Back when Donald Trump first announced that he was going to run for President, it looked like the start of a terrific joke. He would say a bunch of terrible things, get humiliated in the Republican primaries, and we would all have a good laugh. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened, and every day that Trump has persisted has been increasingly nightmarish to the point where the only refuge is in knowing that, God willing, after today it will all be over. This awful, unrelenting election season will be done, and will either have the start of a Clinton presidency that will be stymied by Republican opposition or a Trump presidency where we all die in a nuclear holocaust.

But until that new depression comes, take a brief breather with one of the sharpest political comedies ever created, HBO’s Veep. The real-world absurdity of this election becomes a bit more palatable when shown against the delightful incompetence of Selina Meyer and her awful staff. Veep gets better with every season, and it was difficult to narrow down the best, but since we know that you’ll be spending tonight watching the election results roll in, here are five episodes you can squeeze in before the networks start calling the results.

“Helsinki” (Season 2, Episode 5)

If you’ve never seen Veep before and don’t want to get into the later seasons, which are heavy on season-long arcs, “Helsinki” is a good place to start. Selina and her staff travel to Helsinki to finalize a trade agreement, but she has an awkward encounter with the Finnish Prime Minister and her sleazy husband. While it has Mike and Jonah bumbling around the White House, Selina and the rest of her staff have an odd moment of bonding as they react in shared hatred of the Finnish Prime Minister’s husband, and it’s a rare moment of solidarity among characters who are usually at each other’s throats. It’s still venomous as hell, but it’s nice to see the venom directed at someone outside the group.

“Mother” (Season 5, Episode 4)

This is why Julia Louis-Dreyfus has all the Emmys. Season 5 doesn’t hold back on what a ridiculously terrible person Selina is, and while she was always on the repulsive side, in Season 5 they show her to be a straight-up sociopath, which in the hands of Louis-Dreyfus is terrifying and hilarious all at once. In the episode, Selina is supposed to be grieving for her recently deceased mother, but instead all she can do is grieve for her ailing Presidential campaign. It’s Selina at her most disturbingly selfish, and yet her weeping eulogy is a masterstroke of dark comedy.

“Congressional Ball” (Season 5, Episode 7)

If “Mother” is an example of Selina’s infinite capacity for self-pity, “Congressional Ball” demonstrates her unrelenting viciousness. If Selina were actually competent, she could be a decent politician because as we see in this episode, she is straight up terrifying when trying to bend congressmen and women to her will. The threat she delivers to one congresswoman is so foul-mouthed and disturbing that it wouldn’t be out of place coming from a serial killer. We never really “root” for Selina, but it’s so much fun to watch her go on the attack.

“Testimony” (Season 4, Episode 9)

In the past two seasons, Veep has found new and interesting ways to tell its stories. Season 5 has a documentary-style episode, “Kissing Your Sister”, but the series first took a chance on non-conventional storytelling with “Testimony”. The entire episode is presented as congressional testimony where all of the characters are testifying on database breaches and lobbying against the Families First Bill that is a callback to earlier plot threads. It’s a rare moment of accountability, or near-accountability, as well as a neat way to tell a story. Plus, it still remains hilarious, especially in how Jonah gets thrown under the bus and yet celebrated at the same time.

“East Wing” (Season 4, Episode 2)

Veep is filled with fun character dynamics, but its signature one is between Selina and her personal aide, Gary. Gary worships/loves Selina, and yet in this episode, there’s a moment of raw, angry honesty between the two characters, and it’s played completely straight. It doesn’t go for laughs or try to undercut the moment. It’s a really brave scene that invests in the relationship between the two characters. When you have something like this interaction in “East Wing”, you know that you have a show that trusts not only its actors and their characters, but also trusts the audience.