We have now settled into the storyline of Kevin Can F*** Himself. Allison has committed to her whim-based idea of killing off husband Kevin with oxy, even though she knows nothing at all about oxy. She’s realized, by chance, that her neighbor Patti sells oxy. Perfect, right?
This episode begins, “four years ago”, with a fun call-out to the Worcester Centrum which has actually been the DCU center since 2004. The banner, from Kevin Hart, would have dated to 2015, well in the DCU years. But you know what? I think this one is cute. Lots of people in Worcester still call that building the Centrum. Old traditions die hard.
The purpose of the look-back is to establish how Patti got into drug dealing. She has to get some oxy for Neil. The pharmacist, Terrance, implies he can get her more if she wants. She thinks Terrance is crazy – but then one of her salon regulars is in a lot of pain. Patti wants to help. So Patti gets the oxy from Terrance in order to help her friend. As part of this, the salon person gives Patti a copy of Memoirs of a Geisha, to read. Patti instead uses it as her place to stash the drug money.
I mention my issues with Memoirs of a Geisha in the video, so I’ll just briefly say that I both enjoyed how it was written and really disliked the underlying story of two adult guys lusting after a prepubescent girl and paying to ‘train her up’ so they could have sex with her once she was slightly older. I wonder if the usage of the book hinted at how the women in this TV series are treated as objects by the men in their lives.
Anyway, the video covers the Worcester-specific references. In a way, this episode feels even “worse” than the first two in that sense. The first two at least had t-shirts from Ralph’s diner and the Hot Dog Safari and so on. In this one. all the t-shirts seem to be from made-up places, which is bizarre. Unless I missed a reference? So this episode is even “more fake” than the previous ones.
I forgot to mention the clip where Patti is waiting at a WRTA bus station kiosk which says Union Station. Union Station is one of the few places where we have an actual structure which is actually quite nice for our bus transit. So it’s sort of a shame that this one location which is nicely managed has, instead, a tiny kiosk. There would have been lots of other places in Worcester to properly show a kiosk for.
We learn a bit more about Patti and Kurt, a guy from the pharmacy. He’s into salads and healthy food – she’s craving burgers. We learn more about Allison and Sam – they used to have casual sex in high school even though he was dating a girl from Amherst named Jenn.
Allison gets annoyed by the auto-body-shop drug guy, so she calls the cops on him. This of course backfires, because now drug guy rats out Terrance the pharmacy drug supplier and this cuts off Patti’s drug supplies. That then means there is no oxy for Allison to kill Kevin with.
But Allison is adamant oxy is the only way she can possibly kill Kevin, and so she lies to Patti claiming she needs the oxy to placate a nasty drug dealer who will kill her. Patti agrees to take Allison to Vermont to a drug seller, in part because Patti needs Allison’s car to get there.
Also, Allison goes to Sam’s 8-years-sober ceremony and meets the elusive Jenn, who is now Sam’s wife. It turns out Sam has a type – the two women look fairly similar.
So in general, this episode was mostly about “character filling in”. At this point we know the basic premise. Allison is annoyed with husband Kevin – so Allison wants to kill him. She chooses the inane method of an oxy overdose. She’s just focused on doing this task this one way and doesn’t care of it causes trouble for Patti.
Patti has become a bit more sympathetic, when we learn more about the situation she’s in.
Really, though, both women are NOT stuck. And again, I want to say that I donate a block of my income to support battered women’s shelters. I strongly feel this is an important issue to address. I wholly understand that abuse can be subtle and emotional. With that all being said, I almost feel it minimizes the extremely real issues going on in our world to make a joke about a pair of women who are capable of finding a better path forward who say instead “Let’s just kill the guy, it’s easier.”
Patti even says to Allison, during the great Chili argument between Kevin and Neil, why don’t you just refuse to help Kevin with his chili? And Allison’s response is, well, he’ll whine and I’ll give in. Hello? The reason Kevin whines is because he knows you’ll give in. If you didn’t give in, he wouldn’t keep whining as much, because it would be a waste of his time. He’d find another route. If you keep supporting a certain behavior then it’s going to keep happening.
Allison works outside the house! She lives in Worcester which is full of things to do! Heck she can just go out for the night, to get away from his whining. It’s not like this chili creation is a month-long process. It’s a day or two. All she has to do is find things to do outside the house for a day or two and the problem is over. End. Done. Kevin is so goldfish-brained that he’ll move on to a new project in a day or two.
I’m more sympathetic that Patti lies to her boyfriend of seemingly four years constantly, and only after a talk with Allison finds the courage to tell him the way she really wants to eat. I know many women with eating disorders and know how challenging it can be, especially as a heavier woman, to worry about losing a partner due to weight and food issues.
Patti is not trying to kill him! If anything she’s trying to preserve the peace.
So that’s where I am with this episode. I find Patti more human. I find Allison annoyingly self-centered and petty. I’m just not invested in finding out where her story goes. If this was just a random TV show there is probably little chance I’d still be watching it, because there are just SO many amazing shows out there to watch, and I only have a little spare time in my life. I have lots of writing and art projects I am working on. Still, because this series is set in Worcester, I will keep on watching them and looking for those Worcester references. And I admit I keep hoping something will happen to make me find Allison more relatable. I suppose one could say she is a human being, and all human beings are flawed, which is true. But by that logic I should watch every TV show which comes out, which is clearly impossible to do without twenty time-turners. So I have to pick and choose the shows which I think are the best crafted, and so far this just hasn’t risen to that level.
Here is the video on Kevin Can F*** Himself, Season 1, Episode 3. Ask with any questions!
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