1) The Government Shutdown
We see the ridiculous effects of a government shutdown in season 2, including trash piling up around D.C. because the government agencies have been closed and a hiker being eaten by a bear because park rangers were not on duty. This was broadcast in June 2013, and the episode was written because a shutdown had been looming for a while. It was more of a vague threat rather than something the general public imagined would happen, though, so Iannucci and his writers decided to put together a crazy scenario where furloughs actually did take place.
Then, four months later, it was no longer as amusing: the U.S. government actually did shut down, leading to massive furloughs and the closing of national parks. Granted, similar situations have occurred in prior decades, but Iannucci still didn’t believe there was any legitimate chance of it happening in 2013. If the Veep writers knew a real shutdown was about to negatively impact millions of people, the show may not have made such light of the situation.
Iannucci explained:
“Sometimes we write stories that we think are funny, and then those things actually do come up in Washington and everyone is like, ‘How did you find out that was happening?’ We were like, ‘We didn’t think it actually happened, or would happen. We thought it was just absurd, so we made it a story.’ That’s the frightening thing here.”
Frightening indeed.