Humor Returns For Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 3!

The Good: Very funny, Good performances, Moments of character
The Bad: Meandering and predictable plots, Imbalance in main cast over the course of the season
The Basics: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season Three manages to develop the characters of the show while being very funny, making for the best season of the comedy yet.


When it comes to Netflix comedies, there have been few I have had more mixed feelings on than Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (reviewed here!) went in a far more dramatic direction than the first season would have indicated and I was not wowed by the addition of Amy Sedaris to the cast in the recurring role of Mimi Kanasis. Ultimately, Kimmy letting her narcissistic mother off seemed like a cheap resolution after the surprisingly deep psychological work Kimmy did throughout the rest of the season and ending the season at essentially the same place as the first (Jacqueline having left New York City in the first season was replaced with Titus having left New York City in the second, Titus being married as the big reveal at the climax of season one was replaced with Kimmy being revealed to be married at the end of season two) was utterly disappointing. So, when I sat down to watch Season Three of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, I was, admittedly, a little less excited about it than I might be with other shows.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 3 picks up the adventures of Kimmy Schmidt after she has been out of the bunker she was trapped in for fifteen years. Now living with wannabe actor Titus Andromedon in the basement of Lillian's apartment (tugboat), Kimmy has her GED and is working to un-entangle her life from that of the villainous Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne.

The thirteen-episode third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt includes the episodes:

"Kimmy Gets Divorced?!" which finds Kimmy getting her G.E.D. She is inspired by Lillian to apply to college and encouraged by Jacqueline to delay signing her divorce papers. When Titus returns from the cruise, he is hesitant to track down Mickey because of his failure to come back with a lot of money, so he appeals to his enemy to get a job on Sesame Street. Lillian, now running for District Council, dumps Bobby and Kimmy learns just how expensive college will be, which leads her to take an alternate tact in her divorce,

"Kimmy's Roommate Lemonades!" is a concept episode that mirrors Titus Andromedon's relationship collapsing with parody tracks from Beyonce's Lemonade. Kimmy takes a tour of a local college where she meets a philosophy student after she discovers from a job aptitude test that her ideal career is "crossing guard." When Jacqueline attempts to present funds from her boyfriend's foundation to clean up the neighborhood, she is blocked by Lillian. When Lillian and Jacqueline both realize that Kimmy is the only registered voter in the neighborhood, both women attempt to exert influence over Kimmy to get her vote. As Titus recognizes his relationship with Mikey is doomed because he is Mike's first relationship as a gay man, Mikey realizes he has been having an emotional affair on Titus and both Titus and Kimmy have to make big decisions,

"Kimmy Can't Help You!" in which Jacqueline has her first real chance to get Russ's family to change the name of the Washington Redskins. Working with Russ, she tries to stage a fight with him as Russ's father's 75th birthday party, but in the process Russ gets slowly run over by a car. While Jacqueline stays by Russ's side, Russ's family sees her as a public relations victory to their team name problem. Back at the apartment, Titus and Kimmy meet the woman who wants to marry the Reverend when she brings the divorce papers there,

"Kimmy Goes To College!" - Kimmy joins the app Task Rabbit to earn money to afford tuition. She ends up running errands at Columbia University, where she is reunited with Xanthippe. While Lillian represents East Dogmouth on the District Council by filibustering against Big Naturals grocery store that wants to move there, Titus advances his singing career by providing backing vocals on right-wing songs,

"Kimmy Steps On A Crack!" which opens with Kimmy being approached by the FBI to talk Gretchen out of a situation she has gotten into. Jacqueline, meanwhile, entertains her new in-laws. Lillian helps diagnose Titus with scurvy and the two head out into Dogmouth to try to find fresh fruit. Gretchen has tried to form her own cult and the FBI is after her for taking children (as "child husbands") hostage. And, she's armed to the teeth!

"Kimmy Is A Feminist!" finds Kimmy going to a college party. There, she realizes that the privileged students going to Columbia are incredibly immature. Meanwhile, Jacqueline is besieged by her new husband's brother, Duke. Duke attempts to seduce her but with Titus and Lillian's help, Jacqueline works to get everything she needs to take on the NFL over the Redskin name!

"Kimmy Learns About The Weather!" opens with Titus having nightmare flashbacks of his time on the cruise. Kimmy tries to talk with Titus about Perry, but gets caught up with watching weather reports instead. Kimmy gets furious at how the weatherman is instilling fear in New York, while Titus goes on a quest against Big Pharma to get residuals for a commercial his voice was used in. And Lillian accidentally starts a strike, which leads her and Artie Goodman to have a surprisingly frank conversation.

"Kimmy Does A Puzzle!" has Titus finally explaining what happened to him on the cruise ship. When the storm hits New York, Kimmy, Titus, Artie and Lillian hunker down in Kimmy's new fun bunker. In Kimmy's "funker," Titus begins to unpack his horrible experience on the cruise.

"Kimmy Goes To Church!" has Titus bringing Kimmy to church on Good Friday. While Kimmy embraces the positivity of the church, Titus makes a new enemy in the form of an old woman whom he believes to be a busybody who is out to ruin his attempts to get into the choir. While Titus tries to entrap his adversary, Jacqueline encounters Diedre again. With Lillian's help, though, Jacqueline is able to move past caring about what other people think about her.

