Dark Comedy Just Got Darker
Main Cast: Annie Murphy, Mary Hollis Imboden
Creator: Valerie Armstrong
Kevin Can F**k Himself is an AMC original starring Annie Murphy of Schitt’s Creek fame as Allison McRoberts. Allison lives with her husband Kevin (Eric Peterson) in Worcester, MA. She works in a liquor store, he at the cable company. They get by, but money is tight.
It’s a classic sitcom set-up: The lovely, smart wife and the charming but unambitious husband and his motley gang of quirky friends. He’s fun, she’s a nag. He comes up with hilarious schemes; she’s a wet blanket. He’s the life of the party, she’s awkward.
He’s the joker, and she is always the butt of the joke.
When Kevin is on screen, Kevin Can F**k Himself looks exactly like that familiar sitcom with bright lights and canned laughs. The minute Allison leaves his presence the world shifts. The colors dim, the laughter fades, and she is left exhausted, frustrated, and angry at what her life has become.
Kevin Can F**K Himself is brilliant. The series switches back and forth between competing realities as Allison falls down her own desperate rabbit hole. Something has to change.
On the surface it’s a parody of its sitcom inspirations, showing the exasperated housewife when she isn’t putting on a smiling face for her boorish husband. Beneath that layer lies an exploration of what audiences accept as humor.
We’re far removed now from the careful nuances of All in the Family. The noxious, overbearing spouses are now the celebrated stars. Their friends and partners are some combination of dimwitted and enabling. What societal commentary there is takes a back seat to the star’s insufferable persona. From Home Improvement to Roseanne to The King of Queens – when did we agree to accept so little?
Kevin Can F**k Himself also takes a long look at manipulation, isolation, and abuse. Kevin doesn’t hit his wife and would vehemently deny abusing her. Allison’s story unfurls slowly as she plans her escape. At first we don’t entirely understand her desperation and her schemes feel overblown. Each episode reveals a little more of her life and how she got to this place.
Herein lies the show’s greatest weakness – pacing. Partly that’s a result of the mixed format. The sitcom bits race by, leaving the more contemplative drama feeling slow. It’s a very engaging format, but one that requires knife-edge balance. The nuances of Allison’s character development take time. They’re important to the story, but sometimes throw off that critical balancing act.
Allison is not a particularly likeable character. She’s awkward and withdrawn and unable to connect. Making this character into a relatable protagonist rests on the shoulders of Annie Murphy and she is more than up to the task. She tweaks her perfect comedic timing just enough to make it uncomfortable and stiff.
Allison demonstrates over and over exactly why abused partners struggle to flee their abusers. She makes mistakes, inadvertently uses people, and makes outlandish and dangerous plans. She doesn’t know how to reach out for help, so when she does, she does it badly and people shrink from her. Sometimes these moments are funny. Sometimes they’re hard to watch.
Murphy does not carry the show alone. Richardson as Kevin is truly repulsive. He begins to twist his character early in the first season, giving that charm an edge and those witty jabs a sharp point. He’s both stupid and cruel, that’s the point. Richardson slowly takes us beyond the layer of phony joviality to the inadequate core of a small man. We hate him, but the performance is fantastic.
And then there’s Patty, the next door neighbor, played by Mary Hollis Imboden. In the first episode this character is window dressing, just another of Kevin’s sycophants, albeit smarter and wittier than her counterparts. She is a main character hidden in plain sight, one who will draw out the stories of all the other characters.
Patty is the only person in Kevin Can F**k Himself who we can love without reservation. She has the qualities that Kevin and Allison lack. She’s the authentically funny and charming counterpart to Kevin’s selfish venom. She’s also Allison’s guide to rediscovering her humanity. She evolves with each episode until it is her relationships that form the heart of the series.
Imboden is stunningly good in this role. She pairs a weary, guarded exterior with an uncanny ability to express emotion through facial expression. She is the one character I never tired of watching.
This is not a perfect series, and it won’t be for everyone. Its experiment in genre mixing is jarring and challenging, but I ultimately found it compelling with surprising depth and intensity. I highly recommend Kevin Can F**k Himself for both the format and the stories it has to tell. There are two seasons of the series and the story arc is perfectly contained in those episodes.
Sue reads a lot, writes a lot, edits a lot, and loves a good craft. She was deemed “too picky” to proofread her children’s school papers and wears this as a badge of honor. She is also proud of her aggressively average knitting skills She is the Editorial Director at Silver Beacon Marketing and an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady.
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