“Be you. Be what you want. And then be unbreakable.” – Kimmy Schmidt
I was lured to this series initially because of Tina Fey’s name, combined with Jane Krakowski, and Ellie Kemper. I knew that a series including these three could not be anything less than amazing. Watching a series simply because of some names shouldn’t really be a thing, but it is. Sometimes, it leads to disappointment; sometimes, our expectations are not met; some other times, we don’t really appreciate our favorite actors in new roles in new settings. However, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt did not turn out this way. This Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt review is a look into everything that makes it a spirited tale of endurance. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is everything I had hoped it would be. It is amusing, it is sentimental, it is deep, it is inspiring.
The story starts with the most basic of humanistic values – freedom. Four women are freed after fifteen years of being kept captive in a bunker by an insane man. The insane man was a preacher who wanted to save the women from the apocalypse, or so he claimed. The freed women are immediately labelled as The Mole Women by the media. As the series gradually unfolds, we see how each of the Mole Women responded to the label. Our protagonist, Kimmy, seeks to forget the label; she wishes to leave the label behind and have a fresh start in New York.
On the very first day, she loses all her money from the “Mole Women Fund”. The story that follows is an adorable tale of a girl trying to figure out a changed world, a new world, and unfamiliar words (for instance, MILF – My Interesting Lady Friend; STFU – Save The Flying Unicorns; FML – Fold My Laundry, and so on). On this journey she gets a sassy gay friend in her roommate, an eccentric mother figure in her landlady, and a high-class woman suffering from lack of money in her employer/friend. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a story of suffering, of the world being against you, and yet, of not breaking.
Even though the series talks of kidnapping, the way it depicts it takes away the brunt force of the phenomenon. We are brought to focus not on the wound itself, but on the healing process. As Kimmy herself says, “I’m more than this terrible thing that happened to me”. This one dialog holds such a profound essence. None of us should be defined by a bad thing that happens to us. Nor should we let ourselves be labelled as that one thing. And Kimmy is an excellent example of that. She struggles to be not defined as a Mole Woman. Sometimes she doesn’t succeed, thanks to the Internet; but she still wants to be more than that, more than just a Mole Woman.
She loses multiple jobs, multiple boyfriends, has awful dates; and yet, she carries on, never breaking, forever ready to be Kimmying (“Smile until you feel better. I call it Kimmying.” – Kimmy Schmidt). One of the most beautiful aspects of Kimmy is her goodwill, bordering on indulgence. She loves helping people, as she herself says multiple times on the show. But this helping does not stop even if it comes at her own expense. She fails her GED (General Educational Development) exam, loses her job at the Christmas Store, and even goes as far as marrying Reverend Gary, just so Donna Maria (a fellow Mole Woman) doesn’t have to.
Although the world tries to remind her it’s an awful thing, she doesn’t stop believing that the world is wonderful. “I still believe the world is good. That bunnies are nice, and snakes are mean. That one day Sandra Bullock will find someone who deserves her.”
Every character on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is either fighting for something or just fighting something. And they refuse to lose, they refuse to break. They don’t live in a make-believe world which is always kind; they hold on, despite the cruel world doing its worst. Isn’t that a powerful sentiment? Anyone can have faith when it’s convenient for them, but it takes real strength to have faith when it’s not convenient for us. That is what Kimmy seeks to show us.