#veeprewatch

[safflowerseason]

veep rewatch 1.06

(seriously, why am I doing this, this is physically twisting the knife further) “It’s food-nomenal.” - this is dumb. Dan is not nearly as good at this as he thinks he is. 

So Selina tells Amy she might be pregnant and that it’s only the two of them who should know and Amy immediately tells…Mike. Amy. 

Dan/Amy parent-watch: literally every single scene they have in this episode. 

This is the most fucking contrived “make Dan and Amy look like parents” plot that could possibly exist in the entire universe. There is no logical reason on the earth that they would need to be responsible for entertaining an entire classroom full of second-graders by themselves. That is no way their job. The teachers are right there! They could just continue class until Selina arrived. No teacher would want to lose the two hours of class time, after all (trust me on this). You simply cannot convince me that the *possibility* of a baby was not in the cards from the very, very beginning. 

I mourn for the lost future of Dan and Amy having to visit their kid’s school for career day. 

JLD’s face when she’s on the phone with Amy…“I can’t move my lips.” 

God, Dan gets right in Amy’s face when he asks her if Jonah is the dad. He’s already got zero boundaries with her. 

“Repugnant? That’s a very emotive term, and--and a little prissy, I might add!” 

“Yeah, I’ll be the adult-version of Gary.” 

“And you proposed by giving me a some sort of ring in a heart-shaped fucking oyster thing—the key is in the details, though, Ted.” Another masterful delivery by JLD…the shift in her tone between the two parts of that line, from bullshitting desperately to super bossy. 

My favorite Dan/Amy second of this whole episode is when Dan glares at Amy and says “She means hello.” when she’s rude to Leon West. It’s truly perfect. 

“You think that as a woman I can sense some sort of disturbance in the fucking lady matrix?” Well, that was excruciating. 

[safflowerseason]

veep rewatch 1.03-1.05

(why am I doing this to myself)

1.03 - Catherine - Dan has a series of green-striped ties in starting this episode that recur throughout the end of S3...I refer to them affectionately as his Slytherin ties.  - Carol Hallowes does not seem like Dan’s type other than “is related to a person I wanted to work for.” She’s pretty, though.  - can you imagine if we hadn’t met Catherine until S7? Dan would have slept with her solely for the adrenaline rush, dumped her immediately, and probably laughed about it with Selina. Here, he actually smirks at Jonah for even trying because he’s aware it’s completely pathetic. Granted, Catherine can’t really get him a new job, but it’s telling that he displays no interest in her whatsoever, which speaks to some actual critical-thinking skills that are not present in S7. - Dan/Amy parent-watch: “babysitting” Catherine at the party. - “GARY knew?!?!”  - Amy flanks Selina in this episode in like no other, maybe.

1.04 - Chung - Dan does this thing at the Chung event where he looks back briefly over his shoulder to watch Amy leave, which is something Josh Lyman always does on the West Wing with Donna and I will forever interpret as a signal of repressed feelings. - Gary’s reaction to the discovery of Ted is so...normal. He seems disgusted rather than horrifically jealous. He and Amy have a nice amity at the very beginning of the show that kind of goes away later on, as Gary and Selina become more co-dependent and Amy and Selina’s relationship evolves away from the mother/daughter vibe.  - I really like Anna Chlumksy’s makeup in this season...they did some vaguely dramatic stuff to her eyes, and they almost appear green on screen (that could be the lighting too.)  - “Who else has a bucketful of senators?” - “I’m going to go draft a letter of apology to the King of Minnesota.” Matt Walsh’s reading of this line kills me, for some reason.  - “the pro-Caucasian caucus” - if I were writing Veep, the next line would have been “so, all of Congress, ma’am.”  - Aw, Dan lets Amy tell Selina about the filibuster reform triumph. The first time we see him legitimately impressed by her (onscreen). - Dan’s “office-couch” is one of my favorite little S1 bits. 

