What I’m Watching: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 3, Episode 9 “Kimmy Goes to Church!” (B+)

Every once in a while, this show actually makes a decent point about humanity without being quite as ridiculous as it usually is. Kimmy being open to the idea of church after reacting poorly to the news of her would-be boyfriend’s impending reverend career made sense since she’s insatiably curious, yet also prone to linking normal things in the present with bad associations from her past. Titus reliving his own church-related anxieties was far from serious, but it was nice to know that the gossipy Clara was actually trying to set him up with her gay nephew, who just happened to be the choir director. Watching Kimmy learn that the church isn’t all it was cracked up to be, and that even a female churchgoer didn’t like the idea of a woman reverend, was tough, and thankfully her passionate attempt at a moral takedown of Clara, timed poorly after she confiscated her phone, which had Titus’ clarifying text on it, managed to impact the then overly-honest members of the congregation in a positive way even if its specific message was far from accurate. Lillian coming to Jacqueline for help trying to seem fancy made some sense, and while it all ended predictably for Lillian, I’m sad that we didn’t get to see how it actually played out on her end. Jacqueline, on the other hand, mustered up some courage and managed to take down Deirdre, played to perfection as always by the incomparable Anna Camp, owning up to her shortcomings while inadvertently disclosing a good deal of information about Buckley’s medical diagnoses.