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UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT Ellie Kemper returns in this charming, breezy sitcom from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock
The brainchild of Tina Fey and her 30 Rock cohort Robert Carlock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a gleefully silly sitcom. Ellie Kemper (Bridesmaids) stars as a young woman struggling to adjust to life in New York City after spending 15 years in an underground doomsday cult. Yet Fey and Carlock exploit its potential for goofy culture-shock humour.
A breezy farce with an impressive gag rate, it’s refreshingly cynicism-free. Kimmy is an indomitable vessel of innocent positivity. She may have spent half her life in a concrete bunker, but she’s not about to let that dampen her gee-whiz spirits. Kemper’s delightful performance is ably supported by Jane Krakowski as an amusingly self- absorbed Manhattanite, fabulous force of nature Tituss Burgess as a seli sh yet essentially sweet-natured wannabe Broadway star, and musical comedy stalwart Carol Kane as Kimmy’s dissolute landlady.
The Emmy-nominated i rst season climaxed with Mad Men’s Jon Hamm having a whale of a time as Kimmy’s duplicitous incarcerator, but with that bizarre chapter now i rmly behind her (or so she thinks), the new season i nds Kimmy attempting to forge ahead.
‘I think she sort of feels like, “alright, all the ugliness from my life has been erased, and now it’s time to go forward and crush life”, as Kemper explains. ‘What happens in season two is that she does understand that things aren’t as crisp and clear-cut as that. The world isn’t black and white.’ Meanwhile, Burgess falls in love, Krakowski adjusts to life as a divorcee and Kane continues her eccentric crusade to keep the neighbourhood from improving. A charming blast of unadulterated nonsense, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a very welcome tonic. (Paul Whitelaw) ■ Available on Netl ix from Fri 15 Apr.
102 THE LIST 7 Apr–2 Jun 2016