Good news Selina Meyer fans — HBO’s excellent, biting political satire Veep has been renewed for a third season.  The show has had steady ratings thanks to a big lead-in from Game of Thrones (last year it was paired in a programming bloc with Girls), and the premium network is showing its support three episodes into the series’ second season by going ahead and electing Selina for another term (maybe the President will call?)

Veep, created by Armando Iannucci (In The Loop), stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the hapless Vice-President, along with Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale, Reid Scott, Matt Walsh and Sufe Bradshaw as her staff. Veep airs Sunday nights at 10 p.m.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her third Emmy in as many series for Veep and it’s not hard to see why. She’s more than just a funny lady here – though to be sure, you may not see anyone quite as funny on television today. Underneath her hapless vice president’s pratfalls and panic attacks, she conveys a strange and abiding sadness. This figure is smart and capable. She wants to make the world a better place. She possesses the tools to leave the government in a better place than she found it. But by the very nature of the system in which she’s trapped, all her assets come to naught. She can only flail about in a mad effort to protect her image and her standing, a process as hysterical as it is quietly troubling. Hit the jump for my full review.

For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of enjoying In the Loop, a British comedy from Armando Iannucci, based on the series The Thick of It set in British government, finally the writer and director is bringing his comedic stylings to American politics. Julia Louis-Dreyfus continues her run as the second most successful cast member from Seinfeld to keep her career going strong with the HBO comedy series Veep. If Aaron Sorkin was a little more of a natural comedic writer, he would have written Veep instead of The West Wing. However, the political satire seems to be a bit less prevalent than the situational comedy, making it slightly less witty, but still very smart. Read my full take on the series premiere of Veep after the jump.

Matt Oberg (Ugly Americans), Stephen Schneider (Best Friends Forever), and Anna Chlumsky (In the Loop) topline an indie comedy with a title designed to catch your eye: Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship.  Oberg plays Bert, “a sensitive professor and author of feminist literature who deep down churns with sexual frustration.”  Schneider is Arnie, “a loud, obnoxious, womanizing businessman who’s completely oblivious to how inappropriate he is in almost every situation.”  Variety reports that Adrian Martinez (Kick-Ass), Debargo Sanyal (Blue Bloods), and Cristin Milioti (30 Rock) also star.

Bert and Arnie marks Jeff Kaplan’s feature directorial debut; Kaplan co-wrote the script with Ian Springer.  The Justified Ends Entertainment production began shooting late last month in New York.

Delivering one of the best political satire comedies I’ve seen in years, In the Loop writer and director Armando Iannucci just had his new comedy series Veep picked up by HBO. Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the series follows former Senator Selina Meyer (Louis-Dreyfus), who becomes Vice President, only to discover the job is nothing like she expected, but everything she was warned about. The cast also includes In the Loop star Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale (Arrested Development) Matt Walsh (Outsourced) and more.

Iannucci says, “I’m thrilled more than anyone is legally entitled to be. HBO is the dream network to make television for, and I’m excited to be working with such a superb and funny cast headed by the uber-superb-and-funny Julia Louis-Dreyfus. If making season one of Veep is as much fun as making the pilot, then I can die chuckling. Plus, we get to say rude words.” Since In the Loop was filled with great comedy and colorful language, this sounds great to me. Hit the jump for the full press release with more details.

We have a few casting notices of the female persuasion this fine evening.  First up: Abigail Spencer (Mad Men) has signed on for a role in This Means War.  She joins Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, and Angela Bassett.  The storcy centers on “two best friends (Pine and Hardy), who are also covert agents, that fall in love with the same woman (Witherspoon), setting in motion a battle between spies for the woman’s heart.”  According to Heat Vision, Spencer plays Hardy’s ex-wife; Bassett plays his boss. The comedy, directed by McG (Terminator Salvation), is currently shooting in British Columbia.

Hit the jump for more casting news on three TV pilots: HBO’s Veep, FX’s Wilfried, and TNT’s Perception.