“Kevin Can F Himself” is a clear-cut, incontestable, black-comic evisceration of toxic sitcoms. That much is clear within the first hour, if not the first 10 minutes.
Starring recent Emmy-winner Annie Murphy , serve as wisecracking spectators.
Multiple cameras cut from a wide look at the stage to medium shots of one or two characters.
Carrying her husband’s empty beer stein in one hand and the laundry in the other, this wife isn’t left to do her chores off-screen; she’s dead center in the frame, shadows cascading over the messy house around her, the audience not just silent, but gone.
The half featuring Kevin is a “cheery” sitcom, a la “Kevin Can Wait” — the defunct 2016-2018 Kevin James comedy that infamously killed off his character’s wife, played by Erinn Hayes, so it could bring in Leah Remini, who starred as James’ spouse in their previous CBS hit, “The King of Queens.” While one of the more glaring recent examples of the genre’s maltreatment of female characters, “Kevin Can Wait” is far from the only half-hour series to treat wives as disposable props, and “Kevin Can F Himself” goes after them all.
Without delving into plots too far past the pilot, “Kevin Can F Himself” finds its tension in its shadowy “reality.” It’s there that Allison starts to bond with Patty ; and it’s there that she starts to plot his murder — yes, his murder.
Are the non-sitcom scenes actually “reality,” or do they represent another genre in need of skewering: like, say, the prestige crime drama? After all, those scenes are awfully dark — which could double as contrast to the glaring multi-cam lighting and commentary on the literal darkness overtaking TV’s oh-so-serious antiheroes.
After all, “Kevin Can F Himself” isn’t really about Kevin; it’s about Allison, and in turn, recognizing individual women as fully realized people, capable not only of carrying their own story but telling it.
As the show goes on, Kevin’s sitcom feels more and more like a nefarious intrusion, and Allison’s drama more and more like a suspenseful escape.
Less time needs to be spent in Kevin’s stake-less sitcom world These examples aren’t suggestions so much as “what if’s?” “Kevin Can F Himself” has already earned our attention.