Review by Andrew Bloom

Veep: Season 3

3x02 The Choice

[7.7/10] Very nice episode as Veep makes it 2-for-2. My favorite little subplot, as usual, was Gary’s. The notion that he doesn’t want to be a body man for the rest of his life and makes haphazard attempts to step up and be a bigger part of the brain trust is so sweet and so sad. Tony Hale is just such a great comic actor and he sells the earnest but doomed efforts from Gary throughout, from his thrill at being assigned to help juggle attendees of Selina’s impromptu abortion summit to his desperate attempts to psych himself up.

The way the abortion issue tied everyone in knots led to some great comic moments as well. For one thing, the show got in some slightly edgy but amusing wordplay (“I’m not putting my eggs in that basket.” “I’d do it in a fetal heartbeat.”) At the same time, the scene where Selina is on the phone with an organization and has no idea what side of the debate they’re on is comic gold, a modern who’s on first-style bit of absurdity and misunderstanding with Amy and Mike giving conflicting information and everyone pantomiming their panic and frustration.

Jonah’s bit, oddly enough, wasn’t one the parts I enjoyed particularly much. While his ridiculous puns are still funny enough and the insults to him continue to be chuckle-worthy (I particularly liked “human scaffolding”) he feud with Dan was pretty meh and kind of too mean-spirited for me, with Dan coming off as a bully. (Mean-spirited things on this show? I know. I’m as shocked as you are.)

Other parts of the story were quite good. The riffs on politicians saying everything and saying nothing were fun. Veep’s frustration with her inept local campaign team and attempts to spin herself some positive PR from being drug bust-adjacent were cute. And I don’t know where they’re going with Kent and Sue’s thing, but it has some potential. And the continuing competition between Amy and Dan for campaign manager has its moment too.

Overall, a quite fine episode that had some good laughs and even a bit of story momentum.

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