Jim Carrey's 'Kidding' is No Joke - Quick Ones

This week on Quick Ones! Sam, of Movie Night Autopsy, goes down the rabbit hole for new Showtime series, "Kidding". Well, the first episode anyways. Will Jim Carrey break sad? Is anyone in this show happy? Probably not, but at least they're trying!

"Kidding" is the new Showtime series created by Dave Holstein and starring Jim Carrey. Holstein's been around the block in Hollywood, recently working on "I'm Dying Up Here," another Showtime pet project of Carrey's, but more interesting is the season premiere's director, Michel Gondry. Many will remember one of Carrey's career highs being his performance in Gondry's film, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," so like them, I approached this premier with optimism and intrigue. 

From the start we are treated to Gondryesque visuals, guided by handmade paper title cards, before jumping into the type of show-within-a-show vibes of Larry Sanders, as we find ourselves on set for a Conan taping. Our first introduction to Carrey's Mr. Rogers-like protagonist -- a children's TV host who goes by the name Mr. Pickles -- tells us right away how the world views this man. He comes out with all smiles, waving to an adoring crowd as he greets his host and takes a seat next to Danny Trejo of all people, before launching into a Sesame St-like song routine complete with a puppet ukulele. 

The first of many tonal shifts occurs afterwards when we see the business side of being a children's entertainment giant, and meet his producer, who I think might also be his father, but the pilot glosses over this fact. We quickly learn that the smiles and kindness may be masking bigger, uglier emotions as Carrey's Jeff Pickles reveals the separation from his wife and the mourning of his dead son, a twin at that, leaving behind a surviving brother who is also coming to terms with this loss. Carrey's Jeff Pickles never lets up his own optimism, at least not entirely, and spends much of the episode striving to find the silver linings in all that he is experiencing.

Watching the premier of this series leaves me with a sense of coming dread, but we definitely don't get there yet. There are shades of something that might resemble "Breaking Sad," but it never breaks. He comes close a few times, particularly when addressing an implication from a surly, betrayed son, and again, at the episode's end where he learns something new about his separated wife, effortlessly portrayed by Judy Greer. However, Carrey isn't the only one with marital issues. Jeff's puppeteer sister, another great casting with Catherine Keener, is also struggling in her own home life for a myriad of reasons. After all, this is only the first chapter in the lives of these characters, and it appears there is much more story to tell. 

So while tonally messy, "Kidding" is visually spectacular, unabashedly original, and has one of the strongest casts assembles in television, at least on paper. We've clearly got a long way to go, but at this point, I'll follow Jim Carrey just about anywhere.

That reminds me, the entire pilot episode is available on YouTube as of this recording.

I'd give it four Showtime subscriptions out of five. 

Thanks for listening, this has been Sam with a Quick One brought to you by Movie Night Autopsy.

Obligatory apology for mispronouncing Michel Gondry's first name. My b.

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