I like how when alison finally confronted kevin and left him, with him then dying literally 5 minutes later is like him finally losing his plot armour and finally facing real consequences for doing something stupid.
It makes sense to me why she married and stayed with him, I'll try to explain my thought process. Kevin is a bit of manchild and Alison is kind of neurotic. I feel like she probably found his carefree nature appealing towards the start and wanted that escapist, sitcom life but gradually got sick of his selfishness. In real life it's notoriously hard to leave abusive relationships and abusers often hide their worse tendencies until they think they've got their partner trapped so I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't even see his selfish side until pretty far into their relationship. Alison didn't seem to like Kevin at the start of the show but she only really snapped when she learned about the financial stuff and how deep Kevin's lies went. In my opinion that scene where it's revealed made him go from a selfish idiot to a deliberately manipulative and controlling person
I saw it the same way you did. She kept saying how much things would get better if she just gets him to the bank the next day. It really seemed like she saw him as unintentionally messing up. Like, "oh, he's harmless, he doesn't mean it. But *I* can fix this if I just try harder." But throughout the show I caught more times were he manipulated things to seem like they were her fault. And other times where she'd kinda defend him. Their dynamic was so well fleshed out in both the sitcom and the drama scenes.
"That would make a statement, not a character" That line is just beautiful. If only more screenwriters nowadays would take more than a pacing glance at a message like that. Great stuff!
There’s a fantastic Easter egg in the finale where the actor playing Molly (Kevin’s new girlfriend) played the stereotypical sitcom wife in Kevin Can Wait, the sitcom that inspired the show. She was even killed off in between seasons which was heavily criticised in the press at the time. The actor said on Twitter following the release of Kevin Can F Himself that she was pleased to have been able to come full circle. I think it’s brilliant that they did that.
The moment where it really hit me just how much Alison's side of the story was starting to resemble the Sitcom side was when they were in the back of the Police Car, and they were farcically trying to not give themselves away. It could beat for beat be translated to the other format and fit perfectly. And once I saw it, I couldn't stop imagining it with other scenes, how the two worlds were bleeding together. It was probably for the best that it ended when it did. Better to do all they can with the concept and end on a high than let it lose steam and fizzle out.
I really liked the show, and the ending was pretty jaw-dropping, and handled really well. Such a cool and creative way to tell this story, AND it made me fall in love with Annie Murphy (so I definitely have to watch Schitt's Creek now).
Honestly its such a brilliant show, I'm so glad it got made. On an unrelated note Ive started watching Inside No 9 because of your season reviews on it and Im thoroughly enjoying it!
How it got made is still a mystery to me. I've been reading a lot of academic textbooks on the industry lately and basically everything about it just says to me "no one would greenlight this in a million years"
@@Stubagful Valerie Armstrong must've had some hot dirt on the AMC executives, either that or they were desperate to have something on their failing subscription service AMC+ that wasnt the Walking Dead. Either way Im so glad it got made and got the two seasons it wanted.
I wonder if the whole "sit-com" world is how Alison sees things when she is being emotionally abused. She enters sit-com world with her mum at her dads wake before she meets Kevin. The whole thing crashes into the real world in the last few scenes when Kevin enters the "drama" world and we see how he really is. All our realities are just how our brains interpret the world around us. Just a thought, great videos by the way.
