Tony Hale
Veep, Season 4, Episode 5: “Candidate”
Teleplay by Sean Gray and David Quantick, Story by Armando Iannucci, Sean Gray, and David Quantick
Directed by Stephanie Laing
Airs Sundays at 10:30pm (ET) on HBO
While the resignation of President Hughes gave Meyer a chance to take the job she has been aspiring towards for her entire political career, her eye has been firmly set on the upcoming election. This week’s episode turns the focus away from Meyer the President on to Meyer the Presidential candidate, leading to another hilarious episode that sees some more major shakeups in Meyer’s staff.
Amy’s resignation, while not unexpected given her recent frustrations, also signals another major change in Meyer’s cabinet, one that is likely to be more keenly felt than Dan’s firing. Amy’s frustrations with Meyer have been building up for a number of seasons, and Meyer’s lack of appreciation for Amy has been apparent for some time, with her selection of Dan as the campaign manager back in season three standing as the most egregious example. With Meyer ultimately going with Amy’s selection for running mate, her importance to the team only gets underscored, and it will be intriguing to see how the team copes. Amy is also better-liked than Dan was, which may mean she’ll have supporters if Meyer ever does decide to bring her back into the fold. Whether or not she’ll accept, however, is a different story, and how Amy adjusts to professional life outside of Meyer should make for a fun watch.
Dan’s floundering as a lobbyist is also fascinating to watch. Much of Dan’s political career was spent burning bridges to climb ladders, right from the series premiere. While that served him well when he had power in the Vice-Presidential office, and then in the White House, Dan’s exit from politics works well in illustrating the short-sighted nature of this strategy. Having to lean on Jonah is a great way to display the difference between Dan’s perceived importance and his actual clout. With Dan having blown his first big lobbying job, and proving himself out of touch with political machinations in the process, where he goes from here will be worth keeping an eye on. He’s already a bad commodity on the job market, with this position coming after a fair amount of waiting, and a dismissal from this position would make it that much more difficult for Dan to get another job. Added to the fact that there’s now another, better candidate on the market for the same jobs in Amy, and Dan’s career appears headed in a dire direction.
Overall, this is another fun episode of Veep. Despite only being present for one episode Lennon Parham is a delight this week, and Karen’s inability to make a declarative statement and insistence on piggybacking off the success of others makes her a great fit for the show. Hopefully this isn’t the last appearance of the character. Danny Chung’s return is also a welcome one, as is Maddox’s and Furlong’s. Hugh Laurie is already a promising addition to the series, and hopefully Tom James sticks around for a while, as his apparent genuine charm makes for a great contrast with Meyer’s cynical approach to politics. Doyle’s firing of Teddy is an interesting note, as he seems to be the only other person, other than Dan, who takes Teddy’s sexual assault of Jonah seriously. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Meyer’s moment of realisation about Karen in the wake of Amy’s outburst excellently, and how Meyer and her team adjust to so many shakeups will be worth keeping an eye on a the season continues.
– Deepayan Sengupta