I finished “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” season 1 last night. My overall, very positive opinion hasn't changed much from my original review, but I have a few random thoughts on it (with spoilers, of course), coming up just as soon as you troll the respawn, Jeremy…
Numbered “Kimmy” thoughts, in no particular order:
1)I need to make the theme song a ringtone so it can stay in my life always, because females are strong as hell, and it's catchy as hell.
2)Ellie Kemper is joy, and Fey, Carlock and company can still sling crazy jokes like they did on “30 Rock.” That said, where “30 Rock” could often do great, hilarious things when Liz was largely absent, this show almost always works best when Kimmy is directly involved. As Kimmy's barely-qualified guide to modern life, Titus is a wonderful character; off on his own, he's very hit-or-miss. Ditto Jacqueline and Lillian and the different recurring characters.
3)That said, one of the times Titus hit had Kimmy nowhere in sight, with Dean Norris' terrific guest turn as an acting teacher who coaches gay men on how to seem straight. Really, the show did great by and with all its guest stars, whether Martin Short as the plastic surgeon with the immobile face, Jon Hamm gooning it up as the Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne, Hamm's “Mad Men” daughter Kiernan Shipka as Kimmy's bitter half-sister (and Tim Blake Nelson as her bumbling stepfather), or Fey herself (in an amazing wig) playing inept O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark (opposite Jerry Minor as Clark's colleague Christopher Darden).
4)As I said in my original review, I really want to get to the made-for-Netflix season 2, to see what Fey can do without having to worry about network standards and practices. And I don't mean in terms of profanity – some of the bigger laughs I had this season involved working around letting people curse (like the bleeping of Norris' comments about why straight men don't drink with straws) – but in terms of the strangeness lurking around the edges of the show, that I feel could really flower once NBC isn't a factor anymore.
What did everybody else think? Did you have a favorite episode? Did you tire of the jokes about Dong's name, and/or find Jacqueline's Native American background off-putting, or did both amuse you? Do you prefer the “Daddy's Boy” theme to the show's own theme song? Would you want to see the tone change any in season 2, or was this a good balance of light and dark?