Via HBO.
Welcome to the Selina Myer presidency*. Veep is back for its fourth season and, even though this season’s plot isn’t consistent with the show’s title, it’s still the funniest damn show on TV. The fourth season picks up a few months after last season’s finale, with Selina being told that POTUS is stepping down to focus on his family after his wife’s suicide attempt.
It’s a small yet dark plot detail that’s, but there’s always been a kind of grimness to Veep’s that’s consistently defined the underlying dark humor of the show. And in the excellent season premiere, “Joint Session,” it becomes the episode’s best recurring joke. “He’s not dead!” Selina’s staff constantly has to remind her while she’s preparing her remarks for her first joint session address. Of course, that’s the least of Selina’s speech problems, as her bumbling staff continues to bumble in her presidency.
Prior to Veep’s season premiere, it was announced that creator/showrunner Armando Iannucci would be leaving the show. It’s hard to imagine anyone but Iannucci running the show, as his brand of humor is so distinct and definitive of what makes the show so great. And that was especially apparent in last night’s fantastic opener, which began with Selina in panic mode when her teleprompter goes blank in the middle of her address. Flashback to 24 hours earlier, and the episode spends the rest of the time explaining how we got to this colossal fuck-up. This is Veep at its peak.
Hopefully Iannucci’s mark has been so imprinted in the show’s DNA that its writers can deliver Iannucci-ism after Iannucci-ism with little effort. Because whoever wrote the line “why would shit hit fuck? Shit doesn’t hit fuck” deserves all of the awards. Anyway, to the power rankings:
1. Selina Myer
Now that she’s the President, Selina is taking full advantage of her newfound power, which includes doing the exact same thing POTUS did to her when she was second-in-command: excluding the Veep from every important meeting. When her successor, Andrew Doyle gets wind of her meeting top military brass over proposed budget cuts, he sprints over to get in, only to arrive—completely out of breath—as everyone is leaving. Point Selina.
2. Dan
Dan, forever the slimeball who would do anything to rise in power is right where he wants to be: in the White House as one of the President’s top communications official. Unlike his main competition Amy, who’s now heading up Selina’s election campaign, Dan is perfectly content to continue being the smug, charming asshole he works so hard to be.
3. Mike
And then there’s Mike, Selina’s hapless spokesman, who is just hamming it up in every opportunity he can. We should all be more like Mike.
4. Jonah
Now that Selina is in the White House, Jonah is back to … doing whatever the hell it is he does. No one really knows, but Dan gives him Amy’s deeply annoying assistant as his own assistant, so everyone wins! There’s no way this doesn’t blow up in both their faces.
5. Amy
Poor Amy. She’s barely hanging on as Selina’s campaign manager and to make matters worse, Selina hires her arch-nemesis Bill Ericsson for her communications team. Will he take Amy’s job? Everyone seems to think so.
6. Gary
Also, poor Gary, who is not adjusting to being the President’s bag man at all.
Quotes, Quips, and Stray Observations.
- Free band name: “FUTURE WHATEVER”
- A brilliant blink-and-you’ll-miss-it one-liner from Ben this week: “That’s the long and shit of it.”
- I, for one, welcome Patton Oswalt to the cast of Veep, and I look forward to him awkwardly grabbing Jonah’s balls for the rest of the season.
- “Obsolete metal giant dildos.”
- I’m also looking forward to more of Diedrich Bader’s Bill Ericsson, who’s smarminess provokes the best (worst) in Amy.
- And one more applause for “Why would shit hit fuck? Shit doesn’t hit fuck.” Welcome back Veep.
*Before you start grumbling about “spoilers” i’m here to remind you that HBO’s entire promotional/marketing campaign for Veep’s fourth season has centered around her becoming president, so file your complaints with them.
