Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Had a day off on Friday, and along with the weekend, I consumed season 2 over the course of 3 days. Enjoyed it as much as the first one and appreciated that the non-Kimmy characters got more time to shine. I don’t remember if Mimi (Jacquelin’s high-society ‘friend’) was in the first season, but she was hysterical.

I guess episode 7 was my favourite for the brief scene in which Titus had to avoid appearing gay and Deidra coming undone.

I also enjoyed season one. But I watched the first episode of season two last night and felt like I was watching something written by Friedberg and Selttzer…which is probably the worst insult I can come up with. What the heck happened? Did they hire new writers? Or am I just remembering Jon Hamm’s scenes from season one and overlooking the overly broad shticks that seemed to make up the entirety of season two’s opener?

So, yeah. Episode 4 of season 2 really picked up for me. I have only seen the first 4 episodes.

Here is the deal. Same staff, directors, actors, writers, but…

30 minutes an episode, which is a massive 8 minutes an episode longer than the standard TV 22.

They didn’t trim the fat this season. Episode 3 was the worst one so far., slow and bad pacing with jokes, 3 seperate plots that all felt too drawn out.

What I loved about Season 1 was how snappy the show was. It had the 30 Rock patented 4 gags/minute pace, that was hilarious. Lots of flashbacks, quick cuts, etc.

But season 2 feels really drawn out. Again though, the high points are still high. Season 2, Episode 4 was a major high point… probably because Tituss Burgess did the heavy lifting, with his story taking the “A” plot. And the “B” plot of Kimmy trying to save her former mole-sister from joining another cult was pretty funny too. “Wet T-shirt contest participant” shirt was a pretty good gag.

Looking forward to seeing more, but the reviews have definitely all pointed out how uneven the season has been. Definitely too much of a good thing.

Also, “Mimi” played by the hilarious Amy Sedaris was in last season for one episode (maybe two?).

I wonder if this is an overall issue with Netflix and other streaming-first TV shows. They have unlimited time, much less constraints in getting to air, and I think that definitely can harm the creativity. Carte Blanche for creativity has worked for the likes of Louie and Lena Dunham (Girls) but I think really has hampered a few Netflix TV shows. (Orange is the New Black, Arrested Development new season)

I had never heard of this show until this weekend when my daughters were doing some marathon watching of it.

I agree that the first couple eps were sub-par, but S2 really picked up for me right around ep4 as well. Ended up thoroughly enjoying it. Dierdre was awesome.

LOL at them being unable to find enough Asian actors to populate an Asian American activist group.

I mean, admittedly, Allegiance is running right now, but still, try a little harder guys.

They were all Asian. They just weren’t all Japanese. It’s a pretty big continent…

Binge watched the first 4 episodes last night, coincidentally. I thought it started strong and stayed strong. The jokes-per-minute are insanely high compared to today’s typical sit-com. Almost any time Kimmy is talking, she’s throwing out 4 - 5 funny lines at a time, to the point that I’m missing some of them because I’m laughing from the earlier ones.

Jon Bander - White Protestor

Did you actually watch the episode? The diversity of the protest group is directly addressed.

I did.

I don’t have a problem with it, in fact, I find Kimmy Schmidt’s portrayal of race vis a vis comedy to be very well handled, and far from being simply drive by pissing matches, it seems to me that the writers have thought a lot about the issues of race and racial identity.

I also think they directly tweaked the noses of people who complained about Native American representation last season, and think it was quite funny at that.

I also know that Aziz Ansari said that it was very difficult to find somebody to play his Chinese buddy in Master Of None (whose name I forget at the moment).

I also say this as part of the problem: being a Chinese American who acted and studied drama through high school and went to the artsy fartsiest liberal arts college imaginable but ended up studying physics and Computer Science when it came time to choose a major.

So, given all that: yes, LOL at only finding 2 Asian actors to give speaking lines to (and a couple elderly extras).

I never really thought about it, but yeah, the number of Asian actors I can think of is pretty dang low. I wonder if that’s another symptom of the white-washing in Hollywood, or a cultural thing where it’s a less pursued path for someone of Asian descent.

From what I understand, some of both.

There’s an old problem that Hollywood considers Asian actors as basically good for Kung Fu, or occasional comic relief (for men) or erotic objectification (for women).

Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong all have their own movie industries that cater to their own markets. This means that there isn’t a huge draw for talented actors who speak other languages to try to break into the industry in the US.

Meanwhile, American born East Asians are largely culturally discouraged from pursuing it as a career.

I suspect that there’s an additional problem for comedic actors in that comedy is perceived as being even less desirable than dramatic acting.

This makes Kimmy Schmidt, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, and the recent Selfie interesting as they try to get behind Asian male leads in a relatively unassuming way. (As compared to, say, Fresh Off The Boat, which makes a point of it, and which I personally find less interesting as a result.)

Started watching this 2 weeks ago, based purely on the fact that it was advertised at me a lot, abd finished watching the last of season 3 yesterday. What a greatly entertaining show!

When googling for season 4 I find out that

  1. S4 starts 30th May
  2. It’s split in half, with the second set of six coming later in the year.
  3. It’s probably going to be the last season, with possibly a movie to follow??

Season 4 is now up. Only six episodes as per Pod. The show still has it, with the minor caveats that the first episode is the weakest and, like last season, there’s a bit too much of the supporting cast and not enough Kimmy.

I completely forgot about this fact and slammed hard into the missing seventh episode during a binge! :'(

Yeah, this season was pretty great. The stuff with John Hamm was spectacular.

I’m working my way through season 3, and will shortly be on the home stretch with season 4. Best half-hour comedy out there IMHO, largely because I just love Ellie Kemper. I envy anyone who hasn’t watched it because you have a good long 4-season binge ahead of you.

Titus Andromedon is where it’s at. But yeah, Kimmie is a really fun character too.

I only watched season 1 and ended up really enjoying it even with the rough start, I have to find time for the rest now!

Anyone who loves Titus should absolutely listen to this interview of Tituss by Sam Sanders on NPR’s It’s Been A Minute podcast.