Veep - Nev-AD-a - "Recount"

Veep Season 5 Episode Guide
5.01 "The Morning After" - Review
5.02 "Nev-AD-a" - Review
5.03 "The Eagle" - Airs May 8 2016
5.04 "Mother" - Airs May 15 2016
5.05 "Thanksgiving" - Airs May 22 2016
5.06. "C**tgate" - Airs May 29 2016
5.07. "Congressional Ball" - Airs June 5 2016
5.08. "Camp David" - Airs June 12 2016
5.09. "Kissing Your Sister" - Airs June 19 2016
5.10. "Inauguration" - Airs June 26 2016

Veep 5.02 "Nev-AD-a"
Directed by Chris Addison & Written by Lew Morton

Nev-AD-a is the first episode of this season to be directed by The Thick of It and Mock The Week regular Chris Addison, and as one of my favourite British comedians it was great to see what he could bring to the table in the directors chair as Nev-AD-a mostly kept the strong form of the premiere, continuing to weave a complex, engaging and often hilarious story that we've come to expect from the best comedy on television.

The episode welcomes John Slattery to the cast as the new love interest for Selina as a great addition in the form of Charlie Baird, from Wall Street, and it's no surprise when their relationship goes public fairly quickly. This it turns out was not a disaster for Selina as she saw mostly positive returns, and now has the banking task force that puts the President in a very good situation indeed, which only means it's a matter of time before things go horribly wrong.

It's great to see that the show is still finding to be incredibly consistent and there were plenty of laughs in this episode, which took place following the premiere. The step-back in pace allowed the focus on the characters and gave us time to get used to the new additions, which also included Martin Mull's Bob Bradley, a political strategist dubbed "The Eagle" and brought on board to help Selina's campaign. But he doesn't make the best first impressions with Amy, who finds herself dismissed. And now it looks like Richard is "Affirmative Action Jackson." Should I ever go into politics, I would want the Veep writers room to come up with my nickname. Hell, I just want a nickname from the Veep writers. They're so good at coming up with stuff like this.

The episode also delved into Amy and Dan's increasingly problematic relationship. Things go sideways when Sophie, Amy's sister, who Dan thinks works at CBS, and tries to use that to his advantage by sleeping with her. However, Sophie actually works at CVS, putting a flaw in his plan.

It was great to see that the show continues to use Catherine as a running gag as well, with her spending most of this episode being shown out of rooms with a camera. It's unlikely that we'll get a more serious role for her character at this point, but for now, these moments have always earned a laugh from me. Meanwhile Mike's going on a cleanse, which leads to the new relationship between Charlie Baird and Selina becoming known. This worked well in the background of the episode that also saw Sue and Kent going head to head again, but Sue was capable of handling him for now. Time will tell if we'll see anymore development in this storyline, but for now it's always great to see more of Sufe Bradshaw and Gary Cole.

As usual with this show, the guest stars are usually just as good as the main cast and their smaller roles are always welcomed. "Nev-AD-a" gave us Brian Huskey, Dan Bakkedahl & Nelson Franklin, who played their roles incrediby well. Franklin's character Will gave us a sort of 'worst case scenario' for the group working under Selina, whose underling position to Congressman Furlong was used pretty effectively, with some great moments. Huskey's Leon was also an welcomed addition to this episode, and as a result the show continued to excel balancing its cast and giving these characters plenty of things to do.

Despite the change of showrunner then, Nev-AD-a has kept the consistency of HBO's hit comedy series. It's set us up for some greater drama going forward as we can only go so long before things go sideways for Selina's team, and has provided us with some fascinating new characters. I cannot wait to get stuck into tonight's episode, The Eagle, and I wouldn't be surprised if this episode put Bob Bradley in the spotlight a bit more. Be sure to check it out at 10:30pm as usual on HBO, and let me know what you thought of Nev-AD-a in the comments below.

Verdict: A
+Dan works in CVS, not CBS.
+John Slattery's Charlie Baird.
+Martin Mull's Bob Bradley
+Catherine

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 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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