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Thread: The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

  1. #1
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

    I could watch this title sequence all day.

    Also, I am actually going to watch this show all day because of snow.
    ...and the milk's in me.

  2. #2
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    Kiernan Shipka. I REPEAT, KIERNAN SHIPKA.
    ...and the milk's in me.

  3. #3
    Super Moderator dreamdead's Avatar
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    We're looking forward to diving into this series. Andy Greenwald over at Grantland said it fires on all cylinders around episode four, but I expect that we'll burn through them so fast that any early slowness is quickly forgotten.
    The Boat People - 9
    The Power of the Dog - 7.5
    The King of Pigs - 7

  4. #4
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    So... many... talented... guest stars.
    ...and the milk's in me.

  5. #5
    U ZU MA KI Spun Lepton's Avatar
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    No interest.
    Research.
    "Tina Fey?"
    Queued.
    My YouTube Channel: Grim Street Grindhouse
    My Top 100 Horror Movies OF ALL TIME.

  6. #6
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    UNBREAKABLE! THEY ALIVE, DAMMIT!

    This was really enjoyable.
    ...and the milk's in me.

  7. #7
    Super Moderator dreamdead's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Mara (view post)
    UNBREAKABLE! THEY ALIVE, DAMMIT!

    This was really enjoyable.
    Past tense? Like, marathoned the show and done now?

    We've finished the first two episodes. Kemper has an infectious energy, and a lot of the early material is aided by her natural charisma in these moments.
    The Boat People - 9
    The Power of the Dog - 7.5
    The King of Pigs - 7

  8. #8
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    Yes, I was feeling sickly and had a snow day so I watched the whole thing.

    The show is very well cast, but I can't imagine anyone but Kemper pulling oss the lead. She has that manic energy, and slightly crazy eyes, and manages to convey emotional damage without souring her sunny diaposition. One of my favorite recurring callbacks is thay she gets angry and physically violent every time she is grabbed from behind. They don't dwell on it but it conveys a lot about what a mess she is.
    ...and the milk's in me.

  9. #9
    U ZU MA KI Spun Lepton's Avatar
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    I watched the first episode last night. Several laugh-out-loud moments. I'll probably have the entire run finished in a week or two.
    My YouTube Channel: Grim Street Grindhouse
    My Top 100 Horror Movies OF ALL TIME.

  10. #10
    U ZU MA KI Spun Lepton's Avatar
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    This is only semi-spoilerish, but the show is so new, I don't want to spoil a thing.

    [
    ]
    My YouTube Channel: Grim Street Grindhouse
    My Top 100 Horror Movies OF ALL TIME.

  11. #11
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
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    Six episodes in, so by tonight I'll be halfway done.

    Show is so much fun. In a lot of ways my favourite employment of the Netflix model in the sense that it's the type of show if NBC had kept it, would've struggled in the ratings, I'd have taken a couple of weeks to be confident enough to recommend it, and then maybe then eventually others would get on board before it was too late. But as it is here, we have Season 1 in full, Season 2 officially ordered, and a delightful, wacky little gem of a show to enjoy all at whatever pace for anyone to similarly have access to.

    It really does hit the same beautiful nerve 30 Rock did, to the point that Carlock & Fey's brilliant-but-often-too-quick dialogue and her husband's musical cues have often tricked me into feeling like I'm watching one long tangential subplot from their previous show that somehow surreally spiralled out of control and never ended. And I hope it never does.
    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  12. #12
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    Finished last night. I wonder how far into it they were before they found out it was going to be on Netflix instead of NBC.

    Some completely expected cameos ([
    ]), but one made me burst out laughing just from his entrance ([
    ]).
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
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  13. #13
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    One piece of trivia I had forgotten until yesterday: (spoilers for last few episodes):

    [
    ]
    ...and the milk's in me.

  14. #14
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    I honestly got a little uncomfortable about Dong, though. Seems like the ratio of "jokes based on the fact that he's asian" vs "jokes based on him as a character" is hugely lopsided toward the former. Some of it were cringe-inducing for me to watch, and I don't think intentionally so.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
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  15. #15
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    I was a little uncomfy with Jacqueline's backstory, too.
    ...and the milk's in me.

