Kevin Can F Himself on Amazon Prime shows why toxic relationships aren’t funny.
American couple sitcoms: A man, a woman, sometimes children, a dog, or a father-in-law, live in a classic single-family house, large living room plus eat-in kitchen, in the background a staircase to the second floor. The plot usually consists of interpersonal dramas, arguments, misunderstandings, which are accompanied by well-rehearsed laughter.
For these stories to work, it is essential: the woman is a nasty bitch and the man a selfish good-for-nothing. The basis of the storyline: The man wants something the wicked woman forbids him to do, such as going to a football game, even though he had promised to fix something in the house. The man then has to lie to his wife, which in turn leads to funny storylines and games of hide-and-seek. One of the best known examples of this genre is “King of Queens”.
So the “joke” is that the couple are in a toxic relationship. The man is mostly concerned with his pleasure and contributes nothing to the relationship or the household. This leads to the woman having to demand things. There is no relationship between two adults shown, but a mother-child dynamic, which underlines the narrative of the “bitchy” woman and is obviously supposed to be hilarious. Usually it even goes so far that the man is seen as a victim of the woman because she is so mean to him. Patriarchal humor at its best.
The AMC series “Kevin Can F Himself” (on Amazon Prime) has taken on this topic and sends viewers on an interesting journey on which this questionable sitcom concept is turned on its head. The not very subtle parody of the series “Kevin Can Wait” with Kevin James, who also played the idiot husband in “King of Queens”, is already clear in the title.
Everything starts as you would expect from a sitcom like this: Kevin and Allison, a married couple in their mid-thirties, live in a typical single-family house – shabby 90s chic – and of course the well-rehearsed laughs should not be missing.
Kevin is playing beer-pong with friends in the living room, which Allison, who is doing the laundry, doesn’t like. A few brisk sayings are made, Allison is mocked and booed by the group as “Mom”. The usual laughs are played in.
Allison leaves the living room and enters the kitchen. And suddenly we’re in a drama. The setting of the series is now dark. There are no well-rehearsed laughs, no music. Allison breathes heavily and smashes a glass. Suddenly, none of this is funny anymore. Spectators now notice: The woman lives in hell.
From now on, the series alternates between the two forms and uses this artistic trick to show the misery that Allison’s life is – without the contrast from Allison’s perspective, the other scenes would pass as a completely normal sitcom.
“Kevin Can F Himself” shows perfectly why these toxic relationship dynamics so often depicted in series have nothing funny about them. It’s not funny when a partner is incompetent and doesn’t know how to use a vacuum cleaner. It’s not funny when one partner has to raise the other. It’s not funny when one partner doesn’t care about the other’s needs.
Allison is far from being a nice, lovable woman. She’s not even personable. But she doesn’t have to be either, so that one can understand or acknowledge that she has been disappointed in life and that her husband Kevin has a very large part in it. Allison is desperate. And desperate situations call for desperate measures. You see a woman who has lost herself and all judgment. By the way, the second season should come in 2022.
“Kevin Can F Himself”: on Amazon Prime, one season.
The “Next Episode” column focuses on streaming and TV series. More at fr.de/naechste-sequence
