Veep - Morning After - Review: "The Best Comedy on TV"

Veep Season 5 Episode Guide
5.01 "Morning After" - Review
5.02 Title to Be Announced - Review Coming Soon

Veep 5.01 - "Morning After"

Yes, this is still the best comedy on television, or at least, now that Parks & Rec has ended. I recently had a binge of seasons 2-4 in an attempt to catch up in time for the new season last week so I'm on a bit of a Veep kick right now, and it was great to see that The Morning After was worth it as the show once again delivered an excellent half an hour that shows just how good it can be even in the hands of the new showrunner, David Mandell, who replaces creator Armando Iannucci. It looks like once again, Veep has managed to help ensure that HBO currently has the best night of programming around right now, and that's likely to remain unchanged for a while, because the combination of this show, Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley is just too good not to miss.

The episode begins the morning after the season four finale and Election Day. We soon learn that Meyer has tied with O’Brien, and it's given us a nice, tight focus for the storyline ahead, and allows an excellent opening speech that really works.

I love how the fact that we're in election cycle with this show that last season was hinting at, and it of course, being a political show, it manages to make the most out of an excellent Donald Trump reference that works really well. Scandal and House of Cards have also dealt with election battles this season, and this is something that hopefully will not go unnoticed by the writers, as so far, it hasn't felt dull and repetitive at all. That's partly because this is a comedy and not a drama unlike the other two, so obviously it's going to hit a different tone, but now having mentioned House of Cards, I'm starting to wonder what the show would look like if Selina had been Frank Underwood's Vice President. If there's an unlikely combination of series that I want to crossover at some point, it's certainly these two.

We also get a new twist this season as Richard gets a promotion over Jonah following his previous work in Constitutional Law. This allowed for some great scenes that switched up the roles of the two characters, and gave us one of the many highlights of the episode, an unexpected Harry Potter reference, which had me laughing a lot more than it probably should have done ("He rises up and kills all the Muggles"). This kept things exciting and allowed Amy and Dan to return to the fold by the end of the episode. Something else that the show handled really well was the relationship between Selina and Hugh Laurie's Tom James - which showcased just how much better Tom is when he's able to counter Selina, and stop her usual tactics. This storyline continued to develop fantastically well over the course of the episode, and hopefully we'll continue to see both characters go head to head in the near future.

One thing that this show continues to do is handle its characters so incredibly well. For the majority of shows there is at least character that I dislike if not more, but Veep has managed to avoid that by consistently making every single character incredibly awesome. It'd be extremely hard to pick a favourite for this show and just as I settle on one, that'll probably change the very next week.

The jokes this week just never stopped coming and I was frequently kept entertained throughout the premiere. The whole scene after the speech probably has to be my highlight of the episode, especially with the Stress Pimple discussion that played out so well thanks to some great comic timeline, and the fact that Catherine was filming the whole exchange in the background. It'll be great to see what she gets up to this season, as hopefully, this won't be the last time a scene will end like it did there as I can easily see the potential for a running gag. Top notch stuff.

It's so hard to pick a favourite line this week because there were just too many to count. If you're not watching this show then you're missing out on one of the truly great series on television, and if Season five can continue the form of the premiere, then we're in for an excellent run ahead of us for sure.

What was your favourite scene from Morning After? Are you happy to have Veep back? What unexpected but oddly fitting crossovers would you like to see on TV? Let me know in the comments section below and be sure to catch the second episode next Sunday at 10:30pm on HBO.

Verdict: A+
Positives
+Selina's speech and the immediate scene that followed.
+Jonah/Richard role reversal.
+Tom rivalling Selina.
+It's a tie!
+Potter/Trump References.

About the Author - Milo MJ

Milo is an Arsenal FC supporter and loves TV shows like Battlestar Galactica, Justified, The 100, The Americans and Person of Interest. He reviews Black Sails, Hell on Wheels, Murder in the First, Narcos, Preacher, The Shannara Chronicles, Silicon Valley and Veep for Spoiler TV as well as books, films and games for his own blog The Fictional Hangout and contributes to comic reviews on a weekly basis for All-Comic.

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