Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s01e06 – The Grand Victorian

What if “Kevin Can F**k Himself” doesn’t have a big twist? It certainly seems like it’s going to have a big twist, but it actually hadn’t occurred to me it might not have one until thinking about this post. I actually can’t guess, because it’s impossible to guess with “Kevin.” What is this show? Six episodes in—with two to go—and it’s still redefining its rules, realities, and potentials. The show’s sticking with the three plot lines—Eric Petersen living in a sitcom about an obnoxious dipshit, Annie Murphy as his suffering wife no longer experiences the sitcom reality (having realized she never did), and Mary Hollis Inboden as Petersen’s only non-bro pal, who’s stopped going to the sitcom for her social life (she exists in reality otherwise) and becoming Murphy’s friend, confidant, and criminal conspirator.

But it takes this episode a while to get to Petersen and the sitcom, which is a delightfully asinine and a wonderful meta look at sitcom devices. It’s his birthday and he wants both Murphy and best friend Alex Bonifer to think he’s spending the night with them so he runs between restaurants. Even without the later plot antics and Murphy’s nightmare of an experience at the restaurant, it’s still hilarious for Petersen’s physical comedy. But in a kind of exasperating way. Because there’s very little uncomplicated emotion in “Kevin,” particularly this episode for Murphy. She has a lot of drama with boss, teen crush, and current affair-haver Raymond Lee and not just because Lee and his wife, Meghan Leathers, show up unexpectedly at the restaurant. Because this episode has Murphy experiencing her own sitcom plot (including the hitman she hires to off Petersen—the excellent Robin Lord Taylor working at the restaurant), only it’s a tragedy of errors.

It’s awesome.

And it leaves the show in an entirely new place once again. It leaves a lot unresolved, but starts making moves on specific subplots, and it’s kind of incredible there are only two left. In addition to splitting the sitcom and drama scenes, I’m also wondering what it’d be like to marathon it. Because the twists and turns aren’t events as often as they’re character reveals, which might hit differently. They’re very good. It’s very good.

Script credit goes to Sean Clements (who is a co-exec and plays Inboden’s boyfriend, but isn’t on this episode). Real good script. More great direction from Anna Dokoza; the way the show juxtaposes the single camera drama and multi-cam sitcom? Audio commentaries might be cool. I’d at least read an interview. Like, it’s extraordinarily well-done here.

Oh, and not to mention it’s a special guest star episode of Petersen’s sitcom life—hockey player Sean Avery plays himself and gets into a spat with Petersen over Boston sports. So much going on. Like Inboden’s “everyone but her knew it was a date” date with cop Candice Coke. It’s real good. Inboden’s performance is probably the episode best, in fact.

Two more to go. It’s been a while since I’ve had such high hopes for a show to end well. But “Kevin”’s going to be good (and successful) no matter what at this point. They can pratfall the finish and the acting, the episodes, the sitcom commentary will stand tall.

Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s01e05 – New Patty

About three-quarters of the way through this episode, I realized how much I hope “Kevin Can F**k Himself” is a single season series. If they’re going to try to maintain the darkness escalation in the series through a cliffhanger… I’m not sure I can handle it.

The episode opens with a resolve to the previous one’s cliffhanger, which had Annie Murphy letting new pal Mary Hollis Inboden in on a big secret. They work through that secret—and it stays with the episode, looming out of the background—and spend the episode adjusting to being friends. There’s unexpected, sitcom-esque fallout from last episode and Eric Petersen’s jackass sitcom star casts Inboden out, forcing her into real life. Except Inboden’s been operating in both realities the whole time it’s turned out. She’s now main supporting cast member. It’s Murphy, then her. Petersen’s sitcom half of the episode (I’m getting more and more curious how episodes’d play with the drama cut out and just the sitcoms—and vice versa) isn’t a character thing. There’s no character development for the sitcom boys, with the possible except of dad Brian Howe. Howe doesn’t like Inboden’s replacement, who has the same name (Paddy though, not Patty), played by Jon Glaser.

While Murphy’s mostly got self-destructive drama with her job and then high school crush grown over Raymond Lee—both kind of results of breaking free of Petersen’s sitcom reality—Inboden’s got cops (Candice Coke), drug dealers (an excellent Robin Lord Taylor), and puppy-dog boyfriends (Sean Clements). Clements and Inboden have a couple phenomenal scenes this episode. So good.

Tom Scharpling’s got the writer credit; he gets some of the most expansive work in the show so far. Petersen, Howe, and Alex Bonifer go outside—we get to see the sitcom “Kevin” bar (where they meet Glaser). It’s initially weird since the show’s established the actual reality’s rules, so there’s another layer of discomfort. Sort of danger. All of the comforts to Petersen’s universe have an element of naïveté. There’s a threat of that naïveté collapsing and causing a lot of damage, which is one of the great things about the show. Even without the drama, there’s an anxious energy to it.

Great direction from Anne Dokoza.

