Kimmy Schmidt Offers Great Acting and Slapstick Comedy, Gets Old Fast

Image source: Netflix.com

Image source: Netflix.com

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, starring Ellie Kemper as Schmidt and produced by Tina Fey, is interesting, at first.

The dark, somewhat ridiculous show starts out when Schmidt and three other women, nicknamed “bunker women”, were rescued from a bunker in some rural hole-in-the-ground town. They had spent 15 years together, completely sealed off from the outside world which they were led to believe was being consumed by an apocalypse.

Schmidt moves to New York City and is absolutely clueless about adult life. She was lured into the bunker when she was in seventh grade, and a particularly idiotic one at that. As an adult she still dresses in a loud and borderline atrocious manner, like a typical seventh grader.

Schmidt bumbles her way through adult life with her new and equally colorful friends Titus Andromedon (Titus Burgess) and Lillian Kaushtupper (Carol Kane). These characters can best be described as low-level criminals with low job prospects.

The new season, which was released on April 15th to Netflix, is largely the same as the last. While Schmidt is more acclimated to adult life in her cramped closet inside an old basement unit in an assumed rent-controlled district of New York, she has only moved onto an 8th grade mentality.

While the schtick gets old fast, the actors and actresses are superb. All of them are genuinely convincing, and the viewer could easily forget that this show is not a documentary if it weren’t for the obvious slapstick comedy.

Tina Fey is a comic genius. From her career on Saturday Night Live to 30 Rock and the countless other movies she’s written, produced and starred in, she’s always impressed.

However, she didn’t hit the nail on the head with this one.