Julia Louis-Dreyfus has received rave reviews for her turn as the vice president of the United States in HBO's new comedy Veep. Though the series itself has been met with a mixed response from critics, the former Seinfeld actress has been lauded as the star of the show.
People magazine's Tom Gliatto praised both Dreyfus and Veep, asserting, "Veep, the new Hbo comedy in which Louis-Dreyfus plays a vice president of very little brain, puts her firmly in the pantheon of TV's great comedic actresses". Of course, Dreyfus made her name playing Seinfeld's Elaine, though she was surrounded by similar talent, such as Jerry Seinfeld and Jerry Alexander. In Veep, the actress is very much the centre of attention and appears to bask in the limelight. In his review of the show's first episode, which aired on Sunday (April 22, 2012), Gliatto added, "Watching Louis-Dreyfus bring her sharp, precise, blindingly quick comic skills to a character who exists only in panic mode, frantically spinning herself out of her latest political predicament". Linda Stasi of the New York Post was similarly effusive in her praise for Dreyfus, saying, "A hilarious new sitcom about a female vice president of the United States, Selina Meyer, played with insanely good timing by Julia Louis-Dreyfus".
The show, created by 'In the Loop' writer Armando Iannucci, follows Dreyfus' character Selina Meyer and her bumbling White House staff.