2022, 8 episodes - Amazon Prime
Toasty and I were out at a movie together the other day (!!!) and some food and drinks too, and of course we brought up what this here blog is about. For me, it's a place to get my thoughts and feelings about movies down, and yet, it's also an exercise in form. Toasty talked about how he liked to preamble, occasionally spending more time writing about things around the movie/tv show, or even completely disconnected from it...it is a blog afterall. My exercises tend to lean more formal reviewing, except when it's time to get nerdy. Usually it's comic-book-based properties, but on occasion, it's comedy. It's about to get comnerdy in here.
The Kids in the Hall is my all-time favourite sketch show and one of my all-time favourite shows, period. Amidst a lot of other great ones out there -- obviously Python, Mr. Show, Key & Peele, Kroll Show, many others -- The Kids in the Hall spoke to me - and continues to resonate with me - like little else did. It was counter-culture, it was rebellious, it was edgy, it was weird, it was gay, it was violent, it was gross, it was shocking, it was goofy, it was clever...and it was Canadian. Maybe most of all it was Canadian. We've had top notch comedy before, SCTV, at the forefront, but it was nothing like this.
It's been almost 30 years since the Kids in the Hall TV show ended, and while there was a movie and a serialized mini-series, and live stage shows, I just never thought I'd see another sketch show. So when I heard Amazon were bringing them back, well, I was nervous. Comedic performers don't often age well. The common thing is with success the comedic performers lose touch with the everyday, their frame of reference changes with the different lives they lead being famous, or semi-famous, or infamous. And, ageing can make people more conservative. You hate to see it but, well, look up what John Cleese and Terry Gilliam are saying these days...better yet, don't.
When older comedians try to return, there's often a sense of desperation to the comedy, a need to earn the laughs whatever which way they can, and we see this in the first episode of this new series (or Season 6, I suppose) where Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald, playing pothead robbers, decide that the police will be on the lookout for people with clothes, so they doff their outfits and emerge from their vehicle fully exposed. The cops then put them through rigours, jumping up and down, flopping around. The question that came into my head, immediately, was "Is this funny, or is it desperate?" The answer would only be revealed by seeing how the rest of the series went. If the rest of the series was funny, then the nudity is funny. If the rest of the series is choking, on life support, a quintet of late 50-somethings/early 60-somethings just hanging on trying to play a young man's game, then the nudity is a sad gesture of desperate men who don't know what comedy even is anymore.
I have a brief-ish episode-by-episode breakdown below, but ultimately the show largely skews funny, though there are a lot of rocky bits amidst plenty of gems (but then, there always were some rocky bits). The Kids had created a great many recurring characters throughout their prior 5-years on television and a lot of those characters turn back up in this new series/season. For me, too many of those characters turned up, and yet, with a bit of contemplation most of these characters were used judiciously and meaningfully. I was worried they would be a bit of a crutch, shorthand to an easy laugh, and there is some of that, but I'm reminded that in the original series the same thing would happen, where a recurring character would pop up briefly in a sketch, one that wasn't built around them, or that they would emerge partway through a sketch taking it over. I guess it seems more egregious here since it seems to happen with more frequency than in did in the original series
What's missing, desperately though, is the live studio audience. I've been doing a rewatch of the original KitH series and what I find amazing is how much a part of the show the live studio audience reaction to both the stage and production sketches is part of my experience of the show. Some of the laughs or groans or nervous chuckles are as much a part of the show as the jokes or music. Because this season/series was shot amidst the pandemic, there's no live sketches. I'm not sure if they would have planned any to be (some sketches were honed on tour over the past decade or so), but the show often doesn't feel quite right, and I've pretty much pinned down the lack of audience and live sketches to be the cause.
What I also find interesting is how the guys have aged into some of the characters they play, like Bruce and Scott as Gordon and Fran now seem completely age appropriate, or Dave as the balding, obese boss at A.T. & Love. But with the added years, wrinkles and weight, the guys make it much more difficult to buy into them playing young men, and women. [Here, I was about to delve into gender binary constructs, but have decided against it.] There's certainly a commentary to be made about what it means for these men to be performing in drag at this age, and what it might mean for non-binary individuals and representation, but I'm not at all the right person for that side of the intellectual discussion. There's also maybe a case to be made against them continuing to perform in drag at all, but much like the original show, their character work here always elevates every female character they play above just the gut reaction of man-in-dress. That is never the joke, and never has been.
If there's an MVP of the season, it's easily Kevin. In the final four episodes, he puts some of his best-ever comedic character performances. Kevin has always been my favourite Kid in the Hall, but then I always love an underdog. Kevin's career post-KitH has been the least shiny, but here he seems to be the one who has retained his comedic sensibility the strongest, and seems the most eager to show it off.
Lets get to the episode recaps:
Episode 1: This starts with a self-referential bit tying Brain Candy into the KitH pantheon and bringing Don (Mark) and Marv (Dave) from the movie as sort of the framing sequence for the entire series. Mark gets to bring out his Lorne Michaels impersonation again, and I enjoy these bits.
