7.5/10. I don’t know whether this was brilliant, insane, terrible, or all three. The closest analogue I can think of is “Dinner Party” from The Office where, like this episode, I started to wonder whether the show I was watching was still a comedy, or had just full embraced becoming the cringiest, most uncomfortable back-and-forth you’d ever laid eyes on. Bringing the Meyers together for a puff piece turned grilling, where they’re all trying to make nice for the camera but quietly laying into one another was kind of nuts.
Truth be told, a good portion of the episode didn’t do much for me, but there was a cumulative effect of all that awkwardness, culminating in Selina and Andrew throwing one another under the bus on camera, with their daughter, as usual, suffering in the middle. Allison Janney is never not great, and bringing her in as the reporter, Janet Ryland, was a superb casting coup, bringing the perfect smile-tinged barbs to continue to stoke the discord.
Overall, I wouldn’t call it the best episode of the show, but given its focus (there was essentially one story, with some excitement from Amy at the margins), its commitment to the cringe, and its painfully real-feeling family drama, it’s certainly one of Veep’s boldest outings.
Review by Andrew Bloom
VIP9BlockedParent2017-02-18T12:07:06Z
7.5/10. I don’t know whether this was brilliant, insane, terrible, or all three. The closest analogue I can think of is “Dinner Party” from The Office where, like this episode, I started to wonder whether the show I was watching was still a comedy, or had just full embraced becoming the cringiest, most uncomfortable back-and-forth you’d ever laid eyes on. Bringing the Meyers together for a puff piece turned grilling, where they’re all trying to make nice for the camera but quietly laying into one another was kind of nuts.
Truth be told, a good portion of the episode didn’t do much for me, but there was a cumulative effect of all that awkwardness, culminating in Selina and Andrew throwing one another under the bus on camera, with their daughter, as usual, suffering in the middle. Allison Janney is never not great, and bringing her in as the reporter, Janet Ryland, was a superb casting coup, bringing the perfect smile-tinged barbs to continue to stoke the discord.
Overall, I wouldn’t call it the best episode of the show, but given its focus (there was essentially one story, with some excitement from Amy at the margins), its commitment to the cringe, and its painfully real-feeling family drama, it’s certainly one of Veep’s boldest outings.