What I’m Watching: Veep

Veep: Season 3, Episode 4 “Clovis” (B+)

Technology is always an effective focus, especially for a show like this where its protagonists are all aware to some degree of the cutting-edge inventions that are out there but are still quite unfamiliar with how they work. Visiting a Silicon Valley startup that had become immensely successful proved remarkably entertaining, mainly due to Selina’s reactions to the various innovations brought before her, particularly the futuristic toilet she couldn’t figure out how to flush. The Smarch’s terrible name wasn’t its only virtue, and it was hilarious that it pulled up the two rather unfortunate parodies of the new Meet Meyer website. I like that Kent was so excited about everything and that he took the time to build something, which of course earned him mockery from Selina. That Amy was nearly poached before she realized that she was an adult and would never have considered working there, no matter the salary, was fun. Gary’s back problems were somewhat less amusing, though the fact that no one else on the team realized that he was in unbelievable pain was funny in a twisted way. Jonah’s antics really took off in this episode, and the notion that he was going to be bought for $4 million got to his head in a big way. It served him right to get fed false information about Chung having been involved in torture while at war, and that dream imploded pretty quickly. His effort to mimic Dan’s food-related intimidation failed just as miserably.