Best Sketch: "60 on the pole" is the big ensemble sketch where all 5 guys get in on the action. After the robbery sketch I was worried that this would be all of them getting naked, being 60-year-old strippers, but it's just charming.
Worst Sketch: "The Last Fax" was my big fear for this series, overdependent on old recurring characters (Cathy and Kathy) without much new to say with them, and ending with a punchline dragging in other recurring characters. It's not horrible, but it felt like fan service.
What of The Rest: Paul Bellini returns to dig the KitH up out of their mass grave. Dave asks, "Am I still the cute one?" The upscale kitchen crew from the "Dipping Areas" sketch return (for the first of two) in "Foodie's Tarts" where a tart being mistaken for a pie is so gauche. It's a solid reprise but, doesn't work in continuity with the second sketch featuring these characters in Ep 8.
Rating (out of 5 KitH): One Mark, One Dave, Half a Scott
Episode 2: All my fears for this series that the first episode didn't dispell at all were washed away with a classic KitH-style absurd sketch opening the show...the best of the episode...
Best Sketch: "Speed Racer" in which Bruce has an armchair with a lawnmower engine which he drives to a gathering of vintage muscle cars. He gets into a Fast and Furious style pink slip race, which he promptly and comically loses. "I miss my wife" he mutters under his breath.
Worst Sketch: "The Last Gloryhole" is a buddy-centric sketch which should have been gold but for all it's little absurdities it never really comes together.
What of The Rest: speaking of "comes together" the final sketch is a business zoom call sketch which I'm utterly exhausted with from a comedy standpoint after 2 years...but it is important to go over the "Masturbation Policy". It's funny, but doesn't really feel like KitH. "Imaginary Girlfriend", in which Dave and Kevin fight over an imaginary woman is fun but seems to be missing something. "Drop Average" parts 1 & 2 are pretty great, classic KitH inappropriateness.
Rating (out of 5 KitH): One Bruce, Two Daves, Half a Kevin
Episode 3: KitH's framing sequences in the original series had some real classics, like the "It's a Fact" girl, 30 Helens, M. Piedlourde and so many more. Here we add Doomsday DJ to the mix and it's amazing, perfectly shot, and you'll never hear the song "Brand New Key" the same again.
Best Sketch: "Danny's New Shoes" finds Scott's Danny Husk getting into some trouble for cultural appropriation, the Kids' non-judgemental take on modern civility. It's funny without punching down on anyone. It's the first classically-styled KitH sketch to feel contemporary.
Worst Sketch: "Shakespeare's Bust" in which Kevin's bust of Shakespeare comes to life after a wish for better company, only for horrifying things to happen. A lot of horrific grossness on top of enjoyable absurdity but a sketch seemingly without instigation.
What of The Rest: "Gut Spigot" is adapted from the stage show into a production piece. I think it would have played better in front of a live studio audience (nice to see Brandon Ash-Mohammad). "Ambumdlance" builds pretty nicely into a classic solid KitH sketch, and gets a callback later in the season.
Rating (out of 5 KitH): One Dave, One Scott, One Mark
Episode 4: As great as "Doomsday DJ" was a framing device, "Super Drunk" is the exact opposite but mainly because it's lame Adam West Batman parody with Bruce being a drunk superhero. The awfulness is mostly in the name "Super Drunk", but using West Batman as the superhero parody reference just seems hack.
Best Sketch: "Patrol" is a classic KitH production sketch that speaks to how in some older men, patrolling their neighbourhood becomes some sort of calling. It could have come right out of the old show.
Worst Sketch: As much as I disliked the "Super Drunk" sketches, they put some good effort into it. The "Hotel La Rut" sketch, featuring the return of Mark and Scott's french prostitutes, stuck on a couch in quarantine, having run out of bon bons and too lazy to get up, just feels limp. It would have worked on stage much better, not as a production piece,
What of The Rest: "Super Drunk" takes up so much time that all that's left is "Antique" in which Dave's character tries to sell an antique videocassette to Kevin's character of a classic Kevin McDonald sketch only to realize that he's now in a Kevin McDonald sketch. Humorous but doesn't know how to exit.
Rating (out of 5 KitH): One and a half Marks, half a Kevin
Episode 5: coming out of the weakest episode, the Kids rebound with an episode full of straight up the middle solid sketches which feels comfortably like just another episode of Kids in the Hall which I think is what I'd been waiting for.
Best Sketch: "Surprise"... in which Kevin's new cats are out to murder him. Feels vintage, but is brand new.
Worst Sketch: "Assassin" is really well shot, and Mark does all the heavy lifting in dual roles, but it ends on a poop sight gag which, no thanks.
