However, it would never have worked over seven seasons had it not been for the wonderful characters that included all kinds of mad fuckers and adorable freaks. God knows I loved them all, from neurotically revengeful Amy to charmingly hapless Mike to spinelessly selfless Gary and all the way to 'autistic Barbie doll' Minna. It was good, too, to see the   characters develop - subtly, bit by bit, with Selena Meyer making that unmistakable transition from positively inept to negatively vile.

And you will not hear me complain about the final episode (these entitled Game of Thrones people do make me laugh though). Every fan of a long-running TV show believes he's got a perfect ending in their pretty little head and when it does not happen (inevitably), there is this overwhelming hysteria that leads to people acting like overgrown children. With its beautiful allusions to the very first episode, with scenes that made you laugh and cry in equal measure, Veep folded the only way it was supposed to fold. The ending was neither happy nor sad. It was just right - even if some of those scenes with Gary seemed a little too heartbreaking for this particular viewer.

Favourite episode? Pilot. Favourite scene? Roger Furlong dinner. Favourite character? Jonah. Duh.