Yes, with the title Kevin Can F ** k Himself Kevin James may feel personally addressed. The Hollywood star who became known as the clumsy parcel delivery guy Doug Heffernan in the comedy series King of Queens, stands for a special type of man that the Amazon series is targeting. James wanted to build on his sitcom beginnings at CBS in 2016. Just was Kevin Can Wait such an uninspired copy that the audience ran away from it. James was apparently clear why it was: He let his series wife die during the season break and actress Erinn Hayes fired. Leah Remini, who was already in King of Queens his wife Carrie had played. Sitcoms are men’s world.
Three years after Kevin Can Wait was canceled, now comes the revenge series for all sitcom wives. Kevin Can F ** k Himself, on Amazon Prime Video, shows the world behind canned laughs. The focus is on Allison (Annie Murphy), who tries to escape her husband Kevin (Eric Petersen) comedy show. Her plan: In order for her to live, Kevin has to die.
Kevin is an Al Bundy guy: after work (he sells cables, Bundy shoes) he likes to hang out with his buddies. They talk about football, wear sportswear without exercising, and drink beer without getting the bottles themselves. Allison is responsible for that, who would actually prefer to talk to Kevin about her anniversary. Kevin puts a stop to this by simply tossing his empty glass to Allison, accompanied by an audience that goes crooked. Sitcom setting. But when she enters the kitchen, the laughter suddenly stops and the colorful sitcom world fades. Allison stares at the camera, her heart pounding like crazy, and she smashes Kevin’s glass.
The series alternates between the cheerful sitcom world of men and the gray reality of women
These transitions between the two worlds are the strongest moments in the series. In one, Kevin is king, Petersen plays him as a charismatic giant baby whose stupid sayings everyone succumbs – except for Allison. As soon as she can be seen in scenes with him, the series also adapts to the sitcom’s craftsmanship: In addition to the well-rehearsed laughs, there is indie clinking under images of the suburban idyll. In Allison’s world, however, the series switches from its multi-camera set-up to just one lens, which accompanies it through Worcester, a small town in Massachusetts that is far less inviting than Kevin’s sitcom looks would suggest. By depicting Allison’s attempted murder as an odyssey through the gray northeastern United States, series maker Valerie Armstrong also succeeds in portraying a dark area.
Despite the great design, the series should have learned one thing from the genre that the series is so targeting: Sitcom episodes are more pleasantly structured at around 22 minutes, and the new series rarely justifies the twice as long episodes. A flaw that the makers could possibly fix in season two, US home broadcaster AMC has Kevin Can F ** k Himself extended a few days ago.
Kevin Can F ** k Himself, on Amazon Prime Video