If you love 30 Rock, you’ll love “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt,” If you hated 30 Rock (you’re wrong), you’ll still love “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” It’s just hard not to adore this delightful little series, like the titular character herself, its warm, funny and just pleasant to be around. Throw in a theme song that will make you feel like you can both fly to the moon and graduate from law school, and you have one hell of a sitcom.
It’s a hilarious show with a plot that when described sounds more like an episode of 60 Minutes, then Netflix’s first ever original sitcom. Kimmy (Ellie Kemper), has been trapped in a bunker since the age of 14, by Reverend Richard Wayne and Gary Wayne (Jon Hamm).
The Dj/Reverend/senior prophet and CFO of Savior Rick’s Spooky Church of the Scary-Pocalypse, had Kimmy and three other women convinced for fifteen years, that the rupture had occurred, and that earth was a barren wasteland. When Kimmy and the other “mole women” are finally found, they are interviewed on Good Morning America. Kimmy, who is basically a 14 year old in a 29 year olds body, decides to stay and make a life for herself in New York.
So, you have a very optimistic, emotionally stunted, ex-victim, trying to make it in what is distinctly Liz Lemon’s version of New York City. If you guessed that hilarity and wacky hijinks take place, you’d be right.
Episode 1 “Kimmy Goes Outside!”
Pilot’s episodes are tricky, because you have to introduce a lot of characters and backstories all the while not being boring or tedious about it. The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt pulls this off without a hitch.
We get Kimmy’s whole sorted backstory in a kind of montage, which bleeds into that catchy theme song that you will never be able to get out of your head, which was smart move. Then we get right to the action, Kimmy is introduced and man, is this girl lovable.
She’s a manic, pixie dream girl with an actual good reason to be acting like a child, even though she’s a grown woman. Take note young male filmmakers (Zach Braff), if you want your female lead to be a lady-child, give her a believable backstory and all is forgiven.
Kimmy is looking for a job and an apartment with the same wide-eyed wonderment as someone who was moving to Sesame Street, and Ellie Kemper manages to make it sweet, and not insulting to her entire gender. Along her way, Kimmy meets her new Lion King loving, kimono wearing roommate, Titus Andromedon (Tituss Burgess).
This hilarious piece of self-described “beef jerky in a ball gown,” is the perfect antithesis of Kimmy’s Polyanna personality. We also get briefly introduced to Lillian Kaushtupper (Carol Kane), Kimmy’s wacky landlord, and Jacqueline Voorhees (Jane Krakowski), her new employer.
We only see the tip of the iceberg with these two characters in episode 1, but great things are to come.
