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‘Veep’ Review: TV’s Most Twisted Romance Reaches an Unmentionable New Milestone

Just roll out of bed like it never happened. That's right. You'll forget soon enough.

By Ben Travers

Ben Travers

TV Critic

BenTTravers

First Reaction

Listen, there’s no way I was going to put this in the headline because the implication would raise people’s hopes too high, but I’ve got to say it, just once, for my own sanity: Selina and Gary slept together! They did! They really did!

OK, no, not that way. The most intimate sexless couple on TV still haven’t done “it,” but they did fall asleep next to each other because of another special shared milestone: Selina had a heart attack, and Gary had his third!

Yeah, that’s less exciting. But it’s damn funny TV. Considering last week Selina made Gary check her food for poison by eating it himself, I didn’t expect their relationship to delve even deeper so soon. Episode 4 saw Selina discover that she’d had a heart attack, which caused Gary to have one, which led to Gary sleeping at the Meyer brownstone, which led to Selina and Gary sleeping together.

Jonah Put-Down of the Week

Veep - Jonah High-Fives a Nazi gif

“All of that is off the record.” – Kent

Jonah’s bottomless incompetence reached unfathomable depths in Episode 4, as the Congressman’s struggle to apply Daylight Saving time (not plural or possessive) was milked for more laughs than anyone could’ve predicted. First, he was an hour late for a meeting with a key donor. (OK, 58 minutes, by Kent’s trustworthy account.) Then he was two hours late for a Maple Syrup summit, which, upon realizing that he’d adjusted his watch in the wrong direction, an infuriated Jonah laid into an unsuspecting reporter about Daylight Saving Time, thus turning it into a pivotal component of his political platform.

Kent immediately retracted everything Jonah said, but it was too late. He’d become that guy, and the speech he gave to Congress during the closing credits — delivered with outstanding bravado by Simons — punctuated how Jonah could only move up with yet another disaster.

Simile of the Season

Rhetorical Abuse

“Your mom doesn’t think you’re pretty, but I think you’re stunning.”
– Gary to Catherine

Another “Veep,” another great Gary episode. After Episode 3’s Tony Hale showcase (see above), Episode 4 followed up with a few treasures of its own, and the best moment by far was another integral piece of background acting: Gary having a heart attack simply from hearing that Selina had a heart attack. Hale keeled over on the spot, clenching his chest and tipping over backwards as we watched the doctor talk to Selina in the foreground. Hale’s expression, even out of focus, absolutely slayed — in a good way — and then he got high!

Thanks to the drugs Gary was put on at the hospital, we learned:
a) His insane morning routine, which involves traveling from Hoboken, New Jersey to Selina’s brownstone in New York.
b) He lives with three roommates.
c) “Montez is a Latin piece of ass!”
d) He thinks the mini-Meyer is “stunning.”

That he prefaced the final remark with “your mom doesn’t think you’re pretty” ruined it a bit for Catherine, but made it all the better for us at home. “Fine! The basement! Who gives a shit!”

[Editor’s Note: Selina dismissing a report from The New York Times and then, seconds later, taking an identical Buzzfeed story as fact was the most subtly devastating burn of the night.]

Power Rankings

Veep - Jonah, Hey Pinocchios gif Season 6

1. Dan Egan
– If your worst problem is that people think you’re getting preferential treatment from your boss because you’re sleeping with her — and you’re not even sleeping with her — you’re in pretty good shape.

2. Catherine Meyer
– She dodged the slow dud of a bullet that is sleeping with Dan Egan. For that alone, she’s winning. (OK, and her uncontrollable laughter when Marjorie said Selina had a heart attack.)

3. Richard Splett
– For the record, we voted for Richard’s simile this week.

4. Jonah Ryan
– Jonah, taking full advantage of the D.C. political machine, fell ass backwards into a legislative agenda. Can he do anything to get kicked out of office? (Based on reality, no, and he hasn’t even come that close.)

5. Mike McClintock
– Moving up by default, Mike looks to be the picture of health for the first time in his life, thanks to Selina and Gary’s heart issues.

6. Ben Cafferty
– I’m not sure if Jonah’s new staffers will mean more or less work for Ben, but either is probably a win for the stuck but lazy political advisor.

7. Kent Davison
– “It’s neither plural nor possessive.”

8. Gary Walsh
– Three heart attacks, Gary? Before you’re 40? Come on, man!

9. Amy Brookheimer
– Without a word, Amy joined the Meyer staff. I guess if they’ll take Mike…

10. Selina Meyer
– An innocent mistake almost gave her career a second life, but in the end, Selina comes in second place (at best) to President Hughes — again. Ouch.