S03.E10: New Hampshire

[Tara Ariano]

The Season 3 finale unfolds on the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary as Selina and her staff deal with multiple obligations and campaign stops.

[ChicksDigScars]

Wow. Way too much Jonah this season!

[samuel]

Wow. I'm wondering where they'll go with this. The show is called Veep obviously, so I think Selina might lose the election and get taken back on as Veep. That would be hilarious, but also seems very unrealistic. So maybe they'll keep her as President? Either way, I liked the surprise resignation. I didn't see it coming at least.

[ApathyMonger]

Wow. I'm wondering where they'll go with this. The show is called Veep obviously, so I think Selina might lose the election and get taken back on as Veep. That would be hilarious, but also seems very unrealistic. So maybe they'll keep her as President? Either way, I liked the surprise resignation. I didn't see it coming at least.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the show ends next season. Four seasons is a longer-than-average run for an HBO comedy.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Hahaha, I love that Katy Perry, will.i.am, Ashton Kutcher (or his assistant), and Beyoncé were the celebrities supporting Selina.

 

I thought the newspaper tracing the Danny Chung torture story back to Dan was going to be a huge scandal that brought Selina down in the polls but that ended up being just a blip.

[peeayebee]

I wouldn't be surprised if the show ends next season. Four seasons is a longer-than-average run for an HBO comedy.

 

Hasn't the show been renewed? Maybe I just assumed it was. 

 

 

 

Loved Cafferty telling Dan, "I told you when I was telling you I wasn't telling you what I told you. The fuck stops here, Dan." I, too, was surprised that this scandal (that the torture story came from Selina's campaign) was apparently taken care of so easily. 

 

Seeing all the fuck-ups was hard for me to take. I knew that Mike's joking around during the first press conference was a bad idea. Of course that was a minor f up. 

 

Jonah saying that the woman was "a 3-pack of Kleenex Rachel" was so gross.

[ApathyMonger]

Hasn't the show been renewed? Maybe I just assumed it was. 

 

It's been renewed for next year, but I assume that will be the end.

[Lila82]

All my qualms about the presidency story were calmed by the return of Richard and Kelly!  They need to be recurring regulars next season.

 

Also: more Kent and Sue.

[Tara Ariano]

I wrote a little Season In Review.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Also: more Kent and Sue.

Yeah, I was hoping that by the finale we'd find out what's really been going on there. I think it's something more than a flirtation, at least on Kent's part.

[Lakewood27]

So happy to see the return of Richard and Kelly! Happy to know they're still cluelessly optimistic and human enough to have their feelings hurt.

[Traveller519]

After the high of Debate these ones felt a bit flat, but still had a healthy number of laughs.

 

Firing someone because of the wrong name felt so typical for this group. Poor Sweet Ben getting his old job back and hating it. I enjoyed his quips about everyone, different to see him bossing everyone around.

[Pallas]

The show is called Veep obviously, so I think Selina might lose the election and get taken back on as Veep. That would be hilarious, but also seems very unrealistic.

 

 

The show can cite precedent: at the Republican convention that first nominated Reagan in 1980, very serious consideration was given to offering the VP slot to former President Ford.  This was no leak or latter-day revelation; as I recall, the protracted negotiations with the Ford camp were somberly reported in all major media as they were happening, before the eventual selection of George H.W. Bush.   

Edited June 9, 2014 by Pallas

[MrWhyt]

 

The show can cite precedent: at the Republican convention that first nominated Reagan in 1982, very serious consideration was given to offering the VP slot to former President Ford.

I can't see Selina having the humility to take a deal like this.

[radishcake]

I loved all the pictures at the end. Everyone at their "best".

[Baltron9000]

How many of us were expecting President Flip-flop Changed-my-stupid-mind to somehow magically renounce his retirement and steal all of Selena's thunder at the last minute? I knew it was improbable, but it still had the sinking feeling it was coming. 

What a great season. 

[Pallas]

Selina, though, would be the current president when the party nominee is looking to fill his VP slot (unless she resigns before the expiration of the term). So it would be particularly odd

 

Oh, absolutely even weirder than offering the Vice Presidency to Ford: a former President four years out of office, who had first who become Vice President when Spiro Agnew resigned, and so then became President when Richard Nixon resigned.  But making allowances for comedy.  (And Selina could then be dispatched to funerals both as a former President and current Vice-President: twice the insult!)

 

It's hard to say what Selina would be willing to do, not to go down as the first sitting President to fully contest (unlike LBJ) and lose a place anywhere on his/her party's ticket. But meanwhile, won't she need to name a Veep?      

[ApathyMonger]

It'll be interesting to see who she'll pick as Veep. She might go for one of the contenders like Chung and have them as her running mate for the actual election, or Chung could turn it down and she might give it to someone else, like Dan Bakkedahl's character.

Edited June 9, 2014 by ApathyMonger

[Baltron9000]

Maybe she'll name Ben as veep, and then he can off himself with painkillers and booze, first lady style. 

[ganesh]

 

Poor Sweet Ben getting his old job back and hating it. I enjoyed his quips about everyone, different to see him bossing everyone around.

