Julia Louis-Dreyfus in 'Veep' is a misfire

"Veep" was created by Armando Iannucci, a British satirist of the first rank who co-wrote a BBC comedy, "The Thick of It," that may well be the funniest hit job on bureaucratic ineptitude in the long history of TV on either side of the pond. Unmistakably, irrepressibly British, its characters are con men, cads and sycophants adrift in a sea of 10 Downing Street lunacy.

"Veep" is not quite a remake of "The Thick of It," but the idea is the same. However, for satire to work -- especially for this one to work -- there has to be a bedrock of plausibility. That's almost completely absent here, and even the blistering use of obscenity feels more designed to shock than advance any sort of comic idea; worse, much of the profanity even sounds phony or exotic, and there are even portmanteaus of cuss words that look like they might be fun to say, but sound ridiculous when actually spoken.

SEE PHOTOSTV shows that made an impact

Meanwhile, Louis-Dreyfus' Meyer is a scattered nitwit -- a sitcom figurine who could just as easily be vice president of a paper company in Scranton as vice president of the U.S. She's a Leslie Knope who suddenly finds herself in command of an entire wing of the Executive Office Building, but who in reality is dealing with the same picayune matters she dealt with back in Pawnee.

On paper, the idea sounds amusing, but that's on paper. On screen, "Veep" muddles along, pursuing a funny idea that remains stubbornly, tantalizingly out of reach.