While the candidates in the 2016 presidential race have provided plenty of absurd political theater, the fictional shenanigans of Selina Meyer and company aren’t quite as high stakes — which makes them much easier to laugh at.
That said, the recently released season five trailer for HBO’s Veep offers a welcome distraction from the real-life campaign trail and a heavy dose of what’s perhaps the only thing capable of unifying even Democrats and Republicans: laughter.
Thankfully — other than the fact that the presidency is hanging in the balance — not too much has changed in this fictional White House: Lovable lackey Gary Walsh (Tony Hale) is still at Selina’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) side, Selina is still the hot mess you know and adore, and it is politics as usual for and Amy (Anna Chlumsky), Dan (Reid Scott), Jonah (Timothy Simons), and the rest of this hilarious cast.
In characteristic Veep form, this trailer is caustic and irreverent, drawing laughs out of religion, drunk driving, casual sex, and financial crises. When Selina is told that, to win the election, she must do the one thing her opponent can’t, her response is “drive sober?” When she finds out that she has presided over the fourth-largest market drop in history and that the event is already being referred to as “Black Wednesday,” her response is “Jesus, it’s only Wednesday?”
To be fair, hump day can be rough …
In all seriousness, season five of Veep promises exactly what the people want: more Veep. Like a veteran politician driving home his or her best talking points during a stump speech, the series is sticking with a tried and true formula — and that’s fine by us.
Veep is set to return to the air April 24, 2016, and by the looks of things, it is more than ready to hit the ground running.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.