He's actually good at it though, which makes sense, because he hates it. 

 

I don't expect every show to have its entire run plotted out, but I think most have general plans of what they want to do and what they need to do to tell the story properly. People cite the TPTBs over at Breaking Bad as making it up as they went along, but that's not even remotely true since they established the concept of the show right from the get go. 

Here, I assume they know where they're going to go with Selina the current sitting president also running for the nomination in primary season. I think it would be great if she got the nomination and selected her own VP and then end the show. I can't see her losing the nomination and accepting to be VP again. 

 

I actually liked the oath of office in the warehouse. As goofy as it looked, I think Dan was more correct than Ben. It does play well. Selina also shouldn't be too worried. I think Clinton lost NH and then cleaned house on Super Tuesday. I found it weird that Chung bounced back, but I guess it was because of the torture rumor and Maddox's endorsement. 

 

I don't get why so much importance is places on fucking Iowa and NH of all places. Neither is representative of the country at all, and the number of delegates won is a mere handful of the overall total. 

 

If Chung is going to be the frontrunner, I hope it goes neck and neck into the party convention. It could be a really interesting episode with tons of 'smoky backroom' dealing. I would think there would be another debate too. 

 

One thing I think the show has been consistent with is that when Selina does get out with the public, she knows what to say and is pretty well liked. 

[Blakeston]

Oh, absolutely even weirder than offering the Vice Presidency to Ford: a former President four years out of office, who had first who become Vice President when Spiro Agnew resigned, and so then became President when Richard Nixon resigned.  But making allowances for comedy.  (And Selina could then be dispatched to funerals both as a former President and current Vice-President: twice the insult!)

 

Also, I can't imagine Ford saying he'd rather shoot himself in the fucking face than become veep again.

 

Personally, rather than going through some convoluted storyline where Selina inexplicably chooses to be veep again - or ending the show by inauguration time - I'd like to see Selina be elected president, with the show continuing on. There could be a lot of focus on her relationship with her veep.

 

(And I don't think the title has to be 100% literally accurate.)

[morakot]

As mentioned elsewhere, there is precedent for changing the title of a show (Yes, Minister became Yes, Prime Minister) so this could become POTUS instead of VEEP.

[ganesh]

I just don't think the show concept works if Selina is potus as a regular series. The VP is uniquely powerless despite Selina actually being a decent politician. It works currently because there is still the dramatic element of being potus being stripped away from her in the short-term. I don't think it works as well when things like getting someone's name wrong causes an international incident in the middle east. It bleeds over the fourth wall for me. 

 

I can see Mike as the press secretary for the VP, but he'd be shown the door in his second day as the press secretary for potus. 

[iMonrey]

I'm not sure if this is a deliberate choice but I'm starting to get the impression that Selina, and the candidates running against her in the primary, are Democrats. The issues they seem to be talking about most are from the Democratic platform: immigration, daycare, senior citizens, etc. I'm not hearing anything to indicate they're Republicans, like tax cuts, gun rights or repealing the ACA. I know they are trying to make it as non-partisan as possible, but what little we've heard sounds more Democrat than Republican. 

 

I also can't remember, but I don't think Mitt Romney won New Hampshire, did he? Wasn't he generally an also-ran until everyone else flamed out? So yeah, coming in 3rd in the first primary might not be all that damaging in the long run.

 

The squeaky shoes were hilarious.

[ganesh]

Oh, I don't think there's any doubt that they are democrats. POTUS reversed his official position on abortion to pro-life, and pro-choice is in the democrat platform. Something like the child health care seems very democrat to me too. 

 

I don't know the results of the primaries, but iirc Romney was just hanging around for the most part, and as more and more debates happened, and the others got crazier and crazier, he was the least bad option. 

 

I always found it hilariously ironic that he was criticizing the ACA when Obama would rebut, "It's based on your own plan and free market principles. That's where we got the idea because it was working so well in MA."

[Pallas]

Romney creamed the competition in New Hampshire: 16 points over the runner-up, Ron Paul.  Not surprising, from the former governor of Massachusetts.  But before that he had also taken Iowa, so he headed into the Southern swing as the man to beat, who wasn't.  

 

To put President Meyer's showing in NH in perspective: in 2012, the third-place finisher was Jon Huntsman.

 

I don't, either.    

[EdnasEdibles]

I'm not sure if this is a deliberate choice but I'm starting to get the impression that Selina, and the candidates running against her in the primary, are Democrats. The issues they seem to be talking about most are from the Democratic platform: immigration, daycare, senior citizens, etc. I'm not hearing anything to indicate they're Republicans, like tax cuts, gun rights or repealing the ACA. I know they are trying to make it as non-partisan as possible, but what little we've heard sounds more Democrat than Republican. 

 

Agree. Also, I don't think Beyoncé or Ashton Kutcher would support a republican.

[ganesh]

That was Kutcher's assistant, actually. 

[Jeezaloo]

I like this show but its pacing seems to be lurching around from episode to episode and season to season. We spend what feels like an eternity on Clean Jobs and then, suddenly, she's racing around frantically as the president of the United States? I kept hoping this was a dream episode of Selina's. Still fun, just some drastically different pacing going on here.

