kimmy schmidt season 2 musings
***Season 2 of Kimmy Schmidt came out this past week, I'm going to talk about it. Spoilers yall***
I'm going to keep this shit short and sweet for y'all. Now I haven't read any reviews or even talked about this season with anyone, so this whole bloggy thingymajig- this is Colleen: Raw and Unfiltered. (Ew) So to start, if I summed up season 2 of Kimmy Schmidt in a word, it would be underwhelming and if I summed it up in a facial expression it would be
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JUST KIDDING! (not about my summation, just about keeping it short and sweet. That was misleading. this is going to be long and sour) Onward to face Colleen's disappointment!
I could go on and on about what I didn't really care for this season (and ugh you know I will) but the easiest way for me to explain this is the show lost it's spark. Maybe it's just a sophomore slump, maybe it's a Heroes (that's when a TV show has one great season and you love it but then the following seasons are so terrible but you still watch thinking, hey they could come back from this and then you travel into a spiral of shame and disappointment and by the end you hate yourself because you still continue to watch that fucking show. It's much more severe than a Dexter, Dexter has 2 great seasons and less episodes, you don't quite get to self loathing. I never watched the last season so I'm probably wrong on the Dexter thing...) but either way, it never really clicked. It had less jokes, less 30 Rock cutbacks, and lots of cameos that fell flat (I'm talking about you, Tina Fey. This hurts me.). It never really found it's momentum- there's no Peeno Noir moment, no stand out episodes, no whimsy (I promise I liked things though, I swear!). Maybe it's just growing pains, maybe growing up is just things getting shittier and shittier (and realizing you're going to be paying some bitch named Sallie Mae $300 every month for the rest of your life until you die and then you start to hope that Death's knock comes sooner rather than later... just me then?), either way it's less fun. Instead of everything being fun and neat and new, Kimmy is seeing the world the way it really is, and it's making the show all bummed out too. She doesn't seem like the only color in the room full of grays. She's a little drab herself.
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There's still a bit of a race issue though it's improved from last season. They stopped playing that music every time Dong came on the screen and though they doubled down on the whitewashing of Jacqueline's Native American background, it's to take on the Washington Redskins (progress? let's call that one a wash.). But then on the other hand, they pretty much remove Donna Maria altogether from the show (poor little nugget). When Titus puts on a show about his past life as a geisha, the internet gets all Chandler Bing (seriously, that was one of my favorite moments. Fuck you internet *insert crying laughing emoji here*), that felt like the writers taking on criticism from season 1 about the super random racism. "It's only racist because you don't get where they are coming from." No, actually, sometimes things are just fucking racist.
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There were some hits and misses with the cameos this season. Tina Fey for one. I loved her cameo last season as Marcia Clark (and I'm going to be honest with you guys, it literally took me until the third watch to realize she was playing the prosecutor from the OJ trial, what the fuck is wrong with me?) but this season she's a therapist with a drunk alter ego? NAH. Kimmy needs to go to therapy but for whatever reason Tina Fey as the therapist fell flat for me. Another cameo which didn't make sense was Fred Armisen's Robert Durst. Don't get me wrong, it was a great Robert Durst but it felt like it was shoved in there because of the popularity of the Jinx last year which in of itself is not a good enough reason. Even David Cross's character. I mean how do you mess up a David Cross character? Isn't him just standing there ENOUGH? But this time it wasn't. Other cameos though were fucking great. The blonde girl from Pitch Perfect had some serious chemistry Jane Krakowski and that little bit of outwitting each other was a lot of fun (personally I'm pretty sure the blonde girl from Pitch Perfect is how the girls I went to high school ended up. It helps me sleep well at night, all smug.) Jeff Goldblum was delightful as a shitbag Dr. Oz (I guess that's just a normal Dr. Oz). This season we get to finally meet Kimmy's mom and while I was initially disappointed (I really wanted it to be Amy Poehler, I know she's not old enough but it just seemed right), Lisa Kudrow is really terrific (and kinda funny considering all the Friends references). And can I just say that the PACEY cameo, hot DAMN Joshua Jackson looking good, and as great as Dawson's Creek (it's not) is, Fringe is where my shit is and I'ma totally gonna rewatch that....AGAIN.
