Season 3 of HBO's political comedy Veep shocked fans everywhere by elevating Vice President Selina Meyer to the highest office in the land way sooner than anyone expected. Although she was in the midst of campaigning for the Oval Office, the titular VP was unexpectedly ushered into the presidency when POTUS was forced to resign due to his wife's mental health problems. As exciting as this development was to see, now that we're entering Veep Season 4, questions must be asked: How much longer can a show called Veep go on after its protagonist is no longer the veep? Are we nearing the end of this hysterical show's run? Is Veep Season 4 its last?
First of all, keep in mind the fact that Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Selina is only President by default. Her term will be up when her predecessor's term would have been — and if she wants to remain the Commander in Chief for longer than that, she'll actually have to get elected. (It's a very similar problem facing Kevin Spacey's Frank Underwood over on Netflix's very different political series House Of Cards. Crossover, please!) And this is where the newly-ascended POTUS runs into some problems... considering she only came in third in the New Hampshire primary, behind both Danny Chung and Joe Thornhill.
Season 4 will likely focus on the remainder of the primaries, culminating in whether or not Selina will win the nomination over Chung. One way to get the show back on track after Selina's surprise promotion would be to have her lose the primary; then her only option to get back in the White House would be to become the Vice President on Chung's ticket. While this could possibly feel like a step backwards for the show, it would be hilarious to see Selina forced to constantly interact with Chung... and it would get a guaranteed four more years out of the comedy.
Even if Selina does win the nomination — and then the election — that wouldn't necessarily spell the end of Veep. Dr. House himself, Hugh Laurie, has joined the cast of Season 4, and although details of his character are being kept top-secret by HBO, speculation abounds that he could be playing the new veep... If Laurie's character joins Selina's ticket as her Vice President, that would be a perfect way to keep the show's title relevant. I could certainly watch Louis-Dreyfus and Laurie play off each other for four seasons.
So while the cast and crew of Veep has been mum on the longevity of the show, there's no reason to fear that HBO's most vicious comedy will be winding down anytime soon just because Selina's no longer the veep. I'm sure Louis-Dreyfus and the show's terrific writers have plenty of surprises left in store for us.
Images: doctaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, aichihuahua/tumblr
