Like a Robot Geisha: DCist on Astini News
Jon: I nearly forgot this was going to be the Magrudergrind episode. Still, I can't help but feel a little bit bad for the grindcore trio not even having their name mentioned. That's twice in one weekend we saw that happen to a band.
As for whether Magrudergrind's appearance on Veep restores some of the show's D.C. cred, I think I'm going to have to award partial credit. Nice as it was to see the materialization of Leor Galil's article, filming it at Ottobar is just one more reminder of how Washington can't compete with Baltimore when it comes to attracting television production. And it's not as if Armando Iannucci is unfamiliar with D.C.'s venues—In the Loop, after all, featured those Richmond stoner-thrashers Cannabis Corpse ripping up the Black Cat.
Still, nameless or not, Magrudergrind was Jonah's jam. And it really seemed to be Jonah's episode. Until now, his role has been the bothersome bearer of bad news and ultimate presidential sycophant. It was nice to see his expanded character justify just how awful a person he is. We see more of Gary—Selina's unflinching lackey—from week to week, but if there's a bigger brown-noser in all of Veep's Washington, it's Jonah.
Which, of course, makes Jonah ultimately worthless in Selina Meyer's game of thrones. I, too, found Selina comparing Dan's attempts to manipulate Jonah with "using a croissant as a dildo" to be among the episode's best nasty lines. But! Meredith Blake at the AV Club caught Iannucci in a bit of self-plagiarism. A few years back on Iannucci's British series In the Thick of It, Malcolm Tucker—our favorite political operative ever—called another character "as useless as a marzipan dildo." Tsk, tsk.
Yeah, this episode was a slow burn compared to other installments, but the rivalry between Selina and the mysterious president smoldered throughout. Although we did not see what occurred in the fiscal policy meeting Selina crashed, the rest of the episode seemed like one retaliation after another lobbed by the Oval Office. First the president goes soft on clean jobs, then he drops the issue it entirely and in the coup de grâce, assigns Selina to the very first-ladylike issue of obesity. But it's more drawn out than any other episode. Even last week's misadventure that took Selina from the Naval Observatory to Meet the Press to a Virginia hospital and back to the office was still compressed to take place in the span of maybe 12 hours. Last night's episode consumed the better part of a week.
Did Jonah know any of this while Dan was trying to squeeze him for information? I'd say no, and the tell is when Jonah has to race away from that fuck-ton of bread to fix the "interactive tour portion" of the White House's website. This guy is not actually versed in policy; he's a low-grade paper-pusher. On his best day he's still nothing more than a brusque messenger. And on a personal note, if Jonah insults Upstate New York again, I hope Dan kicks him squarely in the cappuccino frother. (Reid Scott, the actor who plays Dan, is from Saratoga Springs.)
Now, as for those nicknames. "Dickless Van Dyke" seems a little too mean. I'm kind of partial to "Selina Meh." It speaks to Selina's general level of enthusiasm toward her job. Sometimes she tries to make the vice presidency exciting, but for the most part, it's pretty meh.
Getting back to the Dan and Jonah rom-com, I should say that whatever venom I have for Jonah should not be taken as a defense of Dan. His geographic origins aside, he's still the slimiest character on Veep and perhaps the biggest (fictional) douchebag on cable television right now.
I won't, however, defend for a second the awful tourist activity Selina trashed. Those "fucking dumb Segway tours of D.C." have had it coming for a long time.
Header by Brooke Hatfield/Washington City Paper.