1.05 - Nicknames  - It says...something about Dan and Selina’s relationship that he feels comfortable telling her he was not “in my own bed last night.” He doesn’t even say “was at my girlfriend’s”, which would make an iota more sense.  - MIKE. - I legitimately thought the fructose intolerance thing was only a joke, and then I MET someone who is fructose intolerant and the first thing out of my mouth was “...is that real? That’s a joke on Veep.”  - “Oh my God, Dan...no more Selinas??!!!” - “My chief criticism is that I don’t understand it.”  - this is a truly iconic exchange: Dan: Not to mention that ANY restaurant that serves anything in a fuck-load is NOT a nice restaurant.  Jonah: Where’s the bread in this place, ASSHOLE?  (Did Dan and Jonah have ANY S7 scenes together?! This is also where I get my head canon that while Dan is probably not the child of millionaires, he did grow up wealthy.)  - Before the arrival of Ben and Kent, Dan and Amy are explicitly framed as the “adults” of her teams. And also like Ben and Kent at the beginning, they are in opposition to another, although for not exclusively professional reasons. It works, but I can definitely see why they wanted  to “ground” the team with characters who have different motivations than Dan and Amy, and different relationships to Selina. It’s too volatile to really be functional - Dan’s ambition makes him too much of a wild card, and Amy’s too thrown-off by him in this first season and her own relationship with Selina is too personal. 

[safflowerseason]

veep rewatch 2.02

Season Two, Episode Two - Signals

aka - The One with the Dying-Dad Card

It’s interesting that Amy is seen waiting for/escorting Selina in so many opening morning scenes at the VP’s residence, rather than meeting her wherever they are going. I wonder how accurate this is for the VP. 

“And what about poor Mee-maw?! Who’s guaranteed to be dead by March! With any luck…”

Selina in a very…unique leopard print top with a pussy-bow neck.

Dan: I think I might have found a way to get to Kent Davison. Amy: If you kill his mother and then dress in her skin, that’s technically illegal. Dan: Technically. 

Selina shoving the newspaper into Mike’s face. 

Selina: What about this? *taps teeth* Gary: Uhh… Mike: You don’t look pretty Selina: Oh, forget it. 

Amy: No, this needs to be top-notch, this needs to be the Gettysburg Address of tight-rope walking-say-nothing bullshit.  Dan: My time has come. (Writer!Dan is my favorite Dan, maybe.) 

“If this were the sixties, we’d just have the National Guard shoot the daughter.” 

Furlong: This whole being pleasant thing is fucking exhausting Will: Yes sir, it’s very tiring. 

The camera lingers on Dan a bit after Amy interrupts his angry retort to Furlong…he has a very specific “legitimately pissed off” expression that he gets sometimes, and it appears here in relation to Furlong. (It’s distinct from his more petulant “angry with Amy” face.) 

I always thought Air Force 2 on Veep looked surprisingly...bare? Air Force 2 on the West Wing looks a lot more comfortable than this plane.

Obviously I have watched this episode a lot while writing Bring Me to Light and I have so many feelings about it. Dan in the hospital with Amy is maybe the most uncomfortable and truly human we ever see Dan in the entire show, and by far his most empathetic moment. He just has no fucking idea what to do with the idea of Amy’s dad being seriously ill, and yet his attention to how Amy is affected is so evident. It’s also the first time we see him around her family, and he is visibly torn between not giving a fuck about them and feeling awkward on Amy’s behalf, because she clearly feels so trapped in that little room. Even when he hears Mrs. Brookheimer talk about Amy’s broken heart (information we see him do literally nothing with, besides reacting in the moment), he’s still on her side. And Reid Scott’s facial reaction when he looks at Amy across the room as she denies being hurt by him is fascinatingly complex…simultaneously chagrined, wary, and annoyed all at once. They’re framed together in opposition to Amy’s family, whom Amy is clearly deeply attached to even if she has nothing in common with them, and Dan gives her a way to escape when she desperately needs one.

And OF COURSE, the best moment, Dan’s oh-my-god-I-love-you face when Amy talks about using the dying-dad card. He is SO into her and yet it’s still appropriately evil for Dan. It’s his version of heart-eyes and it is perfect. Am I writing an entire fic inspired by their scenes in this episode? It’s possible. 

“Excuse me, Miss America?! I’ve been scratching my eyebrows for three and a half fucking hours!”

Amy in another very dark, almost entirely one-note outfit. At first I thought it was all black again, but now I think this is a very very dark brown suit, and her top seems like a very dark burgundy or maybe plum…is this dark theme in relation to her dad? Anna Chlumsky’s pregnancy? She doesn’t seem to be showing yet, although she will by the end of the season.

