Wide-eyed wonder is one of Tina Fey’s specialties, a way of looking at the world in all its weirdness and commenting on modern mores as if dropping in from another time and place. In the case of “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” the time was the mid-’90s, the place an underground bunker of a doomsday cult.
Just as she parodied the inanities of the corporate culture of a commercial TV network in “30 Rock,” Fey now widens her view to New York City and contemporary life in general. Again, the tone is quirky, the humor often scathing.
“The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” from Fey and longtime creative partner Robert Carlock, premieres March 6 on Netflix.
If you’ve missed , you’ll be thrilled to meet . Fey’s muse here is Ellie Kemper, an accomplished comic actress (“The Office” and “Bridesmaids”) who perfectly portrays the clueless but ever- enthusiastic outsider. The role was written with Kemper in mind — her open face and depiction of sublime innocence are key — and she nails it.
Kimmy (Kemper) is a newcomer to the city and to life, a neon-pink-wearing 29-year-old Indiana woman rescued after 15 years in a kooky end-times cult and eager to find her place.
The first people she meets in the city are a crotchety landlady, played by Carol Kane, a struggling gay actor, played in full queen tilt with music-video interludes by (D’Fwan on “30 Rock”), and a too-rich and equally clueless uptown mother, played by “30 Rock’s” Jane Krakowski.
At its heart, the show is about starting over, notably in that capital of reinvention: NYC. TV has favored plenty of young women remaking themselves, post-divorce, post-addiction, post-schooling … ever since Mary Tyler Moore threw her hat into the Minneapolis sky. But never have we encountered such a cockeyed-optimist wack job.
Rich guest roles include Martin Short as a plastic surgeon who has had so much work done on his face as to be unintelligible. Once again, Fey skewers a certain over-privileged population’s obsession with body image and overall lack of awareness.
The series, produced by Universal Television, originally was slated as an NBC midseason comedy. Universal determined it would live longer and do better at Netflix, which snapped it up and gave it a guaranteed two seasons. NBC has a weak bench when it comes to comedy, and nothing to help launch “Kimmy Schmidt.” And so you may now binge-watch 13 episodes on the rival streaming service.
Netflix has previously scored with “Orange is the New Black” and “House of Cards,” but this is the first true comedy it has picked up and it looks to be a winner.
Unbreakable? Unassailable.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830, jostrow@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ostrowdp
