Veep, Season 5, Episode 6: “C**tgate” Written by Georgia Pritchett & Will Smith Directed by Chris Addison Airs Sunday at 10:30pm on HBO Jonah is running for congress now, something I never dared to hope for but which pleases me immensely. The stock market is also crashing and three large banks are in need of …
Veep, Season 5, Episode 5: “Thanksgiving” Written by Sean Gray & Georgia Pritchett & Will Smith Directed by Chris Addison Airs Sunday at 10:30pm on HBO I recently wrote about Veep’s lead-in on HBO, Silicon Valley, and how that show is best and funniest when the characters are dealing with a crisis. Veep operates similarly, …
Veep, Season 5, Episode 4: “Mee-Maw” Written by Alex Gregory & Peter Huyck Directed by Dale Stern Airs Sundays at 10:30pm on HBO For Selina Meyer, winning trumps all other personal concerns, whether those entail being sympathetic to a grieving daughter or honoring her deceased mother. That singular focus is the secret to Selina’s success, …
Veep, Season 5, Episode 3: “The Eagle” Written by Steve Koren Directed by Chris Addison Airs Sundays at 10:30pm on HBO A key test of how fleshed out a show’s characters are is how well the story holds up when they’re pulled apart. Are their personalities interesting enough to sustain themselves in isolation? Or do the …
Veep, Season 5, Episode 1: “Morning After” Written by David Mandel Directed by Chris Addison Veep, Season 5, Episode 2: “Nev-AD-a” Written by Lew Morton Directed by Chris Addison Airs Sundays at 10:30pm on HBO The fifth season of HBO’s Veep was always poised to become a victim of expectations. The show had benefited from remarkable consistency over …
Last night was David Letterman’s last time ever hosting a late night program. Other late night hosts gave thanks, and Dave looked back at some favorite memories, with music by the Foo Fighters.
Don’t you hate that each year Awards Season seems to creep ever earlier in the calendar year? GOD! Can’t you just go one film festival without speculating whether it will be an Oscar contender, or whether it has the legs to survive such an increasingly long awards season? Geez, I can’t imagine why so many …
For the second year running and for its final season, Breaking Bad won Outstanding Drama Series at the 66th Annual Emmy Awards. It virtually swept the awards in an especially stacked year, also picking up awards for Best Actor Bryan Cranston, Best Supporting Actress Anna Gunn, Best Supporting Actor Aaron Paul, and Best Writing for …
The 2014 Primetime Emmy Awards are now less than a week away, and everyone is excited to see if the final season of Breaking Bad can beat True Detective – and also – if Veep can stack up against Modern Family. In anticipation of the broadcast, the Television Academy has put together a fun 6-minute …
Pop culture critic and author Jennifer Armstrong returns to the DVD Shelf to look at the surprisingly under-discussed classic sitcom Seinfeld.
Nicole Holofcener is one of the strongest voices working in movies today. Her films, often about the lives of everyday women, are consistently sharp and observant and Enough Said does not stray from her already terrific track record. As a writer she has a way of portraying her characters as people we know or someone that we could know.
Throughout the second season, the US administration has found itself embroiled in one issue after another, beginning with the poor showing at the election in the season premiere. The President’s attempts at passing the buck on these issues have not only been futile in keeping his own nose clean, but have also turned members of his own administration against him, including Vice-President Meyer herself, as the end of last week’s episode indicated.
Selina admitting knowledge of the CIA spy last week came at the heels of a season-long campaign where she has ended up on the losing end of most political matters without having any say in the decision. Becoming the public face of accountability for atleast one of the government’s scandals thus gave her the ability to control the narrative in atleast one situation. The season’s penultimate episode this week sees Selina try to take further control of her political career as she realises her role in the current administration, in an episode that continues to be funny while still managing to effectively move the characters forward.
With Selina’s growing political issues in the second season of Veep, from the CIA operative hostage situation, to the scandals involving her ex-husband, a rough meeting between the Vice president and the press seemed inevitable. While Meyer was able to avoid the press in Finland, despite Dan’s bumbling efforts, such reprieve could not go on for long. This episode sees Meyer face the press, in an episode that illustrates how Meyer’s recent political actions are being viewed by those in the public eye, while still managing to be comedically top-notch.
Veep, Season 2, Episode 7: “Shutdown” Written by Tony Roche and Armando Iannucci Directed by Becky Martin Airs Sundays at 10pm (ET) on HBO Despite Selina’s best efforts at balancing the budget last week, efforts that saw her sit down to discuss numbers in the midst of her daughter’s birthday party, the President still went …
One of the staples of Selina Meyer’s career as Vice-President has been her inability to properly separate her personal life from her professional one, as well as her insistence on having a memorable event which she can point to as her legacy during her time as the titular Veep. This week brought both these issues together, as Meyer’s attempts to get budget negotiations completed before a midnight deadline conflicts with her daughter’s birthday party, in another entertaining episode that reveals more about Meyer’s life before her current government position.
Foreign relations are a key aspect of any politician’s job, with the importance of maintaining a good rapport with the international community being the most important aspect of many political positions. With the comedic song about the various European countries that Selina Meyer sang at a private function making its way online last week ahead of a visit to Europe, courtesy of Jonah, the Vice-President’s ability to mend fences was sure to be put to the test, and it is this facet of the office that this episode explores, delivering another strong episode that fleshes out some of the show’s secondary characters.
Veep, Season 2, Episode 4: “The Vic Allen Dinner” Written by Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci Directed by Chris Addison Airs Sundays at 10pm (ET) on HBO Numerous politicians over the course of history have seen their credibility get lost in the blink of an eye, with a single off-handed statement, or an unfortunate picture, …
Speeches are a key part of any politician’s career. A good speech can immortalise a politician, while a bad one can weigh down the rest of their career like an anchor. The amount of time politicians and their staff spend on the specific wording of any given speech, and the message it conveys, thus makes sense in this context, but nonetheless remains an absurd exercise, and it is this aspect of politics that Veep tackles this week, in an episode that displays the human side of Selina Meyer while turning the spotlight on the one-upmanship politicians play with civilian lives.
Veep, Season 2, Episode 2: “Signals” Written by Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci Directed by Chris Addison Airs Sundays at 10pm (ET) on HBO One of the major concerns with Selina Meyer in the first season was how her position affected her personal life. Her inability to even have a fight with her partner without …
Veep, Season 2, Episode 1: “Midterms” Written by Will Smith and Armando Iannucci Directed by Christopher Morris Airs Sundays at 10pm (ET) on HBO While viewing politics through a cynical eye is nothing new, the HBO series Veep managed to put an effectively fresh spin on it, building a stable of characters around Vice President …