Now that Hillary Clinton’s campaign-launching video has run its one-day course of novelty and interest, maybe we can start to assess it with some perspective.

As media, it was a solid piece of feel-good political filmmaking. But it was nothing new or special despite Vox calling it “fascinating, bold filmmaking” in the headline for one of the sillier pieces of media analysis I have seen this year.

If you think “sillier” is too strong a word, check out the discussion in the piece about certain images being positioned slightly off center in the frame of Clinton’s video and the interpretation the reviewer offers for that.

The basic template for the message, tone and sensibility of Clinton’s “political campaign trailer,” to use Vox’s term, can be seen in 2009 ads done for American Express. Titled “Small Business Anthem,” the ads celebrate small business owners starting new shops and businesses in their communities.

The ads were intended as an antidote to the economic meltdown of 2008 that still...

HBO made it official Monday and renewed Maryland-made "Veep" for a fifth season. But a return to Maryland is not guaranteed, a spokeswoman for the channel said today.

That's because creator Armando Iannucci is leaving the series and a new showrunner, David Mandel, a writer and director of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," will be taking over. (Read that here.)

Since showrunners are responsible for getting series made and delivered to an outlet like HBO for distribution, they sometimes have the power to say where the series will be produced.

A decision on where the series will be made is expected shortly, according to HBO.

With an infrastructure in place in Maryland, a return makes sense. But it is not guaranteed with Iannucci leaving.

HBO Monday also renewed "Silicon Valley" for a third season.

Here's the release:

             HBO has renewed the comedy series VEEP for a fifth season and SILICON VALLEY for a third season, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming.

           ...

"Undisclosed" is not "Serial."

The three lawyers behind "Undisclosed: The State vs. Adnan Syed" make this clear in the first moments of the new podcast. 

There's no catchy theme music.  No whimsical asides from Sarah Koenig, creator of the breakaway hit "Serial."  Not even an ad for MailChimp.

"We like getting into the weeds and we plan on taking you with us," attorney Rabia Chaudry says early in the 45-minute episode. "This will not be a beautifully crafted narrative like 'Serial.'"

What "Undisclosed" offers is what lawyers do best -- a precise analysis of the myriad legal issues surrounding the case. And on Monday, it debuted at No. 3 on the iOs Podcast app's top audio chart.

It's financed by the Adnan Syed Trust, a legal fund created by those who believe the former Woodlawn High School student is not guilty of the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend and classmate, Hae Min Lee. Syed was convicted and sentenced to life plus 30 years; he hopes to appeal his conviction.

Chaudry, a national...

Are the citizen-made cell phone videos of unarmed African-Americans dying at the hands of white police officers today's equivalent of the evening newscast images of civil rights protests in the South in the 1960s?

I think in some ways they might be. And I wonder if  they could come to have as a profound an effect on the national conscience as those CBS and NBC evening newscast images of Southern police officers attacking civil rights marchers with dogs and firehoses in 1960s did.

That's part of the context in which we talked Sunday morning on "Media Buzz" about the video that surfaced last week of an unarmed black man being shot five times in the back by a white police officer.

Check out the docussion in the accompanying video.

Matt Walsh plays Mike McClintock, press secretary to President Selina Meyer, on “Veep” in Season 4, which starts tomorrow night at 10:30 on HBO.

The 50-year comedian and actor is one of the founders of the Upright Citizens Brigade, an improv and sketch comedy troupe that has helped train and launch new talent like Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson of the Comedy Central’s “Broad City.”

McClintock has thrived as a performer during the first three seasons of “Veep” under the leadership of creator Armando Iannucci who uses improve extensively in the rehearsal and production process to bring the actors into the creation of the final script.

(This interview was conducted Wednesday, two days before HBO announced that Iannucci was leaving the series. Read that here.)

Q. Judging from your background, I am guessing you put a lot of thought into who and what Mike McClintock is. Can you share some of your thoughts on him?

A. Well, he is fairly incompetent, so I think in the real world, he might have...

The past week has been a lesson in journalistic humility for me.

After a career of thinking and writing about how the kind of mainstream journalistic institutions at which I worked set the local and national agenda, I had a moment of clarity with a voice in my head saying, "Not so much any more, my self-important friend."

It came Thursday afternoon as I was thinking about two articles — a piece to advance the Monday launch of a new "Serial" podcast connected to the 1999 murder of a Woodlawn teen and an analysis of TV news coverage of a police shooting in South Carolina that was captured on cellphone video.

The original "Serial" podcast, which was produced by Sarah Koenig and other members of the "This American Life" team, was one of the biggest stories of the 2014 media year. It was downloaded 76 million times and discussed passionately on every platform imaginable last fall.

But as Rabia Chaudry told me about her plans for the new podcast that she and two other lawyers are producing,...