The first 3 episodes of Veep‘s third season were honestly some of the best and funniest episodes of comedy I have seen in some time. The fourth episode? Not so much. I’m not saying that is was bad. I mean the concept of having a dimwitted, awkward Washington politician taking on the brilliant, awkward Silicon Valley tech wizards is one that is destined for success. However, I think Veep was in over their heads for this episode.
Part of the brilliance of Veep is the writers’ ability to focus an episode and wrap all of their characters’ storyline around the main story of the episode. I think the biggest issue here was their inability to allow each of their storylines fully develop.
Let’s start off with the positive first. As usual, every single member of the ensemble was on fire tonight. However, I’d like to pay special attention to Reid Scott who was able to take Dan’s usual kiss ass routine and turn it into something actually fleshed out and absolutely hilarious as he vies for the position of campaign manager. Seeing Dan fail is probably one of the show’s biggest successes and in the only storyline that worked for me, Dan was on a collision course with a mental breakdown.
However, after hearing that Danny Chung allegedly tortured Iraqis, Dan decides to use that information to impress Selina and bring down Ryantology in one fell swoop. By feeding Jonah the unconfirmed torture story, Dan was able to associate the words “Chung” and “Torture” together and completely discredit Ryantology. First of all, Timothy Simmons is actually for once doing great work here, but I attribute most of his performance to Jonah falling completely on his face.
Outside that storyline, we have Selina touring a pseudo Google in Silicon Valley. In addition to her general dimwittedness when it comes to technology, there is the added issue that technology sometimes isn’t as smart as we’d like it to be. For example, when Clovis founder Craig (pronounced Cregg, or is it Crayg? Either way it was the single funniest running gag in the episode) shows Selina a new Smart Watch he struggles to get it to work and when she tries to use its voice controls to open her campaign site Meet Meyer, she inadvertently opens Meating Meyer, which displays Selina being “taken from behind”. When Gary tries to cover up the image with a sign, Selina quips “now he’s fucking me harder.” Possibly the single greatest line since the Croissant scene in season 1.
This trip to Clovis also finds Amy being offered a job at Clovis by CFO Melissa who is aching for another adult among the sea of “kids”, but we all know how Amy is with kids (see “Alicia”). Again this storyline never really reached its full potential, other than her reaction to their generous offer Chlumsky didn’t get the great material she deserves.
The episode was full of great small moments like Craig’s use of “Selina” instead of “Madame Vice President” or Gary’s issue with his bag shoulder (another storyline that never fully panned out), but as whole the episode didn’t do it for me.
As her campaign revs up I’m sure episodes are going to find more focus, but this is a small bump in the road for an otherwise amazing season.
Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.