Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s01e08 – Fixed

The first season of “Kevin Can F**k Himself” features singular performances from Annie Murphy, Mary Hollis Inboden, and Eric Petersen. The writing is ambitious, excellent, and successful. The direction—usually from Anna Dokoza, who directs this episode to make a total of directing six of the eight first season episodes—is phenomenal.

Also, you might just want to wait unless it gets picked up for a second season. Basically, it’s all about relying on AMC to do the right thing, and AMC infamously added commercials to classic movies. So who knows.

Because the episode, with series creator Valerie Armstrong getting script credit, is all about what happens next. For everything and everyone. The resolution to last episode’s cliffhanger on whether or not Petersen survives a home invasion is either big swing plotting or where they decided to go for a season two instead of wrapping it up here. That resolution is the only concluding they do this episode. Everything else is left open.

The episode proper begins with Murphy asking Inboden to snoop on “girlfriend” Candice Coke’s investigation notebook. This thread runs under Inboden’s entire episode arc until there’s an insert scene with her ex-boyfriend, Sean Clements, trying to set cop Coke on Inboden’s trail for drug dealing. It goes absolutely nowhere because it’s season two material, leaving Coke even more in flux because apparently Inboden skips out on Coke—telling her she’s buying cigarettes—and never returns to her shop. For hours.

Or the episode skipped the scene, which is a narrative fail.

Meanwhile, Murphy’s got to deal with her machinations’ immediate fallout, which the episode principally reduces to arguing with lover Raymond Lee. Lee gets the worst arc of the episode. Seems like he’s on his way out for next season, with his cliffhanger from last episode quickly rendered immaterial here. It’s narrative vamping, with only the sitcom aspect and then the season cliffhanger bringing much drama.

Worst of all, Dokoza’s direction of Murphy and Inboden’s big blow-up is blah. Suddenly, she and Adrian Peng Correia can’t figure out how to shoot a scene, which is set in the “All in the Family” living room, only the real-world version of it. Dokoza shoots it like they found a 704 Hauser pop-in, and guerrilla shot a scene. Adding to my conspiracy theory the ending’s been rejiggered for a cliffhanger, though the actual cliffhanger is pretty good and has lots of promise for next season.

If it gets one.

So is “Kevin Can F**k Himself: Season One” a success? It’s successful. Murphy, Inboden, and Petersen all give superb performances. It’s an accomplishment. But whether or not it “works” depends entirely on renewal, which sucks. Playing chicken with the network is so dated.

The episode doesn’t even finish Petersen’s arc. It really just does kick every last thing down the road.

It’s frustrating as all hell. And great. But don’t watch it. Well, watch it but maybe after the renewal news is out. Knowing it’s incomplete (or not) might help.

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.