After three superb episodes this season, last night’s episode of Veep, “Clovis,” fell somewhere into the 8/10 range, which is to say: A weaker episode of Veep is better than any other comedy around. With Vice President Meyer headed to Silicon Valley, there was a certain synergy with HBO’s new Silicon Valley, which came before it, and in the CEO of Clovis, Veep unearthed the perfect character for that series: A tone-deaf narcissistic cyberbrat with little social awareness. It was a nice send-up of the tech culture, with which Armando Iannucci could barely contain his hostility. Apparently, there are worse people in the Veep universe than politicians and Jonah, and it was the Vice President who actually came out of the episode in the most sympathetic light.
Meanwhile, Veep continues to pile on poor Jonah, who had his dreams come true in the form of a buyout offer from Clovis, only to have it pulled when Dan pulled a fast one on him, although it was Dan who had really been played, by Ben. In either respect, Jonah has sunk somehow even further. He and Larry/Gary/Terry should get together and bond over the fact that they’re the only two series regulars on television who never get a reprieve from humiliation, but at least Jonah deserves it. Poor bastard.
Here were the ten best lines from the episode.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
