Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

[chonies]

Mar 15, 2015 20:55:15 GMT -4 kostgard said:

I see the viral video opening as a commentary on how this stuff shakes out as well as how we can't help but dig them because they are so catchy (they got the same people to do the theme as the Dodson song for a reason). And they didn't completely shy away from the negative side of being a viral video star (though in a funny way). Walter Bankston kept trying to warn Titus that the wave of fame won't be fun and awesome forever and the other shoe will drop.

Tina Fey has always walked right up to the line on this stuff. That's what a lot of comedy does - it's a high wire act to shine a light on this stuff and to make us laugh at the darkest, ugliest parts of ourselves and society, and it's hard to not fall over onto the wrong side. Fey avoids that by keeping things absurd.

I'm only a few episodes in. Where does Walter talk to Titus?

My thing with Tina Fey took me a bit to piece together because it's always in little asides that added up to a strange impression. The comments that ruffled my feathers follow this sort of template: she said that when she moved to New York City, everyone was a 7' tall Vietnamese woman. There were some other jokes in Baby Mama along those lines, the Vietnamese mean girls in Mean Girls, and more like that. I get that there's supposed to be a sense of superiority or incongruity with her humor, but once I saw a pattern, it influenced how I saw her writing, and not always in a positive way.

[kostgard]

Walter and Titus don't meet until the last few episodes.

[Hamatron]

I hear you, chonies. Also, in Mean Girls, the parents were studying a tribe in Africa. Not Kenya, the Congo, or Mozambique. Just Africa. Oh, okay.

One thing that puts me on edge with the Native storyline is that Jane Krakowski is a white woman playing a Lakota woman who is trying to pass for white. That's a super-loaded topic right there, and casting a white person to play a non-white person is something that generally people avoid in this day and age.

ETA: My understanding is that the writing group for this show is diverse, and you can see that in some of the jokes calling out racism, and in the fleshing out of characters who might have been a simple punchline otherwise. Or not shown on TV at all. But still, that one example above doesn't really work for me. I brought it up because I was interested in how others were reading it, though.

[petitesuite]

I went back and watched the rest of the season after all the positive reviews here and overall I really liked it, so well done to the Greecie hive mind. But, I agree that Jacqueline's backstory is walking a very, very fine line and not always successfully. I guess I appreciate that in the flashback scenes Jacqueline is clearly the ridiculous one, but as much as I love Jane Krakowski here, I don't like the whitewashing. I also feel like the impact and meaning of a Lakota woman passing for white aren't really 'mainstream' enough for it to be a side joke, if that makes sense. Like, when I watch the "black person says something whacky, goes viral" parts I can think to myself that this is a thing that has been widely discussed, so I can assume that the writers know all sides of the issues and are making the joke with that in mind. Whereas I don't have that assumption with Jacqueline's backstory. But then typing that out has made me realize that that assumption isn't really much of an excuse either...anyway Titus is great.

[Mugsy]

I spent the weekend binge-watching this and quite enjoyed it.

Ellie Kemper is terrific! Her mannerisms were reminding so much of Reneé Zellweger in 'Nurse Betty'.

I kept thinking how much Ellie Kemper looked like Renee Zellweger and how they could play sisters (or mother and daughter? not sure about their ages). Especially when Ellie did the squinty-eyed, puffy cheeked, pursed rosebud lips expression.

Maybe Renee could actually play her mother; what has she been up to lately?

[Atreides]

Renee Zellweger no longer looks like Renee Zellwegger.

[Deleted]

Mar 15, 2015 19:23:40 GMT -4 prisma said:

Mar 15, 2015 14:55:33 GMT -4 chonies said:

I like the style of the theme song, but it also sort of made me uncomfy because of the "wacky black neighbor goes viral" joke. I suppose that could work as social commentary, too, but I didn't see that work out that way.

The Gregory Brothers put the opening together. They're the ones responsible for The Bedroom Intruder Song that went viral a little while back. The events in this song took place in my hometown and it caused all kinds of ruckus around here because some people thought it made our city look bad. Huntsville's a very military industrial complex kind of town--NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and Space Camp are here and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone who bills himself to be a rocket scientist. So lots of people freaked out that we were getting attention for an incident that took place in THE PROJECTS! So in that respect I got a little kick out of the original song because, well, there are indeed housing projects here and why should we pretend that there are not.

But, stepping back a bit, I do think the "wacky black neighbor goes viral" joke in the series opener is uncomfortable because Antoine Dodson (the guy in the original song) did get put on a roller coaster and I'm not sure he's the better off for it. Last I heard he had come back from California, gotten religious, renounced his homosexuality, gotten married, and was expecting a kid. There's something unfunny about recreating a fictionalized version when I think about it hard. When I'm not thinking about it hard though, the song is insanely infectious.

Well, we supposedly do have the highest concentration of rocket scientists in the world.

That is interesting about Antoine Dodson. I never heard a follow up on his story.

[MrsOldManBalls]

I would very much like to have dinner at the scary restaurant Titus works at.

[Martini Girl]

I freaking love this show. I binged all of it in a day. I agree that Tim Blake Nelson brought down his scenes, but was happy to see some Mad Men alum arrive, and Titus was amazing.

[Mugsy]

I can't get the theme song out of my head! "Feeeemales are strong as hell! Unbreakable!"

Thinking about it more, I didn't care for the whole courtroom stuff. I liked Jon Hamm as the creepy kidnapper/cult leader because I think he has the looks that would actually work in a situation like that.

But I found Tina Fey too recognizable in that all I was thinking during her scenes was, "Tina Fey has awful hair in this role."

And the whole thing was just too campy, too over the top. The jury and onlookers being that stupid and gullible was just too much.

And I am so over the tired O.J. references. If I have to see one more glove "if it doesn't fit, you must acquit" joke, I'll throw things. It's over, move on.