Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015)

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It's quite clear that Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a Tina Fey production - it's pretty much the same kind of comedy as 30 Rock. In other words, no real straight man, everyone's a sketch comedy character allowed to live and evolve (but also forced to react to their own stupid lines); a fondness for silly wordplay; and a follow-through on absurd elements that make its reality diverge from our own (like the stuff with the robots). And quite a few 30 Rock alumni, with Jane Krakowski as part of the cast, playing to type sending up the privileged and disconnected (it isn't Jenna Maloney, but I was still shocked when she said "camera" correctly). Kimmy is Ellie Kemper trading on her guileless Office persona, a girl who was kidnapped by a cult leader and lived in a bunker for 15 years, but somehow never lost her positive spark. Kimmy actually outperforms 30 Rock by having some strong thematic underpinnings. All the characters are in fact having to escape their own "bunker", usually self-made prisons that make them stuck in time or in a certain reality. Kimmy, living for others more than herself, is a catalyst for change in all their lives and no matter how silly it gets (and it gets real silly), there's a lesson there about what you're sending out into the world. 2 years 2 months ago