Remote Patrol: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and The Last Man on Earth - Apocalypses Now?
It's the end of the world… or is it? The Last Man on Earth and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt start with doomsday scenarios that seem like unlikely launching pads for comedies and end up in very different places.
In Last Man, a virus has wiped out virtually the entire population of the planet save Will Forte's anti-social slob Phil MIller, while Kimmy Schmidt begins with the titular wide-eyed innocent (The Office's Ellie Kemper) getting rescued from an underground cult where she'd lived for 15 years after being told Armageddon wasn't just the title of a bad Michael Bay film anymore.
Apocalyptic set-ups aren't all they have in common. Both shows also channel the anarchic spirit of 30 Rock, which shouldn't come as a major surprise since each feature alums of NBC's Emmy-winning classic.
In Last Man's case, it's the show's stars. Forte recurred as the cross-dressing lover/stalker of Jane Krakowski's Jenna, while ex-page Kristen Schaal now plays the obsessively rule-following eccentric with whom Forte's Phil Miller must mate in an attempt to repopulate the Earth.
Kimmy Schmidt employs former 30 Rock-ers on both sides of the camera: Krakowski practically reprises her role as a ridiculously insensitive narcissist (she's a super-rich housewife who hires Kimmy to watch her bratty kids), and the show was created by Tina Fey and her long-time writing partner Robert Carlock.
What to Read Next
Like 30 Rock, the lightning-paced Kimmy Schmidt feeds off the hyped-up energy of New York City. After her post-rescue media tour as one of the "Indiana mole women", Kimmy decides she'll take Manhattan.
She shares an apartment with a flamboyant African-American musical-theatre queen, who might be a tired stereotype were he not so delightfully played by Broadway vet Titus Burgess. Taxi's Carol Kane is perfectly cast as their scatterbrained but good-hearted landlady.
Kimmy Schmidt makes good comic use of 30 Rock-like cutaways - flashbacks to her days in the bunker as well as the other characters' pasts. Kemper carries you through it all with her winning sense of innocence and uproariously outdated references ("You're going to sing at the Grammys with Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson!" she predicts for her roomie).
I wish Last Man's Phil were as instantly endearing as Kimmy, but likability isn't Will's forte. Rather, it's committing to a bit, as Forte proved with his often-outlandish SNL characters. He wasn't afraid to run a gag into the ground or - in the case of MacGruber - blow it up on the big screen.
He certainly commits to his sitcom's premise - and to his character's Duck Dynasty-esque beard. The show's slower pace seems befitting for its setting in Tucson, Arizona, land of the retirees. The first-half hour, before Phil meets Schaal's character, plays like a silent film, relying on sight gags. I respect Forte's audacity, even as I feel a little of his on-screen presence goes a long way.
I've seen three episodes of Last Man (which premiered to promising ratings for its first two back-to-back half-hours on Fox) and Kimmy Schmidt (shot for NBC but releasing its entire 13-episode first season today on Netflix, which already ordered a second). I find the former to be - as Forte and Schaal's newlyweds declare their marriage - surprisingly tolerable and totally bearable.
But that Kimmy, she's a keeper. How can you not love a character who's asked by a fellow club-goer if she's into Molly and replies, "Am I? She's my favorite American Girl doll!"? Kimmy's not just unbreakable - she's irresistible.
Bruce Fretts is a veteran of both Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide Magazine, where he penned the wildly popular 'Cheers & Jeers' column for ten years.
