Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Review: Kimmy Meets a Celebrity! (Season 2 Episode 11)
“Kimmy Meets a Celebrity!” magnifies a key point the series has been trying to make ever since its pilot episode.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was born out of a tragedy of women in a bunker, and Kimmy is reclaiming and rediscovering her world.
Cindy is back in town, and this time she is going to see a therapist called Dr. Dave. Last season, Cindy came to visit Kimmy, and Kimmy discovered that Cindy embraced her title of ‘mole woman,’ and leverages it.
This time, Cindy is appearing on a show called “Superstars of Tragedy,” alongside conjoined twins attached at the crotch, a woman who was swallowed by an Orca, a woman who was trapped in a well as a child, and a man with his own syndrome named after him.
When Kimmy goes with Cindy to see the show she is struck by how different Cindy’s therapy is from her own. Kimmy then calls Titus, and he affirms her that Dr. Dave helps people.
The half-hour of television is an insightful satire on how television leverages tragedies to get ratings. The joke is made worse when Dr. Dave ends an episode saying:
DR: DAVE: Ladies and gentlemen, this is why — I went to pharmacy school!
The episode really makes you think about who we regard as experts on television? How do medical shows fill their time-slots when they air every weekday? Can we take the science at face value?
Kimmy tries to talk to Dr. Dave, who engineers a fight between Cindy and Kimmy. Kimmy tries to reason with Cindy and another revelation comes out: Kimmy never cried in the fifteen years she was in the bunker.
Dr. Dave is determined to get Kimmy onto the show, which she continuously denies. Instead, he arranges for Cindy to get married on his show the next day.
The reaction that both Cindy and Dr. Dave have to Kimmy’s lack of emotion regarding the bunker is to call her a robot.
This is a little disturbing because of all the Mole Women, Kimmy seems to be the most well-adjusted.
Gretchen and Cindy both need a guiding force in their lives to tell them who they are. For Gretchen, that comes in the form of starting her own cult. For Cindy, that comes from the public eye and being the face of a tragic event.
This is a point that Kimmy makes in the episode; Cindy isn’t making her own decisions, just letting another man make them for her.
We haven’t seen these women before the bunker. We don’t have background on Gretchen and Cindy, and we haven’t seen much of Kimmy, so Kimmy’s attitude going into the bunker is not a variable we can know.
The little bit we saw in Episode 10 gives the impression that Kimmy may just be an overly optimistic person.
The illusion of Kimmy being a robot quickly shatters.
When she returns to Dr. Dave’s show, to stop Cindy’s wedding, Kimmy is torn. She wants to object, but knows that she will lose Cindy forever if she says something.
She wants to help Cindy, and the conflict causes her to start crying. Her emotional moment causes Cindy to turn around. Seeing how broken up Kimmy is, causes Cindy to call off the wedding.
This episode is as much about Kimmy as it is the media and while it’s disturbing, it is also ridiculous and entertaining.
Stray Thoughts:
- The episode also touches briefly on Titus taking part in a drug trial to make some money. A passing remark that he is broke, coupled with some cold doctors that have lousy bedside manner, give a little insight into how the drug trials prey on the poor and disenfranchised people in New York City.
- Kimmy talking to the photo of Geena Davis was pretty awesome. Can you imagine telling Geena Davis that you don’t want to do your homework? I can’t imagine the real Geena Davis being happy about that.
- Lillian continues her protest, hoping the neighborhood would provide. Sadly, Pizza Rat doesn’t seem to care.
What did you think of this episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 2 is currently available for streaming on Netflix.
Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.