At this point, it seems like sitcoms have explored every avenue possible, and have become so full of overdone tropes that they’re just not as successful of a TV genre as they used to be. There haven’t been many sitcoms in recent years that have hit the heights of popularity that shows likeFriendsorHow I Met Your Motherdid. A lot of people have brought attention to the harmful tropes that often get repeated in these shows, and many criticize the very idea of a laugh track, stating that it makes a joke less funny when the show has to tell the audience when to laugh.
One of the tropes that’s often overdone on shows, particularly ones likeKevin Can Wait, is the immature, man-child husband and his responsible but stick-in-the-mud wife, who has to be no-nonsense and put up with all of his antics. This lets the male character (who is usually the protagonist) be the fun, goofy character that’sbeloved by the audience, while the wife comes off as kind of a nag and has no character traits outside of her marriage to this man. There is one show, however, that takes this trope and really shows how harmful it is, and tries to look at the world through the wife’s perspective instead.Kevin Can F**k Himselfis a smart and inventive take on a sitcom, and makes a lot of interesting commentary about the genre and the patriarchy at large.
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Kevin Can F**k Himselffollows Allison McRoberts (played by Annie Murphy ofSchitt’s Creekfame), who is a woman who is trying to figure out her life while being married to Kevin, who is the epitome of that aforementioned rude and lazy sitcom husband. The show divides its time between two different perspectives: when Allison is with Kevin,the show is a sitcom, complete with the multi-cam setup, laugh track, and simple, bright visuals, but whenever he’s not around and the show is following Allison’s inner life, it’s shot in a way that is much more reminiscent of a typical television drama.
The stark contrast between scenes, where it will be a sitcom one moment and then switch to a verydifferent visual and tonal stylethe second Kevin leaves the room, is such a jarring switch at first that it really hammers home how Allison is treated in the sitcom. To Kevin, she’s the party pooper who is never on board with the hare-brained schemes that he concocts with his dimwitted best friend Neil, but when she’s shown on her own, it’s clear that Allison feels trapped in this marriage where she’s never appreciated or noticed. The show follows Allison trying to reinvent her life and figure out how to take the lead and find fulfillment, but it becomes increasingly difficult with Kevin’s interference.
The show is really smart about showing Allison as a fully-fledged person who is trying to develop deep relationships outside of her marriage. It’s making a very clear commentary on howwomen in sitcoms, especially wife characters, are often very two-dimensional and are just there to play the “straight man” to the wackiness of the main male character. They can be the butt of the joke or seen as the stick in the mud who never wants to have any fun, and it’s such a thankless role that has somehow endured in sitcoms over the years, despite how problematic and frankly boring it is. Annie Murphy gives a stellar performance as Allison, bringing a lot of nuance to the character while also making her feel real and relatable.
Instead of her just being a side character that shows up every once in a while in Kevin’s story, the show is all about Allison, and in general about how women often lose a part of themselves when they get married, because they’re just seen as “the wife”. She develops a friendship with Patty, another character who shows up in the sitcom scenes and is initially just there to make comments making fun of the men, while also being a “tomboy” character that’s allowed to participate in their fun, unlike Allison. Female friendships aren’t often seen on sitcoms like this becausethe focus is on the menand the women just become objects of desire, which is why it’s so refreshing to see this show invest in genuine connections between women. The show has such an interesting takes on these tropes, and plays around with them in a really clever way.
Kevin Can F**k Himselfis funny in the scenes outside of the sitcom ones, but it also gets dark at times, which is a fascinating combination of tones. It shouldn’t work as well as it does, but somehow the writing reallybalances the seriousness and the humorperfectly. The writing is tight, and the series takes so many interesting twists and turns that you wouldn’t expect. It’s well worth a watch for its inventive take on sitcoms, and even people who don’t enjoy the genre can get something out of this show and its commentary. The first season has already aired, and AMC has confirmed that the show has been renewed for a second season, which will be its final one. This show has proven that playing with overdone tropes can result in really great commentary, and that being critical of the genre doesn’t mean that it can’t also be fun.
