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Veep - Season 5 |OT| - Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Continuity With Change - Sundays on HBO

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Corpekata

Banned
I love that the thing fucking Jonah is one of the few times he's not being absolutely monstrous.

It is weird when we get to see one of the few times Jonah does not act horrible, from acting normally with the clerk and caring that she might think he said that, or the "boyfriend" line an episode ago which I'd expect his character type to recoil at.
 

Tubie

Member
The last 2 episodes have been incredible.

I hope they keep going with the Jonah stuff cause it's fucking brilliant.
 
overall, I'm liking this season a lot more than season 4. Cuntgate was brilliant but having Jonah run for office is sublime.
 

War Peaceman

You're a big guy.
Last episode was a classic but the Richard camera goof felt very forced and cartoony. The premise of the joke is solid and plausible, but it felt like they were delivering a punchline in a sitcom, which is not the Veep style.
 

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
Holy shit @ the last episode. Brutal. Laughed out loud at a lot of parts too. Pretty good directing during the holiday party scenes.
 
New episode tonight:
Camp David

Selina takes Catherine to a family celebration at Camp David; Selina's team plans to conduct secret negotiations; Amy and Dan try to make Jonah seem more human.
 

Hazmat

Member
Aside from Jonah I thought this was a really weak episode. It felt all over the place, and even cramming the Finnish (former?) PM in there didn't really help.

Selina's line about how we call it "tight" was fucking ace though.
 

Talka

Member
Aside from Jonah I thought this was a really weak episode. It felt all over the place, and even cramming the Finnish (former?) PM in there didn't really help.

Selina's line about how we call it "tight" was fucking ace though.

This was my favorite episode in a long time!

Every scene with the Finnish lady was hilarious.
 

TTG

Member
I haven't had to pause for awkwardness since like the UK Office. The Chinese president stuff, goddamn. He's the guy from Rush Hour, isn't he?
 

Apt101

Member
I'm a little late on catching up, but the "I could stand to lose all of it, at this point it's purely ornamental" line killed me. What a great character. They won't let him out of the life. (this was like two episodes back, I think).
 
The most "sitcomy" episode to date. The Chinese thinking Selina was making out with her own daughter. Catherine mistaken the Chinese President for a waiter (I know Selina told them they were kitchen staff, but would Catherine really not know the Chinese President?). The whole Mike getting addicted to nicotine gum and then smoking plot. High fiving the Finnish Prime Minister's face. Not being prepared for so many gifts so having to give away a gift she has just received.

I did laugh at Richard's "And you're 3 points down to Jon H. Ryan, whoever that is..." line.
 

rtcn63

Member
The Finnish PM woman is a fun character.

She'll always be Sophie from Alan Partridge to me

Screen-Shot-2013-09-17-at-10.40.08.png


Also the whole episode was very Curb-esque. The shooting himself in the foot bit just kept reminding me of the GAF meme.

And the "but wait, there's more" from Informercials.
 

Empty

Member
this season has dropped off a cliff. it's a trashy sitcom now, the chinese thinking selina was kissin her own daughter was just embarrassing. or jonah shooting himself in the foot....except literally hahaha. jesus.

you can tell it's bad because andrew is in the episode and instead of having all the wonderful subtle interplay between him and selina that you normally get in veep it's made invisible by loads of cartoony nonsense.
 

emag

Member
Mike and Richard have been amazing this season, and Minna stole the show last episode, but I agree that Veep is much weaker overall this year.
 

Vyer

Member
Nah, I don't think it's dropped off much if at all this season. Still pretty incredible.

Also, I greatly enjoy every time Janosz insults Jonah.
 

GraveRobberX

Platinum Trophy: Learned to Shit While Upright Again.
I'm sorry that Focus Groupfor Jonah hands down has been the funniest fucking thing this show has given me

I like the show reinvented itself a little
Yes they're caricatures of there former self, but they pull it off so well

Mike from being just a bumbling buffoon, still a bumbling buffoon with enough baggage under him that you forget the buffoonery and marvel @ the shit he puts up with and survives!
 

rtcn63

Member
I like the show reinvented itself a little
Yes they're caricatures of there former self, but they pull it off so well

This is pretty much the eventuality of any long-run sitcom. Friends, Curb, Arrested Development (season 4 in particular). Can't be helped.
 

Jonm1010

Banned
Y'all are crazy. This has been the strongest season yet. It's giving me more of everything I needed. Love it.

Agreed. I don't know if this is my favorite season(close) but the show just feels like it has a new life.

And I realized that for the first time I feel that pretty much every character has been given a solid to great comedic niche. Maybe that is because they are turning some people into more caricatures then before but its worked.

There were always a couple characters each season that seemingly fell a bit flat for stretches but this season no one is coming off like a weak link and everyone seems to be at peak form.
 

TTG

Member
this season has dropped off a cliff. it's a trashy sitcom now, the chinese thinking selina was kissin her own daughter was just embarrassing. or jonah shooting himself in the foot....except literally hahaha. jesus.

you can tell it's bad because andrew is in the episode and instead of having all the wonderful subtle interplay between him and selina that you normally get in veep it's made invisible by loads of cartoony nonsense.