"Kimmy Pulls Off A Heist!" finds Jacqueline ready to take on the football owner's meeting to change the name of the Washington Redskins. That puts her at odds with her new father-in-law and Duke. Meanwhile, Titus becomes obsessed with getting a key from the local gas station where he does all of his bathrooming. Seeing the protest against the Redskins, Jacqueline comes up with a way to appeal to the management team's greed to get the name changed.

"Kimmy Googles The Internet!" where the title explains the whole premise. When Perry and Kimmy attend a soiree at a professor's house, she learns about Google because her professor tells everyone she was a Mole Woman. Looking up her online presence, Kimmy freaks out and goes in search of Andrea to make things right. At the same time, Titus starts dating Ruben, but freaks out when he learns about Ruben's daughter Linda. He comes to realize he is not truly over Mikey.

"Kimmy And The Trolley Problem!" puts Kimmy in a moral dilemma when her philosophy professor suggests she could do more to be a good person. Feeling low about herself, she agrees to appear on Xanthipe's campus television show to talk about her experience in the bunker. Jacqueline starts to get to know Russ after he comes out of reconstructive surgery looking amazing. Artie and Lillian start to plan their first trip together when Artie wants to take her to Europe. Jacqueline takes a meeting with executives at Bravo to try to get exposure for a charity important to her.

and "Kimmy Bites An Onion!" ends the season with Kimmy trying to pass a chemistry test and taking a job as a crossing guard. As Jacqueline fights for Titus's rightful compensation for "Boobs In California," Lillian tries to find Artie a new heart.

The third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt remembers to bring back the funny while still maintaining the characters who have been established. Like the first season, the third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has a lot of incredibly funny, laugh-out-loud hilarious lines. The non-sequitors are delivered expertly, while still maintaining the integrity of the show's characters.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is also delightfully daring by calling out the modern (faux-)feminist movement in "Kimmy Is A Feminist!" Graphically illustrating just how ridiculous the "we're empowered by doing everything men want us to do" argument is, "Kimmy Is A Feminist!" is fearless in its attack on the faux-left. . . while still being hilarious.

Finding the balance between humor, advancing the plots and advancing the characters while being true to them is a mark of good writing and the character work in the third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is quite good. To better understand the characters, it helps to know that in the third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the primary characters are:

Kimmy Schmidt - Now in possession of her G.E.D., she is determined to go to college. She contests the divorce with Reverend Wayne in order to get assets to fund her college tuition. She takes a job aptitude test to learn that her ideal career is that of a crossing guard and she begins to pursue a college degree with that as her goal. When she impresses the members of the crew team, she manages to get a full scholarship to Columbia University. She has to talk down her old bunkermate when Cyndi starts her own cult and the FBI is called in. She starts to develop a new romantic relationship, but rejects him when the philosophy major expresses a desire to get a divinity degree. She has a negative reaction to the infotainment version of weather reports in New York City and when she tries to survive the storm, she accidentally remakes the bunker experience with her friends. When she learns about Google, she becomes terrified that Perry knows her deepest secrets.

Titus Andromedon - Washing up on a beach, he returns home broke. He is furious with Mikey when he sees his boyfriend go into his home with another man. He sees in Mikey's desperation a mirror of his first failed relationship and sets Mikey free, even after rejecting a sexual harassment advance that would have landed him a good job on Sesame Street. He gets scurvy and has to eat fruits and vegetables for the first time in a very, very, very long time. He works to help Jacqueline fend of Duke by playing straight and interested in her. His voice is used for a bladder control commercial against his will. He gets told off by Kimmy when he acts self-centered during the funker experience. He starts to reject Reuben when he learns his new paramour has a daughter named Linda.

Jacqueline White (formerly Voorhees, now Snyder?) - She encourages Kimmy to use her divorce to get back at Reverend Wayne. Still dating the do-gooder Russ, she tries to improve Lillian's neighborhood and finds herself at odds with her friend. She starts working with Russ to get the Washington Redskins name changed, but accidentally gets Russ run over and marrying him when he is unconscious instead! She recovers Russ's grandmother's secret recipe for corn pudding and has to cook for the first time in years! She fends off Russ's brother, Duke, with Titus and Lillian's help, getting the keys to defeating her new in-laws in the process. She leads the fight from within to get the Redskins name changed, even though her family does not believe in her. When Russ is about to come out of the Smoosh Ward, she takes care of Mimi in preparation and freaks out.

Lillian Kaushtupper - Now running for District Council, she dumps Bobby because he is the son of the biggest neighborhood developer in the area. Determined to keep the neighborhood from gentrification, she is elected by convincing Kimmy to vote for her. Once elected, though, she finds her power on the District Council is exceptionally limited. She takes a stand against Big Naturals and ends up as their community support liaison. She actually finds herself relying on Big Naturals to get Titus healthy and she helps Jacqueline fend off Duke. When she mentioned the 2nd Avenue Subway to Artie, she is shocked when Goodman actually revives the long-dead project! She starts a real relationship with Artie later on and they both have to wrestle with their past relationships while developing their new relationship.