One thing this topic made me really think about is how this concept of internalised victimhood is so hard-baked into the archetype of the main character as a whole. As the main character, we almost subconsciously expect to feel sympathy for them in their situation because they're not only the focus, but they're also the perspective in which the creators have chosen to present the world. If we as an audience can't relate to, connect, or sympathise with a main character, why are we even watching? There has to be that leeway. Walter White from Breaking Bad is an interesting example because of how he's presented through this victimhood, even though he's a murdering drug-dealer who prioritises his pride above everything else, we still feel sympathy for him because we're able to see where he comes from, and the bad decisions that lead to him becoming a monster. But here's the thing: he's still a monster. He still actively made those decisions. But because he's the main character and we're privy to his perspective, we prioritise him, for example, over Skyler. Walt was not only presented as some kind of victim, but he always saw himself as the victim, even when he had power, it was in some kind of just revenge or for his family even though it clearly wasn't. Bojack Horseman is also a great example of this, how Bojack is always the victim and can't quite bring himself to realise that the shitty things he's done HE'S done, not anyone else. And this is where this self victimisation bleeds over into the real world. Because when we're in a bad situation, or are the victim of someone else's bullshit, we view ourselves as the main character because we're the ones who turn inwards and have to struggle with it. We can't be in the wrong ourselves because we're at the grasp of someone else's negative decisions. Our consciousnesses and morals MUST be sound because the other person/people are so bad in comparison to it. But this mindset comes from the fact the other person/ people prioritise themselves, acting like how a main character would. Little do we reflect on our own agency. The way we twist other peoples lives and make them worse because we think we have the right to be the main character, the focus, the one everyone should care about, over someone else. Whilst Alison thinks she's breaking away from Kevins shitty sitcom world, she's really just entering her own. The gritty desaturated "realistic" drama has JUST AS MANY conventions as the live action sitcom format. Just because we are self reflective on our position does not mean we stop victimising ourselves. Even when trying to fix our bad behaviour, we still think of ourselves under the conventions of the main character who everyone should feel sympathy for and focus upon. When people think of themselves as the main character, its not because they are, its just an excuse we make up about ourselves to not take responsibility for our own actions and agency.
First! But also I read your Medium thingy about your experiences starting out on RU-vid and how your channel got to where it is today. It was so interesting hearing about videos like the 200 sub special and the short story about the printer that I’d never seen before. Went and watched them straight afterwards because I’m a Stubagful completionist and now I’m going to contact Philip Morris and Ian Levine to Stubagful lost media. As someone who creates art but fears what people will say if they ever saw it, I think hearing your experiences with comments and notifications really did help give me a bit more confidence to put some of my art out there when I next create something. I know none of this comment is relevant to the video but I wasn’t sure where to let you know. Hope you’re doing well, keep up your great work!
@@Stubagful This will be the plot of the next Indiana Jones film. A group of adventurers journey to the far ends of the earth in order to rediscover the legendary early videos of Stubagful… on the way they encounter neckbeards, ancient cults from the dawn of time and… Dwayne Johnson! (he seems to be in every adventure film nowadays) In a plot twist ending it’ll turn out that the real Stuart is the friends we made along the way
I haven’t seen this show yet, 2 things I want to say about deconstructions in general is that predictability isn’t a bad thing and there is more to storytelling than a grimdark tone. If someone predicts the protagonists win and antagonists lose, that is not bad writing. Avatar: The Last Airbender had the protagonists win and antagonists lose most of the time and it’s one of the best written shows ever made. Game of Thrones had to stop using it’s unpredictable anti plot armor gimmick because a story can’t rely on the threat of characters dying forever and someone has to live to tell the tale if a fictional story isn’t going to focus on the afterlife. If everyone in Game of Thrones died in a Red Wedding event, now what? The reason the Storm Trooper aiming trope exist because if antagonists kill the protagonists, now what? Being grim does not automatically make a story good and more realistic. Yes, shitty things happens in real life but it's more realistic when people try to make things less shitty instead of just brooding about it. Tone is an important tool to a story that should be used to elevate other parts of the story instead of being the main focus. 1984 wasn't a good story because it was grim, it was a good story commentating on fascism and it's dark tone helped it's commentary on the corruption of fascism. BoJack Horseman wasn't good because it was grim, BoJack Horseman was a good deconstruction on sitcoms and it's grim moments were effective because it was deconstructing the flaws of sitcoms and commentating on toxicity of Hollywood. I hope BoJack Horsman doesn’t get terrible imitators like Watchmen. Game of Thrones grim moments stop having impact because the show felt too self-indulgent about being grim to make the grim moments have impact. The Netflix show Hilda is better at using tone than grimdark stories because having an overall light hearted tone is not a bad thing. Hilda depressing episodes The Fifty Year Night & The Deerfox have more of an impact because the tone is used a tool elevate the story. An Appa’s Lost Days & Bye-Bye Butterfree hybrid should be a painful emotional gut punch.
