Veep is just disgusting now.

[Maraya1969]

I understand that a person who is incredibly self-centered can be funny in a show. But Veep is taking it to a new low. I just finished Season 6 and I don't even think I want to watch Season 7.

The character of Selina Myer is so sociopathic it is not even funny anymore. To the point she can't even pick up her own grandchild and won't do anything unless it involves her benefit is just too much to take. Watching someone be so mean is not funny anymore.

[Control-Z]

1. I stopped watching at the beginning of last season.

I hadn't put my finger on the reason why. I just didn't find it funny. Probably for the same reason as you.

[Leghorn21]

2. Agreed, sadly - it just got nasty and vicious, as opposed to smart and slightly goofy.

I lost interest after the second or third season, m'self.

[ClusterFreak]

3. For me, it's House of Cards.

Not to change the subject of your post, but just in a general sense I'm tired of bad people winning. Breaking Bad was excellent but glorified a bad guy. So did The Sopranos for that matter. House of Cards does the same thing. Can't we have good people - flawed but good - as heroes anymore? Have never seen Veep, but ya it sounds like a similar story. There is flawed and then there are just bad people. Sounds like the Selina character is just bad, and what's funny about that?

[Maraya1969]

4. I feel the same way about House of Cards. I stopped watching it

And you are right. These characters are not just flawed, they are bad. Probably why you can't identify with them.

[grantcart]

5. I agree with you about Cards but couldn't disagree more about BB

I couldn't watch Cards after the 3rd or 4th year.

BB never glorified a bad guy. It was a Shakespearean type drama that showed how incremental decisions to compromise your morality may seem harmless but slowly lead you down a path of moral degradation and the cumulative effect makes it more difficult to step out, hence the name breaking bad.

If it glorified anyone it glorified corny DEA Agent Hank Schrader who just plotted along and eventually saw through everything. Schrader had his pedestrian hobbies like making his own beer but kept his code to look out for his neighbor, his brother in law, his community. Schrader's decency made him the only one who was sick at looking at the grotesque violence of Tortuga's beheading. He had to go back to his truck because he was going to vomit and it was his decency that saved his life.

Schrader's concern for his brother in law almost got him killed twice, once by Tuco and then by Tuco's psychotic
nephews. Even while suffering with that he has to confront the sickness of his wife's kleptomania which results in professional embarrassment and he responds with patience and understanding, a breath taking counterpoint to Walter White's flying off the hook with every little inconvenience. It is the contrast between Walter White and Schrader's facing life and death issues that we see the ordinary guy glorified and the one that grasps for personal glory humiliated. In the end WW admits that he didn't do it for his family, he did it for himself.

BB even has a "Greek chorus" with Walter Jr. who gives the objective moral judgement "why don't you just die already". At various points it is Schrader who steps into save Jr, while WW just wants his son's devotion. Schrader is a better uncle to Junior than WW is a father.

Well written, subtle and funny BB is a great morality play and IMO it reveals the banality of immorality and the heroism of the ordinary guy just doing the right thing day by day.

[Maraya1969]

10. Thank you for that explanation of Breaking Bad. I remember

watching it and seeing how Walter White became worse and worse as time went by. He started out making the drugs to provide for his family since he thought he would die shortly.

Then after a few seasons, I remember he had a line saying something like, "I want to build an industry!" He was taken down by money and success it seemed.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

8. I agree there is a trend of really bad people being the protagonist, but I disagree on Breaking Bad

Yes, he was a criminal, but he did what he did from a place of protecting his family. And he ultimately worked for redemption in the last half of the series. My wife and I would still argue about this for hours if I brought it up.

[Ferrets are Cool]

12. Two shows that might fit the description you've asked for....

White Collar.
Leverage.

Leverage is one of my all time favorites because they actually END it.

[Fla Dem]

6. Most series lose there charm after 4-5 years. (spoiler)

I agree HoC is getting ridiculous. The way Kevin Spacey got reelected and then making Robin Wright (his wife) the VP really drove the series off the cliff. The're just out of plausible, interesting story lines. I had hoped this was the last season, but now Wright is the Prez. So we'll see where it goes.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

7. never thought funny...and would

Just cringe every year she wins an emmy when there are so many more deserving

[oppressedproletarian]

9. not especially funny but

I couldn't stop marveling on how perfectly the Selina character embodies our current fake prez

[Maraya1969]

11. More so in the last couple of seasons, probably when he came on

the scene they wanted her to be more like him.

I think it pisses me off more because she is a woman and I am not used to looking at women which such lack of character. She is even sociopathic now.