MARRIAGE STORY (KEVIN CAN F**K HIMSELF, SEASON ONE)

When you come off the back of a critically acclaimed, deeply loved sitcom, there are three routes for an actor to go.

You can take a well deserved break and recharge your batteries, taking time to decide your next move.

There's also the option of finding a new sitcom vehicle.

Or you can take a radical change of direction and use your star power to take on a much, much darker role.

Each route is fraught with danger.

Wait too long to decide your next move and you can slide off the radar of casting directors.

Choose the wrong sitcom vehicle and the audience and critics may never quite forgive you.

Fail in a darker drama and you may be dismissed as a one trick pony.

Coming off the back of the huge success of 'Schitt's Creek,' Annie Murphy has chosen the more challenging, dark drama route.

In 'Kevin Can F**k Himself,' she plays a disillusioned, put upon, blue collar Irish American wife in the Massachusetts city of Worcester.

But the title of the show is also a clear pop at the irritating Kevin James CBS sitcom 'Kevin Can Wait' which faced a barrage of criticism for the way it dismissed his character's wife Erinn Hayes' Donna by killing her off after the first season.

In Valerie Armstrong's drama, Annie Murphy's Allison McRoberts is married to Eric Petersen's obnoxious cable repairman Kevin.

But here's the twist in the eight episode AMC drama.

Allison's life with Kevin is played out onscreen as if it is 'Kevin Can Wait' or other blue collar sitcoms like 'Mike and Molly' or 'Everybody Loves Raymond'.

However when Kevin is not onscreen, the palettes darken, the laughter track stops and the tone of what unfolds onscreen gets a lot, lot darker.

Kevin is a loudmouth, slobbish, self centred, unfunny man child who patronises his wife and blows their savings on sports memorabilia and unrealistic get rich quick schemes.

And yet for all his many ills, he always seems to come up trumps.

Kevin also has an idiotic crew who hang around him and adore him - his father, Brian Howe's ex-Catholic priest Peter McRoberts, Alex Bonifer's baseball cap in reverse wearing Neil O'Connor and his sister, Mary Hollis Inboden's hairdresser Patty O'Connor.

They indulge his patronising patter to Alison and treat his stupid schemes like he is a genius.

When Kevin's not onscreen, we realise the extent to which Allison truly hates him.

She swears. She drinks. She takes cocaine. She binge eats.

Allison quits her job at the liquor store - a decision which Kevin's only reaction to is to moan about no longer having a 10 per cent discount on his booze.

When she finds a new job, it is at a diner owned by an old flame from high school, Raymond Lee's Sam Park. 

Sam, an alcoholic who goes to AA meetings, is unhappily married too to Meghan Leathers' Jenn.

Clearly still in love with Allison, they soon embark on an affair.

As the series wears on, Allison is stunned to discover that Patti, who is normally hostile to her, is dealing prescription drugs to addicts from her hair salon.

The duo gradually bond and Allison draws her into a plot to have Kevin bumped off in an apparent break-in at their home.

But will the plot, which sees them hire Robin Lord Taylor's volatile ex con Nick, actually succeed?

And will their behaviour arouse the suspicion of Candice Coke's diligent Detective Tammy Ridgeway who is investigating the supply of oxycodone to addicts in Worcester and is also attracted to Patti?

'Kevin Can F**k Himself' is an intriguing premise as the audience tries to decipher whether Allison and Kevin's marriage is real or not.

Is Armstrong depicting the grim reality of life beneath the brightly lit veneer of a network sitcom? 

Or is she telling the story of an unhappy blue collar marriage which in one partner's eyes is an idyllic sitcom in which the world revolves around him and which the other partner views as a nightmare?

It's an ambitious set-up which enables Murphy in particular to demonstrate her acting prowess beyond being in a successful sitcom in the same way that Bryan Cranston achieved in another groundbreaking AMC drama 'Breaking Bad'.

It is a gutsy move from Murphy who embraces the opportunity to play a sympathetic character doing highly questionable things a la Walter White or James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano.

While Allison in the first season has not quite plunged their depths, the viewer feels the potential is there.

Petersen also does a very good job as the villain of the piece.

Kevin is so irritating as a sitcom slob you find yourself rooting for his demise despite that going against everything on your moral compass.

But here's the weird thing.

The sitcom scenes are so well written and so well directed and acted, you find yourself switching off when they're on - a bit like watching an episode of 'Kevin Can Wait,' or 'Mike and Molly.'

They are constructed in such a way to make you despise Kevin and his buffoonish crew that you mostly find the scenes inconsequential and annoying.

These sequences seem to just get in the way of the more interesting, darker story unfolding in Armstrong's show.

But as the series wears on, you learn to accept the jarring nature of the sitcom world against the dark drama that you are really invested in.

And as the final episodes roll out, the cracks begin to show in the facade of the sitcom world.

Murphy is simply terrific as Allison.

There's plenty in her darkly comic performance to suggest she is creating a memorable character who is more corrupt than she seems.

Allison is clearly a world away from the spoilt but good hearted princess Alexis in 'Schitt's Creek'.

Inboden also shines as Patti - the Jesse to Murphy's Walter White, if you will.

Patti is morally compromised but is sucked into Allison's web of deceit.

Lee is sympathetic too as Sam, while Howe and Bonifer do a good job as Kevin's bone headed associates - giving the audiences brief glimpses of how nasty they may really be away from the sitcom world.

Robin Lord Taylor is effective as the twitchy ex con Nick.

Leathers does a decent job as Sam's wife, while Candice Coke is a steady presence as the Detective and possible lesbian love interest for Patti.

Sean Clements, who writes episode six, also makes an impression as Patti's emotionally stunted boyfriend, Kurt who may yet wreak havoc in her relationship with Detective Ridgeway.

It is to Armstrong, Clements and their fellow writers Dana Ledoux Miller, Kevin Etten, Craig Di Grigorio, Noelle Valdivia, Mel Shimkovitz, Tom Scharpling and Kate Loveless's credit that they keep you invested in Allison's schemes while sticking to the dual world formula of the glib sitcom and the much more interesting dark drama.

A lot of credit must go too to the directors Oz Rodriguez and especially Anna Dokoza and their effortless switch from the single camera set up to multi camera.

Cinematographer Adrian Peng Correia does a decent job switching between both worlds.

'Kevin Can F**k Himself' is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and inventive TV dramas to emerge in 2021.

It is a risky enterprise and while the two worlds it depicts are initially jarring, you soon find yourself getting drawn into its dynamics.

You know everything is coming together, though, in a brilliantly executed seventh episode that makes you feel compelled to immediately watch the season finale. 

That is down to good writing and smart direction.

But mostly it is down to good acting from Murphy and Inboden, in particular.

'Kevin Can F**k Himself' unquestionably has legs and, if it is carefully nurtured, it may well go on to win its marathon.

(Season One of AMC's 'Kevin Can F**k Himself was made available for streaming in the UK and Ireland on Amazon Prime on August 27, 2021)