  16. #16
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    I mean, 30 Rock had a lot of that skirting-around-stereotypes-and-falling-in kind of stuff, too. I think Tina Fey (and her writers) like to think that they're savvier about racial humor than they actually are.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
    Movie Theater Diary

  17. #17
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    RE: Dong, I kind of appreciated that they introduced an Asian man as a viable romantic lead, but they didn't make him either masculine or sexy. He was all stammery and emotional and good at math. Some day we will have an Asian man on American television with swagger and abs. Some day.
    ...and the milk's in me.

  18. #18
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    I remember being really torn during LOST between believing that Jin and Sun should be together no matter what and nothing shall come between them or they shall die and wanting to see Jin get with or be seen as sexy by maybe one or two of the 300 white ladies on that island.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
    Movie Theater Diary

  19. #19
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    Jin was soooo attractive.

    I have been inspired to find this article from last year. Semi NSFW.

    http://m.mic.com/articles/104332/16-...ebook&ts_pid=2
    ...and the milk's in me.

  20. #20
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    I like the show but agree with 8 & Mara -- the humor is all over the place.

    The "Indian" humor was awkward but the "Dong" jokes were racist in a way only New York liberals can be. (8's line about Fey thinking she's savvier than she really is was right on the mark).

    There's also a lot of "Midwestern rube" humor that feels really dated to me.

    The other thing: the central premise of this show is fucked up.

    It's obvious the basic plot elements were inspired (?) by events in Ohio. From the story, the heroine was 14 when she was abducted. There have been multiple references to her fucked up sexuality due to her captivity.

    It feels weird to turn brutal reality into a class base farce (what's next? BTK: The Musical?). Or co-opt the identity (and memes) around participants like the neighbor. And the I feel weird for laughing at some of it.

    I dunno. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but it seems fucked to make a lot of jokes about the sexual victimization of young women... And then put a some "empowerment" spin on it.

    Seems strange coming from Fey.
    Last edited by Irish; 03-10-2015 at 01:17 AM.

  21. #21
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    The best jokes are definitely the ones about Kimmy's indomitable will, though. At first I thought it was meant to be a joke about the fact that she can be so sunny after such an ordeal, but I was won over by how aggressive she is about it, which made it funnier to me than just the irony of it.

    Personal favorite:

    "Kimmy, you bitch!"
    "A female dog? A thing that makes puppies? Nice compliment!"

    The defiant look Kemper shot when she said it just slayed me.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
    Movie Theater Diary

  22. #22
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    Agreed. A lot of the writing around her, particularly in the early episodes, is strong. (Loved that "bitch" joke too).

    I was thinking more of the stuff around Mrs Vorhes, when a Kimmy encourages her to divorce her husband. And later, when the group is trapped in the bunker for a second time.

    There's a lot of lines that sound like half cribbed, jokey riffs on Michelle Sanberg & Eat Pray Love & TEDx. That made me squirm whenever I stopped to consider the story at the center of the show.

  23. #23
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    I understand where it's coming from. This is a woman who refuses to be defined by the worst thing that happened to her. The (uneasy) comedy comes from how horrifically bad that one thing was. I like that the same mechanisms she developed in the bunker to survive are the things that she needs for her new life: an intense need to help people, bravery, optimism, and hard work. I think I would be more uncomfortable with the subject matter if they minimized how traumatized Kimmy is, but there are relentless, quiet hints that she is pretty badly damaged right under the surface.

    One moment I thought was funny the first time I saw it was when she meets Jaqueline and mistakes her for another captive. "Tell me: DO YOU NEED HELP?" But in retrospect that's both brave and terribly sad. Kimmy's idea of the world is terribly unsafe and hostile. She uses her sunniness as a weapon against it.
    ...and the milk's in me.

  24. #24
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    I believe the show tried to comment on it, too, by hiring Jon Hamm. This is the second show after the Black Mirror Xmas special that I've seen capitalizing and subverting our image of Hamm as the ultimate salesman. We see how, from everyone else's reaction to him, we're not supposed to think that the women are especially gullible, but that the preacher is extremely manipulative (within its universe's cartoony standards, of course). Isn't that the whole trajectory of Kimmy's arc, too? That she went from being ashamed of having been a mole woman to publicly confronting her history and actually blame the guy who deserves 100% of the blame.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
    Movie Theater Diary

  25. #25
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    My latest issue of NY Mag arrived with this packaging tear in the back.

    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
    Movie Theater Diary

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