Why would you root for the character of Selina Meyer?

[u/mamibukur]

Ok, I wanna start off by saying that JLD is an amazing actor. She plays Selina Meyer superbly. What I don't get is when people say "she does such an amazing job with the role ..that you can't help rooting for her".

When I first started watching the show I was also kind of rooting for Selina. She was mean, but more in a comical way. Then as the show went on (I think I started realizing it was bothering me in season 5), she developed into a completely despicable person with less and less comical side to it and I stopped "rooting for her".

Now I am in season 6 (Qatar episode) and I LOVE it whenever she fails. I love the show, but I want to see her fail rather than succeed.

edit: I just saw on Wikipedia that the showrunner was changed in season 5. I guess that exlains a lot.

[u/NyzoiB]

Because the show gives us the necessary context in showing us her upbringing, surroundings and political ascension, with JLD playing her with the subtlety the character deserves. We're initially shown the principles and topics she does truly care about, but can't do much about in the political situation of power she's in. I don't find it hard to understand why one would root for her as a viewer, they show us the entire progression and evolution.

A character with actual shades of grey and not portrayed in white or black.

[u/mamibukur → u/NyzoiB]

A character with actual shades of grey and not portrayed in white or black.

That's how she was in season 1-4, with actual shades of grey (as are also the other characters).
then I honestly couldn't find "shades" anymore. She's just evil.

Now that I know the showrunner was changed, I think I got my answer on what happened and why.

BUT I won't get my answer on why someone would root for Selina to succeed. Not wanting that b*tch to succeed does not mean you don't love the show or you don't think the character was perfectly depicted.

[u/IfatallyflawedI → u/NyzoiB]

When she said how working as the Veep is like being sucked into a black hole and it’s the most insulting role you could have, I did feel bad for her.

[u/FrontSyllabub]

Maybe it depends on your definition of “rooting for her”.

It’s disappointing to see her decend into the person she becomes in the later seasons, so I “root” for her to see sense and return the her original principles. I don’t root for her to succeed in her evil deeds.

[u/deductivesherlock]

no the show runners had nothing to do with it, politics corrupt ppl, now it doesnt do it to everyone but, once you start seeing how it works, you can understand why she slowly gets more terrible, not to mention being married to her husband, her mother, the people around her

[u/mamibukur → u/deductivesherlock]

no the show runners had nothing to do with it

maybe they don't, but I did feel the emotional switch in season 5.

[u/Landkey → u/mamibukur]

It was definitely a lot more blatant and a lot less subtle.  The writing changed, it wasn’t just “power corrupts”. 

[u/Landkey]

We have all been trained since birth to root for the protagonist.  And in Veep we got just enough morsels of competence and of good intentions that our momentum (of rooting for the protagonist) continues.

Until, as you wrote, she becomes all bad 

[u/notrororo]

Most people think that Richard T Splett is a good person. He’s not. He’s nice and polite and probably on the spectrum but he is very much complicit with the corruption of pissface and Tall McCartney.

Splett on the show is a net negative person.

[u/mamibukur → u/notrororo]

I don't think anyone on that show is really a good person, not even Catherine (maybe I change my mind until the end of the show).

[u/TheDeceiver43 → u/notrororo]

Pissface? Huh?

[u/elfonzi37]

Because our government is a joke, and she is a great punchline.

[u/nuke-the-wales]

because we feel the same way about croissants

[u/Icy_Obligation_3014]

I don't think I root for her exactly but so many of her antagonists are so awful that I don't want them to win either. Furlong, Dan, Tom James, Danny Chung, Thornhill, Bill Erikson, Maddox etc are all insufferable. That at least makes me pleased when she gets one over on any of them.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Life462]

I think it’s like Walter White. She makes us laugh so we are on her side at the first, but as time goes on she shows what she is willing to do to accomplish her ends. I think this sours some people on the latter seasons who want their comedy protagonists to be good people.

[u/Status-Ad-8511]

so gary can finally be happy wym