6x06 Qatar

[8.1/10] Very nice episode. I like that it follows the show’s usual blueprint, of Selina being caught between doing the semi-principled thing (even if she’s doing it for petty reasons) and doing the purely self-interested/monetary thing, trying to have her cake and eat it too, and having the whole thing fall apart regardless. The notion of her Qatar deal hinging on gutting the Sudan and giving her credit for Tibet on the one hand, and the principled stand for women’s rights with the Sudanese dissident on the other was a nice conflict, and her speech trying to bridge the gap was hilarious in its wishy-washiness. Her relationship with Jaffar and the ensuing unease on both sides about the race/religion of the other was a nice turn.

Dan’s story continues to be kind of meh for me, but I at least like that it’s progressing rather than just treading water, and the scene with the woman from HR and Jane’s tirade was a laugh and a half. The joke about Jane moving to specials “on our digital platform” spoken with gritted teeth was a nice chuckle as well, and there’s some irony in the sexual harassment thing that kept Jane in the spotlight being the thing that brings her down.

But the best story was probably Jonah’s with Congressman Furlough. Jonah is such an oblivious dope, that people engaging in machinations around him provides the most comedy for the series. His new fiancee playing hardball with Furlough for an office, and Furlough turning off the foul mouth when his religious wife is in the room both made for good comedic bits. Plus the lines in this segment were just fantastic. Jonah’s “good things happen to good people” is such a great summation of his privileged worldview. And Kent and Ben’s exchange (“Second floor, I can’t even jump to commit suicide” “I’ve got a key to the roof, we could do a Cassidy and Sundance” “Nah, I’ll just wait for cancer”) was darkly funny.

Overall, tons of sharp dialogue and funny set pieces in this one. Great ep.