[8.7/10] So here’s the catch -- we’ve already played this game. We did this whole bit last season to the same tune, with some bad thing happening to Selina to where she is upset and ready to quit this whole game only to get some unexpected bit of good news that rallies everyone. In a lot of ways it feels like a repeat.
The difference is that the episode really doubles down on it here, both the depths of Selina’s demoralization and anger and her giddy thrill at the news that she’s going to become president. It’s some of the best acting Julia Louis-Dreyfus has done in the entire series. The way she horrible berates her staff, calling them losers, and then starts to break down in front of the Syrian refugees (thinking of herself, not them, naturally) hits some emotionally raw territory in a show that typically goes broad.
But then the show hits the most remarkably giddy, loopy, out there scene it’s ever done where Selina gets the news, tells Gary, and the pair lapse into a state of unhinged lunacy at the realization that they’re about the achieve the goal everyone’s been working toward. The two of them practically unable to speak, with Gary trying to stop his nosebleed, and Selina rummaging through The Bag for tissues, in a run down old bathroom, is the peak of the weird but compelling sort of comedy in this episode.
This, of course, not only sets off a chain of thrills and excitement through Team Meyer, but leads Selina to to completely blow off the Syrian refugees she previously appeared invested in. The prior work before that, with the titanium crate story and the incident with the nicknames for people not giving enough money to the campaign being recorded by the stuffy report, was solid as well.
For once, the part I didn’t particularly care for was Jonah’s. As lame as he’s been, something about him berating his mom and calling her an idiot just didn’t sit well with me. But hey, can’t have everything.
Still, this was the sort of bold comic stuff that I was hoping for from this show. Nice to see it rising to the occasion.
I wonder if the scene in the bathroom was largely unscripted. It was hilarious.
Shout by CarolinaBlockedParent2018-08-05T14:45:41Z
Siri, why does God allow suffering?