Catherine’s Documentary Reveals Election Results In Veep’s Best Episode Yet

On Monday night, UK audiences finally got to see the documentary that the, for the time being at least, First Daughter Catherine Meyer has been shooting over the course of the fifth season.

But while this shift in perspective could easily have disrupted the show’s steady rhythm, which is easily done with a show of such a large ensemble, it instead flourished, producing a plethora sight gags, outrageous lines, and genuine character-driven moments of hilarity that resulted in Kissing Your Sister, which is also the name of Catherine’s outrageously atrocious piece, being one of ‘Veep’s’ greatest episodes ever.

Where to begin? The utter ignorance of Mike McLintock, who seems oblivious to the fact that he is about to be fired, while at the same showing off the expansion of his home to Catherine’s camera, was both heart-breaking but still appropriately hilarious. As was Jonah Ryan’s car crash, then subsequent failure to arrive on time to the house-vote that will decide Selina Meyer’s presidential fate.

As usual, Jonah was responsible for some of the episode’s heartiest laughs. His inability to chop a piece of wood in half as part of his campaign video, his increased violence at being unable to, and then the ease with which Richard did so, as well as the delightful edit to show how the shot was created, was a succinct and energetic sequence that repeatedly topped each previous gag.

But Jonah’s highlight of the episode was his foul-mouthed rant while inside an Elementary school, as he remarked, “How am I doing? Eating so much p**** I’m s******* c****.” I’m not even sure if that’s decipherable at this point, but just reading it makes me chuckle, and it’s already right up there with Jonah’s most vile but memorably amusing utterances.

Kissing Your Sister allowed ‘Veep’ to not just create jokes and produce laughs in a different format – the talking heads were particularly revelatory as each character strived to portray themselves in a casual, flattering light – but also cut to previous moments from the season, seeing them from a new angle, with Charlie Baird walking naked into shot a particularly brilliant touch.

At the same time though the documentary also gave us genuine moments of humanity with the characters, that even bordered on being touching.

Marjorie and Catherine’s first romantic encounter, the reveal of Ben’s wife, and how they met, Kent with a motorcycle gang, and Selina’s quote from her father, who told her, “A lot of people don’t like Nixon, but by God, they respect him. And that’s you, Peanut,” all added a layer of depth and resonance to the characters that it’s sometimes easy to overlook.

The biggest revelation of the episode though almost went unnoticed. With the Senate vote a tie, it now looks as though Selina Meyer will finally lose the White House. In fact we’re actually looking at a Tom James presidency. ‘Veep’ has expertly pulled the rug from beneath our feet before, though, and going into next week’s final episode it’s likely to do the same again. But as long as its as hilarious as this entire season has been, then they can get away with anything.