Ellie Kemper
Tituss Burgess
Carol Kane
Jane Krakowski

Created by:
Tina Fey
Robert Carlock

Comedy
2015-
Netflix

TV-14

“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” a Netflix original comedy that was originally developed for NBC, is actually some good. Even when its jokes don’t land, its infectious spirit shines through. For the most part, this show is at its best when the characters say outrageous things with dead-panned matter-of-factness, when they turn the expected into the unexpected, and when Kimmy’s anachronisms combine with the writers’ penchant for pop-culture references.

However, the best part of the first season is perhaps the opening of the pilot: Kimmy and three other women are rescued from the underground compound of a doomsday cult. In a fashion that’s typical of co-creator Tina Fey, the sequence manages to make fun of plenty of mass media stereotypes, from race to religion, as it surprisingly and seamlessly turns into a YouTube-style viral musical number. An edited version of that musical number subsequently becomes the show’s theme song. Unfortunately, the worst part of the first season is its final two episodes: the trial (guest starring Jon Hamm). They don’t end on a good note.

Ellie Kemper is the perfect cast as Kimmy. She’s earnest and sharp. Tituss Burgess plays her flamboyantly gay roommate, Titus, who comes across as a slightly toned-down version of Meshach Taylor’s Hollywood Montrose from the “Mannequin” films. Carol Kane is reliably wacky as their overbearing yet begrudgingly understanding landlady. And “30 Rock” veteran Jane Krakowski, as Kimmy’s rich and seemingly vapid housewife employer, brings the same comedic sensibility that has sustained her entire career. (Martin Short shows up in the fourth episode as a plastic surgeon so ridiculous that it actually works, for the most part.) So the cast is strong, and the writing is good enough to give them the support that they need.

This is the kind of comedy that will bring a smile to your face while poking fun at political correctness. It’s a breath of fresh air. It’s charmingly weird without being too weird – an accessible weirdness. Fey and co-creator Robert Carlock have found just the right pace and tone; they had plenty of time to master that while producing “30 Rock.” For much of the first season, everyone involved makes this look much easier to pull off than it actually is. While I don’t love it – it has its flaws – I like it and appreciate it. That’s more than I can say for most TV comedies nowadays.

Verdict: Good Overall

About: (Source: kimmyschmidt)

From “30 Rock” executive producers Tina Fey and Robert Carlock comes this hilarious comedy series starring Ellie Kemper (“The Office,” “Bridesmaids”) as a woman who is rescued from a doomsday cult and starts life over as a nanny for a socialite (Jane Krakowski from “30 Rock”) in New York City. Armed with just a backpack, light-up sneakers and a couple of past-due library books, she takes on a world she didn’t think even existed anymore.