The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt :: Show Review

This show. I mean. I haven't had this complicated of a relationship with a TV show... Ever?

On one hand, I love it. Pure, unadulterated obsession. I watched the first season in a few days and when the second season came out, I watched it in one day. I quote from it all the time. Mostly silently, since no one else watches this show. Especially the first season resonated with me. I wasn't kept in a bunker underground, but I certainly was kept sequestered from modern society. Kimmy learning to function in society was an hilarious and relatable struggle. Just a snippet to demonstrate my point:

Random girl at a club: "Hey, you want to party with us? Are you into molly?"
Kimmy: "AM I?!? She's my favorite American Girl doll!!!"

The random knowledge of older TV shows with absolutely no knowledge of anything that came out in the past fifteen years is a hallmark of the ex-fundamentalist. Granted, Kimmy's shows of choice were Friends, Seinfeld, and Frasier, while mine were The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie, but the parallel still stands.

Basically, this show is my therapy. So where is the downside? Unfortunately, the show doesn't come without a few problems. With Tina Fey as a writer, you know the show is going to be ridiculous, funny, and tackle a few issues on the way. A lot of people have taken issue with the portrayal of minorities on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. There is really not a straight white male presence on the show. At all. It's all minorities. Which is great, except when it isn't. I can see that the writers were creating over-the-top stereotypical minorities to destroy those stereotypes. They absolutely nailed it with Titus Andromedon, the show's "sassy black gay man" who is incredibly nuanced, with a backstory, character flaws and strengths, etc. However, the other minority characters are a bit more problematic. The writers have done a decent job of creating a backstory for the Native American woman pretending to be white (??) but her story is still incredibly problematic. The Vietnamese character is still completely underdeveloped and stereotypical.

If the rest of the show didn't resonate so much with me, I might struggle more with these issues, but I just can't not love this show. I love it.