S05.E10: Inauguration Day

[ganesh]

I would have thought that letting Selina have Tibet would put her on the 'stateswoman' path. I still think being UN ambassador would have some possibilities. 

[meep.meep]

So what did happen to Catherine's film?  Who is taking bets on Dan going to CBS vs CVS?

And does this mean no hot interns next year?  Because you could get used to them.

The writers can easily contrive a situation where Selina becomes VP again.  Suppose something "happens" to Montez, the VP steps up, and they have to get a new one.

[txhorns79]

Quote

Suppose something "happens" to Montez, the VP steps up, and they have to get a new one.

Montez and Selina are in different political parties.

[qtpye]

13 hours ago, meep.meep said:

So what did happen to Catherine's film?  Who is taking bets on Dan going to CBS vs CVS?

I think it really is CBS this time.  I think the show runner want Dan to be kind of like George Stephanopolous.  Though, the night cashier at CVS would still be funny.

Edited June 28, 2016 by qtpye

[ganesh]

Dan specifically said "you mean for the Columbia Broadcasting Company?" on the phone, so I think it was a legit job at CBS. 

[meep.meep]

3 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

Montez and Selina are in different political parties.

Now there you go, thinking logically.

If you do want to think that way, a President always brings in their own personal secretary.  This thing with Sue going from administration to administration is funny but completely wrong.  

[CaliCheeseSucks]

15 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Suppose something "happens" to Montez, the VP steps up, and they have to get a new one.

Montez is the Acting President. The Senate doesn't have the power to pick the President; they were voting on the Vice President and in the absence of a resolve in the House of Representatives, that's what Montez would be inaugurated as first and then assume Acting status until such time the Presidential issue is settled. For whatever reason Mandel et. al. chose to poorly represent (at best) or completely misrepresent (at worst) the legal process, the fact remains. If something happened to her, the Speaker of the House would be next in line. 

[txhorns79]

Quote

If you do want to think that way, a President always brings in their own personal secretary.  This thing with Sue going from administration to administration is funny but completely wrong.  

I was thinking maybe it was just kind of a fluke because it appeared Montez only had a very short period to prepare to become President.  I figured Sue was asked to stay on because she was competent, knew the routine and from all appearances, is very apolitical. 

[Happytobehere]

On June 27, 2016 at 0:24 AM, Muffyn said:

I am speculating that they find the extra ballots that would give the win to Selina and her team gets together to prove that Montez was born in Mexico, not New Mexico, as was hinted during the world's most painful coffee.  Montez is out.  They find some way to finagle Selina back in.  After all, Ben can't hang out at Disneyland forever.  And Mike will not be a good stay at home dad to his babies and 6 year old daughter.  This also would allow the recurring joke of the woman who kept getting interviewed to be played out again.  Oops!  You thought you were working in the west wing; guess not! 

Sue stays with the office.  She is a government employee, not a political appointee.  It had been mentioned before how many presidents she has worked for (when they were joking about her age).

Damn, now we have to wait for this show to return. 

I thought that was where the Montez presidency was going as well, the reveal that she is not in fact a natural born Anerican and this would somehow allow Selina to bad door her way back into the Oval Office.

[Muffyn]

On rewatch I agree with other posters that Laura Montez is possibly not even Hispanic.  Her husband is and she is riding on that association.  Although she may be American born Hispanic.  I did enjoy her pronunciation of her name. 

I read the interview with the show runner.  I would prefer they do a skip and get us back into politics.  JLD is great but the show succeeds because of the way the characters play off of each other. 

[Victura]

Did anyone else find it weird that Doyle voted for someone in the opposite party? It would be like Biden voting for Trump's running mate as opposed to Clinton's. I get that he wanted Secretary of State, but it just seems weird. Plus, didn't he want to "get out of Dodge"?

I read an interview with David Mandel and think it could be interesting to explore post-presidency life for a few episodes, but not sure if it could last a whole season without her being involved in politics somehow, unless she forms some kind of foundation or political group that gets a lot of these people back together.

