Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Tina Fey’s joyous new creation

What’s the name of the show? Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

When does it premiere? All 13 episodes are available for streaming on Friday 6 March on Netflix.

What is this show? Kimmy Schmidt (Bridesmaids’ Ellie Kemper) is one of four women rescued from an underground bunker after being imprisoned for 15 years by a crazy polygamist cult leader. When she emerges she knows nothing of the world and has to figure out how to live in New York. Oh, and it’s a sitcom.

Seriously? It doesn’t sound funny. Well, then you know nothing about doomsday cult survivors.

What’s the show’s pedigree? Tina Fey and fellow 30 Rock veteran Robert Carlock created the show as a 13-episode series for NBC. They decided that they didn’t want it, so NBC sold it to Netflix, which loved it so much they already ordered a second season.

How does a show transition from NBC to Netflix? It is a dodgy move and the show retains the 22-minute format that network sitcoms share, including being broken down into acts. Some work has been done to smooth over where the commercial breaks would have gone, but it follows a familiar rhythm. Also, there are no swear words or anything that dirty – which is refreshing.

What happens in the premiere? Kimmy and three of her fellow “wives” are rescued from a bunker in Indiana. They had been living there in isolation for the past 15 years after the madman who kidnapped them told them that the apocalypse had happened and they were the only humans left alive.

On a trip to New York to do an interview with Matt Lauer (of course), Kimmy decides that rather than go back to Indiana, that she wants to stay in New York where no one knows she is a “mole woman”. She finds an apartment being rented by Lillian (Carol Kane) who comes with a roommate, Titus (Tituss Burgess), who describes himself as the gay Tiki Barber. Now that she has a home she has to pay the rent and stumbles into the job as a nanny for the rich, vain, selfish and slightly sad Jacqueline (Jane Krakowski). Kimmy welcomes her new life with a smile that can only belong to someone who has yet to learn that both Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston are now dead.

Is this show any good? If Kimmy Schmidt knew what emoji are, she would describe it as sun, sun, crossout, rain cloud, smiley face, winky face, dancing woman, paint your nails. But Kimmy Schmidt does not know what emoji are (yet) so let’s just say that it is very good and rather funny. Most of the comedy comes from the fact that Kimmy doesn’t know anything about the modern world, and what she does know is incorrect, but she states it with kind the pluck and sincerity that makes you wish she was right. This is a girl who wears light-up sneakers and doesn’t say she was kidnapped but “tooken”.

That kind of attention to detail and fine characterisation will feel familiar to 30 Rock fans. It’s not just the presence of Krakowski, playing a more moneyed version of Jenna Maroney, that make this feel like an unofficial sequel to 30 Rock, but the patterns of Tina Fey’s comedy so evident in the writing. When Kimmy accidentally tries to strangle her roommate while sleepwalking she says his neck was covered in grease. “I fell asleep eating a Hot Pocket,” he retorts. If that’s not something that Liz Lemon already said, it certainly sounds like it.

What differentiates it from 30 Rock, however, is the darkness just below the surface. As unwaveringly happy as Kimmy is, she still tries to strangle her roommate because she’s having a dream about being locked in a bunker. She has an unexplained fear of Velcro and when a man tries to flirt with her and puts his hands over her eyes and says, “Guess who?” she flips out. Making Kimmy deeply damaged but still inspirational and funny is a difficult line to walk, but this show manages it with aplomb.

Which characters will you love? Pretty much everyone. Kimmy, of course, is a weird ray of warped sunshine that will warm your heart. Next to Julia Louis-Dreyfuss on Veep, Kemper as Kimmy is perhaps the best comedic performance on television. Her roommate Titus is a catchphrase slot machine, the hilarious jackpots rolling out with some regularity. And, finally, good on Fey and the other producers for finally bringing Carol Kane back to television.

Which characters will you hate? Xanthippe (Dylan Gelula) is the boss’s 15-year-old stepdaughter who is out to expose Kimmy’s secret. She sort of plays the villain but is drawn as such a wonderfully obnoxious tweeting teen that you can’t help being amused by her.

What’s the best thing about it? It’s all the little things. The chyrons on all the fake news segments about finding the “mole women” are hilarious, as are Kimmy’s malapropisms (she calls hashtags “hashbrowns”). This is the sort of show that could benefit from multiple viewings, because the jokes are so packed in you’re sure to miss something while laughing.

What’s the worst thing about it? The end of each episode after just 22 minutes.

Should you watch this show? I can think of nothing better than sitting through all 13 episodes in a row on a rainy afternoon when you need something to live for. That something is a cult survivor who lives in a closet in a basement apartment in Brooklyn. Just trust me.