Although not quite as good as Armando Iannucci’s British creation, “The Thick of It,” Iannucci’s HBO series “Veep” is an excellent TV show. Reverberating with unpredictable humor, it offers politics gone haywire. But “Veep” has one weakness.
It gets the Secret Service wrong.
True, centered on former President Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Veep” doesn’t completely ignore the Secret Service. For at least a few seconds of each scene, actors and actresses playing Secret Service agents are shown trailing Meyer as she navigates some hare-brained scheme. But aside from the character Marjorie, a former agent who marries Meyer’s daughter, “Veep” uses the Secret Service as simple window dressing. This stands in contrast to the NBC’s “The West Wing,” which quite effectively portrayed the depth and nuance that the Secret Service plays in the life of a “protectee.”
With a few more extras, “Veep” could do a far better job in furnishing the atmospherics of executive branch politics. Some specific weaknesses stand out.
First off, Meyer’s Secret Service detail, a shift rotation of around four agents, is far too small. As a former president who is currently running for president again, Meyer’s detail in the shows seventh season would have at least 30 agents, likely closer to 50. Don’t get me wrong, I recognize that such an added number of extras would be cost prohibitive in relation to the viewer’s realism gain. But “Veep” should have added five or six more extras. The show’s pretense of authenticity suffers when Meyer simply has two bored extras trailing her, rather than Secret Service surrounding her, as Secret Service protocol would dictate.
But the slightly added cost would also serve the show’s own comedic interest.
With more Secret Service extras we would see new writing opportunities for humor. Meyer might, for example, run into agents just outside of a room in which she has completed some secret political dealings. When Meyer confronts the agents with profanity laden questions on how they knew where she was, an extra might respond, “The tracker, ma’am.” Meyer then demands to remove the tracker, but later finds out that a backup tracker is still tied to her watch.
We might also see Meyer complaining about having to wait for the Secret Service to secure a site before she’s able to buy a fast food meal, or use a restroom, or go for a walk. Such reflections would be funny, but also in tune with the stresses of protection.
My basic point is that with a few more extras “Veep” would be a little more realistic and a little more amusing. It would also pay greater homage to the finest protective force on earth.
That said, the show’s security details aren’t quite as inaccurate as those in the movie “Love Actually.” That 2003 production suggested the British prime minister has only one protection officer; they have a few more.
