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Starring Emmy winner Annie Murphy! Premieres Sunday, June 13, 2021, on AMC+, and then Sunday, June 20, 2021 @ 9 PM ET on AMC. I’m assuming that streaming will be a weekly rollout that’s ahead of broadcast, or maybe it’s all broadcast after the premiere.
First reviews are out. 69 on Metacritic with 6 reviews so far. Variety’s review is favorable. The mixed reviews question the sustainability of the show’s high premise, sitcomy tropes, and dour tone (a hodgepodge of “Kevin Can Wait,” “Breaking Bad,” & “Mare of Easttown”). Lots of comparisons to “WandaVision.” Routine raves for Annie Murphy and supporting actress Mary Hollis Inboden.
Variety’s review:
https://variety.com/2021/tv/reviews/kevin-can-fuck-himself-review-annie-murphy-1234988232/
Trailer link:
ReplyDown to 67 on Metacritic with 15 reviews. Widespread praise for Annie Murphy. The biggest issues seems to be lengthy runtime and hitting the tropes with both of the mediums too hard. There’s clear artifice with the hacky, “Kevin Can Wait”-type sitcom universe, but the grittier, “Mare of Easttown” setting is equally superficial in different ways. Even the dissenters think that the premise is inventive enough and might take longer to develop than the four episodes sent to critics for review. I’m hoping for the best with Murphy and think she can shine in this regardless.
ReplyCopy URLEpisode Titles: “Living the Dream”; “New Tricks”
Synopses: After Patty reveals the truth about her bank accounts, Allison goes on a bender to take back control of her life; Allison witnesses an overdose and has an idea; following a mysterious business card, Allison is led to Patty’s Salon in town.
Discuss.
ReplyCopy URLWatched the first two episodes. The premise is an exciting one, but more needs to be done to make things “pop” in future episodes. The comedy isn’t funny enough, and the drama isn’t dramatic enough. The series exists in this weirdly melancholic middle ground that doesn’t serve either aim all that well. I’d go all in on the satiric elements with the hacky sitcom parodying, as there’s such a treasure trove of content to mock there. It could serve as a modern-day commentary on what television is today, or has devolved into. The multi-camera sitcom has given us pinnacle television like “I Love Lucy,” and it’s also given us … “Kevin Can Wait.” These episodes should have been a quick 30 minutes each. I’d also like to see some kind of comeuppance for this iteration of the “Kevin” character, b/c he’s absolutely vile. I didn’t watch “Kevin Can Wait,” but Kevin James at least had some form of a heart and conscience in the few episodes of “King of Queens” that I was forced to watch. The dramatic scenes slog along in a “Breaking Bad”-lite sort of fashion, and the stakes feel very low ATM. A character calls out Allison to just leave Kevin, and it’s a really good question to ask. Why all the schemes and excuses? No children to contend with. He deserves to die, and that’s it? She rationalizes that she has little money, he’d find her, this is her home, and he should die. Okay then! The antics with the small-town drug dealer mechanic guy dragged, as well as the scenes with the ex-boyfriend that look to be fairly significant in the season previews. All I’m interested in there is the budding relationship between Allison and Patty. Mary Hollis Inboden is clearly a standout and more than meets the eye. Annie Murphy anchors the series beautifully regardless. I knew she had the range from “Schitt’s Creek,” but people here constantly underestimated both her Emmy chances and post-“SC” career. She more than had the last laugh with the former. It’s nice that she’s landed the first major follow-up project of the main ensemble. Do I want her tied up in endless seasons of this project? No. She might not have to worry about that if AMC doesn’t stick it out. But if this leads to better roles down the line for Murphy, then it would have served its purposes well enough. Might watch until at least midseason to see if things pan out better.
ReplyCopy URLNobody told me that this was an hour-long drama. Got four screeners back in April and finally watched them tonight. The first couple were painful to watch for a variety of reasons, but the fourth demonstrates the potential for a bright future. Such an ambitious concept would be prone to growing pains. It ironically bodes well at this point that they have not provided any more screeners because that means that the 65 on Metacritic is only for the first half of the season. It could still have a great back half for which critics and audiences rally. The title is not helping.
Annie Murphy indeed carries it well. I am surprised by how much the show gives to its multi-camera sitcom side. In the fourth episode, Murphy actually has nothing to do with that storyline, so probably a third of the episode actually is just straight out of something on CBS with a laugh track. I actually did not mind the comedy on the multi-camera side of that episode in particular, but still curious when the premise is such an indictment of that.
ReplyCopy URLEpisode Title: “We’re Selling Washing Machines”
Synopsis: Allison discovers the truth about Patty’s Salon; after a fight, Kevin and Neil compete in a chili cook-off; Allison’s revenge inadvertently dries up the towns pill supply; Patty almost gets busted in a local pharmacy raid and confides in Allison.
Discuss.
ReplyCopy URLDoes anyone else from Australia know of somewhere I can watch this? It’s driving me crazy that this and Hacks don’t seem to have been picked up at all yet.
Not legally. There’s no real specific home for AMC content in Australia so it could turn up anywhere.
Hacks is probably just Foxtel playing hardball and not wanting to pay full $$$ for content.
ReplyCopy URLEpisode Title: “Live Free or Die”
Synopsis: A detective questions Patty about the pharmacy bust; Allison and Patty go on a road trip; Kevin comes up with a new moneymaking scheme in the basement of the McRoberts home; after multiple setbacks, Allison admits the truth about her plan to Patty.
Discuss.
ReplyCopy URLAn entire standalone episode with Allison and Patty’s roadtrip for the Oxy would have been welcome. I did like the levity found in their interactions, which felt sorely missing in prior episodes. Annie Murphy and Mary Hollis Inboden are great scene partners. But so much time in the “sitcom” landscape devoted to Kevin’s escape room was painful to watch, and it served no narrative purposes beyond being a time suck and showing more reasons why Kevin is so awful. Probably the best of the four episodes aired so far, but that’s a low bar at this point.
ReplyCopy URLI stuck with this show for as long as I could, but I have truly nearly fallen asleep during every episode. I love Annie Murphy and enjoyed her performance, but simply couldn’t care less about any other character or the story playing out here. Maybe I’ll check back in a few weeks to see if the show gets its shit together before the end of the season, but I have no clue if anyone is even watching this and if it’ll make it to a second season, so it may just be easier to jump off here and not look back.
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