Comedy Half-Life?

"That has not aged well." It's a reaction many of us are used to having about beloved entertainment from our childhood that we haven't revisited since childhood. Whether we rightfully "should have known better at the time" or "attitudes have evolved over the years," pop culture history is full of movies and television littered with cringey moments you may have forgotten.

Some entertainment is showing its age even faster than that. One TV series I recently watched that seems to be aging observably in real time is Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix. Debuting just six years ago and concluding in 2019 (not counting an interactive special that followed in early 2020), the series is already showing its age in uncomfortable ways. I almost bailed while watching season one -- partly from the the growing pains of a new comedy that hadn't really figured out its brand of funny, and partly for the humor that doesn't seem so deft today.

A lot of the early humor in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt comes from a place of "we totally know this is inappropriate... but you all can tell that we know that, and that makes it okay... right?" Maybe? When the jokes are funny? But while the series is learning to be funny, it's using co-star Tituss Burgess -- a gay person of color -- as a flak jacket to excuse some humor that's not quite racist, not quite homophobic... but not quite right either. (Meanwhile, the humor about Matt Lauer in the pilot episode? Yeah, that plays terribly today. And it's only one of an uncomfortable number of cringey examples in the first half of that first season.)

But, like I said, I almost bailed out. The series did pull out of its early tailspin (especially once it reached the second season). The show hits on a kind of "live action Family Guy" vibe, loaded with quick cutaway gags and silly one-liners. It also drifts toward a Seinfeld approach that assumes you aren't actually supposed to find the characters likeable most of the time. The jokes that might seem like they're punching down start to work as it's increasingly clear they're punching down at the characters themselves.

Plus, a preposterous parade of top notch guest stars is always there to steal the show. Yes, main cast members Ellie Kemper, Tituss Burgess, Carol Kane, and Jane Krakowski have their moments. But for me, the real laugh out loud moments come from Amy Sedaris, Jon Hamm, Maya Rudolph, David Cross, Josh Charles, Zachary Quinto, Busy Phillips, Fred Armisen, or Lisa Kudrow -- to name only some of the most recognizable performers to wander through.

I'm not sure I'm going quite as far as recommending Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to those who haven't watched it already. (I definitely don't like to hear recommendations that go, "give it a bunch of episodes, and then it'll get good.") On the other hand, if the rest of the series somehow ages as harshly in the next few years as those first few episodes somehow already have, there might not be much time left to enjoy it. I'd say it starts out at maybe a C and eventually reaches a fairly reliable B+. It's perhaps a B overall.

For now, at least...