Well, the show has its first genuinely great episode. This episode continues the plotline about the clean jobs bill; Selina has to juggle the oil lobby’s requirement that an oil guy be on the taskforce with Senator Reeves’ requirement that no oil guys be on the taskforce. It adds in a wonderfully funny plot thread about Selina’s efforts to procure a dog in order to “humanize” herself. This one has a fantastic payoff when Tim Simons’ White House Liaison Jonah Ryan goes off on a lengthy rant about how Selina’s search cannot be allowed to overshadow the procurement of a dog by FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States). Meanwhile, Catherine, Selina’s college age daughter is coming into town to spend the day with Selina. That goes about as well as you’d expect. And then there’s the memorial service for a recently deceased Senator; he was more renowned for his sexual exploits than for his legislative ones if you get my drift and the jokes they get out of that are pretty solid. But this episode has real energy; the previous two episodes were surprisingly languid and I was hoping the pace would pick up. Part of the appeal of a show like this is the sense that things are happening too quickly and spinning out of control for the characters. This episode really nails that and it’s the funniest so far to boot. Here’s hoping the show keeps improving. For now, this was a great episode of television. Highly recommended. 4 stars.
tl;dr – the show’s third episode is the best yet; the energy level is noticeably stepped up and the entire cast continues to acquit themselves well, as do the writers. 4 stars.