In a season 2 episode of the HBO comedy Veep titled “Shutdown”, a congressional stalemate leads to a government shutdown. Vice President Selina Meyer played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus is left to deal with the repercussions, which amongst other things, happen to include bear attacks.
From Veep season 2
The episode which aired in June has foreseen what has been happening in the U.S. government lately. Very insightful for British creator and writer Armando Iannucci. Louis-Dreyfus’ character is left with the unpleasant task of deciding which government employees are “nonessential” and can be furloughed. Government agencies are closed, trash builds up on the streets, and a hiker in a National park is killed in a bear attack due to the lack of park rangers, which of course, must be the fault of the government. It all seems too similar to the current situation that has been developing in U.S. over the past three days, but hopefully there won’t be any bear attacks.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Armando Iannucci explains why he decided to include a government shutdown last season:
“I suppose it’s been sort of looming over the past couple of years. It so nearly happened already, and the whole threat was becoming a perennial thing, like Thanksgiving, really. So we thought it would fun to do. I kind of wanted to do it at that point, too, since in that season Selina was getting much closer to actually having real power. I thought, ‘What things would give her a headache, be problematic for her?’ It seemed to me that there has been so much change in Congress, and the whole gridlock thing seemed ripe for examination.”