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Titus was probably one of the two things that was perfect this season. The funniest moments of the season were because of him (and Lillian but we'll get to her later). I'm going to be honest with you, Titus explaining that the internet talks like Chandler broke my fucking brain. He grew so much this season too, starting off with his wife (GASP!) from Mississippi to actually falling in love and for the first time ever, putting someone before Titus (DOUBLE GASP!) His relationship with construction worker Mikey is just too fucking cute and it was so nice to have someone outside of Lillian and Kimmy to see the magic in Titus like we see. Seriously I'm probably going to bring it up a bunch because I am shipping Mikey and Titus so hard, they are the cutest, bestest, funniest, greatest and they made my cold black heart grow 3 sizes. Titus this season also started asking the REAL questions, the ones we should've been asking ourselves all this time, like about Cate Blanchett. (K: Cate Blanchett is a good actress! T: is she though? or is she just tall?) Is she just tall? Omg I'm dying. But you know what? He's not wrong...
Lillian is the other thing that was so perfect this season. My last post I said she was sort of my spirit animal, that's not enough. She is me, or rather I will be her in 30 years- falling in love with a creepy murderer, all of it. Her fight against the gentrification of her neighborhood is hilarious and heartbreaking. I say heartbreaking because in three years I won't be able to live where I live now thanks to the fucking hipsters crossing the river from OTR to CVG. HEY GUYS, COVINGTON SUCKS AND IS FILLED WITH HEROIN AND THE WATER IS LIKE FLINT MICHIGAN STAY IN OHIO. But it doesn't matter, someone said there was a secret speakeasy in the backroom so it won't be long until there's some sort of fucking nonsense like an artisanal mayonnaise place and our streets are filled with "ethnic" food trucks made by white dudes named Todd. I kept cracking up when she kept trying to fight people but no one took her seriously because she's a little old lady (RUN LILLIAN! is going to be my new catchphrase), And while a lot of the stuff she says is really funny, partially because its funny but a lot of because it's how she delivers it, like for example "Sesame Street was based on this neighborhood... because of that guy that lives in a dumpster", a lot of the gentrification stuff struck a chord with me. I know I joke about the OTR hipsters (is it joking though...) but gentrification is real fucked up. It's a bunch of people going into the homes of people who already live there and telling them they don't deserve to live there, we're going to fix this place up, and displacing a whole group of people just because they are fiscally disadvantaged. "We're going to make the neighborhood nicer" is just a polite way of saying "we're going to make this neighborhood whiter". I mean that's not always the case (it was in OTR though) but when the fucking man bun, mustache twirling, bare midriff, "I've always loved grunge and dressed like this" fucktards start to make their way across the river, it will be a displacement of people from all races here in Covington. I mean all that will be left will still be white but they'll be getting rid of white people too, the less desirable whites (me). I guess I don't understand gentrification. I don't know why you'd want to live in an area where everything is the same, all the restaurants, the people, the music. It's like you're bringing the suburbs into the city and calling it something else. It sounds boring as shit. I like that one block in one direction I can get a fancy steak dinner and pay way too much for a bottle of wine and a block in the other direction and be asked for money to buy heroin while I stand next to a car where a hooker is giving a blow job (#KeepCovingtonCheap). Covington is the worst, I hear there's this new gang called F 10 5, so you best watch out....
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Sorry I know that was a heavy rant. The Lillian in me took over. Maybe I should run for office too....
Something that this season did well just like last season, and like its big sister 30 rock before it, were all the pop culture references. I got a big kick of everyone knowing too much about the Kardashians and being confused as to how. Dong has the best Kardashian impression and it depresses me a little that I knew it was a Kardashian impression. Another fun ("fun") pop culture reference was to the Jinx with Kimmy's emotional burping, it was subtle enough that it didn't distract but just noticeable enough for the Jinx fans to be like ooooh shit! I wished they wouldn't have pointed it out what they were referencing and just left it there. Your audience aren't complete idiots. they'll figure it out or they won't and that's okay. Just as a side note though, I would watch an entire show of Kimmy just watching YouTube videos.
So all in all, I was not impressed by season 2, there were moments where for a moment it felt like how it used to be but it could never quite capture that fun, bright, colorful energy. It seemed like it was trying so hard to do that, that it seemed even more cartoonish and less sharp. Meh. Season 3 Tina Fey? Give me a call first, girl
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Next week-ish I shall take on Agents of SHIELD so get ready nerds!!
