Thursday, November 15, 2018

What I’m Watching: Kidding (Season Finale)


Kidding: Season 1, Episode 10 “Some Day” (B)

At one point during this episode, I was starting to think that maybe it was going to have a normative ending. Tara didn’t die as a result of her sister horrifyingly slicing her throat during their performance, and Jeff’s off-script speech in which he said he killed his son and told kids to find and open their Christmas presents early may have actually had some positive implications. Kids lining up to see Jeff so that he could just listen, sort of like Santa, was very inspiring to see, and even Will and Sebastian got on line for a chance to hear the real Mr. Pickles say “I’m listening.” But then there’s all the weirdness of this half-hour, like Pickles-San coming on stage and greeting the crowd with “Allah Hu Akbar,” prompting his immediate tackling by security, and Jeff remembering all of these moments in his life with puppets and other animated forces rather than the actual people. Peter going next door to find Will and his friends partying led to a very sincere moment between Peter and Jeff in which he confessed that he couldn’t have been happier for a guy like him to be a new father to Will and husband to Jill. But then he had to go ahead and offer him marijuana, which prompted Jeff to run Peter over with his car. There’s a lot to unpack here, and I think I might check back in with a second season even though its unapologetic strangeness hasn’t quite felt worth it to me just yet.

Season grade: B
Season MVP: Jim Carrey as Jeff

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