The Gist:
Having escaped a bunker in rural Indiana after 15 years of imprisonment, Kimmy, soon to be 30, wants to start over in New York.
Equipped only with a pair of glow-in-the-dark Sketchers and a dose of optimism, Kimmy has a lot of lost time to make-up for, and quickly finds a place to live with drug lord slash home owner Lillian (Carol Kane) and unsuccessful actor Titus (Tituss Burgess) and begins to work for JacquelineVorhees (Jane Krakowski), the wife of a millionaire.
The Review:
Comedian Tina Fey is one of many to have recently taken to Netflix with her new show, as the streaming service removes the limitations of slots traditional channels depend on for the best viewership ratings.
While her new series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was allegedly finished and approved by NBC, the network Fey’s last show 30 Rock aired on, before changing to Netflix, you can’t help but wonder if Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt simply doesn’t have enough mass appeal for a big channel.
After all, Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper) is not like the others, she never was.
A lone woman starting out her new life in New York City, or should one rather say, a lone female protagonist within the male-dominated world of prime time television?
Kimmy, how meta of you.
Having thus checked all the requisite New York clichés within the first episode (Titus being not only an actor, but also black and gay), the show then work on acquainting us with its quirky and lovable protagonist while simultaneously dishing out against American society.
In each episode Kimmy or one of her friends basically goes through a lesson in self-confidence and love, simply by facing new situations in life, and the show makes no secret out of these lessons and its creators’ desire to help especially young women and minorities adapt to the modern world.
Poking fun at society is an important tool in this mission, seeing as it shows us that often it isn’t only our point of view that needs adjusting, but also the world around us.
Violent children, teachers with no desire to teach anyone, incompetent police and questionable methods at court – Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has an extreme of each and everyone of those.
Every episode is titled after a new situation Kimmy encounters, such as “Kimmy Goes To The Doctor!” or “Kimmy Kisses A Boy!”
Kimmy might be a woman in her twenties and the doctor a plastic surgeon but hey, it’s never too late for firsts.
To see Fey and most of her 30 Rock team branch out from the world of television in their previous show to something more universally relatable is a nice change, and gives us the ability to laugh at something we as viewers usually spend a lot of time complaining about.
It is highly funny to see Kimmy meet every problem head on like a real-life cartoon character, but the over-the-top approach can be slightly tiring, too, which is mainly because sometimes there is a semblance of an overall plot while at other times there is not.
This might be due to the show’s fixed two-season order that made it clear from the beginning there would be more to come – the second season is due to air in spring 2016.
The Verdict:
It’s modern pop culture at its best, loud and fast, and might simply be too much for some, as nothing about the highly-energetic Kimmy Schmidt is, strictly speaking, normal.
After all, what is normal, and why would I want it on my TV?
The success of the nerds of Big Bang Theory or Orange Is The New Black, another Netflix-hit, proves we sometimes just want to reflect sitcoms to show us what life would be like if we lived a little more outrageously.
Episodes: 13 (approx 25 mins)
Starring: Ellie Kemper, Tituss Burgess, Jane Krakowski, Carol Kane
Channel: Netflix
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