Veep Season 5 Episode Guide
5.01 "The Morning After" - Review!
5.02 "Nev-AD-a" - Review!
5.03 "The Eagle" - Review!
5.04 "Mother" - Review!
5.05 "Thanksgiving" - Review!
5.06. "C**tgate" - Review!
5.07. "Congressional Ball" - Review!
5.08. "Camp David" - Review!
5.09. "Kissing Your Sister" - Review!
5.10. "Inauguration" - Airs June 26 2016
Veep 5.09 "Kissing Your Sister" - Review:
Directed by David Mandel & Written by Erik Kenward
Over the course of the fifth season so far, one of the best running jokes about this show was Catherine filming life within the White House for a project, and now we got to see it in all its glory in the penultimate episode of (probably) the strongest season that the show has had to date. Catherine has really been a breakout success this season in terms of characters, with a fantastic story that really payed off in this episode. We watched the race to become the President not unfold through normal drama but instead, this different approach felt fresh and interesting. I'm not normally a fan of found footage/documentary style movies so I was hesitant as to whether I was going to like this one or not but I should have known that of course there was no way Veep was not going to let me down.
This season has been all about fleshing out characters that we haven't really gotten a chance to see before. As well as Catherine this episode also gave us an opportunity to explore characters' personal lives, including learning that Amy was someone who pretty much just works and has no life outside the job. We also get to see Mike's job-hunting attempts and just how private Sue is, not willing to give any information to Catherine at all. There was a brilliant cutaway here at the beginning about Catherine who says she will always be remembered as the girl who fell off the stage twice in one evening which allowed for a brilliant opening to the episode. It's pretty clear by now that Game of Thrones is not the only show on HBO that ups its game for the ninth episode of a season.
We also learnt a bit more about Selina this week and how she wanted to get into politics, and we learn that it's actually Nixon's inaugural ball in 1973 where she went with her father. And in Jonah's storyline we also learn that he might be in trouble, as he's slept with someone who turned out to be a Georgetown Day School senior rather than a Georgetown University senior. This could potentially screw up Jonah's chance to vote for Selina, who tells him that he's already dead, and tells him to vote for Selina for his family. The writers also found a clever way of getting this arc into the documentary by having Catherine ask Richard, who was picking Jonah up, to shoot footage in exchange for teaching him how to work a camera. Jonah's separation from the rest of the group so far this season could have led to more cluttered pacing but the writers have handled it expertly, giving the character plenty of room to breath but not taking away any impact from the main events.
However it's bad news for Selina who learns that she may not be able to win, and immediately decides to come up with a Plan B. This Plan B involves getting Amy to get Jonah to vote for O'Brien instead of her, meaning that she'll have to wait four years rather than the eight that would have happened if Tom won. But it turns out that nobody got the 26 votes that they needed and in the end this means that it goes down to the Senate much to Selina's disappointment, and as she decides to go to be alone in the Red Room, she acccidentally runs into a White House Tour group. Among the group includes someone from Kansas who has voted for her twice, reminding Selina that there are some people who still support her out there.
What did you think of Kissing Your Sister? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to check out the next episode of Veep on Sunday at 9:30pm following Silicon Valley.
Overall Episode Verdict: A+
Positives:
+Documentary-style footage.
+Julia Louis-Dreyfus's acting, as usual
+The joke about Catherine falling off the stage twice.
