Hi, Cruel World

Kidding
2018 | 30 Min | MA | Comedy | Showtime


Creator: Dave Holstein

Stars: 

Jim Carrey

Frank Langella

Judy Greer

Synopsis:

Jeff, aka Mr. Pickles, is an icon of children's television, a beacon of kindness and wisdom to America's impressionable young minds and the parents who grew up with him - who also anchors a multimillion-dollar branding empire. But when this beloved personality's family - wife, two sons, sister, and father - begins to implode, Jeff finds no fairy tale or fable or puppet will guide him through the crisis, which advances faster than his means to cope. The result: a kind man in a cruel world faces a slow leak of sanity as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.

Right up until its final moments, Kidding, the Showtime series starring Jim Carrey as the Fred Rogers-esque Jeff Piccirillo (a.k.a. Mr. Pickles), brings back the dark comedy that has been missing through the past few years. The balance between the brightness of the show within the show, Mr. Pickles’ Puppet Time, and Jeff’s slow breakdown over the death of one of his sons and his subsequent separation from his wife is mostly weighted towards tenderness. The essence of the lessons Mr. Pickles teaches is simply to be good to each other.

Jim Carrey's Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless mind was always my favorite of his that finally drug me into is world and seeing him in a dark role was so financing. For me, Carrey is a much better actor in a Drama setting rather than his early comedy roles. And Kidding has you sucked into his sad dark mind from the first few minutes until the dark end of season one. 

Kidding, when it works, which isn’t always, wrestles with the difficulty of goodness and the strictures of persona, of having to pretend to be happy when you are so unhappy and the difficulty of treating other people and yourself decently when you are so sad. You owe it to yourself to "binge" your way through Showtimes Kidding as its a breath of fresh air.

4 out of 5 Stars