“I haven’t even been able to see that wonderful movie with the blue people in it!”

“Why don’t you guys go see Mamma Mia again for the tenth fucking time?!” Maybe Catherine’s best line ever. 

Costume department not exactly playing subtle with Catherine’s leather jacket…there are literally spikes on the shoulders. 

Gary: Ma’am, General Mercer is on the phone… Selina: I don’t need to talk to General Mercer Gary: He’s very insistent… Selina: I don’t need a General Mercer phone call right now… Gary: Okay, he’s actually on the phone— Selina: Oh, General Mercer is on the phone!

Jonah: I’m having the best day! This is such a great time! We’re on Air Force 2! Guys, we saved the Florida vote! You guys wanna play iPad Scrabble? Mike: Jonah, please shut up.  Jonah: Hey, Mike, you wanna suck some of the pork fat out of my jacket? It’s a free meal. 

See, S7 Dan would have been actively hitting on the lady who works at the gym, or they would have been shown, like, tumbling out of a closet together. 

[safflowerseason]

veep rewatch 1.07

(I had to rewatch some Veep after Game of Thrones because I needed to get my fix of cutthroat, bloodthirsty politicians SOMEWHERE). Episode 1.07 - Full Disclosure

Amy in her car, Dan at his breakfast place, Jonah with his roommates, Gary’s condo…I really miss these little glimpses of “unglamorous” daily mundanity, of how all these Washington worker bees actually live and function in the world. It was something they took care to explore in the early seasons, and that totally drops out of the show after S5. 

Dan and Amy immediately at each other’s professional throats in this episode. 

It’s so striking how most everyone (uh, except for Dan) is at least vaguely sorry to hear about Selina’s miscarriage, and even Selina clearly has been emotionally affected by it to some degree…in season seven, if Amy had a miscarriage, Selina and Dan would have celebrated in her face (well, maybe not Dan, depending on which version we get, 7.02 vs. 7.03). And even Dan’s reaction in this episode is purely based on the political consequences of Selina’s pregnancy, something that is noticeably not a part of his reaction to Amy’s in S7. (David Mandel clearly did not view Dan as a critical-thinking political actor.) 

Reid Scott’s “angry grinding jaw” thing that he does when Dan is pissed off is super hot.

Selina threatening to fire Dan for something she asked him to do. These two beautiful narcissistic sociopaths…I am transfixed by it the way you are transfixed by a house burning to the ground. 

“Abby, you may have to pull an all-nighter with the IDGN number redacting, if you’re behind on the IDGN number redacting.” 

“Whistle-blowing makes it sound patriotic.” 

“I’m going into coffee shops, I’m going into meetings, and people are looking at me, and whispering, and they are whispering Dick-Cake.”

Respectfully to Amy, leaking the residence logs was not a great move, considering Ted’s existence.

Selina: Ooh, did you put a dash of… Gary: Honey in the rosehip, yes…I put a little Fig Newton there for you as well! Selina: Oh outstanding, Gary. (these two!) 

How did Selina even meet Ted? Maybe he was a connection from her pre-Veep life? Is it a secret or not a secret? The show frames it like they are actually dating but also they both seem primarily interested in sex? Their whole *thing* is a bit confused, tonally. 

Dan: Let’s pretend there’s a female farmer, and she’s got a horse, a sheep, and a pig. Who does she get rid of? Gary: The pig.  Dan: Shit. Wait. Who is that? 

Dan with his arm draped over the back of the couch, behind Amy, right after he’s convinced her to make a suicide pact with him. Could he be any less subtle? 

“Okay kittens, time to get drowned.” And then…she doesn’t drown any of them?

Selina calling Dan’s bluff immediately on whether he’d actually leave if Amy or Mike got fired. They have the same brain. 

Dan’s reaction when Gary offers his resignation. 

Tony Hale’s delivery of “I’m your rock.” 

Amy learning with that pitch for the women’s magazine interview about the miscarriage. 

Dan/Amy parent-watch: the journalist (and maybe everyone in DC, after the story leaks) assuming that Dan’s the father of Amy’s fake-miscarried baby. Of course, he literally puts the idea in her head by interrupting the meeting to “check in” on Amy and being all cute and asking if she wants something from the deli. Love Dan getting pissed off at the implication he cannot get it up and/or have children. 

