Veep ‘Catherine’: Catch-44’s

It’s not often comedies can establish themselves by their third episode, but the two great episodes leading up to last night’s ‘Catherine’ set the tone of Veep very well, and in its third episode, every element came together for a truly hilarious half-hour of television. Needless to say, the sheer amount of hilarious dialogue is going to instantly create a whole new sub-genre of memes across the internet.

Best of all, ‘Catherine’ manages to integrate all of the major plot points we’ve seen introduced in the first season to this point, especially the clean jobs initiative, the season’s overarching story. When Selina and co. are preparing to announce the addition of the ex-oil executive to their clean jobs task force, Amy makes the wrong decision to begin leaking it to various political entities during a remembrance for the recently-deceased Senator ‘Rapey’ Reeves. The ensuing shitstorm runs over into the VP’s 20th anniversary of being a politician (something to celebrate in Washington, I suppose) where some daring moves actually appears to work out a bit in Selina’s favor, for once.

All that policy and handshaking and strategizing is surrounded by the best dialogue we’ve seen on the show yet. Whether it’s Mike and his lazy analogies (The Human Centipede and Rubik’s Cube being at the top of the list), Gary doing ‘Garyoake’, or the running gag in the background about Selina’s “feud” with the First Lady, which involves a stylist and some seriously bad blood. Veep is doing a bang-up job of integrating running gags into its story lines, like Jonah’s creepiness (“This police sketch face can get 8’s… consensually”) or Mike’s fake dog alluded to in the previous two episodes.

But outside of all the funny scenes involving her impending policies, ‘Catherine’ does a sneaky job of expanding Selina’s back story, giving us a little more insight into who she was before we’re introduced to her and her team. They do this through the introduction of Catherine, Selina’s college-age daughter, who’s clearly spent a lot of her life being crushed under the political machine (being in college,  her age is in very close vicinity to Selina’s other child, her career), and can’t seem to find the mother underneath all the paint and bullshit of a politician. We learn that Selina’s divorced, real shitty about being a mother, and thanks to Senator Doyle, that Selina was much less of a negotiator and walk-on then she is now.

Perhaps the funniest part of ‘Catherine’ – and most of the show’s situations to this point – is that a mere rumor can turn everything into complete chaos, and entire policies can hinge on one tiny comment or commitment, whether formal or informal. And the only way a politician knows how to handle the constant barrage of influential decisions and changing loyalties, is to turn every single move you make into a calculated political maneuver. Much of the show’s comedy stems from this cynical point of view, one I find a perfect balance between reality and comedic exaggeration.

Overall, a fantastic half hour of the show, that drives its narrative in both directions successfully. While we’re invested in what is going to happen with Selina in the future, it’s important that her personality and political situation (which currently, seems to revolve around the illusion of having influence) are being fleshed out a little with the presence of Catherine and little bits of dialogue from Senator Doyle in this episode. Veep is quickly becoming appointment television, marking a triumphant return for HBO into comedy.

Grade: A

Other thoughts/observations:

– too many funny lines to choose from in this episode. I might have to go with Selina’s “dick and balls” comment, with the ‘bullshitzu’ coming in at a close second.

– Amy’s well-defined strategic mind of the last two episodes felt a bit dissonant with her ill-advised decisions to leak the Fernham appointment early. Is this the first step in Dan replacing her, or merely just a human moment of error for her character? Something to watch moving forward.

– Jonah is rapidly climbing the ‘Best Supporting Characters’ on television. His pathetic behavior is one of the show’s early highlights. “Got an opening I could slide into?”

– there are times where Veep gets a little too obvious in its metaphors: Selina denying her narcissim in a room filled with images of her face felt a little lazy.

What did you think of ‘Catherine’? Excited about the news of Veep‘s second season renewal? Leave your thoughts/comments below!