Russ - Recognizing that his father, the owner of the Washington Redskins, hates him but loves Jacqueline, he works with Jacqueline to change the team's name. When his brother is promoted to owner, Russ gets run over by a car and while he is in traction, his family convinces Jacqueline to marry him! He eventually comes out of the coma and traction and renews his relationship with his new wife. Unfortunately, looking traditionally good leads to some unfortunate personality changes for the man who was once a social justice lawyer.

Mikey - After having what he believed was an innocent friendship with another man, he is dumped by Titus. He starts to date after Titus pushes him away, but he does not seem nearly as happy as when he was with Titus.

and Artie Goodman - The owner of the massive Big Naturals grocery store chain, he calmly deals with Lillian's hatred for his development of East Dogmouth. Slowly, he convinces Lillian that he is a good guy who wants to help the people of her neighborhood. He has a heart problem that leads him to try to get the most out of life.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 3 is a lot of fun and it includes a fun crossover with Orange Is The New Black and a wonderful recurring role played by Peter Riegert. Riegert plays Artie very calmly and when he delivers some of the season's funniest lines, his deadpan is amazingly funny! As well, Tina Fey helped get many of her 30 Rock co-stars cameos in the third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The little guest roles are funny and seeing Scott Atsit and Judah Friedlander again is wonderful!

Ellie Kemper and Tituss Burgess are incredible in the third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Burgess and Kemper have both great comic timing to land the jokes and surprisingly serious deliveries to accurately sell the dramatic moments. Ultimately, the third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a good balance of humor and genuine character development.

For other works from the 2016 – 2017 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 4
Sense8 - Season 2
Dear White People - Season 1
"Out Of Time" - Legends Of Tomorrow
"Oxygen" - Doctor Who
The Walking Dead - Season 7
Thirteen Reasons Why - Season 1
Grace And Frankie - Season 3
Iron Fist - Season 1
Love - Season 2
Santa Clarita Diet - Season 1
A Series Of Unfortunate Events - Season 1
One Day At A Time - Season 1
Travelers - Season 1
The OA - Season 1
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
"Invasion!" - Arrow
"Infantino Street" - The Flash
"Resist" - Supergirl
Luke Cage - Season 1
Stranger Things - Season 1

6/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Character Progression, With Less Humor: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season Two Treads Surprisingly Dramatic.

The Good: Good character development, Moments of creativity, Tituss Burgess's performance
The Bad: Dramatic imbalance of both humor and characters, Some troubling plot and character conceits especially as the season progresses
The Basics: After an initial burst of humor consistent with the first season, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season Two treads toward the predictable and dramatic, undermining itself.


There are very few works that I review and then have a significant change of heart on later. What some people do not realize about reviewers is that most are attempting speed and accuracy when reviewing and, in order to stay current, early or timely reviews are always the most sought-after. When it comes to television reviews, there are very few reviewers, myself included, who usually view a television season or episode multiple times before reviewing it. As a result, there are, occasionally, works that I come to appreciate more over multiple viewings - if it is something that I enjoyed enough to ever put on again (life is too short for second chances, most reviewers will note!). One of the few works that I would probably have rated higher in retrospect now is the first season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (reviewed here!). After all, the first season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has become one of the most quoted shows of late around my home. My wife and I find reasons to quote it almost daily, which is saying something.

So, I decided not to rush my review of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 2. The thirteen episode season has been out since April and I'm on my third viewing of it. My wife and I eagerly binge watched the second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt the day it was released . . . and it took us another three months to come back to it. I was worried about reviewing the show right away, but the truth is, my first instinct with the second season was a pretty accurate one: the second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is almost a completely different show than the first season. For sure, there are elements that are seeded into the first season, most notably Lillian's offhanded remarks about the neighborhood changing and gentrification, that play out in big ways in the second season. Viewers even learn what is up with Kimmy Schmidt and Velcro. But more than being zany and funny, with an incredible quotable quality, the second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt goes for serious, moody, and more realistic the longer it goes on. The result is a season where the characters grow and develop in interesting ways, but their journeys are seldom funny.

Opening with Kimmy and her friends celebrating Christmas, which includes Jacqueline's friend Mimi and is crashed by Dong's wife Sonja, the show flashes back three months. Titus is stuck dealing with the woman he married almost twenty years ago when he was still Ronald Wilkerson, while Kimmy tries to help him. Jacqueline remains with her family in Sioux land, trying hard to return to her Native American roots, but annoying them instead. After Titus makes peace with his past, he makes the difficult decisions that come with cleaning out his closet. Kimmy helps Xanthippe move on from the townhouse after her father sells it and she is forced to move to Connecticutt.

As Jacqueline attempts to re-enter New York's social scene, Titus begins a serious relationship and Kimmy struggles to financially support herself without working for Jacqueline. When the Wi-Fi is set up in the neighborhood, Lillian becomes furious about the gentrification, but Titus and Kimmy use it to make money by renting their apartment out as a B and B. Kimmy becomes an Uber driver, which connects her with a therapist who encourages her to get closure by finding her mother.

