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Kimmy Schmidt, Still Unbreakable
One of the great things about the overlap between the Golden Era of Television and the Streaming Era is that when a new season of something gets released by a streaming service, you can watch an entire season in one sitting. (Except Hulu, who continues to inexplicably release things week-to-week.) The bad thing is that you have to wait a whole year to get new episodes. (Or in this case, 13 agonizing months.)
On Friday, Netflix released Season 3 of their hit sitcom “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” If you don’t follow these things, “Kimmy Schmidt” is Tina Fey’s follow up to her masterpiece “30 Rock.” Fans of the latter will notice an overlap of themes, jokes, and actors (including one main cast member) between the two series.
The series tells the story of Kimmy Schmidt, who was kidnapped as a teenager in the 1990s and held captive for 15 years in an underground bunker by an insane reverend. (And lest you think this is some leftist screed against religion, it’s not. Nothing the Reverend ever says could be confused for Christianity. There’s mention of the time Jesus’s step brother Terry borrowing his moped.)
But fans of the show knows this already. They also know that Seasons 1 and 2 were home runs. So what happens now? Did the show jump the shark? Did it lose its magic? Did Season 3 ruin the series? Will you be sorry you watched it?
No. You can relax. This new season is great. I’ve only watched it once, but I can say that it’s even superior to Season 2. (I will warn you that the first episode is the weakest of the season. But it only gets better from there.)
It’s also very different. There are several arcs and characters from the second season that are put away. Mikey, Russ, Bobby Durst, and Mimi Kanasis are all put on ice pretty early in the season. Dong, Randy, and Kimmy’s mom go unmentioned, even is passing. Also, some of the runners from the first two seasons are gone. Kimmy’s confusion about the present day has lessened by about 80 percent, as have the ‘90s references. The Columbia tapes only get passing mentions. Kimmy and Titus’s crushing poverty seems to be less of a problem, in fact, other than an episode where Kimmy and Titus are on TaskRabbit, the economic factors that dominate the first two seasons are barely touched on this time around. (And the class warfare overtones have all-but vanished.)
This frees them up to explore new things. Titus sings, like, a lot. (A familiarity with Lemonade will help with the season’s second episode.) Those concerned (despite the above parenthetical) with the show’s take on religion get an episode where Kimmy discovers a real church.
Unchained from all the prior restrictions, the show is free to just … be. Overall, the weight of last season seems to be lifted. It’s as if everyone, characters and audience, has come to grips with the disturbing darkness of the premise and is ready to move on and just have a lot of fun.
And it does humorously, more importantly, joyously. Fans of the show, you should devour this quickly, so you can watch it again and again. And if you’ve never seen it, you’re in for a treat. (But please, start at the beginning of the series.)
Addendum:
There are three Lemonade parodies. Of the three, the first one listed below is most worth watching. Here are the originals paired with the parody:
Published in General
The second season lost me. The eponymous Kimmy seemed to be pushed aside while it become the Titus show for a while. I find him insufferable though sometimes funny. Also Tina Fey’s character was annoying and not funny. The character of Kimmy was delightful and endearing. I hated that she didn’t seem to matter so much in the second season. Maybe she comes back into it as the season wore on but I didn’t stick around.
Titus is less whiny in Season 3. He also realizes what a terrible human he is.
Niiiiice. I was going to mention this. I liked Season 1 quite a bit more than Season 2.
Would you say that Season 3 is closer to one season than the other, or completely in a different direction?
I don’t know how to answer that one. Best you should watch it and post your own answer.
I actually found Andrea, her Season 2 character, very enjoyable. (Much better than Marcia Clark from Season 1.) So much so that when I’m skipping around, I’ll seek out those episodes.
However, if you disliked Andrea, she is only in one scene and one episode in Season 3.
3 episodes in, and I looked at my wife and said “This isn’t as good as the first two seasons.” She said “No, it isn’t.” I mean, I think we have a Shrek 2 phenomenon going here. What I mean is, Shrek was incredible because it was new. Shrek 2 was also great, but it wasn’t new, so everyone said it wasn’t any good. I thought it was still good, but I understand why folks didn’t like it as well as the Shrek. So, too, with season 3 of Kimmy. The jokes are all the same, and it just isn’t as funny. So far.
Andrea is my favorite character in the show, she’s great. I love Tina Fey. I keep waiting for her to show up in Season 3. Now I’m sad…
I had no idea what the Lemonade episode was about because I just don’t follow that aspect of pop-culture. But I still laughed because the idea behind it was hilarious. Also the song at the end of episode 4 (I think it was episode 4) had my wife and I laughing all the way to bed.
Creeped me right out….
Okay, so the Lemonade thing was in the trailer for the season, so people, my wife included were primed for it.
I knew about it, but had never watched any of it. But there had to be something there, because of how hard my wife laughed during it.
Well, there’s the weird subplot of the council race between Lillian and Jacqueline, where of course the yahoos are against clean water and begin chanting “lock her up!” at Jacqueline at the incitement of Lillian. This is odd since Lillian seems to be a pretty hard leftist (though also crazy), given her comments and actions from the previous two seasons. They also have her referring to herself and her community as deplorables. I can’t tell whether Fey is making a jab at her own side, or just piling on to a stock trope about flyover country (but ironically set in NYC.)
Also, I hate, hate, hate the Snyder-Redskins subplot. The Snyders are supposed to be a proxy for everything bad about America, and she’s as subtle as a road accident in grinding her ax. It’s boring. Worse still is wasting David Cross’ talents as a not particularly interesting character.
I’ve watched the first couple, and read the episode descriptions for the remaining episodes. It seems like they’re just copping out on further addressing Kimmy’s PTSD and brutalization in the bunker, I suspect because Fey didn’t think the premise through when it got green-lit, and that stuff is dark and unfunny. (Or at least it will be very, very difficult to make it otherwise.) It could be that she is ignoring it intentionally, showing instead that not all trauma has to be dwelt upon in order to go on with life, but I doubt it.
I’m glad the second episode was stronger than the first, but the first was pretty bad. But I have a lot of goodwill toward the show, even though season two was a lot weaker than the first, so I’ll watch more episodes and try to reserve judgment.
Between “30 Rock” and “Kimmy Schmidt,” other than being vaguely progressive, I can’t tell what Fey’s politics are. On “30 Rock” is was a case of “Everybody gets it.” There was a balance of shots at left and right. I dare say that Fey’s business is comedy, not political commentary.
And you can’t even peg Lillian. She’s vaguely populist, but also reactionary, but her leftism is lampooned. She’s vaguely progressive in the political sense, but anti-progressive in the actual sense. She wants to preserve her neighborhood … by keeping out clean water. In other words, you can’t peg her.
I think the whole show is about making fun of stereotypes. Which I guess is what a lot of comedy is about. They go after the nonsense on college campuses as well. Lillian is portrayed as the nutjob progressive we think they all are.
Also, Fred, I can’t believe you didn’t get my Flouncy Magoo reference.
About half way through season 3 and am a bit perplexed by how they seem to be sticking all kinds of Trumpian phrases in Lillian’s mouth, while her chief value (anti-gentrification) is so anti-Trumpian.