Thursday, February 13, 2020

What I’m Watching: Kidding (Season Premiere)


Kidding: Season 2, Episodes 1 and 2 “The Cleanest Liver in Columbus, Ohio” and “Up, Down and Everything in Between” (B)

It’s been a while since this show last aired, finishing up its first season in the beginning of November 2018. This is undeniably a weird show, once whose existence I had almost completely forgotten. For some unknown reason, ten episodes will air two at a time over the course of just five weeks, which I guess is the equivalent of it being an hour instead of a half-hour. This episode opened rather hectically, with Jeff driving Jill and an unconscious Peter to the hospital while flashing back to an equally chaotic drive to the hospital when Jill was about to deliver the twins. For a while, Jeff was really in Jill’s good graces, slipping back into a comfortable place when he and Will tried to host a perfect Christmas with gifts found around the house, but that all fell apart when he realized he had to be honest. Hearing him swear and choose a bad word meant that there must not have been a good one, and Jill wasn’t interested in hearing any excuses about why he is the way he is from Deirdre and Seb. There’s something about the puppetry on this show that’s always felt magical, but in this case Jeff’s dream was much more hallucinatory and twisted. Starting with the doctor telling Jeff that she didn’t care for his speech right before he went under and the bird flying in, things got really weird. I liked that Peter got a chance to be very upset about where they were but couldn’t hit him anymore because his body was accepting Jeff’s liver. Singing because Jeff was becoming a part of him was a creative expression of that process. I’m intrigued to see what happens next, especially after Jeff woke up and promptly fired Seb.

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