The second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a season very much out of balance. After Jacqueline starts pursuing the lawyer, she is written out of the show for three episodes. When Tina Fey arrives in the season, she dominates every scene she is in. The show becomes experimental as it goes more dramatic; Kimmy sees her "happy place" as an animated Disney-like place and one of Mikey's family members is a puppet. But a Titus becomes more serious by mentoring a young man and becomes part of a serious relationship, the show tends to become more predictable and less funny. Mikey coming out to his family, predictably, goes very well for him and the episode plays droll as Titus has to force his way into being the center of attention. Similarly, while the whole Dr. Dave concept is delightfully satirical, the pop psychology entertainment idea is not funny.

Lillian's fight against developing the neighborhood is also good character development, but it is not really funny. Instead, it's sad to watch the woman whose best memories are tied to the neighborhood as it was, try desperately to save it from hipsters and developers. Jacqueline's arc, when they get back to her, seems like pretty much where she began the season. She wanted to help her family and so the idea that she might become interested in an ethical person, instead of just reverting to wanting a rich guy to get back into society, seemed pretty obvious, as opposed to audacious.

In the second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the primary characters are:

Kimmy Schmidt - Still hung up on Dong, from her G.E.D. class, despite him being married and overrun with silverfish in his apartment, she becomes terrified that Titus will simply abandon her. She tries to act as an intermediary between Titus and Vonda. She gets a new job working at a year-round Christmas store while Jacqueline is out West. After chasing Dong, she falls asleep while taking the G.E.D. and she has to stand up to Jacqueline when her friend is not financially able to keep her on as an employee. They reach a compromise, which allows Kimmy to use Jacqueline's stolen cop car to be an Uber driver. Through that job, she meets Andrea - a crazed drunk woman by night, generally professional therapist by day - and starts to deal with the feelings she repressed since being abducted. That leads her on a quest to find her mother and figure out who her true family is,

Titus Andromedon - Struggling with the consequences of abandoning Vonda, he is forced to face Kimmy's fears that he will abandon her. When Kimmy confronts him, he starts to exhibit traits of someone suffering from multiple personality disorder. After launching a one-man play featuring his geisha personality, which earns the ire of the Asian-American community, he goes on a date with Mikey and starts his first serious relationship of his adult life. He becomes more moody when he realizes that he is happy and reverts to form when Mikey confesses he is not a big talker. When Mikey comes out to his family, he hijacks the experience,

Jacqueline White (formerly Voorhees) - After trying to reclaim her identity as Jackie Lynn, she becomes a pain in the ass to her family. She returns to New York City where she attempts to win over the snobby mothers at her son's private school. She tries to compete with Deirdre and that leads her to overbid at an art auction. She attempts to create a charity to raise money for the Sioux, but has a rough time attracting patrons. To deal with her son, Buckley, she turns to medicating him. After trying the medication herself, she takes her son off it. She knocks out her own tooth and, soon after, she and Kimmy fall out over her inability to pay Kimmy. She literally walks in another woman's shoes in order to get her tooth fixed and, in the process of trying to raise money for the First People, she thwarts Deirdre and realizes just how loathesome most of her old society "friends" actually are. When the family that rightfully owns the painting she bought sues her for it, she works with Lillian to swindle the insurance company for its value before meeting a lawyer who she starts to pursue to get back into upper class society,

Lillian Kaushtupper - Titus and Kimmy's addled slumlord, she encourages Kimmy to explore moral relativism after she runs into her old lover, Robert. She becomes convinced a new gang has moved into the neighborhood and is heartbroken to learn that the neighborhood is getting high-speed internet and attracting hipsters. She advises Kimmy to give up on pursuing Dong, when she sees how much pursuing the married man hurts Kimmy. She locks herself to a bulldozer to protest, even as she advises on Titus on his sudden inkling to have children,

Gretchen - She joins a new cult, the Church Of Cosmotology, which leads Kimmy to kidknap her to save her. Kimmy realizes she has never had to think for herself after a terrible night out together and Kimmy convinces her to form her own cult,

Cindy - She returns to New York to meet her "therapist" only to discover that he is a television personality who uses victims of disasters for his shows,

and Mikey - After coming out to Titus last season, he randomly takes Titus's donated clothes out of a dumpster, which starts off a new relationship. He is a construction worker, who is not out with his co-workers and he goes out on a limb to hit on Titus. He has an awkward first date with Titus, but has a lot of love for the much more experienced man. On his first date with Titus, he is so nervous that he talks quite a bit, which is very different from how he usually is. After coming out to his family, he gets ill and that tests his relationship with Titus.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 2 starts with a lot of potential with "Kimmy Goes Roller Skating!" but by the end of the teaser to the fourth episode, almost all of the elements are in place for the more serious elements that come to dominate the season.

Titus Andromedon has the most significant and consistent character arc of the second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and the role finally gives Tituss Burgess something to play that viewers have not seen from the actor before. In the second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Burgess starts to explore his character falling in love and committing to a serious relationship, instead of playing to the parody elements of his character.