Murphy and Inboden get a few scenes together—around five, I think—and have a really nice arc. If “Kevin”’s able to finish well, it’s going to be a delight to watch again for the acting. Murphy’s turning out to be a lot more risky than previously implied (which raises some questions about what should be considered daring, especially opposed to a sitcom reality… but even with that condition). But we’ll see; “Kevin” has been very nimble with its narrative distance so far.

It’s been a while I’ve been so enthusiastic about a show’s plotting but “Kevin”’s narrative feels like its in constant restraint and bucking. It’s exciting.

And I really hope they end it well because it just keeps getting better and an unqualified win would be very cool.

Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s01e04 – Live Free or Die

This episode ends on a big cliffhanger. A make-or-break cliffhanger. “Kevin” can eke out a decent series if they fumble the resolve, just because it’s so well-made and well-acted, but they’re halfway through the show—early for where you’d expect this cliffhanger if it weren’t going to change the show’s trajectory; but if they make it… “Kevin” will wow. And not just for the acting.

But the cliffhanger is really just the epilogue to the already packed, excellent episode. Annie Murphy and Mary Hollis Inboden hit the road in search of oxy and leave the sitcom boys—Murphy’s husband and “Kevin” of the title, Eric Petersen, and his numbskull bestie, Alex Bonifer—alone without any supervision. So of course they decide to run an escape room out of the basement and try to get rich quick.

Doing the sitcom antics without Murphy around is new for “Kevin.” It’s a lot easier to laugh at Petersen’s idiocy when he’s not actively injuring Murphy (or Inboden), with the show well aware it needs people to react to him being a dipshit so the escape room attendee cast is all awesome. Particularly Naheem Garcia, who can’t seem to stop laughing at Petersen’s goofiness, which is the perfect touch. Especially for the escape room plot line, as it showcases male stupidity just right.

Meanwhile, Murphy and Inboden try to navigate the drug dens of rural Vermont. Inboden’s fronting as a chill dealer, Murphy’s giving off major “custy” vibes. Inboden gets the episode’s first scene—copper Candice Coke questioning her about a drug bust and Inboden having to think on her feet (she’s so good)—but it quickly becomes about she and Murphy bonding. It’s initially a reluctant bonding, but once it gets going, it’s exceptionally good….

Making the daring cliffhanger frankly unwelcome. “Kevin” can easily rest on its laurels for a beat and and an episode transition but no, they go all in.

Mel Shimkovitz gets the script credit; excellent script. Anna Dokoza is directing again; she also did last episode. This episode’s better directed, partially because the series opens up—the road trip, the basement (though also just Petersen and company not around their usual victims). But Dokoza does phenomenal work with the actors. For as much as it seems like it’s going to be Inboden’s episode, eventually Murphy gets to take over (not in a crowding out Inboden way but narratively appropriate take over) and it’s spellbinding. Even more spellbinding.

Really hope they don’t fumble the cliffhanger resolve. Really, really hope they don’t.

Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s01e03 – We’re Selling Washing Machines

And here’s where “Kevin Can F**k Himself” elevates. I’m not sure what I was expecting from last episode’s combination cliffhanger and reveal, but I didn’t imagine the show was going to open up to include Mary Hollis Inboden in the reindeer games. Though I did have an inkling Inboden would be able to handle it in the previous episodes….

The episode opens with what initially seems like a world-breaker; Annie Murphy is alone in the living room with husband Eric Petersen’s friends. Now, if Murphy is only living in the imagined sitcom life when Petersen’s present… how come it’s going on seemingly before he’s walking into the house. With a sitcom husband stupid antic no less.

Because it turns out—I was right and “Kevin” is about being a woman in this shithole existence—and Inboden goes into the same sitcom land whenever she’s around the boys too. I wonder if the show’s going to figure out the “rules.” It probably doesn’t matter. But then I didn’t think Inboden was going to matter. “Kevin” is always surprising.

Starting with the opening being a flashback setting up Inboden’s very real, very sad history as an Oxy dealer. Her first customer turns out to be the town librarian, Phyllis Kay, who we met last episode. I’m scared to google and check if Worcester, MA really doesn’t give its librarians health insurance; it’s a good move as it starts building out the world of the show, very carefully, very quietly, because Murphy, Inboden, and Petersen’s sitcom world is overbearing but without actual detail. It just has sitcom detail.

The episode’s going to end up split between Inboden, Murphy, and then the sitcom plot. The sitcom plot is Petersen and numbskull sidekick Alex Bonifer (he’s Inboden’s brother and they seem to live together even though it also seems like Inboden lives with boyfriend Sean Clements) getting in a fight over cooking chili to bribe the snow plow guys to plow their block first and Murphy and Inboden having to spend more time with their respective albatrosses. Meanwhile, Murphy’s still trying to reconnect with ex-boyfriend Raymond Lee, who’s celebrating his eighth year sober and invites her to his chip ceremony. We get the whole backstory on it from Murphy’s perspective when she tells Inboden about it, as the two start becoming friends. Or something.

