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Hmm…I haven’t devoted nearly as much to thinking about Selina’s relationships as I have Dan and Amy’s. Of the men we see her involved with, only two really have any kind of staying power: Andrew and Tom James. Everyone else she is just using as a kind of distraction from the demands of her political position. Not that she doesn’t become very invested in those distractions, because she does, but she finds none of them more compelling than her political goals. (Oh, I’m assuming you mean sexual and/or romantic relationships with men in terms of your question…Selina’s relationship with Amy, while complicated and very rich, would necessitate its own essay, probably.) (Also I am, as usual, just broadly ignoring S7 here…I don’t want to talk about Selina’s relationships with Sex-Psychopath Dan and Serial-Abuser-But-Not-Really-Because-Sexual-Harassment-Is-Not-Real Tom James). 

Of course, as with all things Veep, it’s very hard to talk about Selina’s relationships without discussing the differences between how Iannucci and Mandel conceived of the character. But I actually do think there is one important similarity: both of them were very interested in how trapped Selina is by the office(s) she holds and/or held, and the impact of that entrapment on her ability to maintain or even have a romantic relationship that is sexual in nature. They explore it in very different ways, but there is still a link in that sense between the two eras of the show. 

I think it’s also kind of an unfortunate development that Tom James, for all he was introduced by Iannucci, is in the hands of Mandel for the rest of the show. I would have loved to see what Iannucci was going to do with the character. Just based on the back half of S4, it seems clear he was going to put them on at narrative loggerheads with one another—and the S4 finale confirms that Tom has the presidency in his sights—which Mandel follows through on, but I’m certain their relationship would have looked different in the Iannucci-era of the show…it almost certainly would have remained unconsummated longer. I’m pretty ambivalent about Selina/Tom as a pairing…of course the actors had great chemistry, but it was always hard for me to envision the two of them ever being able to settle down and fully trust and rely on one another…at least not until they were both, like, super-retired or whatever.  

Iannucci is very interested in how Selina, as a woman in the public eye, basically cannot have sex without causing some kind of scandal. Her relationship with Ted, who is basically as “normal” a guy as you can date in Washington is permanently fraught. The writers are pretty explicit about the fact that a large part of the reason Selina hasn’t kicked Andrew permanently to the curb is because she can have casual sex with him under wraps and it’s going to take people (aka, the press) longer to figure it out because it’s less weird for the VP’s ex-husband and the father of her child to be hanging around than some other random guy. Dan, in what is surely his dumbest decision as campaign manager, hires a new personal trainer to have sex with her because a personal trainer is, for better and for worse, someone she can be completely alone with and no one will ask questions. (At least until you bring the personal trainer to London and allow him to attend state functions….) I do think it’s notable that in the Iannucci years, Selina is not deeply emotionally attached Ted or Ray, and doesn’t feel guilty about kicking them to the curb when it’s finally made clear to her that they aren't worth the trouble. This is another reason why I’m bummed we didn’t get to see the Iannucci version of the Selina-and-Tom saga, because it is very clear that Selina is drawn to Tom in a way that she isn't to other men, and I would have liked to see what Iannucci would have done with them that wasn’t the psychological sex-fueled wargame that Mandel locked them into. 

Mandel approaches Selina’s relationships with a slightly different lens in place. He’s more interested in the idea of Selina having to sacrifice her relationships with men she actually does possess some kind of regard for: Charlie and Jafar (and Tom, in S7). I’m not opposed to this concept as a narrative device, necessarily, but it’s just far less realistic an understanding of American politics than Iannucci’s. There is simply no way that Selina, the first female POTUS, can casually date someone, especially someone who is the owner of a bank of such financial importance. The idea that Fox News and the Wall Street Journal wouldn’t be shrieking about favoritism and blaming every single mistake Selina made on the fact that she has an active sex life is simply ignoring some basic facts about American politics. I wish it weren’t so unrealistic, but here we are.

Ahhhhh love this wonderful gentleman

Favourite Chaotic Duos - Part 14/?