Veep Season 5 Episode 8
The president takes the dysfunctional fractured first family to Camp David for an intimate Popcornaments-bedecked pre-Christmas celebration. Camp David is known as the place where peace accords are signed and President Eisenhower recuperated after heart problems. But there is no peace this weekend. The Meyer Administration is also bunkered down for secret negotiations with the president of China over sanctions. New Hampshire Congressional hopeful Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons) doesn’t mix well with people. He blows a major debate by basically telling his kindly old schoolteacher rival to take the apple bitch, it’s a symbol of endearment. All she wants to do is keep the state safe. Jonah shoots himself in the foot and it’s the best thing to happen to him. The best part is that Ben (Kevin Dunn) can’t stop laughing when he hears the news. The collateral damage is enough to take out his competition making Dan (Reid Scott) the anti-hero of the evening. He transformed a shaved Sasquatch into a winning politician and now has to live with that, Amy (Anna Chlumsky) congratulates him, for the rest of his life. As does the rest of the country. No one leaves Selina’s gravity unmoved. The president affects everyone she meets personally in a deep and profound way. Bill Erickson (Diedrich Bader) was so moved by the president’s loyalty during a bill scuttling scandal that he took over the New Hampshire congressional campaign. He brings as much of a sense of duty as a deep personal resentment to the job. Minna Häkkinen (Sally Phillips) says hello to the president by reminding her she knows Meyer didn’t vote for her to head the International Monetary Fund. The president responds by calling her “Menopause” for the rest of the summit. Nothing gets by hot Nordic assburger salad Minna. She tells the American president that the Chinese president isn’t that smart and reappraises international intelligence in its entirety in her every uttered word. Phillips and Tony Hale perform a wonderful comic duet in the president’s ear during the introductions. It is a verbal ballet as the head of the IMF rattles off credentials and the bagman prattles on about fly-fishing, tennis, art and who’s kid is matriculating at Georgetown and all we’re left with are is frozen strawberries. Sometimes it feels like Selina Meyer rose to national power in some kind of alternative Seinfeld Universe. Bizarro Selina. The show uses in-jokes and references like they were written into the oath of office. Most of us have followed Julia Louis-Dreyfus since at least Seinfeld and these act as a kind of short cut, but I envy people who can discover it the other way around. Regifting is a classic concept that originated, as far as entertainment culture is concerned, on Seinfeld and Veep is so comfortable having grown up in that neighborhood they toss off these goodies offhandedly and repeatedly. “Camp David” was written by Rachel Axler and directed by Becky Martin.
