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Veep If the pressure of the Presidency has a way of turning powerful men into either heroes or villains, the utter pointlessness of the Vice Presidency has a way of turning formerly powerful men into bored and frustrated versions of their former selves. No show has ever tapped into that concept quite like Veep, a biting satire so clever and brilliant that it realizes the awfulness of the occupation supersedes even the fact that Selina Mayer is the first woman in the history of the United States to earn the title.

Of course, “earn” is an extremely generous term for how Selina ended up in the office. She tried to run for the Presidency prior to Veep’s first episode and failed in spectacular fashion, forcing her to accept a charity VP gift from a man she knows damn well doesn’t even like her. That scenario leaves her with both a disdain and an obsession with pleasing her boss, and the show utilizes it to maximum effect. Between filibuster reform bills and new silverware, she constantly rearranges her priorities and her courses of action depending on whether she’s more in the mood to be a team player or to further her own agenda. Someday she might figure it out and find happiness, but that definitely won’t happen as long as she’s the swearing, hysterical Veep many fell in love with for the first time in 2012.