Tina Fey, Ellie Kemper, Carol Kane and Jane Krakowski each play their characters with consistency and well within the range they have exhibited in other projects. Amy Sedaris is especially distracting in her scenes as Mimi and every time she is on screen, the viewer is aware they are watching Sedaris, as opposed to the character she is supposed to be portraying.

The second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is not bad, but the genuine character development and moments of Tituss Burgess's exceptional performances are crammed between unfortunately canned plot conceits and dramatic moments that completely change the tone of the usually zany production.

For other works from the 2015 – 2016 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Legends Of Tomorrow - Season 1
Jessica Jones - Season 1
Daredevil - Season 2
House Of Cards - Season 4
Doctor Who - Season 9

4/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Four Couples Brunch At The Apocalypse When It’s A Disaster!

The Good: Very funny, Good character development, Decent acting, Realistic
The Bad: Packs in a bit much for ninety minutes.
The Basics: It’s A Disaster! is anything but; it’s a funny, clever and well-developed comedy well worth watching!


The Rapture is easy pickings for comedy. The concept of a structured Apocalypse that will follow the literal words of a dream from a man thousands of years ago (read closely, Fundamentalists: Revelation is a book written as a record of John’s dream, not a direct divine interaction) is ripe for picking apart by those with a smart, comedic mind. Hell, the writers who pick apart Revelation don’t even have to be smart. In the last year, Revelation has been the subject of the comedic films Rapture-Palooza (reviewed here!) and This Is The End (reviewed here!). The latest I have encountered is the smaller-budget film It’s A Disaster!. It’s A Disaster! might well be the best of the bunch; it is more subtle, rewatchable, and keeps a focus strongly on the characters in the film as opposed to the plot conceit that it employs.

It’s A Disaster! is a realistic interpretation of the Apocalypse and its cleverness works because it keeps the focus tightly on the characters who would stand at the outside of the cataclysmic event. The focus of the film are normal people who hear about a major biological attack ten miles away and find themselves waiting for death and pain. The film is subtle, realistically paced and evolves exceptionally well, doing a lot of credit to independent films. Like most independent movies, It’s A Disaster! trades on substance over star power. In fact, the celeb list is pretty much limited to David Cross, Julia Stiles and America Ferrera, with the rest of the cast fleshed out by people I did not recognize at all.

Four couples converge upon the Mandrake house for their Sunday brunch. Glen Randolph is meeting Tracy Scott’s friends for the first time. Tracy has a history of dating crazy men, but she thinks she has found a good guy with Glen. Tracy’s friends include Hedy (a schoolteacher) and Shane (who is obsessed with getting a comic book off eBay), Lexi (who is high on coke) and Buck (who might be an absolute idiot), and Emma and Pete (who are hosting the brunch and who are avoiding telling their friends of their impending divorce). While Pete breaks the ice with Glen, Buck becomes obsessed with the football game and Shane continues to try to get his smartphone’s internet connection to work. When the internet connection is lost and the power goes out, Pete assumes Emma did not pay the bill and their divorce is revealed.

At that time, their neighbor Hal reveals that a dirty bomb was set off in the city nearby and they will all die without proper supplies. In the wake of that revelation, infidelities come out and plans are made to survive the attack. Shane is paranoid about who might have attacked, Emma reveals that she and Buck had an affair after Lexi inadvertently lets slip that she had a fling with Pete. As the day progresses, Tracy proves she has what it takes to survive, Hedy goes into shock and Glen is outed as just as crazy as some of Tracy’s prior boyfriends.

It’s A Disaster! is funny largely in the lines, as opposed to the situation. Tracy uses the apocalypse as a way to finally get revenge on the perpetually-late Jenny and Gordon with dark and hilarious results. Glen continues to look for solace and solitude, but is interrupted by Lexi and Buck trying to score a threesome and Hedy who just comes in to pee while he sits in the tub. There is a great deal of humor in both the set-up and the execution. The humor starts out right away with Tracy revealing her pet peeve is not hearing the end to songs that are on the radio and Pete cornering Glen to have a real conversation about a hypothetical problem.

The performances in It’s A Disaster! are absolutely solid. Julia Stiles is good as Tracy, though her deliveries are virtually identical to those of Erica Christensen. Still, Stiles is solid. America Ferrera gives viewers something completely new as Hedy. Hedy is a chemistry teacher who takes the apocalypse hard and Ferrera presents a wide array of emotion without ever once hinting at being the same actress who led Ugly Betty for years. In fact, she is at her best when she plays Hedy with a strong lack of emotions that makes dead-eyed seem brilliant. For me, newcomers (to me) Erinn Hayes (Emma) and Blaise Miller (Pete) rock the movie with incredible on-screen chemistry and nuance that makes their characters wonderful.

David Cross surprised me with his performance as Glen. Not at all wacky, Cross plays Glen with an utter deadpan and a lack of foulmouth delivery that is unlike anything else I have seen him in.

Ultimately, It’s A Disaster! is funny, well-performed and original. It held up well over multiple viewings and that is more than can be said about most of the apocalyptic comedies made in the last year. That, if nothing else, makes it well worth watching and even adding to one’s permanent collection.

