There are few things more frustrating on TV than the boorish husband punching above his weight. This new series eviscerates that trope.
When it comes to frustrating TV tropes, there are few more groanworthy than the total mismatch of the schlubby sitcom husband and his much hotter and smarter wife.
“Why is she with that guy,” you ask. The answer, of course, is “only on TV”.
Starring Schitt’s Creek’s Annie Murphy, Kevin Can F**k Himself is a direct repudiation of this fanciful (and that’s fanciful on the part of men, obviously) and ludicrous sitcom scenario. Even the TV series name, Kevin Can F**k Himself, closely references two Kevin James sitcoms, The King of Queens and Kevin Can Wait.
And the Kevin James and Ralph Kramden prototype is strong in Kevin Can F**k Himself’s husband, Kevin McRoberts (Eric Petersen), a boorish and idiotic man-child whose ceaseless schemes continues to exasperate his long-suffering wife Allison.
Allison puts up with a lot, having to act as wife and parent to Kevin, as well as Kevin’s even stupider best friend Neil (Alex Bonifer) and racist father-in-law Peter (Brian Howe). She’s invisible in her own house, either treated as a servant or as a killjoy to be mocked.
The worst thing is Kevin’s behaviour isn’t intentionally malicious, it’s just entitled, selfish and completely clueless. But it and his utter unwillingness to change or grow has devastating consequences for Allison.
It may be buffoonery but it’s still emotional abuse. The series really puts into stark relief the toxicity of the loveable goof vs the nagging wife cliche prevalent in pop culture and in real life.
It would never occur to Kevin Allison may not want to spend eight hours sitting next to him while he roasts a pig or that he should just check the front porch for his delivery himself instead of demanding his wife do it.
Or that she might want a “boring” dinner instead of a party of Kevin’s loutish friends for their anniversary.
And it’s not so easy to just pack up and leave when Allison only has $194 to her name – so she comes up with an extreme plan to finally take charge of her sh*tty life.
Her plan is dark and kind of unhinged, but the series – at least in the first four episodes made available for review – has cleverly played with perspective that you can’t help but secretly cheer her on, no matter what that says about you.
It does take at least two and a half episodes to really get going, so you’ll need some patience.
Kevin Can F**k Himself doesn’t just reference sitcom tropes, it weaponises them.
Any scene involving Kevin is staged like a multi-camera, studio audience sitcom. It’s brightly and warmly lit, the rooms in their working-class Massachusetts house are unusually large and canned laughter follows every asinine joke.
But when Kevin leaves the room, or if we’re just following Allison, the aesthetics change, matching the series’ general tone as a gritty drama series.
Everything is grey and grimy, the rooms are poorly lit and small and it perpetually looks like it’s about to rain. The rhythm of the dialogue shifts to more realistic speech patterns where not every third line is geared towards a lame punchline.
At times the technique feels a little gimmicky, and the transitions are abrupt, but then you realise the real reason why those stagey sitcom scenes grind so much is because the detestable Kevin really is a sh*tbag, and he truly can go f**k himself.
Any frustrations with the amount time spent with Kevin and his doofus friend dissipates when it becomes clear exactly why the series has invested heavily in his antics.
There’s a next-door neighbour character, Patty (Mary Hollis Inboden), who enables Kevin and Neil at first. Initially, she’s a stand-in for how society at large enables those bozos despite knowing better but then she becomes more integral to the story.
Just when you think Kevin Can F**k Himself is going to trap itself in being little more than archetypes, it deepens its characterisations, which coupled with a raw performance from Emmy winner Murphy, adds up to a smart drama with a lot to say.
Kevin Can F**k Himself is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video
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2021-08-27 07:31:21Z
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