Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

At a time when good comedy from the major networks in the States is sparse, any positive contribution from the streaming platforms is very welcome. In 2015, Netflix scored a huge success with Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which earned 20 Emmy nominations, amazingly taking home none, despite being a quality comedy that proved inventive and fast-paced throughout its four seasons.

^{This review by Brian Slade}

Ellie Kemper, who fans of The Office (An American Workplace) will recognise as kind but ditzy receptionist Erin, plays the title role of Kimmy Schmidt. Kimmy is one of four women who have been held in an underground shelter by Reverend Wayne (Jon Hamm – Mad Men) for fifteen years under the false pretence that a nuclear war has left the earth as a barren wasteland. Since Kimmy was only a high school teenager at the time of her entrapment, as she and her four fellow captives emerge, she is seeing the world as an adult for the first time.

Since the release of the women is an event that has garnered the attention of the country’s media, the four are invited to New York to appear on the Today programme to discuss their captivity and their new freedom. The question of ‘what will you do now?’ has Kimmy floored.

As they are squirreled away from the studios to return home to Indiana, Kimi leaps from the minivan, declaring herself unable to return to her old life and be seen as a victim of her imprisonment. Instead, she chooses to fend for herself in the toughest of places – Manhattan.

Running into the quirky Lillian (Carol Kane) on the streets of New York, Kimmy is given the option of a room as long as she can find a job. This she achieves by accident, having spotted a young child stealing from a candy store. The parent of said child, Jacqueline Voorhees (Jane Krakowski – Ally McBeal), is a wealthy and ridiculously superficial socialite who has no clue about parenting or emotional attachments, so employs Kimmy initially as a nanny to her brattish son Buckley.

With a job now secure, Kimmy gets her room. She shares a grubby apartment with Titus Andromedon (Titus Burgess – Central Park). Titus is a larger-than-life gay performer who he believes has enjoyed and endured a host of troubled past lives. He has ambition to be on Broadway but has so far failed in a relentless chain of auditions, primarily for the Lion King, and is reduced to working in a knock-off Iron Man costume in Times Square.

Kimmy herself has nothing in terms of possessions, beyond a rucksack of cash raised for the ‘mole fund’, for mole women is how the outside world now knows the victims. The $13,000 she has is soon lost in a nightclub when out celebrating her new job with Titus leaving her cashless. But what she does have is an unnerving amount of spirit and naïve self-belief, and she sets about getting her life back on track and dragging those around her with her.

Having never finished high-school, Kimmy begins studying for her high school diploma alongside a curious collection of fellow senior students under the tutorship of a disinterested teacher played by the always exceptional Richard Kind (Mad About You). He has no interest in teaching beyond showing videos of old movies, but Kimmy continues and enlists the help of a study buddy – Dong. Aside from being the source of a rich line of Dong jokes, Dong (Ki Hong Lee - Evergreen) provides Kimmy’s first real love interest. True love never runs smoothly though as Dong is a Vietnamese immigrant who has the authorities in pursuit to have him exported.

These then are the main players in Kimmy’s life as she attempts to rebuild after her experiences. Recurring guest stars are Sara Chase, Lauren Adams and Sol Miranda as the other three victims of the Reverend’s imprisonment. They occasionally reappear during the show but are mainly used in flashbacks of Kimmy’s time underground, where we learn that Kimmy was the key group member for protecting and nurturing her fellow captives. This reaches a climax in a court trial to potentially sentence the Reverend for his crimes.

The humour of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is fast-paced and hugely entertaining. There are times when Kimmy’s journey plays second fiddle to those of the people around her. Jacqueline gets her life turned upside down when her cheating husband divorces her, and her story develops as we discover that she is actually of native American descent, and she begins to look for something more fulfilling than her vacuous millionaire lifestyle.

Titus is as self-absorbed as he is outrageous, but he too begins to grow, developing relationships and showing a conscience that was previously lost through years of failed career moves and the corresponding low times.

For four series, Kimmy brings her spirit to everything she does, regardless of the knocks that she takes. Her opinion that you can tolerate everything if just in 10 second bursts lasts her well. It’s a delicate game writer Tina Fey plays, as Kimmy’s naivety from her years away from the outside world, combined with her ditzy nature but endlessly spirited attitude could have been too much. All credit to Fey and Kemper for keeping her a character we can get behind.

Titus Burgess is a blast as Titus Andromedon. His over the top performance is the right combination of ham and flamboyance, and while Titus has become hugely self-absorbed, his gentler side is brought out enough for us to buy into his wellbeing. Carol Kane meanwhile, Latka’s wife Simka in the glorious Taxi, is every bit as zany and eccentric as she ever was and is a real joy given the comparatively minimal screentime she gets.

There’s a lot to like about Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Its leading performers are all spot on and the humour is relentless. No characters stand still, which is in itself a huge risk. There are curious levels of surrealness at times that remind you of Scrubs and Moonlighting, but it rarely lets the surrealness dominate, preventing it from falling in standard.

That the show earned so many Emmy nominations shows how good it was across its four series and one interactive special. That it didn’t get a single win for the show, performers or writers is a great shame and somewhat odd given the lack of quality comedy around. Perhaps the fact that it was a Netflix show caused it to be overlooked, but there’s no doubting that through The Good Place and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, streaming platforms have arrived when looking for high quality original scripted comedy.