What I’m Watching: Veep

Veep: Season 2, Episode 2 “Signals” (B+)

Without the token “Did the president call?” uttered at any point in this episode, POTUS’ influence was felt rather than heard as Ken invoked his power and gave it to the man least likely to get anything accomplished on his behalf, Jonah. Selina’s trip to pig country was quite amusing, particularly because of the hat she decided to wear and her attitude about the practices and intelligence level of the people with whom she was interacting. Gary’s girlfriend accidentally leaking the signals was brilliant, and I enjoyed the many terrible suggestions about how Selina should subtly indicate that she wants to get out of a situation. It turns out that none of them worked, and what she thought was a fake call from Gary was actually real. Her daughter’s controversial film essay was timed perfectly, and the best part of the “pork schmork” scene was Mike using two phones to relay Ken’s orders to Jonah and the presidential liaison leaning behind Selina to literally block the pig from view as she was talking about Israel and Jews. It wasn’t too prominent, but Selina’s controlled reaction to the news that her daughter was dating an Iranian was priceless. Dan starting to do pilates so that he could work out next to Ken was funny, particularly because it lasted such a short time. I like that Dan accompanied Amy to the hospital in their revolving door of favors for each other, and her family’s reaction to seeing her ex-boyfriend was quite fantastic, if entirely embarrassing for Amy. Mike’s descent into further debt was an amusing subplot as well.