Sunday night has always and will always be the best time for television dramas. Now, with “Game of Thrones,” the final season of “Mad Men,” and network powerhouse “The Good Wife,” all playing on this hallowed field, HBO has competition. Historically, HBO has aired almost all of its original content Sunday, so that’s not necessarily a notable shift, but what is notable are the incredible comedies with which the premium cable giant is having share the spotlight.
“Silicon Valley” just started its second season and “Veep” began its fourth season following the prized drama’s season premiere, both prove that HBO can do much more than whatever the biggest drama at the time is. “Game of Thrones” is amazing, “The Sopranos” is an all-time great and “The Wire” may very well be the best television show of all time, but Home Box Office Incorporated’s biggest strength right now is its contribution to comedy.
“Silicon Valley” ended last season with one of the funniest episodes of television ever seen. The episode, “Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency” put on display exactly what makes the show so great — the ability to make crass, confusing or ridiculous elements all work together due to incredibly intelligent writing, directing and acting.
The fourth season may have started a little slow, but that can be attributed to the writer’s having to deal with the death of Christopher Evan Welch. Although the episode was not quite on par with last season’s finale, it still provided plenty of laughs, peaking with Richard, played by Thomas Middleditch, and Erlich, played by T.J. Miller’s, “negging” their way through a series of presentations to venture capital firms.
The “Silicon Valley” writers have transparently replaced Welch with Suzanne Cryer which is a masterstroke so far. One could take issue with the show’s clear reliance on the brilliant but socially awkward venture capitalist role or one could rejoice in the fact that the show is fixing its first season gender issues from the first season. Cryer is just a feather in the cap of an already phenomenal ensemble cast which already included well known comedians Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr, T.J. Miller, Zach Woods of “The Office” and occasional appearances from Andy Daly as a pleasant but poor doctor in the vein of Chris Parnell in “30 Rock.”
“Veep” also ended its last season in an interesting way by removing the ‘Vice’ from the central character’s title. The incredible Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus is now the President of the United States, and the disasterpiece that is her staff has followed her to the Oval Office. I will admit an initial skepticism towards the shows direction, as it has always done well extracting jokes from her position in second place, but Armando Iannucci has allayed these concerns and proved that the show can do just as well from the White House as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Political dramas seem to be a dime a dozen these days. Every broadcast network except FOX has at least one and Netflix has its flagship “House of Cards,” but political comedies, and especially ones so well done, are much rarer. The fact that “Veep” somehow manages to maintain a seriousness within all of the silliness puts it in a different realm altogether. “The West Wing” is probably its closest relative — quickly paced with ping-pong dialogue, a dry wit and an absurdly vast Washington D.C. setting that feels very realistic — but “Veep” goes a step further than “The West Wing” ever did. Ianucci takes the substance that makes up “The West Wing,” punches up the jokes, gives it a rating for more mature audiences and condenses it into a half hour.
The season premiere centered on the new President’s first State of the Union address, a plot familiar to all “West Wing” watchers as highlights of Sorkin’s series. “Veep” more than carried on the tradition by delivering a great episode that indicated an even better season to come — a season which promises appearances from Hugh Laurie, more from Patton Oswalt and the continued presence of her hysterical inherited advisors played by Gary Cole and Kevin Dunn.
These two brilliant satires are followed by the equally brilliant “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and the lead-in from probably the most popular premium cable show ever creates a historically good Sunday schedule. Not since the heyday of NBC’s “Must See TV” Thursday nights with line ups including shows like “The Office,” “Community,” “30 Rock” and “Parks and Recreation” has this much quality comedy been put in one place. So next time after “Game of Thrones” is over, don’t change the channel.
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