It’s a great episode. Inboden’s arc is fantastic, even if it ends up being a done-in-one; between that story and Murphy’s reintroduction to the world (and Lee), the sitcom gimmick feels like a different show. Only then when the gimmick comes back, it reminds it’s very much the same show. So good.

Murphy’s great, Inboden’s great. Lee’s good. Petersen doesn’t really get to show off, though he and Bonifer are exceptional at being annoyingly unfunny.

Anna Dokoza directs, Craig DiGregorio and Noelle Valdivia get the script credit; they do excellent work; best so far excellent work.

I’m all of a sudden expecting a lot more from “Kevin” and I was expecting a lot already.

Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s01e02 – New Tricks

“Kevin Can F**k Himself” apparently isn’t going to go as dark as I was expecting. Even though the show’s about how Annie Murphy experiences her marriage to Kevin Petersen as a sitcom and her reality is a lot starker and drearier (and her sitcom existence isn’t great either), the show has a couple opportunities to go super-dark here and skips them both. In one case, it goes out of its way to not go too dark, in the other it just skips past it, on to another story beat.

I’m not sure yet if it should or shouldn’t go darker. It’s impossible to tell, partly because the ground situation is still obscured. We find out this episode Murphy isn’t just an unreliable narrator when it comes to Petersen—who’s never seen in reality this episode, just in Murphy’s sitcom version (the possibility of the reality goes increasingly terrifying)-but also herself. Much of the episode is Murphy trying to find someone she can talk to about her problems. It’s not quite Chekhov’s “Misery,” but it comes kind of close. Also throwing in a sports memorabilia subplot and back-in-town ex-boyfriend Raymond Lee dropping some unexpected truth bombs. And Murphy pursuing new friendships with neighborhood mechanic, cat-caller, and possible drug dealer Justin Grace and then Petersen’s female flunky Mary Hollis Inboden.

It’s a full episode and the momentum’s strong. I’m all of a sudden curious how long each sitcom episode plays, whether it’s close to the twenty-two minute mark. I think it’s got to be less… and they really jar when Murphy returns to them. It’s only at the house so far, which gets some mildly sitcom-y establishing shots when the show goes in for a scene (director Oz Rodriguez does this low angle thing for the “real world,” which is getting gimmicky but does work well); it’s stunning how unsettling the house becomes as the episode plays on.

Great acting from Murphy. And Petersen, who’s profoundly unlikable and transfixing as an often wailing man child, Peter Griffin-incarnate; he’s really good in the part. Unclear if he’ll ever have to do more and if he can do it. Murphy can do anything.

Lee’s good as the confused ex. Inboden… not sure yet; the episode gradually primes her for more; hopefully it pays off.

“Kevin Can Fk Himself” is ambitious and committed with a stellar lead performance from Murphy. It’s also going to be one of those shows where the plot perturbations are going to make or break it.

Or not, if they figure out some way to make the gimmick immaterial to the character study. It looks like the season runs eight episodes so… still way too soon to tell.

Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s01e01 – Living the Dream

AMC released the first two episodes of “Kevin Can F**k Himself” streaming early, which is great and all except it means you have to wait longer for more episodes. But it also means they clearly don’t care about maintaining the trailer’s illusion, which I really remember implying the show was about Annie Murphy as a sitcom wife who somehow breaks free of that reality. You know, kind of “WandaVision.” And there are similarities, but not in the narrative techniques or gimmicks, but in it being about very serious traumas.

Murphy plays a dutiful wife to cable repair guy Eric Petersen—who maybe should be offended he’s so perfect for the part—who’s a sitcom jackass husband, always scheming with his sidekicks—Alex Bonfier and Mary Hollis Inboden are the next door neighbor dysfunctional siblings, Brian Howe’s Petersen’s dad—drinking too much beer, turning Murphy and Petersen’s wedding anniversary into a kegger, humiliating Murphy for the laugh track, and so on. They live in a very clear “homage” to the Bunker house, with the living room nearly identical. The kitchen’s a different sitcom.

Except the only time it’s a sitcom is when Murphy’s interacting with Petersen, the rest of the time it’s about an economically destitute Worcester, Massachusetts, with Petersen and his cronies playing Bahston tropes.

From the first episode, which has Murphy struggling to stay in her fantasy world until the reality of Petersen’s behavior makes it impossible, leading to Murphy breaking bad, it’s clear “Kevin” isn’t only going to be examining how insidiously misogynistic sitcoms can be, it’s going to be a particular character study of Murphy. And right off it’s clear her perspective isn’t reliable, but she might also be unaware of that unreliability. It’s a very, very interesting take from writer and creator Valerie Armstrong.

Murphy’s giving a great performance. At the beginning it’s impressive how nimbly she toggles from sitcom to intense, narratively ajar character study, but then she just keeps getting better.

Whether it adds up or not remains to be seen. So far it’s mesmerizing but it’s also very much a pilot episode.