[ganesh]

Would it be possible that she got nominated to scotus?

[amaranta]

I'm still trying to process this season's finale; that did not go in any way I could have expected.  

JLD is so amazing.  I think my favorite part was Selina just sitting quietly on the bench, taking it all in and trying to let go.

My second favorite part was Richard and his hot interns.

It was so brief but a made-over Catherine looked beautiful.  Even her posture was better!  Grandmother's money is beginning to work its changes, I think.

I hope that speculation doesn't count as a spoiler, since I know absolutely nothing but what I see on the screen.  That said, I think one possible way for them to keep the cast together is to have next season be a prequel.  How they came together and Selina's first run at the White House.  JLD seems to be incapable of aging so that wouldn't stretch credibility, IMO.

I think I'm still processing.  And I'm ready for the next season now.

[scrb]

If Selena is completely out of govt., then she wouldn't have the staff or at least as big a staff.  Dan is already going to another gig.

So what is going to happen next season if she has no job or a staff to generate the funny?

OTOH, if she became president for 4 years, they couldn't keep the show "Veep."

Maybe finding that box of ballots in NV could mean she gets back into the WH?  But then where's the intrigue after that?

The show has been about the machinations of planning and running for the presidency.

[Roaster]

I think we have to take the show-runner's word that Season 6 will be about a former president.  There are plenty of scenarios she can get into - speaking engagements, serving on corporate boards, being a reluctant role model for younger women wanting to get into politics.  Former presidents and vice-presidents have lots of high-status-but-not-really-important things they do.  They are similar to sitting VEEPs in that way.

The staff will have to be smaller and many of the regulars from Season 5 may not be back.  But it is conceivable they do a reboot of the series.  Whether it all works or not is another question.

[ganesh]

That's why I was suggesting she be at the UN or something. She'd have a decent sized staff. Gary and Amy probably would probably be around regardless of what happens.

[KaveDweller]

I really was expecting some twist that would put Selina back as president. This would have been a good series finale, but I just don't see how next season will work.

One nitpick....during the inauguration scene, the show of a news channel labeled Montez as the first elected female president. I know it was just supposed to be a way to bring down Selina, but Montez wasn't elected either. O'Brien wasn't even elected, it was a tie and the Senate picked her to step in. 

[CaliCheeseSucks]

1 hour ago, KaveDweller said:

O'Brien wasn't even elected, it was a tie and the Senate picked her to step in. 

One additional nitpick: The Senate picked Montez as Vice President. She only steps in as Acting President because the House was left in a tie on the presidential vote. Montez is inaugurated as Vice President (and in all likelihood, would not be granted a huge inaugural event because of this fact). The House of Representatives does not stop voting after a single tie, contrary to what Mandel presented. The number errors/misrepresentations in the episode/past season as to how this process would go, who the Senate is picking, etc. just speaks to Mandel's lack of interest in the nitty gritty political side of things - an interest that Ianucci clearly thrived on exploring. It's probably for the better, if they insist on a season six, to stay away from the political sphere if Mandel isn't going to give cursory acknowledgment to the basic framework of things. 

As for the show's title no longer being applicable, I don't see it the vital ball-and-chain that others have suggested. It's about Selina's journey as Veep to wherever. It certainly wasn't realistic to have her going back to being Vice President once she succeeded President Hughes anyways, in any manner (the Acting President/Vice President is followed in the line of succession by the Speaker of the House, so neither Montez nor Tom James would be picking any Veep, they *are* the Veep). I just really hope next season is the last... words I never thought I'd say about the show, at least before this past season.

[ganesh]

On the show though, the House decided to not have a second vote. 

[CaliCheeseSucks]

38 minutes ago, ganesh said:

On the show though, the House decided to not have a second vote. 

That's Mandel making something up that would not happen because he didn't want to follow through on the process. There is no way the House would simply say, "One vote, tie. That's it, we give up." But that's what I expect the guy who wrote "The Susie" episode of Seinfeld to come up with as a resolve. 

