2019 sees the end of the Netflix series that began with such fanfare and acclaim but ends with a whimper rather than a bang.
Ellie Kemper plays Kimmy Schmidt, held hostage in an underground bunker for much of her twenties, by a doomsday cult. She's given a new lease of life following her rescue, so moves to New York. She moves in with Titus Andromedon (Tituss Burgess) a struggling actor who dreams of Broadway and gets a job as a nanny for Jaqueline White (Jane Krakowski) an uptown divorcee whose husband has left her with a young son and teenage daughter to look after.
For the first couple of seasons, I felt like "Kimmy Schmidt" was essential viewing. Shorn of the restrictions of Network TV, Tina Fey created a warm but hilarious series with characters specifically written for most of the lead actors but also able to use her star power to pull in some dynamite guest stars. It's a touch sad then that I feel the show has dropped off a bit with each of his subsequent seasons. I'm not sure, because although her specific writing credits remain a couple per season, whether Fey's general involvement has waned as the show has run on, or if some other creative force moved on but although the style of humour stayed the same, it just didn't seem to land as well.
I think, on the whole, if asked whether or not to recommend the show to someone, I'd still say that I would. There are only 51 episodes and of those the vast majority are very good - it's just a little unfortunate that it couldn't maintain the high standards that the early seasons set.
