Season premiere review: Veep ‘Midterms’ – Him Chose Me

The more power Selina Meyer seeks, the less power she ends up with – or in tonight’s season premiere ‘Midterms’, she gets her wish, and the kind of power she’d never want: one that involves work and responsibility. Of course, her professional step forward (which she fights for the entire episode) is catalyzed by a massive political failure by her party, maintaining that important karmic balance Veep established in its first season.

When ‘Midterms’ begins, Selina’s giving some empty speeches across the country for mid-term campaigns, and finds out that her presence gives her the tiniest of edges over the President, in terms of swaying public opinion. Seeing it as a soapbox, Selina tries to turn the disaster around her into an opportunity, not realizing until it was too late that she didn’t really want any more real ‘power’ to begin with. Plus, it comes hand in hand with publicly falling on the sword of the widespread failure in midterm elections (eerily similar results to what Obama went through in 2010 elections), something Selina stumbles her way through at the end of the episode, half-awake.

I like to view tonight’s episode through the prism of Gary’s experience in the episode: he works so hard to find something he thought he needed, only to realize that it wasn’t needed at all. This idea of wasted energy is spread throughout the episode: whether it’s chief of staff Ben or Team Jonah and his Hot Stat Three-Piece, everyone’s working their asses off for what clearly is imminent failure. Gary searching for the right lipstick not only speaks to Selina’s obsession over her celebrity (and Gary’s weird dedication to her), but the inefficacy of the government in general: there are thousands and thousands of man hours wasted on a daily basis, dealing with irrelavant things while the bigger issues go ignored.

I also quite enjoyed the metaphor of Mike and his leaky ass boat, which is a fine representation of POTUS and his staff, a government that in theory, sounds terrific, but in reality, is full of so many leaky holes nobody really cares enough to fix. He’s like Selina in that way: wants the glory of having a boat and wearing a captain’s hat, but doesn’t want to get his hands dirty and pay attention to the real issues to actually have something that works. It also speaks a lot to our country’s economic situation (which is referenced but never really a plot point here): we as Americans think our economy is so terrific, but there are more issues than any of us (or the people in the White House) really want to deal with. Unfortunately, we can’t put America on eBay, because then we’d be owned by the Chinese.

The pilot doesn’t make it entirely clear what the season will be about: but Dan’s trouble with Furlong is still an issue, and now that the VPOTUS is taking a hand into foreign policy, she’s bound to cause some major international fuck ups (starting with the potsmokers kidnapped and being held prisoner in Uzbekistan, which Ben notes is right next to “Whatever-The-Fuckistan”). If anything, ‘Midterms’ is like a big, warm, worn-in Welcome mat, reintegrating us into the world of the show by making note of the many changes, but making sure it all still feels familiar to us.

Grade: B+

Other thoughts/observations:

– I could write 500 words of just Jonah jokes – he’s easily the funniest character, despite talking to nobody except the air with most of his lines. Two highlights: his air dick-grabbing act while Dan was on the phone, and of course, “Gather the wagons and shoot the dogs everyone; we lost the House.”

– Amy’s sister Sophie: “You work for the Vice President. It’s not like it’s Google.”

– Selina suggests to Ken (senior strategist, and feared figure) that he fuck himself in his own little asshole.

– “Is that a racist joke?” Dan: (hesitates) “Yes.”

– Gary’s got a girlfriend! It’s Jessica St. Clair, formerly of Best Friends Forever.