I'm going to keep this shit short and sweet for y'all. Now I haven't read any reviews or even talked about this season with anyone, so this whole bloggy thingymajig- this is Colleen: Raw and Unfiltered. (Ew) So to start, if I summed up season 2 of Kimmy Schmidt in a word, it would be underwhelming and if I summed it up in a facial expression it would be
via GIPHY
JUST KIDDING! (not about my summation, just about keeping it short and sweet. That was misleading. this is going to be long and sour) Onward to face Colleen's disappointment!
I could go on and on about what I didn't really care for this season (and ugh you know I will) but the easiest way for me to explain this is the show lost it's spark. Maybe it's just a sophomore slump, maybe it's a Heroes (that's when a TV show has one great season and you love it but then the following seasons are so terrible but you still watch thinking, hey they could come back from this and then you travel into a spiral of shame and disappointment and by the end you hate yourself because you still continue to watch that fucking show. It's much more severe than a Dexter, Dexter has 2 great seasons and less episodes, you don't quite get to self loathing. I never watched the last season so I'm probably wrong on the Dexter thing...) but either way, it never really clicked. It had less jokes, less 30 Rock cutbacks, and lots of cameos that fell flat (I'm talking about you, Tina Fey. This hurts me.). It never really found it's momentum- there's no Peeno Noir moment, no stand out episodes, no whimsy (I promise I liked things though, I swear!). Maybe it's just growing pains, maybe growing up is just things getting shittier and shittier (and realizing you're going to be paying some bitch named Sallie Mae $300 every month for the rest of your life until you die and then you start to hope that Death's knock comes sooner rather than later... just me then?), either way it's less fun. Instead of everything being fun and neat and new, Kimmy is seeing the world the way it really is, and it's making the show all bummed out too. She doesn't seem like the only color in the room full of grays. She's a little drab herself.
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There's still a bit of a race issue though it's improved from last season. They stopped playing that music every time Dong came on the screen and though they doubled down on the whitewashing of Jacqueline's Native American background, it's to take on the Washington Redskins (progress? let's call that one a wash.). But then on the other hand, they pretty much remove Donna Maria altogether from the show (poor little nugget). When Titus puts on a show about his past life as a geisha, the internet gets all Chandler Bing (seriously, that was one of my favorite moments. Fuck you internet *insert crying laughing emoji here*), that felt like the writers taking on criticism from season 1 about the super random racism. "It's only racist because you don't get where they are coming from." No, actually, sometimes things are just fucking racist.
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There were some hits and misses with the cameos this season. Tina Fey for one. I loved her cameo last season as Marcia Clark (and I'm going to be honest with you guys, it literally took me until the third watch to realize she was playing the prosecutor from the OJ trial, what the fuck is wrong with me?) but this season she's a therapist with a drunk alter ego? NAH. Kimmy needs to go to therapy but for whatever reason Tina Fey as the therapist fell flat for me. Another cameo which didn't make sense was Fred Armisen's Robert Durst. Don't get me wrong, it was a great Robert Durst but it felt like it was shoved in there because of the popularity of the Jinx last year which in of itself is not a good enough reason. Even David Cross's character. I mean how do you mess up a David Cross character? Isn't him just standing there ENOUGH? But this time it wasn't. Other cameos though were fucking great. The blonde girl from Pitch Perfect had some serious chemistry Jane Krakowski and that little bit of outwitting each other was a lot of fun (personally I'm pretty sure the blonde girl from Pitch Perfect is how the girls I went to high school ended up. It helps me sleep well at night, all smug.) Jeff Goldblum was delightful as a shitbag Dr. Oz (I guess that's just a normal Dr. Oz). This season we get to finally meet Kimmy's mom and while I was initially disappointed (I really wanted it to be Amy Poehler, I know she's not old enough but it just seemed right), Lisa Kudrow is really terrific (and kinda funny considering all the Friends references). And can I just say that the PACEY cameo, hot DAMN Joshua Jackson looking good, and as great as Dawson's Creek (it's not) is, Fringe is where my shit is and I'ma totally gonna rewatch that....AGAIN.