"Being grim does not automatically make a story good and more realistic" is something a lot of Doctor Who fans needed to hear, particularly during the Moffat era. Yes, most of the best stories are dark like Genesis of the Daleks, Caves of Androzani, The Waters of Mars, Heaven Sent, etc. They're good not because they're dark, "morbid" & have death in them, they're well written & directed to make the tragedy of those stories have an impact. Dark Water/Death in Heaven is also a dark & morbid story but it's crap because the characters aren't likeable & the drama is has is just melodramatic.
I've been waiting for this to turn up on Prime for months, and this video tricked me into thinking it had finally arrived. It has, but for a fee. Whereas the first Season's included with Prime, and I'm waiting to watch both in one go. You bastuart.
The last few episodes of season 2 felt rushed. Like they took the content that could have been spread over another couple of seasons if needed and just got through all of it when they realized two seasons was all they would get. I'm still glad we got to see all of it play out.
Hello Stu! Thanks for the recommend, I’m going to jump on this very soon knowing our tastes are quite similar. Also call this the wrong place to ask but since I love your reviews so much.. I was wondering if you’d one day finish your heavily biased guide to the EDAs? Given they’ve not drained your bank account and you’re living in a skaghouse with a 12 inch TV by now… Bloody Big Finish prices!
Thw thing I'm still wondering is whether alison sees the world in the gritty drama all the time or if the sit com is how she copes with how shes being trated. Does everyone see the sereis of events in a different genre, kevin sit com, alison drama, patty crime?
I gave up on this show halfway through the first season as soon as I understood where it was going inevitably it lost all interest to me. There was not enough meat to maintain my interest for so many episodes. The concept could have been executed in 2 or 3 tight hours, instead of dragging it, as most modern shows, over too many episodes. I call it the netflix curse.
A few days ago, I considered writing a comment to post on this video for me to have ready as soon as you upload this video. A comment much too long (and possibly much too well-composed) for anyone to be able to have started writing only right after being able to see this video. One that would confuse either you or another viewer. "Huh? How can there be such a long and well-composed comment that specifically references this video in several places only two minutes after it was uploaded?" But then I didn't do it. There are a few bridges I won't cross. Like writing such a comment if I don't remember to do it. Or actually setting up another Reddit account to be able to follow you there. I may be obsessed with some of your work, but I still have some of my dignity left. And forgetfulness.
Although it's understandable(more like predictable, that I should be use to it, every time it happens) that the show ended, fact is at least she is freed from her terrible husband, which matters more in all honesty,
I enjoyed this show (and your video about it) but I felt like the show could have made it more obvious that Kevin, in the real world, is actually a dangerous and abusive man. When the character is effectively played for laughs the whole series, it makes the protagonist’s actions seem less justified throughout it. Ngl, when the real world Kevin is shown at the end, it’s excellent but the rest of the time it just seems like she’s overreacting a bit. You get that she wants to be away for him the man seems like an arse but her actions SEEM pretty unreasonable given what she is shown to be reacting to. Unfortunately, to me, it seems that this aspect of the show was actually hurt by the gimmick. And the gimmick is fun and why I watched the show in the first place. Maybe I missed something. Feel free to disagree.
I think they just didn't have enough time. After season 1 the initial reaction was mostly confusion cause a lot of people didn't 'get' it, so they just ordered one more season to wrap it up and called it quits. So season 2 was incredibly rushed, cause they had to cram all their ideas into one season. They could have had 3-4, maybe 5 seasons easy. Give time to go into things, explain things, etc. We never even got to see Pete in realworld. Most plot points in season 2 came and went within one episode, sometimes even 1-2 scenes. Most of these could have been multiple episodes. We didn't even get Allison vs. Police or anything, Tammy just drops it completely. I think the show is great, I'm just bummed it wasn't given room to breathe.
I liked the ending but I feel like the second season was rushed after they found out they were getting canceled. I would have loved to see this show go on for another 3 seasons. It just felt like it was over too fast.
