(2021-2022)
Created and written by Valerie Armstrong
Starring Annie Murphy, Mary Hollis Inboden, Eric Peterson, Alex Bonifer, Brian Howe, Raymond Lee.
IMDB Entry
Back in the 60s, the gimmick show was king with things like My Mother the Car, Bewitched, The Hathaways*, and others. The concept faded, as the gimmicks were more silly than actual humor. But any genre can be revived, if they know how to handle the genre, and Kevin Can F**k Himself** shows that you can create compelling TV with the right gimmick.
Allison McRoberts (Annie Murphy) is married to her boorish husband Kevin (Eric Peterson), who takes her completely for granted and is oblivious to her feelings. His father Peter (Brian Howe) and her brother Neil (Alex Bonifer) make her the butt of their unfunny and broad jokes. The setup is much like the man-child husband and smart wife formula for shows like Kevin Can Wait, Everyone Loves Raymond, According to Jim, and that ilk. Allison is stuck in a very bad sitcom.
But once she gets away from Kevin and his friends, it’s a different story. The show turns into a semiserious drama about Allison being at the end of her rope. When a man dies in the town library of fentanyl overdose, she realizes that a way to commit the perfect crime and free herself. With the help of her best friend Patty (Mary Hollis Inboden), she begins to plot the murder. In the meantime,her old high school sweetheart, Sam Park (Raymond Lee) has returned to town to run a diner – and the flame is rekindled despite the fact he’s married.
The gimmick is how the two parts of her life are shot. When she’s with Kevin, it’s a standard three-camera sitcom – limited sets, and a set up like a filmed play. But when Allison is on her own, it’s a one-camera show, set up like a movie. The switch is a clever idea to show the sitcom world vs. the real one.
Eric Peterson’s Kevin is also a tightrope act. He is a lout, but manages to play it so that he doesn’t turn you off completely and, to his credit, tries to do better for himself (though never recognizing how badly he treats Allison). Mary Hollis Imboden is wonderful as the wisecracking best friend who has problems of her own.
After a cliffhanger, the show was renewed for a second season, which will be a final one. I think it’s a great idea not to continue further; the situation just isn’t sustainable over a long run. But what’s there is fascinating to watch.
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*About a family with three chimpanzees.
**Probably the only TV show whose title was never actually displayed -- there was always something blocking two of the letters.
***None of the characters are.
1 comment:
You left off the whole reason for the title was a take in Kevin James short lived sitcom kevin can wait, after he dropped the wife in yr 2 to try to save the show and did the weird revamp with the detective agency.
It's an amazing sitcom, in cbs waa sold a average 3 cam show gave Kevin James 2 years 48 episodes to make it a hit, and he keeps changing it trying to make it work, the only similar sitcom bomb was til death, fox kept renewing it cause Sony had international deals, so the production got mad and kept making it weirder
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