Kevin Can F**k Himself Review: Live Free or Die (Season 1 Episode 4)

Kevin Can F**k Himself Season 1 Episode 4, “Live Free or Die,” is two terribly disappointing things, unlikeable and uneventful.

The decision to separate the men from the woman for important side missions could be groundbreaking. However, by wedging a gap between these polar-opposite worlds, the story exposes just how incompatible Allison’s gritty drug underworld and Kevin’s brightly lit man cave are.

It doesn’t help that no storyline is capable of fully standing on its own. This causes a bit of a conundrum as to what exactly is likeable about this latest adventure into the sitcom wife’s subconscious.

The issue we continue to see with Kevin Can F**k Himself stems from its best-selling feature. It’s difficult to enjoy this story when so much of it is wrapped up in comedy that isn’t entirely meant to be funny and bleak drama that drags us farther into Allison’s despair.

There’s no reprieve or common ground to latch onto during this episode. We just bounce back and forth between two opposing storylines that have the potential to be great if they weren’t so busy competing for space.

Overlap isn’t essential for Kevin and Allison’s world to work in unison, there just can’t be clashing between genres. Clashing that reduces storylines to weak entertainment because neither can commit to the lens they are exploring.

If you give Kevin half the episode to prove a point, that point has to be rock solid. It can’t be a half-assed storyline for the sake of making Allison’s dialogue stronger. In a duel of genres, the comedy needs to start pulling its weight and stop obscuring the better material if this season is to survive.

This episode isn’t a complete detour from the story that matters. In what one has to call a twist because it’s such a slap in the face, Kevin reports his car as stolen when Allison isn’t home in a timely matter.

It’s the kind of controlling and disgusting behaviour that finally has viewers realizing Kevin really can f**k himself.

Allison’s niceties with her husband in the face of so much outrage have us practically pulling our hair out. But it’s when she reveals to Patty that Kevin sabotaged her dream job as a paralegal and started a rumour she was fooling around on him, that this episode’s disjointed plot finally starts to pay off.

It’s not just Allison putting the pieces together for Patty. She is laying important groundwork for the hatred surrounding her husband’s toxic actions. Now, we have a reason to invest emotionally in her outlandish murder plot. 

Kevin Can F**k Himself is a difficult show to love at times as it’s designed to annoy its protagonist and consequentially, its viewers.

This couldn’t be more apparent than with Kevin’s escape room storyline. A storyline that takes an awful lot of time away from Allison and Patty’s slow-paced road trip, and forces us to sit through Kevin’s obnoxious gaslighting for the majority of the episode.

It’s difficult because these slap-stick scenes add little to the enjoyment of our time in this world, but Kevin’s inability to function on his own is a theme this episode needs for Allison’s final monologue to payoff. This escape room venture established how much Kevin relies on his wife and how little he cares about her otherwise.

But it also demonstrates firsthand the dangerous lengths he will go to make sure he is the centre of her world at all times.

Not much of this episode is subtle. However, the choice to reframe the typical male comedy ego in a way that keeps Kevin’s pathetic neediness intact and demonstrates how his obsessive need to come first has ruined Allison is rather smart.

We do not have to enjoy any of the disheartening violence or tedious jokes to appreciate Allison’s story. We just have to be invested, and it’s difficult to do that when a story is hell-bent on destroying a man that comes off as such a pathetic loser.

We’ve struggled to understand Allison’s motives because previous episodes suggest that if she just leaves Kevin, he’ll die from his own incompetence. This episode masterfully demonstrates why Kevin isn’t the kind of man you leave to his own devices.

Allison’s wrongs don’t start and stop with a broken coffee table. Kevin, whether he’s aware of it or not, has made her a prisoner of his ego, and that kind of abuse doesn’t need to compel us further. Allison’s monologue is enough to fuel the anger of any woman watching.

By no means does this episode reach its full capabilities. In the final moments, it does display a strong understanding of the sitcom wife’s darker struggles, and an even stronger understanding of the anger behind its foul mouth title.

—

What did you think of this episode of Kevin Can F**k Himself? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

Kevin Can F**k Himself airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

Annie Murphy Talks Final Season of ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ Ted’s Goodbye, and ‘Kevin Can F*** Himself’ [Exclusive Interview]