[ganesh]

Well, isn't that what the potus does? There's 100 different things pulling her in 100 different directions, and she's still got to run the campaign. When you're just VP. There's not much to do. 

[Jeezaloo]

I guess you're right, the change from VEEP to POTUS was kinda sudden and I guess I got plot point whiplash or something.

 

I'm thinking of the opening credits where we see the headlines of Selina's rise and fall, and in the past I've always wondered what she could have done to tank her own chances. At this point in the show, I can imagine exactly how she could have messed everything up  LOL

 

Selina can find the dark cloud in every silver lining, can't she. Constantly snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. It's her gift!

[pivot]

I actually liked the oath of office in the warehouse. As goofy as it looked, I think Dan was more correct than Ben. It does play well. Selina also shouldn't be too worried. I think Clinton lost NH and then cleaned house on Super Tuesday. I found it weird that Chung bounced back, but I guess it was because of the torture rumor and Maddox's endorsement. 

 

I don't get why so much importance is places on fucking Iowa and NH of all places. Neither is representative of the country at all, and the number of delegates won is a mere handful of the overall total. 

 

If Chung is going to be the frontrunner, I hope it goes neck and neck into the party convention. It could be a really interesting episode with tons of 'smoky backroom' dealing. I would think there would be another debate too. 

 

One thing I think the show has been consistent with is that when Selina does get out with the public, she knows what to say and is pretty well liked. 

 

Hillary actually barely won NH after crying on the eve of the election and then lost on Super Tuesday in the delegate count. The election was pretty much over by then.

 

Overall, I liked last season better than this one. The season seemed much more uneven though Tony Hale, JLD and Kevin Dunn were phenomenal this season.

[ganesh]

I meant Bill Clinton. I think he was the first to lose the NH primary and still be elected president at the time. 

[theFel]

I'm not sure how I feel about this story line. Like someone else mentioned, the big part of the draw at least the first season was that she was powerless. Her and her teams screwups would cause her embarrassment and political problems but there weren't major real world implications. Now her using the wrong first name pissed off Iran (to me a good thing, but to her a bad thing). I have a bad feeling that she is on water skis with a shark in the lake.

 

I thought it was quite obvious she was a democrat but I think they actually handle the political side in a very good way. I'm not a democrat but I've never been insulted or offended by anything said or implied with regard to political issues or groups. That's not something that can be said about most shows about politics in the US. Of course, most of her opponents have been members of her own party. LOL. 

[Jeezaloo]

the big part of the draw at least the first season was that she was powerless

 

The impotent rage was brilliant, but it might be fun to see how it plays out on the world stage.

 

I think part of the problem I have is that the British writers of this show are fairly tone-deaf to American politics, which is a shame since they're writing about American politics. Having an American president quit is almost unheard of, but has been handled as an afterthought in their writing. British PMs have term lengths that vary wildy, some as long as 20 years (Walpole) and some as brief as 119 days (Canning). They're superimposing their own political culture onto that of another country, and it isn't ringing true at all. It's off-putting in its inaccuracy.

[ganesh]

 

The impotent rage was brilliant, but it might be fun to see how it plays out on the world stage.

The potus by definition of the constitution isn't impotent at all. There's 1000 things that need to be done *right now* so there's a lot of difficulty figuring out what exactly needs to be prioritized, but I'm not interested in seeing Selina call in a bombing strike and having to deal with making that decision. 

 

The VP, however, has only one defined job and it doesn't actually come up that much. The humor in the show is that Selina actually seems like a decent politician but just can't do anything because she's VP. Congress doesn't give a shit about her programs, and why should they? What's she going to do?

 

I can suspend my disbelief for the show that potus resigned, but it is absurd. The only time a president resigned was when they were actually going to be impeached *and* convicted for actual criminal activity. Even Clinton didn't resign when he was impeached because he knew the senate would never convict. Also because no one wanted to really put blow jobs on trial.

[Cramps]

Referring to the writers' British Backgrounds, I believe John Major campaigned standing on a crate.

[theFel]

The writers for this show are Brits? I never knew that. I give them props; they're doing a damn good job.

[Totale]

 

I always found it hilariously ironic that he was criticizing the ACA when Obama would rebut, "It's based on your own plan and free market principles. That's where we got the idea because it was working so well in MA."

It's always fun for me in MA to refer to it as Romneycare whenever speaking with a Republican, because yes, Romneycare has been awesome.

 

Somebody said that four years was a long run for an HBO comedy, something I've never thought about.  But there will be a fourth season and I'll bet TPTB are really hoping for a fifth, because if they keep to the same schedule of each season starting in April the fifth year will fall right at the height of the primary season for the 2016 Presidential election and there should be much grist for the comic mill, especially if the thought of the first femaile President is high in the public consciousness.

Edited June 14, 2014 by Totale

[HyeChaps]

Rather than resign, POTUS could have just temporarily stepped down, like President Bartlet on West Wing.  Yes, this is my frame of reference.

[ganesh]

I actually don't think that's constitutional is it? The 25th amendment lays out when potus is relieved of his position but it's for specific things.