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This Week's 'Veep' Illustrates That Old Political Maxim: It's Always the Woman's Fault

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 23, 2017 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 23, 2017 |


When it premiered last week, several outlets were eager to make comparisons between Selina Meyer in this season of Veep and the failed candidacy of Hillary Clinton. The comparison, however, didn’t quite square with reality. Hillary — even without a year under her belt as President — has a legacy worth a Presidential library, while Selina — who spent this week’s episode trying to shore up a location for her library — accomplished in her Presidency about as much as Donald Trump has in his first 100 days, which is to say: Nothing of note.

Indeed, Meyer shares more in common with Mitt Romney (with whom Veep consulted on this season) than she does Hillary. That is, at least until this second episode, “Library,” which made the comparison between Meyer and Clinton more pointed in at least it one respect: Despite having no role in her ex-husband/current boyfriend’s infidelities, the media targeted Selina for her husband’s affairs, regarding her as a victim blamer after she fired her husband’s lover.

Where it concerns Hillary, this is straight out of the Republican playbook: The GOP spent much of last year’s election castigating Hillary Clinton for not embracing the women her husband fucked. Donald Trump went so far as to trot out the women with whom Bill Clinton had affairs before a debate, and Hillary’s feminist credentials were frequently called into question because she chose to believe her husband’s lies rather than the women with whom he slept.

“Scandal continues to dog Selina Meyer as allegations of sexual misconduct swirl around her husband,” morning show anchor Jane McCabe* reported in the episode, which often sums up the state of politics in America for women. Her husband engaged in sexual misconduct, and the scandal “dogs” Selina, who did nothing except fire the woman sleeping with her husband. Meanwhile, the “victim” here, Helen, was all too happy to leave her and Andrew Meyer’s “love puddle” on Selina’s office chair.

(*It’s good to see that Margaret Colin — who plays Jane McCabe — is still around. If you’re wondering where you remember her from, it could be from any number of roles, but most likely it’s Gossip Girl or as Constance Spano in Independence Day. If you’re really old school, you know her from Three Men and a Baby or even Pretty in Pink.)

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Meanwhile, it’s Amy who now has to pay the price in pounds of humiliation for her fiancé’s DWI and his public meltdown, which was caught on a police officer’s dash cam. Amy’s fiancé will probably come out of the entire ordeal unscathed — more popular than ever, perhaps, because other idiotic men will empathize with him — while Amy will undoubtedly come out as the villain, the frigid woman who drove Buddy Calhoun to drink.

As always, it’s often the wives who pay the biggest price for their husband’s fuck-ups.

The Best Lines of the Week

8. Buddy Calhoun: “Let us pray: Heavenly father, warden of eternal of light. Teach us to love women but in a way that is respectful and also your compassion. And amen.”

7. Selina on selecting an architect to build her library: “I want to talk to every Tom, Dick, and Gary out there.

Richard: “Maybe a female candidate?”

Selina: “Well, no. We’re not building a kitchen.”

6. Amy to Selina: “You can’t just be that woman standing by her man looking like lobotomy Barbie.”

Amy, five minutes later:

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5. Gary: “What? There is zero inbreeding in my family. And only one case of schizophrenia, but my Uncle Grandpa had her sterilized …”

4. Amy: “It’s a piddly DWI. In Nevada, that’s practically a resume builder. There’s a guy driving drunk on the state flag of Nevada right next to the man beating his wife.”

3. Furlong on a Congressional colleague: “That sweaty pederast has ruined more kids than the common core. Luckily, Will’s anal halitosis renders him completely unBoothable.”

2. Furlong to Jonah: “Let me save you the peanut log you’re about to squeeze out of your face anus.”

1. Gary: “How will an ex-president’s ex moving in with her go over with small-town America?”

Selina: “Let me tell you, unlike small town America, Andrews fucks me in a way that I like.”