For other works with Erinn Hayes, please check out my reviews of:
The Watch
Parenthood - Season 1
Kitchen Confidential
Rumor Has It. . .

7.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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It’s Back! But Season Four Of Arrested Development Is Hardly Great.

The Good: Wonderful character development/progression, Great in-jokes
The Bad: Very different tone (to start out with).
The Basics: With fifteen episodes, Netflix returns Arrested Development with the entire original cast but short on the charm that made the first three seasons a classic.


When it was announced that Arrested Development (reviewed here!) was being given a fourth season, I was working at a blogging job for a small computer company. In the days that followed the announcement, Netflix revealed that its subscriber base had abruptly increased. I recall writing about how it was incredible that the loyal fan base of Arrested Development would show support for the preproduction by subscribing years ahead of the programs actual release. Today, I find myself wondering what will happen tomorrow. With Season Four of Arrested Development dropping in a single fifteen episode block on Netflix (an event my wife and I enjoyed partaking of beginning at 3 A.M. this morning), I wonder how long that fan base will stick with Netflix. It seemed to me like a tactical miscalculation to release the entire season all at once instead of drawing the season out in order to actually keep those subscribers.

My musings on the relationship between Netflix and Arrested Development is a valid one, but it is also a delaying tactic. The delay comes from not wanting to (inevitably) lose the readers who stop reading after they see the line, “it’s enjoyable, but it lacks the spark that Arrested Development had originally.” Because Season Four has to figure out where all the characters have been since the previous season’s finale, it spends a great deal of time re-establishing characters and filling in the plot and character developments from the past few years and telling new viewers what the loyal fans already know (“Stan Sitwell suffered from alopecia . . .”).

That is not to say that season four is without charm. Mary Lynn Rajskub joins George Sr.’s storyline as a silent character named Heart Fire, who is subtitled hilariously and there is quite a bit of humor pertaining to the housing market collapse in the late 2000’s. The appearance of the cast of Comedy Central’s Workaholics (season 1 reviewed here!) as airport personnel, the watermarks on the screen for all footage from the prior three seasons (“Showstealer Pro Trial Version“), and in-jokes to the original series (like Lindsay wearing the blouse from the first episode) are all cute, but there is nothing in this season as distinctive as “There’s always money in the banana stand” or “No touching!” In other words, it has moments where it is good, but the new version of the show is hardly as distinctive or fresh as it originally was (though “Three does sound bigger” came close). The refreshing aspect of Season Four of Arrested Development is that, after a clunky start, it does get better so that by the longer episode “Red Hairing” the show is actually funny and fun again.

Flashing back to the final episode of Season Three, the fourth season of Arrested Development is built around how none of the members of the Bluth family showed up for Lucille’s hearing in maritime court. The episodes then work up to all of the characters converging on the Quatro De Mayo harbor celebration!

After indebting himself to Lucille Austero and missing his mother’s hearing in maritime court, Michael Bluth finishes the Sudden Valley housing development and when it goes bust, he moves in with George Michael in his son’s college dorm room before fleeing to Pheonix. George Sr. flees to the Mexican border after buying property there to try to sell to the U.S. government to use to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants. After Lindsay goes to India on a spiritual retreat, she and Tobias buy a mini-mansion in 2006 and end up at a Methadone Clinic (Tobias thinks it’s “Method One Clinic”) where Lindsay meets Mark Bark, the son of Johnny Bark, the guy she once spent time with in a tree. Tobias ends up as methadone addict and actor while Michael goes to work for Imagine Entertainment. G.O.B. pops up, having started an unsuccessful Christian magic act before George Sr. asks Michael to give him a job. The episodes build up to the hearing and then deals with the aftermath, building up to the Quatro de Cinco and the aftermath of the collapse of Herbert Love’s campaign.

Opening with “Flight Of The Phoenix,” Michael Bluth finds himself in debt to Lucille Austero to the tune of $700,000. After debasing himself with her, he flees to the old model home he and G.O.B. uses a roofie on him. Six months prior that forgetful Quatro de Mayo, Michael was attending the University Of Phoenix while living in George Michael’s college dorm room at UC Irvine. George Michael, his new roommate and Maeby (posing as George Michael’s boyfriend) vote Michael out of the room and he flees to Phoenix, as he has long threatened to do.

“Borderline Personalities” picks up the story of George Sr. and his twin brother, Oscar where the pair is working on fleecing executives in a sweat lodge on the border of California and Mexico. The complicated scheme – whereby Oscar and George swap positions between a sweat lodge and an “inspirational classroom” type situation to get money out of the CEOs – is how George Sr. is avoiding of government questioning after stealing Stan Sitwell’s border wall contract out from under him!

A particularly humorless episode, “Indian Takers” tells the story of how Lindsay ended up in Shuturmurg, India on a mystical journey that ends up in a shopping trip. Returning to the U.S., she trades positive testimony at Lucille’s hearing for a house with Tobias and a fling with Mark Bark. She finds herself on an ostrich farm, missing Lucille’s hearing.

