5x06 C**tgate

[7.1/10] Good but unspectacular. My favorite storyline was probably Dan having to manage Jonah’s campaign. The notion of Jonah trying to make himself likable and presentable for the public has so much comic mileage to it, and throwing Dan into the mix plays on the Jim-Dwight vibe the two have. Whether it’s Jonah getting angry at people in a focus group or his hilariously awful campaign ad, it’s an interesting albatross to saddle Dan with. And the idea of Jonah gaining traction by turning on the Meyer administration has a lot of juice in it too. (It’s also nice to get Bill Erickson back and have poor Candi learn “the position has been filled once more.”)

I wasn’t over the moon about Selina having to choose which bank to bail out and vacillating about it. There’s something amusing enough about her being swayed by personal expediency on the one side, but political expediency on the other (and hey, there’s the whole “for the good of the country” thing too, which never really seems to factor in). It’s fine, but the show doesn’t wring much comedy out of it.
On the other hand, I admire this show’s commitment to making Selina an awful person without a hint of redemption and only the barest sense of humanity. It occurred to me that HBO hasn’t had a show this devoted to exposing the terribleness of its protagonist since The Sopranos.

Amy investigating the titular “c**tgate” was amusing, particularly when everyone she “interviewed” had said it. The fact that Selina is getting Nixonian levels of paranoid is an interesting direction to take things. Mike inadvertently finding out about Tom James’s corruption with Sydney Purcell is intriguing. Oh, and Catherine’s reveal that she’s in a relationship with Marjorie is kind of a neat sign of Selina’s obliviousness, and the button with them being “giddy” is a nice note to end on.

Overall, a perfectly solid meat and potatoes episode.