Kevin Can F**k Himself: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Kevin Can F**k Himself: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 18, 2021

The American situation comedy has often been like a funhouse mirror held up to society, with an emphasis on "fun", though with a clear connotation that what's being reflected is somehow distorted and not completely "real". It's kind of interesting to chart the course of the American family as portrayed in comedies on United States televisions over several decades. In the nascent days of television, while there were occasional blue collar characters in shows like The Honeymooners or The Life of Riley (both interestingly featuring Jackie Gleason), for the most part families tended to be upper middle class, with the Dad ostensibly (more or less) firmly in control of the situation, a la Father Knows Best, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and/or Leave It to Beaver. The 1960s started to traffic in clueless males with seemingly smarter (and at times supernaturally powered) partners in such well remembered shows as Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. (It's interesting to note that the one sitcom pairing a smart male with a "superpowered" but clueless female, My Living Doll, vanished after a single season). Family sitcoms started getting more "real" with the advent of shows like All in the Family, and while there were definitely still cartoonish elements that could intrude in various series, that trend continued more or less unabated through a whole set of well remembered comedies like Family Ties, Home Improvement and Everybody Loves Raymond. What's kind of interesting, and which plays into the whole setup of Kevin Can F**k Himself, is how the (super?)powered women of family sitcoms from the 1960s kind of reverted back to "supporting spouses/partners" even in the more realistic sitcoms that followed.

Kevin Can F**k Himself is another "meta" offering that, kind of like WandaVision, exploits the very idea of a television show being a television show as part of its premise. In this case, Allison Devine-McRoberts (Annie Murphy) has been married to Kevin McRoberts (Eric Petersen) for ten years, and the series offers two ping ponging "realities": a sitcom like series of vignettes on a set that is half All in the Family, half Everybody Loves Raymond, where everything is light, bright and cheery (if sitcom snarky), replete with a laugh track; and dramatic interludes which paint a much more somber version of what's going on in the McRoberts marriage and with regard to their neighbors, who sitcom style, are frequently at the McRoberts' home.

On the sitcom side of things, Petersen's Kevin seems to be kind of like the B-movie version of a real life Kevin, namely Kevin James of Kevin Can Wait, which this series seems to be alluding to at least with regard to its title as perhaps an example of "prefab" shows, though kind of ironically in that regard, this second at bat for James (after The King of Queens, which is also an obvious influence on Kevin Can F**k Himself) had problems establishing the central marriage relationship, resulting in the "death" of James' wife after the first season and the introduction of Queens co-star Leah Remini as the sparring partner potential love interest in the second and last season. Also ironically, if Kevin Can Wait killed off its female spouse, Kevin Can F**k Himself becomes increasingly concerned with Allison's fantasies (which may be verging on realization as the season continues) of killing Kevin.

If this series seems on its face to be about a disintegration marriage, it really may be more about the friendship Allison ends up developing with her Rosie O'Donnell-esque neighbor, Patty O'Connor (Mary Hollis Inboden). And in fact the trio of EPKs included in this set as bonus items overtly mention how it's the relationship between the two women which actually propels the story. The characters in both "versions" which play out are often quite interesting, and include Kevin's father Pete (Brian Howe), a former (and possibly disgraced) priest, and Neil (Alex Bonifer), Patty's brother and Kevin's best friend, who is kind of a lame brained hunk who mostly but not exclusively is part of the sitcom side of things. Later in the season, Allison reunites with a former flame named Sam (Raymond Lee).

Unfortunately, this is a "high concept" affair that is admittedly audacious and therefore probably generally worthwhile, but which is nonetheless never able to fully integrate two very disparate feeling ideas. It's obvious that the creative staff wanted to intentionally provoke viewers used to seeing the faux "happily ever after" of traditional American family sitcoms by ripping the scab right off of that illusion, but the result is simply too disjunctive to ever really fully resonate. There's a lot to admire about this attempt, including really smart production design and cinematography that help to differentiate the two "worlds", and some especially fine performances by Murphy and Inboden in particular, but my hunch is this is going to be an acquired taste for many.

Kevin Can F**k Himself: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kevin Can F**k Himself is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of RLJ Entertainment and AMC with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The IMDb lists various Sony CineAlta, Canon and Fujinon cameras and, while no DI is mentioned, source capture resolutions of up to 6K. This is an extremely pleasing looking transfer for the most part which capably supports the really interesting production ethos of the series, one which exploits a "live" multi camera setup for the sitcom elements, but then reverts to single cameras for the dramatic sequences. There are manifest differences in the "looks" between these two varying "realities", with the sitcom scenes looking bright, almost candy colored and artificial, and the dramatic scenes often swathed in an almost sickly green color (something that is even emphasized further by production design elements which keep things in that same general color spectrum). Detail levels are routinely high throughout the presentation, and while the palette isn't exactly "natural" looking in either the sitcom or dramatic scenes, it's nicely suffused.

Kevin Can F**k Himself: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kevin Can F**k Himself features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that provides decent if never really overwhelming immersion. In fact some of the most noticeable "surround activity" is the patently artificial noise the laugh track makes in the sitcom scenes. Otherwise, engagement of the side and rear channels can typically be accomplished with ambient environmental effects or in the case of some of the "group" scenes with a bunch of characters speaking or interacting simultaneously, where the soundstage can widen agreeably. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.

Kevin Can F**k Himself: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Look at the Series (HD; 5:30) offers a brief overview of the series, and includes some fun interviews, beginning with several of the cast asking the camera whether they're saying "f**k" or "f".


• Meet the Characters (HD; 6:58) features introductions of the sextet of major characters.


• Making the Show (HD; 6:15) focuses on some of the production issues, including the multi-cam and single cam filming aspects.

Note: All of the above featurettes are on Disc Two of this two disc set. The three featurettes can be played separately, or via a Play All option.

Kevin Can F**k Himself: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The sitcom families of the 1950s and at least the early to mid 1960s were often idealized portraits of what Americans thought they should be. Maybe that's one of the reasons why the "post modern sitcom" family (and neighbors) of Kevin Can F**k Himself already seem relatively dark when compared to, say, Ward and June Cleaver, so that the contrast between the sitcom and dramatic moments in this series, while unsettling and undeniably provocative, just never quite seems to fully resonate. Still, this is a really interesting series with some especially fine performances and a rather fascinating production design dialectic between the two "worlds". Technical merits are solid, though supplements are a bit on the slim side. With caveats duly noted, Recommended.