What of The Rest: The "Couple's Counseling" framing sequence of Francesca Feore and Bruno Ponce-Jones is the best character revival in the series. The skits featuring these two never fail to be entertaining and they add Kevin into the mix to watch the fireworks. "We're Having A Baby" perhaps gets too meta at the end but if they're going to do sketches using old recurring characters this is kind of a good way to do it. Rating (out of 5 KitH): One and a half Kevins, One Dave, One Scott
Episode 6: At this point KitH seem completely in the groove and we get pretty much all highs and *almost* no lows, and a few transcendent pieces. The framing sequence brings Fran (Scott) and Gordon (Bruce) back as for their anniversary Gordon wants to carry Fran over the threshhold. "I really wanna see this happen" a paramedic says after Gordon's refuses treatment from his first heart attack and pursues attempting lifting Fran up with dogged determinism.
Best Sketch: In "Bananas" Jake (Scott) has bananas arranged mysteriously on his windowsill. Phil (Kevin) hangs back after Jake's party ends and starts grilling Jake on what exactly he's doing with the bananas. It's a weird sketch, we get one of Kevin's classic weirdos calling Scott out for being a weirdo. Kevin just explodes, perhaps as confident as he's ever been in a sketch.
Worst Sketch: "Friends of Kids in the Hall: Michael" in which "Michael" (Fred Armisen) talks about loving the Kids in the Hall. Every episode has one of these "Friends of Kids in the Hall" bits where a celebrity comedian talks about loving the Kids in the Hall (mostly SNL vets like Pete Davidson, Keenan Thompson and Will Forte). They're sort of a love letter but wholly unnecessary to the show. They're actually the worst thing in every episode, if only because they're not KitH. This episode just doesn't have a worst sketch.
What of The Rest: "Flags of Mark" is runner up for best sketch, a delightful Guy Madden-esque slice of egotistical weirdness from McKinney, all about how much he loves it when people love him. Don and Marv return, and in "The Baby", Dave and Kevin don't like their friend's baby, plus a brief interlude with Mark and Bruce's cops.
Rating (out of 5 KitH): Two Kevins, Two Marks, One Dave, One Bruce, One Scott (yep 7 out of 5)
Episode 7: The framing sequence is "Taddli", a parody of 90's style kids show "cool guys" who try to teach the kids about avoiding bad things. Mark straddles the line of "Taddli" being a parody and something utterly horrifying, but the real joke is that he's really just as benevolent as he seems.
Best Sketch: "Luke Warm". Best sketch of the series. Kevin McDonald's best sketch ever, maybe. I've been saying "I wanted it hot-hot, but it was luke warm" in as close a KevMcD impersonation as I can get for days, and it just makes me giggle so. Great guest appearance from Eddy Izzard, and the ending of the sketch is just so heartwarmingly weird and delightful.
Worst Sketch: "Friends of Kids in the Hall: Laraine" - Samantha Bee talks loving KitH. Unnecessary but harmless.
What of The Rest: I don't know that we needed a sequel sketch to "The Eradicator" but we get one, and it's pretty fun. It's a character who never got a reprise thus never wore out their welcome. "The Professor" in which Mark and Kevin's gay characters try to help mend Scott and Dave's fraying relationship... and Dave pulls double duty as a Swedish sexpot...what a delight. Would have been top sketch, if not for Kevin's megaton performance in "Luke Warm"
Rating (out of 5 KitH): Five Kevins, Two Daves, Two Marks, One Scott, One Bruce (yeah, an 11 out of 5, this is an all-timer best ep of KitH)
Episode 8: coming out of two top tier Kids in the Hall episodes, this opens with a Bruce McCulloch musical number, something I would always look forward to....but...
Worst Sketch: "I'm Not Crazy, I Just Lost My Glasses" is really bad. Everything about it just doesn't work. Whatever tune Bruce is trying to conjure up never manifests. The music is clearly Northey and does nothing for me. The comedic hook is the equivalent of when your dad forwards an email full of "funny things" that's been passed around between thousands of Boomers. Yuck. Sorry Bruce.
Best Sketch: Thankfully the episode recovers handily. The gorgeously produced (and wardrobed and make-upped) "My Card" -- in which 19th century upper-crust facial hair arrangement delights Mark's mustachioed character to the point of exchanging personal cards with them, only for his cards to keep winding up at crime scenes -- escalates beautifully. Sheer delight
What of The Rest: Kevin delivers another brilliant performances in "Much too much" as he derides his wife (Dave) for banal things such as the gate sticking and, you know, leaving him for another man (Scott, as a 56-year-old lifeguard). The final skit finds the gang, as themselves (except Mark who is playing "whatever character Mark is playing"), trying to figure out what is appealing and funny to GenZ, coming to the conclusion that it's "Cliffhanger". The upscale restaurateurs from "Dipping Areas" are back again, oblivious to the events of "Foodie's Tarts", this time debating the validity of the sign posted stating "Must Wash Hair Before Pooping".
Rating (out of 5 KitH): 2 Kevins, 1 1/2 Marks, 1/2 a Scott
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By the end of episode 8, it feels like the KitH are just starting to run on all cylinders. Hopefully they keep adding fuel to that fire and doing the work for more, because they did manage to get their groove back.
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