Kidding

Overall, Kidding is just an odd duck of a TV show that might divide audiences because it’s not actually about much other than the heaviness that comes with caring. It’s inconsistent, tonally and quality-wise, but the parts that land do so beautifully.

Those tuning in for one of Carrey’s trademark manic performances will be disappointed. This is a much more mannered, subtle performance, and while you can admire the commitment to the role, you can find yourself perplexed by the execution. In the supporting cast, Langella is stand-out, a maestro at delivering deadpan snark.

The series' quirks don't translate to a rich cleverness, or create the heartbroken laughs that Kidding dreams of. For a show that's full of pain, on-screen talent and so much potential, Kidding is just not very special.

Kidding has an exceptional ensemble to work with, but drowns it in rote domestic plotting.

Through the first two episodes, Kidding has the slightly whimsical but basically naturalistic vibe of an indie family drama. ... When the series turns to Sebastian, a cold and implausible father, and his plotting, it feels as though Kidding is not quite confident that its two elegiac central questions--how to be sad and how to be good--are interesting enough. If the show could make itself comfortable with Mr. Pickles’ gloom, they could be.

There’s something curious and affecting about a family that communicates its emotions mainly through fabric and googly eyes. Which is why it’s disappointing to see Kidding eventually turn into a more-familiar kind of pay-cable adult dark comedy. ... Its best moments come when it’s willing, like Uku-Larry, to own its feelings. The show, unfortunately, seems a little afraid of them.

Through the four episodes (of the season’s ten) screened by this critic, Kidding has yet to manifest a coherent tone. The frank jocularity of the wisecracks bumps up against rogue jolts of cutesiness and a slightly dirty realism, familiar from Sundance dramedies. ... One also wants to attribute the slow-boil mood and occasional low-key tone of Carrey’s strong performance to Gondry.

Dondry works in an abstract style with a minimum of narrative momentum, but sometimes the characters seem stranded from one another. That we’re all disconnected may be his message, but Kidding is going to have to give us more than Carrey’s sad-sack face to stick with the show--though it’s got some promise.

Despite some nice touches and performances, Kidding gets stuck somewhere between comedy and drama, and isn’t entirely successful at either.