Since finishing up 30 Rock in 2013, Tina Fey’s next TV success has been the unexpected and radical Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Played by Ellie Kemper, who we all know and love as Erin from The Office, Kimmy Schmidt was kidnapped at a young age and held captive in a bunker underground for years. She and her fellow “mole-women” are finally found and freed. From there Kimmy, a ridiculously optimistic and kind character, has to figure out how to navigate the world she missed out on learning so much about. She moves to New York, gets a job as an assistant, and figures out how to live life as an adult. The show follows this journey as she tackles the complex problems of her future and her past. It’s a show that keeps you laughing, but also makes you think. Here’s 10 reasons to binge Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt:
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a totally feminist show doing awesome. I was originally uncomfortable with the fact that this show puts humor into the life of a woman who has undergone such trauma, but that’s kind of the point. The show wants to make you kind of uncomfortable, so you’ll think about what makes you feel that way and why. A woman shouldn’t have to be defined by her tragedy, as Kimmy proves again and again. She has a life to live beyond what happened to her in the past and she refuses to let that time define her. Kimmy tackles self and female empowerment from a ton of angles, going after whatever she wants, and still learning lessons herself along the way. There’s no such thing as a perfect feminist. All people can do is their best to raise up themselves and others, and Kimmy shows that.
Go ahead and @ me cause I don’t care what you say, Titus Andromedan is the funniest character currently on television. Kimmy meets him soon after moving to New York and the two become roommates, enabling us viewers to follow along with Titus’s plot lines as well. He’s a ridiculous, indulgent man full of talent and self-love, a star just waiting for people to recognize, who either helps Kimmy out or makes everything way more complicated and about him and his barbies’ hair. Start the show and you’ll live for his songs, fast-paced one-liners, and face journeys. He even Lemonades for an episode, y’all, meaning he remakes Beyonce’s music videos for his own. But nothing can beat Peeno Noir. For me, Titus is one of the ONLY reasons to binge Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt tackles a variety of social issues beyond the complex areas of feminism. Each character has something they’re going after that often ends up relating back to important problems in our society. Jacqueline, Kimmy’s boss and later friend, is a rich socialite who slowly begins to seek out her own empowerment beyond her wealthy and terrible husband. Secretly Native American, she then takes on trying to make her community care about social issues. Meanwhile, Kimmy’s landlord Lillian is a bad-ass who takes on gentrification within their neighborhood. The show’s plot is often driven by issues like these, but never without bringing in humor to help us laugh at ourselves or the painfully hilarious and ridiculous problems in our society.
While tackling big issues, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is still perfect for binging because the episodes are short and hilarious. At a fast-paced 32 minutes each, they pack a punch, but still fly by until you’re totally addicted and begging for the next season. Turn one on during any lunch or work break for a quick moment to yourself, or watch dozen in one night.
One of the reasons to binge Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is that this show is so fun because it’s constantly hiding references inside the episodes you have to watch a ton of times to notice. You get to enjoy some new joke or reference every time that you likely didn’t notice before. Anytime one of the characters holds up a piece of paper, there’s usually something funny on it, like when Kimmy reads a newspaper that says governor pledges to “ruin city,” or the fact that Respectful Asian Portrayals in Entertainment unfortunately spells out RAPE. And when Kimmy and her fellow mole-women go to trial against the reverend, their attorneys are modeled after the lawyers who handled the OJ case. The show is so packed with jokes you can never catch them all on the first go round.
Did you love 30 Rock? Mean Girls? Early 2000 episodes of SNL? Then you love Tina Fey’s writing and you’ll love Kimmy Schmidt. Her products are always quick and witty, featuring strong female characters. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt further shows how much work she puts into her writing and what a treasure she is to have still producing great work.
The show already has a great cast on it’s own, but it’s still constantly bringing in other stars to make you die laughing. Tina Fey plays multiple characters throughout the seasons. Fred Armisen pops in for awhile to do an incredible Robert Durst impression. Maya Rudolph plays famed singer Dionne Warwick who Titus may or may not have eaten, and the list just continues: Greg Kinnear, Daveed Diggs from Hamilton, Jon Hamm, Lisa Kudrow. Each celebrity appearance only adds to the fun, giving you a whole list of stars worth of reasons to binge Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Kimmy is a woman who has undergone great trauma, but she gets to decide how much that trauma affects her day to day life, just as the other women do. They all choose different ways that are justified in their own righ. It puts a sharp eye to how we in society disempower women by labeling them as victim and putting them in that box. And through dark humor it shows us that Kimmy is still just a person who because of her earlier life just lives kind of differently, a lot of times even better, laughing at the things that scare normal people who didn’t live for 15 years in a bunker. Of course, the show isn’t perfect. Nothing is. But it’s still doing great work and asking the right questions.
Only a week or so ago we were #blessed with the fourth season, so now really is the perfect time. Do you need any more reasons to binge Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt than that? That’s a reasonable amount to be caught up within a week or so if you’re really trucking and then you’ll be stuck waiting in anticipation for the next season with the rest of us. Plus, like I said you really can go through it again almost immediately to catch a ton of under the radar jokes you missed the first time, making the whole experience even better as you continue to watch and rewatch.
Really though, he’s just the best.
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