Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

It uses the creative breathing room to dial up and embrace the show’s inherent weirdness--this is a comedy about a cult survivor, after all--and then have the luxury to bring things back to a relatable, human level again.... [Fey and Carlock] solidified themselves as not just bravura comedy writers--which we already knew they were--but industry risk-takers, too.

Netflix has previously scored with "Orange is the New Black" and "House of Cards," but this is the first true comedy it has picked up and it looks to be a winner. Unbreakable? Unassailable.

Creators Fey and Carlock instill Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with the infectious positivity of their title character, who won’t give up, no, she’ll never give up. Still, her hard knocks life starts taking its toll in later episodes, draining some of Kimmy’s ebullience and replacing it with a little petulance. The sunny side up Kimmy is much preferable.

The show doesn’t crank out gags at the same overwhelming frequency as 30 Rock, but from its earliest moments, Kimmy Schmidt brims with a comic sensibility recognizable as Fey’s.

It's funnier than most of what's on television these days, but it never coalesces into something spectacular.

It's at once a twisted parody of every "plucky single gal in the big city" story ever told, and an often hilarious version of the real thing.

The result, like “30 Rock,” is another sharply written, often offbeat, endearing and funny comedy.

There are also times when Kemper seems to be playing a thin gloss on 30 Rock's protagonist, Liz Lemon. Yet give Kimmy Schmidt enough time, and it reveals that the real comparison point to make here isn't with 30 Rock. It's with Bewitched.

This is a comedy. And it’s a good one, warm and charming, genuinely funny, and also odd enough to come from Tina Fey and writing partner Robert Carlock.

The leads are all marvelous, with a complementary elemental division of attitudes: Kemper, air; Burrell, fire; Kane, earth; and Krakowski, water, as I reckon it. They rise to the occasion and make it an event.

It’s a smart, funny series, and it’s a relief to know Netflix saved it from what was sure to be terminal neglect had it aired on NBC.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is super-clever, features a winning performance by The Office’s Ellie Kemper, and moves like a well-oiled joke machine.

The good news is that Kimmy is already really good; in the first six episodes, each one gets better as it goes (though the pilot is particularly strong).

The execution of the high concept is rich with many excellent details, gags, and characters.

The series leavens wacky absurdity with acid wit and is very funny.

The show is savvy and hilarious and I was completely sold on it, but I'm also not surprised that NBC ultimately decided not to air it.

It feels like 30 Rock. There’s the same deadpan, high-octane pacing, penchant for the completely silly, love of weird names, and passion for bizarre pop-culture reference.... But Kimmy Schmidt has a bigger heart than 30 Rock.

There's nothing generic about the funny (and charming) Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

The greatest thing about Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is that it keeps getting weirder and funnier.

On its own, the show’s concept might have just been a throwaway 30 Rock subplot; what sustains it is how it applies the concept of unbreakability beyond Kimmy. Each character is a survivor.

The humor is one reason the show works, and the cast, especially Kemper, is the other.

Like many newbie sitcoms, Kimmy Schmidt stumbles, at times, to find its tone--and, with thirteen episodes launched at once, it doesn’t have the freedom to rejigger itself.... When it comes to jokes about trauma, however, the show takes more risks.

The rest of the show is built around her, and it’s her performance that is able to make the show’s softer parts work, even as the show’s best moments showcase her skills.

While Kemper’s mood can grate, she’s working from a very logical base. There’s the Elizabeth Smart innocence that suggests this does have legs. How long they can maintain the guise is anyone’s guess.

As a character with a sartorial preference for canary yellow, Kemper's Schmidt comes into focus intensely and immediately. She pops off the screen, and pleasingly so. Her series, less so.

Perhaps Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt will eventually find a way to be a show worthy of all this talk and expectation, rather than the B-/C+ attempt at a network show that Fey and Carlock have delivered. There’s not much special about it, so far, except the lucky circumstances of its survival.

There are plenty of typical sitcom misunderstandings and miscommunications, and some of the humor is disappointingly tame coming from Fey and Carlock. But the looming darkness is what makes Unbreakable worth watching.