[ganesh]

We're talking about a real life senate who has refused to hold hearings for a scotus nominee, a sitting Speaker of the House going on record saying they were going to make the newly elected president "a one term president." I'm not going to dismiss anything out of hand. It's unlikely, but certainly within the realm of possibility. Sounds like there's more of a personal bias to your inferences than anything though. 

[CaliCheeseSucks]

11 minutes ago, ganesh said:

We're talking about a real life senate who has refused to hold hearings for a scotus nominee, a sitting Speaker of the House going on record saying they were going to make the newly elected president "a one term president." I'm not going to dismiss anything out of hand. It's unlikely, but certainly within the realm of possibility. Sounds like there's more of a personal bias to your inferences than anything though. 

Knowledge of David Mandel's writing history isn't "personal bias"; his broad comic style was a concern going into this season and it bore out, particularly at the end. 

Again, the notion that the House of Representatives would simply shelve further voting, with no debate or controversy (as there surely would be, in your scenario) is simply unrealistic. At the very least, the "inauguration" - which again, would not be of Mendez as President anyways - would be mired in overwhelming debate over the House's inaction. It would not be a mere footnote on a television scroll. It would be *the* story. 

Ianucci would have reveled in diving into the political quagmire. It's not bias to say that his successor shows no interest in that area when in fact, he's done exactly that.

[peeayebee]

Here's an interview with Andrea Savage (the new Prez).

[biakbiak]

On 7/2/2016 at 3:32 PM, scrb said:

Maybe finding that box of ballots in NV could mean she gets back into the WH?  But then where's the intrigue after that?

 

Once the vote has been certified the missing ballots don't matter. 

[PepperMonkey]

I'm fine with Sue not staying with Selina.

I'm also fine if Mike leaves and if we never hear from Jonah again, but only IF we get to keep Richard. Catherine can retire to her goat sanctuary and talk with Selina on the phone from time to time; a one-sided conversation where we never have to see or hear her.

I'd be sad to lose Amy, Dan, Richard, Kent, Gary and Ben, so I hope they can at least keep THEM in the series.

I think the treatment of Selina was pretty OTT at the end also, and it did kind of make me sad, but she's such a mostly nasty human, I don't have a huge problem with it. She's the most self-centered and thoughtless person I've ever enjoyed on a television series.

[PepperMonkey]

I'm fine with Sue not staying with Selina.

I'm also fine if Mike leaves and if we never hear from Jonah again, but only IF we get to keep Richard. Catherine can retire to her goat sanctuary and talk with Selina on the phone from time to time; a one-sided conversation where we never have to see or hear her.

I'd be sad to lose Amy, Dan, Richard, Kent, Gary and Ben, so I hope they can at least keep THEM in the series.

I think the treatment of Selina was pretty OTT at the end also, and it did kind of make me sad, but she's such a mostly nasty human, I don't have a huge problem with it. She's the most self-centered and thoughtless person I've ever enjoyed on a television series.

[Ellaria]

On 7/2/2016 at 7:02 PM, Roaster said:

I think we have to take the show-runner's word that Season 6 will be about a former president.  There are plenty of scenarios she can get into - speaking engagements, serving on corporate boards, being a reluctant role model for younger women wanting to get into politics.  Former presidents and vice-presidents have lots of high-status-but-not-really-important things they do.  They are similar to sitting VEEPs in that way.

I think that we need to take the show-runner's word on it as well. I've had this discussion with friends and many think that there will be some improbable reversal of fortunes and Selena will be back as President. Mandel is on record as saying that it will about a former president and that could encompass the  scenarios laid out above. Whether that would be compelling viewing remains to be seen.

 

On 7/3/2016 at 2:46 PM, CaliCheeseSucks said:

 I just really hope next season is the last... words I never thought I'd say about the show, at least before this past season.

I agree...sadly. This show always had a limited life span; there would always be an election and that would always bring the likelihood for change. I'm not actually sure of what my preferred outcome what have been but "Selina out of politics" never crossed my mind.