It's different and it's definitely lost a lot of depth. Amy and Gary especially are really diminished. If you were to only watch this season, I would have no way of telling you what makes them special, they're both about an inch deep. As I've mentioned before, they've become one thing and are interchangeable with Ben and Kent and the rest of the cast.

Moment to moment, the show continues to be very funny, even if the highs are not at the apex of previous seasons, but I don't know if I'll be rewatching this season down the road like I used to in years past. I don't think that qualifies as a precipitous drop, but yea, Andrew is just a crook now. The days of him and Selina fighting on Catherine's birthday, then jumping out of the car together with Catherine left holding the cake are over. That led to one of the best moments of all time too with Mike, "Hey Catherine, that's a nice cake you got there... look, I can cut it with my phone."
 

emag

Member
It's different and it's definitely lost a lot of depth. Amy and Gary especially are really diminished. If you were to only watch this season, I would have no way of telling you what makes them special, they're both about an inch deep. As I've mentioned before, they've become one thing and are interchangeable with Ben and Kent and the rest of the cast.

One part of the problem is that the cast has ballooned in size. (They're so many that they have to be split into separate locations -- DC, Nevada, New Hampshire -- for largely independent sets of interactions). I like many of the newer additions, but it does mean less screen time and fewer lines per actor. The characters have to be caricatures of themselves just to have any presence at all.
 

mclem

Member
One thing that I don't think has been dwelt on yet is the fact that Selina's been promising a certain role (Was it Secretary of State?) to several people.

I wonder if Jonah's going to demand it.
 
One thing that I don't think has been dwelt on yet is the fact that Selina's been promising a certain role (Was it Secretary of State?) to several people.

I wonder if Jonah's going to demand it.

Selina did admit that she doesn't keep her promises, as we've already seen (Bill's not existent pardon). But yeah, there's no way that won't blow up in her face. Maybe next season will be her trying to survive impeachment
 

kingocfs

Member
It's different and it's definitely lost a lot of depth. Amy and Gary especially are really diminished. If you were to only watch this season, I would have no way of telling you what makes them special, they're both about an inch deep. As I've mentioned before, they've become one thing and are interchangeable with Ben and Kent and the rest of the cast.

Moment to moment, the show continues to be very funny, even if the highs are not at the apex of previous seasons, but I don't know if I'll be rewatching this season down the road like I used to in years past. I don't think that qualifies as a precipitous drop, but yea, Andrew is just a crook now. The days of him and Selina fighting on Catherine's birthday, then jumping out of the car together with Catherine left holding the cake are over. That led to one of the best moments of all time too with Mike, "Hey Catherine, that's a nice cake you got there... look, I can cut it with my phone."

I'm with you guys on this one. For me I just feel like the dialogue doesn't have the teeth that it had in the previous seasons. Good point about Amy and Gary, too.
 

Vyer

Member
I don't think the show has 'lost depth'. It's just more Selena centered right now. Whether this is deliberate or just the byproduct of the election storyline, I don't know. And maybe it never moves off that aspect enough from here on out. Either way the cast has grown and they are all working toward this one subject. But something like the episode about Selena's mother makes it hard for me to agree the show isn't good at 'depth'.

In any case the writing is still sharp, the acting outstanding and the humor is working on multiple levels. All of which have been hallmarks of the show from the beginning.
 

fallengorn

Bitches love smiley faces
Holy shit, Jonah in the classroom was amazing.

Really interesting place the show is in now. Who knows where it'll go from here.
 

KiN0

Member
This was so hard to watch. Selina was pretty bad during her presidency, but I still wanted to see her win. I just don't know where they can take the show at this point. They could put her back in the Veep's office, but that would seem like such a retread.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
This was so hard to watch. Selina was pretty bad during her presidency, but I still wanted to see her win. I just don't know where they can take the show at this point. They could put her back in the Veep's office, but that would seem like such a retread.
That said, the show is called Veep and not... POTUS or Pres.

I don't know if Ianucci had an ending in mind or if the current producers have to follow it, but if you like at the ending of his other show, you can imagine how it all has to end.
 
So, maybe I misunderstand, but I don't think the show has the rules right. I always thought the House got to keep voting until they picked someone, and the Senate's VP pick was only an Acting President. Or maybe I'm the Mike in this situation and I just haven't been paying attention.
 

KiN0

Member
That said, the show is called Veep and not... POTUS or Pres.

I don't know if Ianucci had an ending in mind or if the current producers have to follow it, but if you like at the ending of his other show, you can imagine how it all has to end.
I just can't imagine Selina doing something so humiliating as accepting the position of Veep after coming off an 8 month presidency. It fits the shows premise, but I guess that would be too sad. Especially since this episode suggested to me that politics really don't make Selina as happy as she thinks they do.
 

Grinchy

Banned
A few minutes into the episode I was bummed that it was doing the documentary format, but it ended up being a really good episode.
 

Triton55

Member
So, maybe I misunderstand, but I don't think the show has the rules right. I always thought the House got to keep voting until they picked someone, and the Senate's VP pick was only an Acting President. Or maybe I'm the Mike in this situation and I just haven't been paying attention.

Yeah, I think that's correct. I am also pretty sure that Amy's statement that Tom James could be president for 12 years is also incorrect, because an ascended VP's term counts as a full term if it's more than two years.
 
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