[safflowerseason]

veep rewatch 2.01

Season Two, Episode One - Midterms 

aka - The One With the Lipstick 

Dan mouthing the words to his own speech…I miss Writer! Dan.  

Look at that leather jacket Amy wears! She looks so cute! I wish we saw her wear it again. She spends the rest of the episode in this very chic but starkly black ensemble. I love Anna Chlumsky in neutral colors, but they rarely put her in all black. She’s wearing this necklace with a tiny turquoise jewel, and that’s the only real color she has.

“I want a Cartier fucking dildo!”

In the early seasons, both Selina and Mike nickname Amy frequently (Ame, Amers), but I don’t think Dan has started to call her Ames yet (something to look for with this rewatch). By the end of the series, he refers to her almost exclusively as Ames, which is definitely some kind of fuckery on the part of the writers and/or Reid Scott. 

Amy: He told my mom he felt worse the time he ate gay Jap raw fish-shit. Selina: Oh, Amy, that’s a great sign! Because that’s a very complex sentence.

God, Anna Chlumsky is such an amazing actress. My heart just squeezes whenever she talks about her dad in this episode. 

“Can you imagine how stressed he’d be if you walked in, like, what you are doing, isn’t time for you to be with the veep, it’s the freaking midterms and isn’t she going to take this opportunity to expand her role in the White House or you know, whatever he might say…but if you need to go Amy, you should go.” 

New set! Veep’s West Wing office…signs of an expanded scope for season two. 

“Catherine got giardia!” That tracks for Catherine. 

What a great introduction to Ben…hiding in the supply closet. “I’d like to be cryogenically suspended.” Tom James’s comment in the finale about how Ben would have always wanted to be in an induced coma is a callback to this. (sidenote: I bawled at that Ben/Selina scene in the hospital.) 

Would love to know how they cast Kevin Dunn and Gary Cole in their roles. 

I’m, like, ninety-five percent sure that the writers are “considering” if Selina and Kent have some kind of sexual/romantic tension to be mined narratively. Their early scenes have this very particular barbed hate-sex energy.

“Why would anyone want to eat you?” 

Dan is frightened of Sue, lol. Then again—all men are frightened of Sue. 

“Kent Davison is back. So, number one, what are we gonna to do about it? Number two, why am I telling you this news?”

“Let’s just wind back a sec…you think Kent Davison is a bad thing?” 

Jonah: Guys, we agreed to let the Matrix debate lie. Dan: Jesus, I can feel my virginity growing back in here.

Sophie’s hat is a hilarious fashion choice. Is it 1995? 

“When it comes to successful campaign visits, ma’am, you have a lead over POTUS of…0.9%.”

“You take your eyebrows and you get out!”

“Uzbekistan is between Turkmenistan and I-could-give-a-fuck-istan.” 

It’s funny how “cold” Kent is portrayed here because he was willing to use Catherine politically…when S7 Selina wouldn’t even balk at someone saying Catherine looked like a ghoul and also insisted on dragging her newborn grandchild on a campaign.  

Selina’s over-the-top press look...so well done. 

“Smile with your eyes if you can. And your nose.” 

“Well there isn’t an economic Santa Claus, and don’t I wish that there were!”

[safflowerseason]

veep rewatch

Episode 1.02 

You can’t tell me that Amy and Dan crawling into the car to deal with Selina who has literally just shit her pants isn’t some kind of foreshadowing metaphor for their eventual parenthood. 

Also, this Dan-Leon exchange is funny.

Leon: You can bring me major scoops? Dan: Hey, come on, I majored in major-- Leon: Stop doing that. Dan: I'm sorry. 

He’s so hapless in this episode, I love it. If Mike hadn’t literally body-tackled him, he would have literally blown up his career by leaking the POTUS heartburn story.

[safflowerseason]

When Kent gets hit with the lipstick and later on Selinas apologising and goes “but god you made a funny noise...wish I could get that as my ringtone” makes me cry with laughter every time 😂😂

Agreed, Anon! And Kent’s not even that subtle about using the morning shows to punish her…the lipstick debacle basically destroys their relationship for the first half of Season 2. Glad you’re enjoying the veep rewatch posts :-)