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Titus was probably one of the two things that was perfect this season. The funniest moments of the season were because of him (and Lillian but we'll get to her later). I'm going to be honest with you, Titus explaining that the internet talks like Chandler broke my fucking brain. He grew so much this season too, starting off with his wife (GASP!) from Mississippi to actually falling in love and for the first time ever, putting someone before Titus (DOUBLE GASP!) His relationship with construction worker Mikey is just too fucking cute and it was so nice to have someone outside of Lillian and Kimmy to see the magic in Titus like we see. Seriously I'm probably going to bring it up a bunch because I am shipping Mikey and Titus so hard, they are the cutest, bestest, funniest, greatest and they made my cold black heart grow 3 sizes. Titus this season also started asking the REAL questions, the ones we should've been asking ourselves all this time, like about Cate Blanchett. (K: Cate Blanchett is a good actress! T: is she though? or is she just tall?) Is she just tall? Omg I'm dying. But you know what? He's not wrong...
i call this "moscato blanc: on ode to italian penises"
Lillian is the other thing that was so perfect this season. My last post I said she was sort of my spirit animal, that's not enough. She is me, or rather I will be her in 30 years- falling in love with a creepy murderer, all of it. Her fight against the gentrification of her neighborhood is hilarious and heartbreaking. I say heartbreaking because in three years I won't be able to live where I live now thanks to the fucking hipsters crossing the river from OTR to CVG. HEY GUYS, COVINGTON SUCKS AND IS FILLED WITH HEROIN AND THE WATER IS LIKE FLINT MICHIGAN STAY IN OHIO. But it doesn't matter, someone said there was a secret speakeasy in the backroom so it won't be long until there's some sort of fucking nonsense like an artisanal mayonnaise place and our streets are filled with "ethnic" food trucks made by white dudes named Todd. I kept cracking up when she kept trying to fight people but no one took her seriously because she's a little old lady (RUN LILLIAN! is going to be my new catchphrase), And while a lot of the stuff she says is really funny, partially because its funny but a lot of because it's how she delivers it, like for example "Sesame Street was based on this neighborhood... because of that guy that lives in a dumpster", a lot of the gentrification stuff struck a chord with me. I know I joke about the OTR hipsters (is it joking though...) but gentrification is real fucked up. It's a bunch of people going into the homes of people who already live there and telling them they don't deserve to live there, we're going to fix this place up, and displacing a whole group of people just because they are fiscally disadvantaged. "We're going to make the neighborhood nicer" is just a polite way of saying "we're going to make this neighborhood whiter". I mean that's not always the case (it was in OTR though) but when the fucking man bun, mustache twirling, bare midriff, "I've always loved grunge and dressed like this" fucktards start to make their way across the river, it will be a displacement of people from all races here in Covington. I mean all that will be left will still be white but they'll be getting rid of white people too, the less desirable whites (me). I guess I don't understand gentrification. I don't know why you'd want to live in an area where everything is the same, all the restaurants, the people, the music. It's like you're bringing the suburbs into the city and calling it something else. It sounds boring as shit. I like that one block in one direction I can get a fancy steak dinner and pay way too much for a bottle of wine and a block in the other direction and be asked for money to buy heroin while I stand next to a car where a hooker is giving a blow job (#KeepCovingtonCheap). Covington is the worst, I hear there's this new gang called F 10 5, so you best watch out....
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Sorry I know that was a heavy rant. The Lillian in me took over. Maybe I should run for office too....
Something that this season did well just like last season, and like its big sister 30 rock before it, were all the pop culture references. I got a big kick of everyone knowing too much about the Kardashians and being confused as to how. Dong has the best Kardashian impression and it depresses me a little that I knew it was a Kardashian impression. Another fun ("fun") pop culture reference was to the Jinx with Kimmy's emotional burping, it was subtle enough that it didn't distract but just noticeable enough for the Jinx fans to be like ooooh shit! I wished they wouldn't have pointed it out what they were referencing and just left it there. Your audience aren't complete idiots. they'll figure it out or they won't and that's okay. Just as a side note though, I would watch an entire show of Kimmy just watching YouTube videos.
So all in all, I was not impressed by season 2, there were moments where for a moment it felt like how it used to be but it could never quite capture that fun, bright, colorful energy. It seemed like it was trying so hard to do that, that it seemed even more cartoonish and less sharp. Meh. Season 3 Tina Fey? Give me a call first, girl
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Next week-ish I shall take on Agents of SHIELD so get ready nerds!!
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