“The B. Team” returns to Michael’s story as he gets a producing credit in Beverly Hills as he goes to work for Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. Loaded with in-jokes and the return of Kitty Sanchez, this episode follows Michael’s quest to get his father to sign his life rights to the project in order to make it happen. Along the way, he assembles a creative team with Warden Gentles, Carl Weathers, and Andy Richter in a pretty righteous lampooning of the Hollywood “creative process.” And he starts dating a mysterious woman who turns out to be the most obvious person possible given the set-up . . .

In “A New Start,” opens with Tobias getting entrapped on a local To Catch A Predator television show and is flashed back to how he went to India! After fracturing his skull in three places, Tobias ends up in City Of Hopelessness Hospital in India! Returning to the United States, Tobias recommits to being an actor and ends up working with Debrie where he tries to make money having his picture taken as the Thing while Debrie goes as the Invisible Woman and the two get repeatedly arrested and fined.

George Sr.’s story is picked up in “Double Crossers.” George Sr. works to aid Republican Herbert Love. After effectively bribing the politician, George discovers that Oscar’s land is not actually on the border. Oscar, posing as George convinces Lucille to send G.O.B. to work on the border. When that does not work out, G.O.B. comes to work for Michael trying to sell the units in Sudden Valley.

Gob’s story comes out in “Collony Collapse.” Before the Queen Mary sailed, George Michael attacks Gob when he finds out his uncle is dating Ann Veal. After deflowering Ann, Gob tries to break up with her (the funniest line of the season comes in this episode when Gob sees a print of Jesus), but ends up engaged to her. When he gets out of the engagement, he falls in with a youth entourage and he almost gets them all killed.

“Red Hairing” catches up with Lindsay in the desert working on the ostrich farm with Marky Bark and their ostrich. After Lindsay finds a check for a facelift from Lucille to Maeby, she goes with Marky to commit an act of nonviolent protest against Herbert Love. The disaster reunites Lindsay and Maeby. It also puts Lindsay in the position to be Herbert Love’s mistress.

Tobias returns to the forefront in “Smashed.” After a stint in prison, is registered as a sex offender (unjustly), and goes to work at Lucille 2’s Austerity rehab clinic. There, he is reunited with DeBrie and begins staging a Fantastic 4 musical. In order to advance that project, Tobias has to meet with Ron Howard and that leads to a catastrophe in the making.

At long last, Lucille gets an episode of her own in “Queen B.” Flashing back to fleeing the S.E.C., Lucille tries to use Buster for her alibi. When he does not come through, she is sentenced to three to five years at a very light security prison. There she joins a Chinese gang that is willing to finance the wall on the Mexican border and gets transferred to Austerity.

“A New Attitude” refocuses on Gob. Committed now to destroying Tony Wonder, he tries to get Michael and his son Steve Holt to help him ruin Tony Wonder. After signing his rights away for the movie, he has George Michael come with him to the Gothic Castle where he actually has a conversation with Tony Wonder and comes up with a new revenge scheme.

Maeby’s years are accounted for in “Senoritas.” After trying to get her parent’s attention, she flunks out of high school, briefly works for Imagine Entertainment, gets fired and goes through high school for five years. After a brief scare where she is worried she will be exposed by an undercover cop at high school, she pimps out her mother and helps George Michael start his own internet company.

“It Gets Better” fleshes out George-Michael’s five years. Right before his software company launches, he was in a band, becomes an exchange student and creates a software that is not what other people think it is.

At long last, the final Bluth gets his episode when Buster is the focus of “Off The Hook.” Flashing back to Buster getting cut off from Lucille, he goes a bit crazy and simulates having her around, but after a night of juice, he gets a juice hangover and misses Lucille’s hearing. After trying to make a go of his relationship with Lucille 2, he re-enlists in the Army as a drone pilot and after an injury is given a new (oversized) hand to replace his hook. He is given an anti-bullying badge and falls in with Herbert Love’s wife, Ophelia. On Cinco De Cuatro (sic), Lucille Austero reveals the truth of her manipulations of Buster to him.

The season finale is “Blockheads” and it opens with George-Michael and resolves the relationship he has with Rebel and has all of the main characters colliding at Herbert Love’s campaign event . . . with all of the self-serving characters focusing on their own stuff.

Like the series that preceded it, Arrested Development includes a wealth of guest stars. In addition to familiar recurring guest stars like Henry Winkler, Ed Begley Jr. and Judy Greer, the fourth season of Arrested Development has cameos by Alan Tudyk, Ben Stiller (he shows up for a shot in a print ad, several background shots and two decent exchanges in a later episode!), Mae Whitman, and Scott Baio. Isla Fisher has a decent recurring role as Rebel and Mary Lynn Rajskub’s Heart Fire steals the scenes she is in. John Slattery’s Doctor Norman also becomes a memorable supporting character. Seth Rogen and Kristen Wiig open the new season exceptionally well as younger versions of George and Lucille.

The main cast is incredible. Given that all of the main performers return and they are great in returning to their familiar characters. Portia de Rossi looks unfortunately gaunt at the outset of the season and Mae Whitman fails to look as plain as Ann Veal originally did. But they perform their characters flawlessly and in a familiar way. Jessica Walter is given the best chance to show serious range when the show finally focuses on her. When Lucille has to illustrate complex human emotions, she sells it at least as much as she has previously sold her character’s loathsome indifference to everyone and everything. Will Arnett and David Cross get to perform opposite one another and their time together on The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret (season 1 is reviewed here!) clearly paid off as they are given more scenes together this season and they play off one another incredibly well. For most of this season, the performers look like they are having fun and they play their characters well.

