- Network: AMC , AMC+ , AMC PLUS HDTV
- Series Premiere Date: Jun 13, 2021
Season #: 2, 1
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Critic Reviews
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The conceit – a happy facade in front of friends and family, bleak realism when she’s “off” – is a good one. ... The problem comes as the series unfolds. ... We end up watching two increasingly unrelated narratives – the better of which keeps getting interrupted by a clunking 90s sitcom, complete with dull storylines about get-rich-quick schemes or the boss coming to dinner that neither illuminate nor complicate Allison’s story, nor create any thematic symbiosis.
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The execution doesn’t always match up to the ambition, but in its best moments Kevin Can F**k Himself walks a brilliantly uneasy line between comedy and drama.
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It's a ghoulishly brutal, stunningly creative, and utterly Pyrrhic send-up of blue-collar domestic sitcoms, way too effective to be entertaining.
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The self-awareness is smart, and the series as a whole will change the way you look at the next Kevin Can Wait-esque tomfoolery. But it’s an experiment with diminishing returns. After a couple of episodes, you won’t want to be trapped in the sitcom world any more than Allison does.
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When it works, the jarring tonal discordance is “Gone Girl” levels of darkly humorous. ... But at a certain point, the show’s experimentation might end up as a distraction rather than a creative expression. ... “Kevin Can F*** Himself” would be better off if it eventually focused on their lives and the overlaps between them instead of focusing primarily on the sitcom gimmick.
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The writers do an excellent job making the "sitcom" scenes authentically hacky and unfunny; unfortunately, that means about 30 percent of each episode is… hacky and unfunny. ... Halfway through the season, I'm still seeking any feeling that the main characters aren't just misshapen archetypes.
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Sure, there are tangents for “Kevin Can…” to explore, including a clean-cut guy (Raymond Lee) Allison knew in high school who’s returned to town. There are also hints of her attraction to a bad boy mechanic. But the main story feels limited and quickly stretched beyond a point where the concept ceases to be novel.
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Petersen's Kevin is an outstanding living cartoon of a man, but has no redeeming qualities. You won't wonder why Allison wants him out of her life – you'll want him gone too. If only the gray-toned dramatic side of her existence offered respite. No such luck. ... Murphy's strong performance and the solid enough premise hold the possibility of some kind of turnaround.
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While the execution can't be faulted, the real problem with Kevin is that once you get it, there's not much else to get. The mock sitcom, with a dimwitted neighbor and other conventions, is just numbing. And Allison's journey from wistful dreamer to calculating and hapless schemer, though authentically played, is a downer. [21 Jun - 4 Jul 2021, p.11]
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The pilot is a promising start. The next two episodes, whether they’re focusing on the bad multi-cam or Allison’s budding friendship with former flame Sam (Raymond Lee), feel flat. The fourth episode begins steering the show toward something darker and more potent. ... There’s a series here. I’m just not sure if it’s worthy of the premise.
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Kevin Can F**k Himself is a series about rebellion with a format that feels rebellious in only the most superficial sense, an effective visual statement that ultimately doesn’t do much more than very slowly mash together two eminently familiar TV staples, the bland sitcom and the escalating problems faced by a character who breaks bad.
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There’s a good TV show to be made about a sitcom wife’s secret double life. (WandaVision explored similar ideas with much greater success.) But here, the concept turns sour and curdled, and we end up as miserable as Allison is.
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It’s a bizarro centaur with a horse’s head and a man’s hairy ass: the concept is there, but the assembly is all wrong. ... Murphy seems lost. This is supposed to be Allison’s show. Why does it feel like the joke is on her?
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The overarching problem is inertness. The show spends so much time vacillating between styles that it neglects to move what should be a thrilling plot forward. By episode 3 (Kevin and Neil go to war over who can make a better chili), Kevin is spinning its wheels.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 15 out of 28
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Mixed: 4 out of 28
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Negative: 9 out of 28
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Jun 16, 2021It doesn't all work, but it's a brilliant concept.
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Jun 20, 2021
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Jun 20, 2021