Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 1 Review

Note: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's entire first season is now available to stream on Netflix (as per the company's usual model). However, spoilers here will be kept to a minimum. The idea is to give you a general sense of the show, rather than a breakdown of each episode.

Even though it eventually ended up on Netflix, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt definitely has the look and feel of an NBC comedy -- more specifically 30 Rock. That makes sense considering the show was originally developed and produced for NBC (and is technically still under the NBC/Universal studio umbrella) and co-created by 30 Rock's Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. That said, Kimmy Schmidt takes all the charming quirks of 30 Rock and puts them into something totally different.

Part of what makes Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt feel so fresh and original is the offbeat setup. The series follows Kimmy Schmidt (played by The Office's Ellie Kemper), who, after 15 years of living in an underground cult, is suddenly rescued, along with three other female victims. Deemed the "Mole Women," Kimmy and her cohorts quickly become a national sensation after an appearance on The Today Show. But wanting to leave her past behind, Kimmy separates from the group and starts her life anew in New York City.

The best part of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is Kimmy herself. After literally living under a rock for half her lifetime, she comes out still acting like a '90s middle-schooler: she's obsessed with candy, wears light-up Sketchers, doesn't know the first thing about smartphones ("Wow! Is this a Macintosh?") and says made-up words like "tooken." (Coincidentally, Tooken was the original title of the show.) As you might expect, these aspects make up a good chunk of the show's humor, but it's surprisingly sustainable for the first season.

It also helps that Kemper plays the part so well. Coming off her equally zany character on The Office, it's not surprising the actress perfectly captures Kimmy's silliness. But she also brings a kind of sad optimism that makes you root for her, not unlike Fey's Liz Lemon. When you think about it, the show is dealing with some pretty dark stuff -- deprivation, manipulation, trauma -- but Kemper plays it with enough upbeat determination that it feels both genuine and funny. At the same time, we get little hints of Kimmy's repression, both in flashbacks and sporadic outbursts (like whenever she hears velcro).

Females are strong as hell!

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt also features an array of eccentric side characters. Arguably the series' breakout performer is Tituss Burgess, who plays Kimmy's flamboyant roommate, an out-of-work actor-singer named -- what else? -- Titus. In real-life, Burgess came from Broadway, and his exceptional singing voice does not go to waste here. More than that though, Burgess is hilarious. Definitely one of the standouts of Season 1.

There's also Jane Krakowski, who plays a self-obsessed socialite and Kimmy's employer, Jacqueline Voorhees. Initially, Jacqueline feels like a half-hearted redux of Krakoswki's 30 Rock character Jenna Maroney, but in later episodes we learn about Jacqueline's backstory, and that's when her character really starts to take shape.

Hash brown no filter.

The same could be said for most of the auxiliary characters, which start out as one-note cartoons but slowly come into their own over the course of the season. Another nice thing about the show is that it fleshes out not just Kimmy's storylines but the others' as well. Titus in particular gets some humdingers, one of which involves a "pitch perfect" sendup of the notorious Spider-Man musical. While not all the stories and characters are winners (most notably Kimmy's romantic escapades), they're usually still enjoyable -- or at least clever. That said, when the comedy hits, it hits. Again, like 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is endlessly quotable -- to include it's catchy theme song.

Currently, Netflix has 13 episodes of the series available to watch, but it's already been picked up for a second season -- which means plenty more shenanigans to come! All of Season 1 was produced before it moved from NBC to Netflix, but now that Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is being made with streaming in mind instead of network TV, Season 2 is likely to push the boundaries even more. But until then... troll the respawn, Jeremy. (Let me know when you get that one.)