‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ Season Three Proves It’s The Smartest Show On Television – Decider

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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has always had a flirtationwith academia. Specifically, therainbow-colored sitcoms first two seasons were based around Greek philosophys biggest hits. Season One, which followed Kimmy (Ellie Kemper) as she emerged from an underground bunker, grappled with the crushing weight of the real world, and then returned to the bunker to save her fellow mole women was a beat-for-beat comedic re-enactment of Platos cave allegory and Season Two dug into Aristotles katharsis. NowSeason Three isproving that Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is the smartest show on television right now.

In previous seasons, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidts interest in philosophy was always conveyed via metaphors and slapdash allusions, but in Season Three, it enters the spotlight.Daveed Diggs plays Kimmys love interest, Perry, an earnest philosophy student who encourages Kimmy to study the great thinkers of history. And so, after a fluke meeting lands her a full scholarship to Columbia University, Kimmy becomes a philosophy student. An entire episode is devoted to her fumbling her way through the morality of utilitarianism only to have her philosophy professor point out the fallacy of it all. Philosophy is dumb, he says after running through the pros and cons of Kant and ethical egoism (the latter of which gets a wink from Titus). The season ends with Kimmy applying utilitarianism to areal life quandary: would she give her life up to save pedestrians as a crossing guard? Other episodes deal with the concepts of justice and religious morality. Another episode features her joining Perry in an ill-conceived rap about Platos Phaedo. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidtcant talk about philosophy enough.

In fact, the entire arc of Season Three can be summed up as Kimmy and her friends confront their personal moral philosophies. Everyones core belief system is shook and everyone must confront change. Titus (Tituss Burgess) has to come to grips with the fact that his (almost objectivist??) selfish outlook on life has handicapped his relationships with others and his ability to self-improve. Lillian (Carol Kane) has to learn how to accept change both in the neighborhood and in her personal life. Finally, Jacqueline (Jane Krakowski) fully evolves from a vapid trophy wife into a self-actualized, three-dimensional woman who puts causes she believes in over the approval of the Manhattans elite. Seriously! While other comedieskeep their main characters in the same mindsets season after season, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has challenged its protagonists to their very core. The comedy comes from the very human, and often existential, growing pains.

The jokes have also gotten smarter. The barbs were always sharp, but now its like the show is trying to outsmart its own audience in a way that can only be described as peak Tina Fey. I mean,naming a community college the Robert Moses College for Whites Everyone might be the deepest scholastic jab Ive seen in a sitcom since 30 Rock dropped that Jack Donaghey won the Amory Blaine Handsomeness Scholarship to Princeton. (The UKS reference is to Robert Moses renowned racism as exposed in the Pulitzer Prize-winning tome The Power Broker, and the 30 Rock joke is a dig at F. Scott Fitzgeralds other great literary hero, an aimless Princeton student who was indeed, very handsome.)

A lot of the seasons best moments come from nuanced explorations of big tent issues. Complicated topics like feminism and safe spaces and religion get deconstructed with wit, and yes, warmth. Many of these issues were brushed offin the service of punchlines in prior seasons, sparking bits of backlash. And so, the fact that these topics are included in the plot this year show that the shows writing staff has been doing some soul-searching of its own. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a show that is constantly appraising itself in much the same way as its characters. So its kind of as self-actualized as a 13-episode half hour long comedy series can get.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt may enjoy pop culture jokes and absurd set pieces, but its comedy is rooted in the most profound philosophies of our civilization. Its ability to balance these contradictions only further illustrates the depths of its wisdom and how gosh darn smart the show really is.

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'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' Season Three Proves It's The Smartest Show On Television - Decider