The biggest danger of watching Arrested Development Season 4 as a fan is that one will spend the episodes gleefully pointing out connections between these episodes and the prior ones. By the time I recognized the waitress from a first season episode where Lucille did not understand her question, my wife began glaring at me (you can’t talk over the new episodes of Arrested Development!).

Arrested Development is a welcome show to get new episodes and the fourth season might start a little rockier than fans might want, but it builds up to the logical concluding point and it peaks in the middle well, making it well worth watching and getting Netflix for . . . even if for only this month. In fact, it is executed so well that it feels far more fresh than it actually is (the main plotline between Michael and George Michael was actually done in the first season), though it progresses the characters fans knew and loved. Season Four is more than enough to hold fans over until the movie is released and fans successfully get a fifth season.

For other continuations of once-cancelled shows, please visit my reviews of:
Family Guy - Volume Three
Serenity
Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

6.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Movie And Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Arrested Development Holdover: The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret Is Fun, But Not Enduring!

The Good: Very funny, Decent performances, Fairly interesting characters
The Bad: Some very familiar performances, Feelings of repetitiveness with the plot, Utterly unlikable characters
The Basics: Over the course of the twelve episodes, The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret entertains and amuses, but not in any particularly memorable ways.


The strength of a great show – play, movie, or television – can be measured by its endurance and its memorability. There are television series that I pine for on DVD that had only one season (Nothing Sacred!) or were cut short on their DVD run prematurely (Once And Again Season 3, the rest of NYPD Blue) that I find myself referencing or thinking about almost every day. Arrested Development might not be one I consider daily, but there are iconic moments and lines that I cannot imagine I would ever forget. Enter The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret. The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret utilizes David Cross (who created the series) and Will Arnett, who worked together previously on Arrested Development (reviewed here!). But, more than that, The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret is that kind of show; it is trying to appeal to those who like off-putting, awkward humor, like Arrested Development and it succeeds . . . at least when one is watching the show.

Unfortunately for The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret, when the show is not on, it is startlingly unmemorable.

The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret follows the fourteen days that lead up to Todd Margaret, an American Citizen, being tried in a British court for a bevy of crimes ranging from child pornography and destruction of public property to dispersing a biotoxin! The series flashes back from that event (and Todd Margaret preparing to press a button to launch nuclear weapons from North Korea later the same day!) to how Todd Margaret ended up in his predicament. Todd Margaret is a temp worker at a company that is bought out by a major multinational. When Brent Wilts visits the company, he fires Doug Whitney and promotes Todd Margaret to what he claims is a lucrative post in the UK, selling energy drinks. Arriving in Britain, Todd Margaret develops an instant crush on Alice Bell and he meets his one employee, a sarcastic young man named Dave.

Todd Margaret soon discovers that the energy drink craze in Britain is not as vibrant as he was promised and that the product he is trying to sell is actually a banned biohazard from Korea. Dave continues to steer him in the wrong direction, giving the energy drink to possible terrorists on credit, having Margaret employ look up a “law firm” that puts him on underage porn sites, and spending huge amounts of money to get a not-really-celebrity to endorse the energy drink. As Todd Margaret haplessly moves from one misadventure to another, he is frequently bailed out by Alice. And when Brent comes to Britain for the money from the Thunder Muscle, it quickly becomes apparent that he is not the corporate mastermind he sold himself as, a fact accented by Doug Whitney pursuing him with a worker’s comp claim and information that could expose him!

The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret lives up to its name, though for the most part Todd Margaret continually makes the same bad decision, which is to trust Dave. Because he originally claimed to be from Leeds, Margaret feels compelled to lie to Dave over and over again, asserting that he knows Britain (when clearly he does not). As a result, Dave manipulates him into one bad venture after another, which quickly escalates into Todd Margaret’s imprisonment and trial.

There is exceptionally little in the way of character development, then, in The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret. Even after Todd Margaret’s father shows up, it only becomes an excuse for more crazy crap to happen to Todd and his annoying neighbor.

Arguably what sinks The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret from being truly memorable is the same thing that is one of its strengths. In reuniting David Cross and Will Arnett, the fans of Arrested Development get a sense of nostalgia and Cross and Arnett play Todd Margaret and Brent Wilts remarkably closely to how they played their characters on Arrested Development. For sure, Cross does not don his familiar thick glasses or speak in a high-pitched voice, but he still says the most outrageous things as Todd Margaret and seems oblivious to what they really mean. Will Arnett is essentially replaying G.O.B. In other words, neither actor gives us anything we haven’t already seen before.

The result is that The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret is enjoyable, but ultimately inconsequential in the larger scheme of television and humor.

For other quirky television shows, please check out my reviews of:
Wonderfalls
Ally McBeal
The Lone Gunmen

4.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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