Midnight Sunrise, a Cartier dildo, and more influence on foreign policy

On the second season premiere of HBO’s most comedic new comedy Veep, it’s midterm election night and it seems Vice President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) actually helped on the campaign trail—though not enough to keep the House. I am no stranger to Armando Ianucci’s work; from The Thick of It (UK) to its spin-off feature In The Loop, he has not failed to deliver ripe political comedy featuring immature, big-mouthed political strategists.

And yet the first season of Veep resembled The Thick of It mostly in that we never lay eyes on the President or Prime Minister. The show was entertaining, but not as brilliantly biting as its English ancestor—a typical consequence of transplanting television across the pond (see The Office and House of Cards).

This season promises to deliver. Selina, more interested in her .9% positive influence on the midterms than their disastrous results, announces her plan to usurp a bit of the POTUS’s power, a goal she aptly names “the whole co-POTAL thing.” She informs new political strategist Kent (Gary Cole), “If you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu, and Kent, I don’t want to be eaten.”

What she does want are the simple things in life, like the lipstick color Midnight Sunrise (which makes her lips say “Carnivale!” even when her eyes say “Holocaust”), a Cartier dildo, and more influence on foreign policy. Her assistant (most recognizable as Buster Bluth) spends most of the episode locating the shade, only to accidentally grind Coral Blush onto the carpet of the Oval Office, and still later discover that Midnight Sunrise wasn’t her best shade anyway. Perfectly pitched payoff.

In a B story somewhat lifted from The West Wing, Amy’s father has a stroke (or maybe not) on election night. Perhaps the best one-liner of the evening is delivered by her (younger?) sister: “Oh my God, Amy, you work for the Vice President; it’s not like it’s Google.”

But this Veep claims to have “a big bag of leverage coming [her] way,” as she is granted more influence on foreign policy by the end of the episode. Perhaps she can use that to stop POTUS from “swinging his nuclear dick again”—a comment from a strategist that reminded me of my last favorite American political satire, Dr. Strangelove.

I can’t wait to see how Selina will ‘help hone the message’ this season. More importantly, I’m excited to see her “co-POTAL thing” play out in true Ianucci form, without ever catching a glimpse of POTUS himself.