One of the biggest questions that fans of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt have been left wondering is how the show would extend its high-concept premise past the first season. What happens to a fish-out-of-water comedy after the fish starts to get accustomed to dry land? The new trailer for Season 2 starts to puts those doubts to rest, and in fact it makes me wonder whether Season 2 might be where Kimmy Schmidt really hits its stride.
Remember, the first season of this surprisingly edgy sitcom—which somehow manages to make surreal comedy out of a Room-like tragedy—was originally made for NBC, long before Netflix picked it up. Now that the show’s creators, Tiny Fey and her longtime creative partner Robert Carlock, are developing the show for Netflix, they’ll have even more creative freedom to explore its odd mix of sunshine and trauma. (Here, the jokes about cocaine binges and Muppet sex might not be TV firsts, but they’re less euphemized than you might expect on a network.) Moreover, it looks like Fey and Carlock might have heard the outcry about the show’s regrettable approach to racial stereotypes: The trailer is thankfully free of Dong jokes.
Of course, the show’s greatest strength has always been Ellie Kemper’s performance as the naïve yet strong-as-hell female protagonist (with Tituss Burgess’ turn as Titus Andromedon a scene-stealing second), and it’s clear the show hasn’t forgotten that. If anything, it looks like the Netflix series will be entering the territory of another fish-out-of-water comedy about a naif’s first adventures in the big city: Does anyone else think Kimmy is starting to bear a strong resemblance to Buddy from Elf?
